GLOVER PRIEST SOLICITORS LIMITED

What should have been a straightforward sale and purchase ended up being a months-long nightmare where I woke up dreading having to interact with Glover Priest (GP)
The staff at GP are only capable of forwarding emails, and causing problems. Anything else you might expect from a solicitor (legal advice; answering questions in a useful way; flagging and explaining risks or consequences; reading and interpreting searches) appears beyond them.
Our case was handled by Sophie Rostill, who is not a conveyancer, but a secretary. Our actual conveyancer was Emma Pulford who, for all I know, is a figment of Sophie’s imagination, because I never received a single email from her, never spoke to her on the phone, and never saw her in person (despite visiting the office). I have no evidence she supervised or engaged with our case in any way.
If Sophie had been good at her job, I wouldn’t have had a problem, but alas, this was not the case. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever come across someone so incompetent in a professional capacity.
To summarise a few of the ways GP jeopardised our sale and purchase, they:
• Completely messed up our purchase and sale statements, meaning we would have lost out on several thousand pounds had I not spotted the error. When I queried this, Sophie sent vague and unhelpful responses, meaning our broker had to get involved. To reiterate, this very nearly left us almost £3,000 out of pocket due to Sophie’s incompetence
• After this error was identified, Sophie messed up our purchase statement AGAIN. Unfortunately, this time her error was not discovered until after completion, meaning we had to pay several hundred pounds to our lender post-move to remedy this
• Commissioned an incorrect search and then charged us for the search
• Failed to negotiate indemnity policies with our purchaser so badly that our estate agent was forced to step in and negotiate with the buyer on our behalf.
• Failed to pass survey queries onto our seller, resulting in us having to communicate queries via their estate agent. Without their help, the sale would have fallen through
• Insisted on sending searches to our lender, implying this could result in our mortgage being pulled. We were then forwarded an email from our lender that said Sophie should not have sent them this information, and her doing so was against their guidelines
• Asked for excessive evidence regarding gifts months after all necessary documentation was approved by our lender. This put my family out of pocket obtaining documents and driving back and forth to Birmingham multiple times (over an hour’s drive each way). GP did admit fault in this instance and offered us a (frankly insufficient) £50 reduction in fees
I could go on, but sadly the character limit prevents me doing so.
This was on top of a general lack of communication, and inability to answer questions in a prompt or helpful way. In fact, Sophie’s default appears to be to reply to emails until you ask her a question that requires the slightest bit of knowledge or, frankly, thinking of any kind, and then completely ignore you.
GP’s inability to engage critically with anything, and the amount of errors throughout the process meant I had to read every document, email, and statement in infinitesimal detail and research numerous elements or seek advice from experts such as mortgage brokers to check if they were correct (they often weren’t). This became a part-time job and, as someone who is self-employed, lost me a significant amount of income.
I dread to think what I might not have caught, and the ways that GP have likely lost us time and money.
I have evidence of all of the above, and am considering a more formal complaint, however, currently, I’m too exhausted by the idea of ever having to think about or deal with Glover Priest ever again.

Really awful. Our conveyancing solicitor constantly needed chasing to push things forward. As has been mentioned by other reviewers, they ask for the same information/documents multiple times. Is this incompetency or a delay tactic, I'm not sure? When we finally agreed on a completion date, she decided there were more checks to be done, just 2 days before that date. Of course, the date had to be changed. We had to reschedule the removals which cost us a fee, had to extend our tenancy which we'd given notice for and rearrange various things that had been organised (furniture deliveries, broadband installations, etc). The delays also caused a lot of frustration for the sellers, who I'm sure wished they'd not accepted our offer in the first place. My advice to you - save yourself the stress and find yourself a competent solicitor, don't use these amateurs.

I had an excellent experience working with maryam on my spouse visa application. From the very beginning, they were knowledgeable, patient, and incredibly supportive throughout the entire process. Immigration paperwork can be overwhelming, but they explained everything clearly and made sure I understood each step.
They were always responsive to my questions and paid great attention to detail, which gave me confidence that my application was in good hands. Thanks to their expertise and guidance, my spouse visa was approved without issues.
I highly recommend Maryam to anyone needing help with immigration matters. Their professionalism, dedication, and genuine care made a stressful process much easier.

Rang at 915am 23.12.25 after sending an enquiry night before. They have helped me before (local) so was loyal and returned to them.
Call handler said they close at 5pm so she has asked and they can't help. Didn't ask for details - this was a straightforward bit of employment related work. Unbelievable. I went to a competitor who took business within minutes.

Pay attention to the negative reviews. This whole chain of solicitors is terrible. Had to report to the SRA and the Ombudsman. No accountability taken at any time for their unprofessional behaviour. Lost alot of money because of them and their reply was pretty much 'oh well' 🤷🏾‍♀️ do yourself a favour and go to a firm that cares.. even about their own legacy as a minimum.