rawclarksolicitors.co.uk Reviews 28

RAW Clark are the worst conveyancy outfit I've had the misfortune to deal with. Some might say that the benchmark at this end of the industry is already woefully low, but RAW Clark manage to delve it to deeper depths with gusto.

For full disclosure - I was not a direct RAW Clark client and have not paid them any money (if I had, I would have been taking them to court for reimbursement) but they were the acting firm looking after a purchase on behalf of the vendor. So, they were a core link in the chain of my purchasing a house - and by far the weakest link.

Documents have been lost, solicitors dealing with the case dropped and swapped at a moment's notice, telephone messages and emails left ignored for weeks on end. The solicitors working on my end have never been able to get a straight answer out of anyone given as a point of contact at RAW Clark, seriously delaying progress and costing everyone involved money.

However the main reason for my review was the shocking reply I received from the Senior Partner (Alan Tulip). Mr Tulip is given as the person to contact given any concerns for delays or complaints. So, I was not expecting to receive a very rude email back opening with:

"What a load of rubbish...."

Giving his position at the top of the firm, though, it did give me a clearer understanding of why the rest of his staff seem to care so little about their clients and their responsibilities.

When buying my home, I chose Raw Clark team to act on my behalf for conveyancing and the purchase. I had a couple of issues that were held up, due to no fault of the solicitors. The team kept me up to date at each stage. Special thanks to Katie, Lianne and Sophie.

Would have given 5 stars, the only thing I found difficult was getting through to the office by phone. This was not a major problem though, as Lianne was always very quick in responding to emails.

Would recommend.

Really bad service. use them if you want your home buying experience to be the worse. Took my case 4 months with them no update from Diane Jackson (Northumberland). you can't talk to them coz they are always busy never call back, no mail response for at least a week (each time you write mail). keep sending same document set to be signed again and again and keep telling that I am pending document signature. so many different excuses for not to work. finally they spoiled my deal. Hope this comment helps.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS SOLICITOR

I've used solicitors for over 25 years and have never received such a truly shocking service.

We almost lost our new home due to their negligence.

Their customer service is non existent and getting a response that's meaningful or at least pleasant is almost impossible.

It took a complaint to the Law Society to get our sale completed.

Now 1 year on we are still waiting for the title to be updated with the Land Registry due to Raw Clarks failure to reply to their requests. This resulted in our getting a personal fine which we paid. In the interest of fairness I can confirm that Alan Tulip did refund this after much argument. Not once have we received an apology, just a series of passive aggressive emails.

PLEASE, PLEASE, IF YOU VALUE YOUR OWN MONEY, TIME AND MENTAL HEALTH DO NOT ENGAGE THIS SOLICITOR

Very concerned to see these reviews although I expected it given our experience. We have been waiting 3 months for this shambles of a law firm to reply to the most basic of enquiries and my solicitor is coming up against a brick wall. It’s looking like our whole move will collapse as my purchaser is going to have to renew their tenancy if they can’t move into our house soon. As a solicitor I am horrified that a firm of solicitors could be this ineffective and still be able to practice.

Absolutely dreadful experience no professional courtesy at all from these solicitors don't believe estate agents when they tell you it takes approximately 8 to 12 weeks more in excess of 26 weeks to complete.they don't return your calls or emails even if you can get through

Abysmal service from start to finish. Don’t let these cowboys ruin your purchase too. Unfortunately Raw Clark came recommended to the venders from William H Brown, however the service we the buyers & the venders have received on their behalf has been atrocious.

It should of been a straight forward sale, we where first time buyers with no chain moving into a property that the vender was selling so she could move into assisted living. The seller already had accommodation sorted before we viewed the property. We saw it on the 28th of February and put an offer in on the same day that was accepted. A couple of weeks later solictors where instructed.

Fast forward to July and 5 months had now passed with no update. We had 13 outstanding enquires that where brought to their attention on the 1st of April and an addition 5 from May. Baring in mind this was now July, they hadn’t even looked at our files. Our solicitors now had to instruct the venders to pay indemnity insurance as RAW Clark still hadn’t got back to us regarding an outstanding enquiry which was brought to their attention in May. Can you imagine been that incompetent you have to make your own client pay indemnity insurance so you don’t have to do the work that you was instructed for? With just 8 weeks left before our mortgage offer expired they continually ignored the emails from William H Browns email explaining our anger and frustration.

It was now the 11th of august and it was brought to our attention that a management pack was required for the sellers onwards purchase, when I rung my solictors they told me this should of been done months ago. Alan Tulip the c.e.o of RAW Clark then promised us we would have a moving date by Friday the 20th, which we didn’t and we never heard back from him again.

On Tuesday the 31st of august we was informed we would be exchanging on Friday the 3rd of September. By Wednesday the 1st of September we was told that we are no longer moving as Raw Clark are awaiting a signed transfer from the sellers, even though a few hours earlier we had paid our deposit and was in the process of sorting home insurance. When I spoke to the sellers regarding this, they wasn’t even aware they was suppose to be moving on Friday and hadn’t been told by the solictors. So the 3rd comes and after telling us we’re not moving they expected us to still be moving. I know, right? They told our solicitors that we’re not moving, but William H Brown that we are moving, told us that we’re not moving and the sellers didn’t even know that we was moving. I mean, does that even make sense to read?

We finally completed on the 10th of September. This straight forward sale took nearly 7 months to complete.

The lack of communication throughout was poor, we was constantly ringing our solictors and William H Brown who couldn’t get through to them. At one point we had the venders, our mortgage broker, William H Brown and our own solictors trying to contact them, we all received the same generic response from the receptionist “someone will ring you back” which they never did or they simply wouldn’t answer. We had very little response to emails either. For 4 months we was waiting for outstanding enquires that they never bothered to look at. They then turned around at the end of July and said that they never received the venders original documents regarding the sale, which then meant the sellers had to re-do them and send them off again.

Buying your first home is suppose to be one of the most exciting purchases you can make but thanks to Raw Clark they made it the worst, most stressful experience in my entire life. If you want to be done raw, these are the solicitors for you.

Alan Tulip and his Team Emily, Diane and Kate (and his lovely receptionists Amelia, Jessica and Andrew) did our purchase and sale conveyancing, through what has been a difficult year for everyone. They were amazing, patient and kind and I would highly recommend them to anyone. Thank you so much for bringing us through such a complex process as ours was. The Hughes family.