Hargreaves Mounteney Limited

PLEASE READ IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING USING THIS FIRM. My review will be honest and will cover the good and the bad points, unfortunately the bad points far outweigh the goods, hence the 1 star. You can also see that I rarely leave bad reviews, I always give companies a chance to rectify problems and will praise good service, so the fact that I have had to leave this to warn other people shows just how bad the experience has been. I needed a solicitor to assist with the purchase of my freehold, and after obtaining several quotes from various solicitors I decided to proceed with Mounteney. Another firm had warned me about other solicitors having hidden costs, but I put this down to a marketing ploy, unfortunately they were right, but more on this later. Obtaining the quote was quick and easy with an almost instantaneous response. They weren’t the cheapest, but a member of my family had used them, albeit to carry out the relatively routine (for solicitors) task of the purchase of a house and had had a smooth experience. We agreed a price for them to assist with the purchase of the freehold, but I also made it clear that I would like for them to assist with the removal of some covenants from the original lease, they replied to say that they couldn’t guarantee that all covenants would be removed, but I knew this and as I only wanted a couple of the covenants removed, I proceeded. I signed all of the required documents and returned them without delay, where I was informed that the new deed would likely take around 2 weeks. I waited 3 weeks and chased, as I hadn’t heard anything…nothing. I allowed another week and sent another email requesting an update where I was told the deed had “just come through”. I checked over the deed and had a few questions, as the covenants I had specifically requested be removed were still in it, and there was no mention from them that they were in the process of negotiating this. Whilst waiting for a response to my email questioning the covenants and where they were up to, I called the Heald Green office to check if we could drop in to have our ID verified, being told that we could pop in anytime. The day after, we (my fiancée and I) went to the office and was greeted by a lovely lady on the front desk who promptly verified our ID. Before we left, we asked her to check with the lady that we were dealing with to see if anything else would be needed, so that we could arrange to bring this in, keen to not prolong the process. A minute or so later we were ushered into a meeting room where we were greeted by a lady we hadn’t met or spoken to before, she either didn’t introduce herself or did so in such a way that neither me or my fiancée could catch her name but lady I would check the website and found out that she was the director of the Heald Green office. I looked up who she was because (and this is where things went south) the way in which she handled us as customers was atrocious. I asked questions about where things were up to with the covenant removal, to which I was basically told, it won’t happen as we are in a new build estate and it won’t be possible. When I replied to explain that we knew it was possible, because the very covenants we wanted removed had been removed for another couple on the site when they bought their freehold…her flippant and assumed response, “the other couple probably bought from a different builder so you cannot compare the two”. When we pointed out the entire site was built by the same builder, there was no response, she just moved on to bad mouth new build houses and how she hates them. Doing this in front of a couple who have bought a new build house (and are very happy with it) is extremely unprofessional. Nevertheless we moved on… I re-raised the question about the covenants, and again was given a brush off. Now considering that I made it clear that the removal of covenants was to be part of the deal to be basically told it wasn’t going to happen didn’t sit well, and it appeared that it wasn’t going to happen because Mounteney’s couldn’t be bothered fighting the case for us, not because it wasn’t possible to have them removed, as we had already proven it was possible. I mentioned this to the director and again, a flippant response followed…”well I charge £300 plus VAT an hour, so you won’t want me racking up bills or your will be upset with me”. This started alarm bells, as we were now being told that there would be extortionate extra charges for something we requested a quotation on in the beginning. Remember when I said the other firm warned me…well hear it was, happening as they had predicted. Her attitude meant that we felt we weren’t going to get anywhere, so we decided to leave, feeling very angry, stressed and concerned at the state of things. I decided to send an email to the owner of the business, which Mounteney’s request their customers to do should they have a complaint. I thought this direct approach implied that this rather small firm (compared to the competition) had a rather personal approach and so I was confident that our meeting was just a blip, expecting a pleasant response from the owner, where we could put this experience to bed and move on. This is where things went from really bad, to quite unbelievable. My complaint email, which was politely worded (I can put a copy of this on this review should Mounteney’s come respond to this to say otherwise…but I will also show their horrendous responses) was balanced and praised the individuals of whom I had had a pleasant dealing with and raised concerns about our meeting, which might I add I didn’t expect (I only asked for the kind lady to check if anything else was needed and merely expected an instruction back, if anything). The response I got was totally unprofessional, which the owner stated, and I quote was a “meaningless verbal assault I assume is intended to intimidate – a strange tactic to adopt toward a professional litigator”. It is because I was raising a complaint with a “professional litigator” that I was shocked at his response. Might I add, that just because you are classed as a “professional” doesn’t mean you are acting as one, your attitude and behaviour dictates this, not your profession. He basically was unhappy that I was complaining, and effectively told me to “go away”. He offered to “walk away” with no fee, which I of course gladly accepted and I do not want to pay these people a penny, instead taking my business to a more deserving company. I believe he offered this because they mis-quoted and it effectively would get them out of having to cover the cost of additional work for free. In addition to this, there was more mis-quoting on costs, as the owner bluntly referred me to their terms stating their additional costs, showing them at £240 plus VAT per hour for a director’s work, yet the director at Heald Green quoted £300 per hour…this doesn’t add up, which is it?? When I replied to say that I was shocked at his response, he again replied in an unprofessional manner by stating that as I had a complaint “he should PROBABLY send me the complaints procedure”. When I stated that he shouldn’t treat paying customers in this way, his response was, and again I quote “I was unaware you were a paying customer – I’ll check your ledger and refund your payment tomorrow.” To which I replied “From your comment below, does this mean that a client who you are working for but is yet to pay is treated differently to someone who has paid up front, somehow I doubt it...”, he didn’t reply. ***To summarise - The owner of the company simply does not care about his customers, which is why I implore you to use an alternative firm, and give Mounteney’s a wide berth. They will mis-quote you, deny it, even though I have the mis-quotation in writing and will then condescend you, belittle you and refuse to assist when you raise a complaint. If this review means that just one person doesn’t have to have the appalling experience that I have had, this review will be worthwhile, but I hope that it has a far bigger impact, and only then will the owner consider treating his customers in an acceptable manner***

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Avoid mounteneys solicitors for Will writing. Alice Higginbottom who is in the wills department had an affair for 2 years with another member of staff who’s partner was pregnant at the time. She then suggested his father came in for a Will, and did not disclose to the client that she was in a (sordid) relationship with the beneficiary of the Will she was involved in writing. I can only assume it’s not coincidence that her crazy behaviour and demands that the member of staff left his family increased after she was the contents of the Will. AVOID.