NOCKOLDS SOLICITORS LIMITED

I instructed Nockolds in a matter related to probate over a year ago. I felt that the fee charged was extremely high (over £1,700 plus VAT), and that the time taken was unreasonably long. The time taken for my initial phone call enquiry was "logged" to my account which I feel is unreasonable. Two solicitors attended my initial video meeting - I had not appreciated this would happen and that I would be charged for both. At the end of it all I was charged another £250 plus VAT which I was assured had been discounted from £710 plus VAT of work, including the cost of a solicitor holding on the phone for an hour. I was extremely vulnerable at the time I instructed Nockolds and feel extremely unhappy with the service with which I was provided. I request that Nockolds does not reply to this review as any further explanation will only make matters worse- I don't want to hear from them again.

Sara and her team including Jeanette and Kim were all so professional, kind and supportive of us buying our first time home.
Could not recommend their services enough and will be going back to the team if ever needed in future.

I couldn’t recommend Nockolds solicitors enough. The team were fantastic, explaining everything clearly and keeping me reassured throughout. A special thank you to Rachel for her first class advice and support during a very stressful time.

Although our house purchase went through, our dealings with Nockolds, particularly with our solicitor (Sara), were by far the most aggravating part of our experience.

Friends recommended us Nockolds, and upon a first call with Jeanette (who was a pleasure to work with), we chose them and were assigned Sara. First strange thing we realized in hindsight was that we never had any sort of intro call with her to walk us through the process. It just started, albeit initially smoothly, by email. Then, here is the litany of things that drove us crazy:
- Borderline harassment of relatives for proof of funds (apparently Nockolds policy, but be warned, they will go back decades to find out how people in their 70s have a few thousand pounds to give to their children)
- Does not schedule calls, just says she’ll call when she can
- Did not respond for almost a week on timeline update (replied to other things, but dodged this – finally said she’d “look into her report”)
- OOO half day on exchange day, only told us the day before
- Did not manage the timeline expectation with sellers (or keep us in loop), resulting in some very awkward conversations with the seller’s side and estate agent
- Did not deal with or properly inform us on missing building inspection certificates until THE DAY OF EXCHANGE (when Sara was off…), resulting in us frantically having to dig into it and pushing back the exchange
- Tried to rush us to exchange on the agreed-upon date, when there was clearly a red flag (borderline malpractice). When we pushed back to sellers, they resolved the matter in 48 hours, but it took us pressuring our own solicitors not to take the easy way out
- Needed to be chased after the missing exchange date, and in general, was TERRIBLE at keeping us in the loop. Also, complaints from the other side about this, which we are inclined to believe, given our experience.
- No apology for clear mess up. All we got was “I’m sorry you feel that way”…tell you all you need to know about communication style.
- OOO on day of completion, only told us a day or two before, and handed off to a completely new person for one of the most important days of our lives
- We found out that both exchange and completion had successfully gone through from the estate agent first, rather than our own solicitors.
- No follow-up. No “enjoy your new home”…just felt like with all the issues, our solicitor gave up on us, knowing a review like this was coming, and did the bare minimum. And to be clear, we were beyond patient and polite about all the above throughout. Maybe that was our mistake…

Let me end by saying that apart from the building certificate (which turned out to be easy to resolve), this was one of the smoothest, quickest, easiest transactions a conveyancer could wish for, and yet they were the most stressful and infuriating part of the whole experience BY FAR. I cannot imagine what dealing with this solicitor would be like if you have a more complex transaction.
Avoid this company for your house purchase, or at the very least, the solicitor we had.

I was going to the airport to catch a flight, when I found out I had to sign A statutory declaration in front of an independent solicitor. I went to Nockolds and the staff there had a big smile and they were very accommodating, despite my request would have been for most a waste of time, they made my day. Thank you so much.