Bennett Oakley Reviews 

Efficient and proactive service. Thankyou to Charlotte for the service provided throughout the process. Would definitely recommend Charlotte & Bennett Oakley.

Annabelle, handle everything looking after my best interest at all times

Amy at Bennett Oakley made the whole house selling process incredibly smooth -
Emails and queries were answered promptly- she was always very accessible - thank you so much.

Professional, fast, accurate and great communication. Made buying my first property as smooth as it could be.

A prompt service kept informed when needed .
I walked into the practice on a few occasions and had questions which were dealt with very nicely by the reception desk .
Always curious and nothing to much trouble .
Have decided to use this practice to buy our next property .

Great team - very responsive to enquiries and helped with all the selling process - strongly recommended

The whole process (with the exception of the "automated" self-validation system, which did not work at all for me) was pretty painless. Sam, Leanne and the rest of the team were helpful and informative throughout.

This firm was instructed by my mortgage lender to deal with a house purchase. From start to finish communication with them was difficult - rang numerous times and was promised a call back which never materialised. The house purchase didn’t go ahead and the solicitor was advised by email - again no response - rang twice promised call backs which never happened ultimately had to raise a complaint,which added to the stress of the whole situation, then eventually a director rang and listened to my concerns. We weren’t kept up todate on ongoing issues relating to the conveyancing - asked for help with online process which never happened. The only person that was helpful in this company did the declaration of trust costing £500 for little work which wasn’t ultimately needed as the sale fell through. All in all a really bad experience/little help and total lack of communication and consideration for its clients. Have never dealt with such a bad legal team with shocking customer service !!!!!!

Poor communication throughout the whole process. Forced to sign a waiver I wa snot comfortable with

Bennett Oakley were instructed on my house sale and purchase. Sarah was brilliant, can’t fault the service received. I would highly recommend them.

Looked after my interests all the way through the sale, which took nearly a year after the first buyer pulled out.
Negociated the completion date I wanted despite the buyer continually changing her mind about contents required. Debbie and Juliette very friendly and helpful.
Good value too I thought.

Bennett Oakley dealt with Mum's probate on a fixed fee basis and all was sorted out well, with no unforeseen issues. We were very happy with the work and advice carried out and would recommend Bennett Oakley to others.

I used Bennett Oakley for a remortgage and the service was brilliant. Helpful staff that know their stuff. Would recommend.

Really great team. Helpful kind and able to convey the issues clearly

Our experience was great. Staff were professional and offered sound and helpful advice. Service we received was exactly what we required and was done in a really friendly, helpful and efficient manner. We would recommend.

Pi$$ poor. I had them do a deed of trust that 2 other solicitors couldn’t make head nor tail of. Then they also made a farce of a house sale. I would not recommend

I have just sacked this firm as my solicitors. They used to have good staff but now no longer return emails or calls and are weeks and months late, then don't deliver. Avoid like the plague!

Don't waste your time; find someone else.
I contacted them for a simple transfer of property months ago, and it's still not done. I rarely get a response from emails, no one answers the phone. I've gone all the way into their office several times to follow up, and they usually say they will get onto it straight away. If they just told me they couldn't do this simple document from the get-go, I could have just gone somewhere else. Instead, they've wasted months of my time and I'm still in Limbo. When they do get back to me, they give silly excuses like "lots of people take holiday this time of year". It's been 4 months. EDIT: Their reply states it is because I needed to provide more documents. They only requested these two days ago (4 months into the process), all of which have now been sent on my end.

I am extremely unhappy with the service and charges that I received from Bennett Oakley. I instructed them in the "purchase" of my shared ownership property as a first time buyer on low income. Just weeks prior to completion and before the exchange of contracts, they informed me that there was a footpath that crossed my property and would need to be re-routed. I feel aggrieved that I was not told about the footpath crossing the plot that I was purchasing until a few weeks before completion and about paying for searches that did not show up the footpath that needed to be re-routed. I was told that the meeting to discuss re-routing the footpath would not be held for another 8-10 months. I was told by Bennett Oakley that the housing association would not provide me with indemnity insurance so I decided to pull out of my purchase for fear of being left with a potentially unsaleable property in the future. Bennett Oakley told me that they had done most of the work on my purchase and would be charging me accordingly. They invoiced me for 527.94 in addition to the 500.00 I had already paid to them on account. So total charges of 1027.94 were invoiced for.
As per their website, I raised my issues with them but they still continued to chase me for payment and Samuel Cash threatened to pass it to their debt collection department. I was obviously mindful of having my credit rating adversely affected by non-payment of their invoice so I eventually paid them the additional amount they were chasing of 349.54. This was only after they had started charging me interest at the rate of 8% on the outstanding monies. They even got the amount wrong that they were chasing me for!
I was asked by yourselves prior to exchange of contracts to close my Help to Buy ISA, with hindsight this should not have been done until after contracts had been exchanged. This was confirmed by the Halifax Building Society during the very lengthy process of re-opening my Help to Buy ISA, which involved many phone calls and three trips into branch to achieve this. I had to explain to yourselves that I would need a Purchase Failure Notice which you stated you had never heard of!
I have lost the following monies:
08/12/2020 Kent Reliance Admin Fee £145.00
08/12/2020 Kent Reliance Valuation Fee £200.00
08/12/2020 Opal Financials - Broker Fee £349.00
07/01/2021 Bennett Oakley Solicitors £500.00
06/04/2021 Gold Crest Surveyors £75.00
04/05/2021 Bennett Oakley Solicitors £527.94
£1,796.94
I do not feel adequate explanation and guidance was given about shared ownership leasehold property issues even though I checked before engaging Bennett Oakley to make sure that they had plenty of experience and expertise in dealing with shared ownership purchases.
I feel I have no alternative but to write this truthful review of my experience and I hope other potential clients will find helpful. I am also considering making a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and/or the Legal Ombudsman.

The worst communications from any firm I have ever dealt with - and that's really saying something. What an embarrassment. Total amateurs charging top prices. Never again.

Nearly every other firm I've dealt with during the pandemic have stepped up their customer service. These ineffectual part-timers seem to think they're above all that nonsense.

Awful.

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