Birketts Reviews 

Was referred to Birketts by the listing estate agent on our purchase in London. If you don't require legal handholding and simply need someone to push papers at a low price point, they might work for you. We needed a firm with a human touch and with EQ. Birketts mercifully previewed their lack of this prior to us retaining them.

We are purchasing what we thought was "leasehold with a share of freehold". Across numerous exchanges, Birketts maintained we were only purchasing a leasehold and were dismissive of us and our confusion when we tried to clarify our understanding that there was a share of freehold involved.

Turns out we are purchasing a leasehold with a sharehold in a management company which in turn will own the freehold. Tomato tomahto to us. But despite having worked on at least four other units in the same new build development, Birketts were clearly uninterested in explaining this legal nuance to us.

Only at the point in which I copied their head of residential property did I receive a thorough and respectful response. Unfortunately by then, the damage was done. We've now moved onto a firm that has taken the time and care with us from the onset, albeit a more expensive one.

Lesson learned. You pay for what you get.

Clare and the team has been very helpful, efficient and accurate with the work.

Excellent service! We highly recommend Birketts.

Clare Andrews & Cara Chambers were fantastic and I highly recommend them. I have chosen Birketts as Solicitors to help me buying my first home. Kept us informed throughout the entire process and professionally dealt with some tricky matters in an efficient manner. My experience is amazing, staff were very prompt in replying, co-ordinating with mortgage broker/lender and builders. It was a 8 months journey and very smooth. You have all been amazing through this process and we can’t thank you enough.

Contacted them over a month ago as preferred to use a solicitor from the past who they merged with Charles Fraser. No response despite both emails and voice calls.
Have gone with alternative who seems much more responsive.

I understand Birketts are asking for more details which is appreciated. I you send me an email address, I will be happy to send you the details.

Poor service start to finish, during a sensitive probate journey, which turned into a complex case and last 18 months. Poor communication between them and us only numerous of letters asking and chasing same information from other solicitor. This was incurring un necessary additional charges. They were very prompt in sending invoices. There was no compassion on their part as to the sensitivity as their clients. To be told (you lucky to get anything) and quoting us court of law. Long delays and blunt replies. During this stressful journey we had 5 solicitors all from same office involved (with their own charges); due to maternity or some other reason. Towards the end another solicitor involved, to which sends a letter to introduce and their charges, yet again additional costs. Even on completion day, there was not even 1 solicitor available and to be told there are further delays as (the banks may crash). Now waiting for final bill. I would not recommend them.

As per previous review, one star is too many but the lowest you could leave.. both parties wanted mediation and were willing to go.. both had individual MIAM meeting with confirmation after both meetings saying that the case and parties were suitable for mediation then booking next stage suddenly changed her mind.. would not give reason and put phone down on one party… totally unacceptable, money would be better spent going somewhere where they actually want to mediate… queue the excuses.. I will be taking this to the governing body… I have not received email explaining why not suitable!!!

Clare, Sam and the Team were fantastic and I highly recommend them. Kept us informed throughout the entire process and professionally dealt with some tricky matters in an efficient manner.

Used Birketts for our mortgage and nothing but good things to say. Clare and Cara were on top of everything, which lead to a very easy mortgage completion! Fantastic solicitors.

Unfortunately I had to give 1 star which is still highly overrated. We are unfortunate enough to have these solicitors involved in our house move chain and they are completely useless in my opinion. If you want to have maximum stress and months of waiting before moving, and never be able to get a response from a solicitor then these are the guys to use.

We used the firm to buy our house. They were very helpful and made the stressful process of house buying very smooth

I was sadly forced to use this company as they represented my lender. They delayed the mortgage process by losing paperwork, to the point that my mortgage offer expired, costing me more than £4,000 in increased interest. They then tried to blame my own solicitor for their own failings, saying he had not replied to emails that he responded to the same day, which is both unprofessional and unethical. And then they charged me £600 for the privilege.

