Im disappointed in the service received. Ive even provided the name and address of who has the will and still i don't have a result. Its a terrible waste of money in my experience. Customer communicat... See more
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We would gratefully like to thank Clive Fowler and the staff of the national wills registry. Who have been very helpful with our quiry about wills for myself and husband with great explanation of wil... See more
Company replied
I don’t normally write reviews but I’m so impressed with the service and knowledge of the staff at the National will register I dealt with Clive who was absolutely brilliant at guiding me thr... See more
Company replied
Will search - Given all relevant information about how they go about the Will search was explained in detail. Friendly, knowledgeable staff and guided me through the process, kept me updated via email... See more
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Company details
Written by the company
The National Will Register is an essential tool for helping to discover wills that might otherwise go unfound. With approximately half of the UK's wills registered, we’re trusted by more than 5,000 legal professionals, offering a comprehensive solution for will search and registration. Trusted by and working with The Law Society since 2006, The National Will Register plays an essential role in mitigating risks and ensuring due diligence in estate planning and probate work.
Contact info
101 Wharfside Street, B1 1RF, Birmingham, United Kingdom
- 0330 100 3660
- enquiries@certainty.co.uk
- nationalwillregister.co.uk
4.2
Great
65 reviews
No history of asking for reviews
This company hasn't invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative
Hasn’t replied to negative reviews
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APPALLED
APPALLED. This company took £45.60 in return for searching for a will. I provided details and was told by email that they could not find it. I was invited to pay for a broader search - another £100+ for the privilege. In the meantime I phoned Solicitors Regulation Authority who, within 1 minute and FREE OF CHARGE located the will and the solicitors office where it is stored. Do not use Certainty. I am considering issuing proceedings against them for this sham of a service.
October 4, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from The National Will Register
Good Morning Ms. Mackrill,
Many thanks for your review. We are extremely pleased to see you have found the Will in this particular instance by communicating with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
The £45.60 Will Search you originally conducted is a Register Will Search, which is a search of Wills that have been registered with The National Will Register. There are in excess of 8.3 million Wills in the system which were searched against. In this instance, the Will you were searching for was not registered, and you were communicated the same information to complete the Register Will Search service.
We do however provide an additional service to search for Wills that have not been registered. This service contacts up to 225 solicitors and professional Will writers from the Institute of Professional Will Writers and Society of Will Writers in up to three geographical areas where the deceased used to live and work. This additional service costs £76 + vat, after you have searched The National Will Register. We communicated this as an option if you were still looking for the Will.
Should you need any further clarification on the above we are more than happy to talk it through.
Many thanks,
You won't know if you just wasted your money
What they don't reveal until after you've paid is that they won't tell you if the search has been successful and they won't tell you if the search has been unsuccessful but that a solicitor *might* contact you if a search has been successful. If you don't hear anything you won't know whether or not your search was successful or whether the solicitor just forgot to ring you or even if they bothered to search for anything for the money you paid.
August 14, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from The National Will Register
Thank you for the summary you have placed with Trustpilot. In line with our process, we have tried to contact you via telephone and email on the same day the Register Will Search was ordered with no response. This makes fulfilling our objectives for a thorough search of The National Will Register difficult as we need to communicate with you, particularly in the case of possible matches where further information from you may be required.
Below is a summary that outlines the type of Will search you selected and what happens next.
You have performed a Will Register Search of Certainty The National Will Register. A Will Register Search checks to see if a Will has been registered with Certainty The National Will Register. There are in excess of 8 million Wills in the system.
Your Will Register Search is in progress. If there is a positive match to this search (either a Will was registered or the deceased was known to a Law Firm) then the Law Firm or organisation who wrote and/or stores the Will, will be asked to contact you directly. The Law Firm will require you to provide information including a Death Certificate and proof of your identity prior to disclosure of the existence of a Will.
Please Note you will only be contacted by the Law Firm or organisation if they feel that you are entitled to view the Will prior to Probate being granted, this means that the ‘Searcher’ appears to be an Executor or Beneficiary. If there is a positive match you will normally be contacted within 48 working hours and usually no longer than 10 working days.
Certainty The National Will Register does not disclose the existence of the Will directly to you to protect the Testator’s confidentiality.
The review you kindly posted with Trustpilot was placed under 30 minutes after the transaction was completed. As the search had just begun, we have not been able to communicate with each other and seek mutual understanding of the Will Search process you have ordered, address any of your concerns directly and to ensure the service outlined above is in line with your expectations.
We shall attempt to contact you again via telephone and email today, do let us know if there is a convenient time for you.
Appalling
Requested a search for my fathers will, the report came back with no result. Found the will myself by contacting the solicitors firm directly who said they’d had no contact from Certainty. Requested a refund as they’ve failed to carry out the service they were paid for.
Taking advantage of people in a vulnerable position.
July 7, 2019
Unprompted review
Reply from The National Will Register
Hi Deb, thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry your experience didn’t meet expectations, we would like to help resolve this. Please email us at enquiries@certainty.co.uk, and we’ll do our best to assist you. – Will
A complete waste of money
A complete waste of money. I paid for the combined Will search in hope of finding my late father's Will.
I attempted to cancel the Will search 2 hours after paying for the service, but it was declined. I was always under the impression that legally you are entitled to a 14 day cooling off period unless:
"You went into the business’s shop or premises to arrange the service.
You also won’t get a cooling-off period for:
accommodation (eg a hotel room or a short-term let)
transport of goods (including courier services)
vehicle rental services
catering or leisure activities for specific dates (eg hotel and restaurant bookings, theatre tickets, catering for a wedding or party)" - (Citizens Advice, 2018)
This Service does not fall into any of the categories above, therefore I should have been entitled to my cooling off period.
They argued that 'due to the nature of the service, I was not entitled to a refund.' 'Apparently', within 2 hours, they had contacted 77 solicitors and 17 Will writers. I accepted this.
Fast forward 30 days and I received an email today concluding the search.
"No positive match was found." Typical.
The worse part of this search is that I found the Will held by a local solicitor - Mayo Wynne Baxter in Brighton. It was held less than a mile from where he lived.
Does this search actually work?
Has anyone had success?
Who do they contact, if anyone?
I have my doubts and would suggest that you explore all other options before wasting your money with 'Certainty'. I can say with 'certainty' that they failed to find my Dad's will.
November 27, 2018
Unprompted review
Reply from The National Will Register
Hi James, we’re sorry to learn that your experience with The National Will Register wasn’t what you hoped for. Please contact us at enquiries@certainty.co.uk so we can better understand the issue or any misunderstanding and work to address it. – Will
SAVE YOUR MONEY
If your searching for a will SAVE YOUR MONEY!
In my experience the company failed to locate my fathers will even though the solicitor that drafted it was located only a few hundred meters from his home and within the search areas requested for location. Certainty issued a negative find report!
I managed to locate the will myself and they have failed to refund the search fees as requested.
May 30, 2018
Unprompted review
Reply from The National Will Register
“Dear Mr Thomas,
Thank you for your review. As discussed, the search selected included a search of the National Will Register’s registered Wills, a notice placed on the Missing Will Noticeboard accessed daily by our member firms and a REACH search for unregistered Wills held by solicitor firms and Will writing professionals in and around the geographical search area you selected. The Will and grant of Will was located at the Probate Registry which is not part of the service we provide for the search requested. As outlined, we can confirm that the firm in question were indeed contacted as part of the search conducted. We are currently working with the firm in question to understand what their position is.
If we can be of any further help please do let us know.
Kind regards,
The Will Search Team”
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