Cook Taylor Woodhouse Limited

I received a quotation from Cheryl Mordey at CTW solicitors and instructed them by return. After nearly a week of no contact I emailed her and was told I had been allocated Farhat Ahmed one of their senior commercial solicitors based at the Bromley office who would manage the sale of my residential property. This set the agenda for the whole transaction, Farhat and his team were reactive as opposed to proactive in expediting my sale. I felt the need to constantly chase for updates. On one occasion before a weekend when we were chasing receipt of outstanding enquiries I was told by his assistant Laura Tolly that if I wanted two updates in a day they would need to charge me an additional fee. As my sale dragged on, compounded by my buyer using Stirling Ackroyd Legal for their requirements and an upcoming holiday we were getting increasingly frustrated and so was our estate agent. Rather than try to set our minds at rest and reassure us Farhat Ahmed became even more obstinate and awkward and again said he would be increasing his fee to cover his additional work. Whist on holiday we had a significant time difference which meant we were only able to get limited contact with Farhat, when challenged he referred to CTW’s T&C’s which state a 24-hour response time which he felt he was responding within. Once the exchange went through we were contacted and asked to supply bank details to transfer the sale proceeds on completion and also to give me a statement showing the balance of funds once all costs and invoiced had been settled. It was at this point where we received Farhats invoice showing he had chosen to increase his fee by a significant 40%. I asked him to quantify the increase but he told me to justify why I thought he should not increase his fee! On completion we expected the money to be transferred into our chosen account on the day but this didn’t happen and again we had to chase them again to get our money. During my transaction I was also sent me some sensitive personal information from one of their other customers by Karen Finch. I notified her and received an apology and a note to say it would not happen again. A week later I was again sent a similar email which caused me concern as to how my details were being handled. I asked to have the name of CTW’s data protection officer which were rebuffed until I suggested it could be easier if I contacted the Information Commissioners Office for their assistance. I was then contacted by a solicitor who assured me this was an isolated incident and that my details were secure however will I ever know? In summary, I would not use Farhat Ahmed and his team at CTW Bromley again or recommend them to anyone. After my experience I will choose you use a local solicitor rather than a conveyancing factory like CTW.