I have chosen Birketts as Solicitors to help me buying a new home. My experience is very good, staff were very prompt in replying, co-ordinating with mortgage broker/lender and builders. It was a 7 month journey and very smooth. Thanks to all staff involved to make journey to buy a dream home

Awful. Completely ruined the purchase of our home by acting as the sellers solicitor. Constant delays and lack of comms, it is beyond me how many phone calls they simply do not answer.
We were supposed to exchange Wednesday last week. Nothing, not Thursday, not Friday. Our solicitor, the estate agent, the vendor, the sales progressor AND the head of the estate agents hounding them to get this done today, calls after calls. Still no answer (its 15.10!). They have no respect for timelines, for communication, for nothing. Expect your poor solicitor (who will get it in the ear a lot for delays from these guys) to be constantly chasing them to no avail.
We were supposed to move end July, its now looking like end August. Assuming someone today PICKS UP THE PHONE or ANSWERS AN EMAIL TODAY!!!!!!!!!!! And this is a service you pay for. Please avoid. I'm not certain at this moment we will ever get this done (i've only stayed in the sale because the poor seller has confirmed its not her that's causing the delays).

We have just completed on purchase today and we can’t thank Birkett Solicitors enough! They managed to get the Exchange through promptly and we needed to push the completion date back a month and they managed to get this approved smoothly. We were starting to getting a little worried that the completion would not take place today as we had been told June 30th was fixed by the site. Well they pulled it out of the bag and we got the keys to our home this morning!!! We would like to personally thank Alex Price, Clare Andrews & Cara Chambers you have all been amazing through this process and we can’t thank you enough.

I am a portfolio landlord and have used many solicitors firms but have never seen a more unprofessional and useless firm in my life. I am not sure why Interbay and Landinvest why to choose to have these guys on their panel. Happy to give more details. Please stay away if you want your work to be done.

Birketts were instructed in a litigation matter.
Their advice was to simply accept all the demands made by the other side. For that, we didn't need them..
They estimated our chances of success at 50% but in my opinion, we had an exceptionally strong case and I estimated our chances of success at 95%.
I ignored Birketts advice and was prepared to go to trial.
The other side capitulated and gave in to all our demands.
I contacted Birketts as suggested and their response is below.

IS THAT IT?? just "sorry" really doesn't cut it.
The fact that we were advised to capitulate but when we were prepared to go to trial, the other side simply threw in the towel tells me loudly and clearly that this advice was about as poor as it could have been!

Had the misfortune of Birketts acting on behalf of the other party on a conveyancing transaction recently. Erika Gilbert has zero regard for deadlines - not made-up deadlines, actual deadlines imposed by the lending banks. She continued to miss these which very nearly put me in a worse financial position, but luckily my bank was understanding and honoured my deal. Like other reviews mention below, they seem to pass lots of things on to junior staff who repeatedly ask for the same thing and/or miss things entirely. Very very frustrating when there are real deadlines and lives impacted by Birketts being unable to complete their day jobs in a timely manner.

We had the misfortune of dealing with Birketts via what *should* have been the simple remortgages of a couple of rental properties via LendInvest.

I really cannot understand how LendInvest can put business with these people who have caused nothing but frustration in this process.

My impression is that they use inexperienced staff and have a tick box approach which means that any workload is pushed off onto others.

Repeatedly they will ask the same question, get the same response and ask the question again.

They will ask for evidence. When you supply that evidence they say that it is unacceptable. So you ask them what evidence would be acceptable they don’t know.

Birketts have earned a 100% one star rating on TrustPilot. This must be some kind of record

Hopeless, when they make mistakes they don't own them. Do not answer direct questions unless pinned (verbally speaking). Happy to waffle around the houses @ £100's an hour until you realise that they are not answering the question, and when you pin them on that point, thats when you get the real world answer in seconds, but by that time your trust has gone along with your bank accounts health. My solicitor of 23years experience made a massive mistake as we filled out my FormE, when I spotted it with help from my accountant, her reply was 'I never look at the totals anyway'. Never told me that a section 25 form existed or that its probably the most important statement you will fill out in your divorce. No attempt to explain the grand plan or strategy to aim and focus your efforts on protecting your position. I could go ON. AVOID this firm they are in my experience UTTERLY mediocre. Best advice (which was not from them). Get a barristers opinion at the beginning of the process as they are the proverbial 'organ grinder' being the one who will ultimately stand up in front of the judge. I could go on....
Updated: 3July2025 Birketts reply is total window dressing, I have received no communication of any kind to offer an explanation, apology or even a refund. This inept firm took £10'ks in fees whilst absolutely failing to guard me effectively at any point. AVOID.