WARD GETHIN ARCHER LIMITED

AVOID!
We had to use WGA swaffham as executors for my mother's will as they are who she chose.
We had to wait THREE weeks just to get an initial meeting with the solicitor who was to take on the work. She then went on maternity leave and work was handed over to another more senior person who charged more per hour if we had needed her to take on anything extra....not acceptable that we should have been expected to pay an inflated hourly rate in these circumstances!
This "senior" solicitor, we called "the silent solicitor", we just didn't hear from her unless we chased it up!
Once property was sold etc. she made an initial payment to us and kept back a sum to pay final bills once they were all in. The sum held back was £1000s more than was ever going to be necessary to pay these final balances, no doubt WGA get interest payments for everyone's money they keep back!! call me cynical!
The estate was not a complex one by any means, we disputed the final cost (which came in right at the top end of the original estimate.... funny that) as it seemed excessive.
We had to chase up (again) regarding the final release of funds to us, found they were waiting on the council for final council tax bill. They chased this up and found there was nothing to pay, account closed but hadn't heard from the council to this effect. How long would WGA have waited before contacting the council if we hadn't chased for it??
They refused to release any further funds (OUR MONEY) to us until we had "approved" their final bill. basically holding it for ransom.
Do yourself a favour, DO NOT USE this dreadful company. They fleece you, do as little as possible for the money and don't contact you to keep you updated.
Absolutely disgusted with their service. No doubt I'll get the standard "sorry to hear this, contact our customer service director...... etc." which seems to be the reply to any bad reviews they receive.

Natasha was brilliant! She guided me through the property purchase process and kept me updated throughout the transaction. I couldn’t have asked for a better service, thank you Natasha.

Avoid at all costs, the staff are so rude. I phoned up asking to speak to Alex and the attitude was appalling. Another local solicitor is now dealing with the house sale. I wouldn’t even waste my time giving this place a call in future. Also what information they did provide was wrong anyway and I have written proof of that.

Fantastic.
Bethany Buendia (solicitor) is a really lovely lady at WGA, she handled the sale of my late mum’s property. Bethany was efficient, calm, friendly and very helpful . I would certainly without a doubt recommend her , I cannot fault her at all , she would always keep me updated and was always prompt in returning my calls. Thank you so much Bethany for everything , 100 % service.
I will miss her cheery voice.

As a first time buyer, please avoid using WGA. The only reason it's worthy of 1 star is the complaint procedure being straight forward and somewhat listened to, even if i didnt agree. However, you will face very long reply times, very impersonal responses and just simply feel like you are completely unaware of anything going on.

I would highly recommend looking for a smaller more indepedant branch that is willing to at least make the process less daunting. Since switching to another solicitor, my purchase has gone through in less than 2 months (fell through at 11months with WGA, although not entirely their fault) and i've known exactly what's going on from day 1.

Best of luck out there!