Erichsmith Reviews 

Never seen such unprofessional company. We had to find new solicitors otherwise we would lose the house. They never answering your calls, same with emails however after every 10th email there's a chance they will replay to you. Avoid avoid avoid!! I just want get my money back now.

Not quite sure where to start, other than avoid at all costs!

Communication was abysmal/non-existant other than the frantic last few weeks as we were scurrying to complete before our mortgage offer expired.
And even then, it took us 8 attempts to complete due to basic mistakes in the paperwork. It got to the point where I had to vet the paperwork before it was submitted... I thought that what I was paying for!

There are clearly some good people in the organisation (Stephan Ablett was a star and really helped us despite him not being our case handler), but the general vibe of the organisation is that they are unprofessional and lacking in any empathy to the situations their clients are in.

Our estate agent and the vendor stated they haven't seen a worse conveyancing process in all their decades in the property game.

There's more horror stories which I don't wish to dwell on further, but it was a relentlessly frustrating, stressful and needlessly complicated experience that I'm glad we've seen the back of.

They buying a house is one of the most stressful things you can do, if you want to minimise this I'd recommend using another solicitor!

AVOID!!

If you don’t want headaches for yourself then avoid this company. I have had the worst time with them and really regret choosing them.

Our Solicitor Stephen Ablett could not have been more helpful and efficient. We were buying a house from a very difficult elderly eccentric seller and if Stephen hadn’t have so insistent, calm and collected, we would never have gotten this sale achieved. An absolute star. I can’t recommend highly enough.

Awful service. Had 3 different aligned solicitors during our time. 2 of which “left” the business. Everything is so slow and good luck ever trying to get hold of them. Called several times, left voicemails and still nothing. Avoid.

AVOID THIS COMPANY!!
We had the absolute misfortune of having Harjeet as our solicitor. Our offer was agreed on the 28th August 2022 however we didn’t complete until March 3rd 2023 due to his complete incompetence. If you are a current client, please do your self a favour and change companies before it’s too late. Hindsight is an amazing thing, and it is something we should have done months prior to completing, it would have saved ourselves from near mental breakdowns.
Firstly, it is almost impossible to speak to him, or anyone in the company. The contact number for himself will consistently go through to a voice mail, and he will never respond to any messages left. If you do manage to get through to anyone it will be James, who again will find it impossible to get through to him despite them being in the same office. He also does not reply to emails, and it took nearly 3 months to have any communication with him.
We also made formal complaints to the company as per their complaints process on their website but had no response, this also included emailing the Partners of the company.
We finally started to get some response from Harjeet in January. He was fully aware that our rental tenancy was ending the 8th Feb, and if we didn’t complete by then we would be homeless. He promised we would have the keys on that date. Thankfully due to not believing a word he says and being fully aware of incompetence, we had already arranged storage for our belongings and arranged 1 week of temporary accommodation. Unsurprisingly we did not get the keys on the 8th, and instead our developers solicitor got in touch with multiple mistakes on the Help to Buy paperwork that was preventing us from even exchanging. Fast forward a couple of weeks the paper work mistakes were endless. We finally exchanged on the 21st Feb with the estimated completion date being the 23rd Feb but in the contract gave himself a buffer to the 28th Feb to complete the transaction. However, thanks to his multiple mistakes with the Help to Buy paperwork, we didn’t complete until after the contract date and were at risk of losing our deposit/paying large fine. The man couldn’t even sign his name and address correctly! He also constantly forgot to update the completion date when he corrected previous dates meaning the paperwork was (again) rejected!! In the end we asked him to send the paperwork for us to check – and unsurprisingly further mistakes were found.
Our estate agent has stated, he’s the worst conveyancer he has come across since 1998 and we have since learned he was emailing our developers solicitor for help as his simply did not know what he is doing.
You always hear people complaining about how poor solicitors are, but whenever I tell anyone about Eric H Smith and our experiences with Harjeet, we appear to have won the ‘worst solicitor boasting rights’.
IN SUMMARY AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!

Highly recommend using Eric Smith Solicitors when purchasing a house! We have continually been impressed by the London team who have helped us along the way and answered any questions we had. As first-time buyers we didn’t really know what to expect and was overwhelmed by the amount of information we were given by the mortgage advisor, lender, and estate agents but the team helped to guide us through this and was always on hand to support. They provided an amazing service and worked hard to make sure the process went as smooth as possible.

It's not just the great communication and clear and detailed outline of the process that was great, but they also really know their stuff whilst remaining empathetic to your situation. We couldn’t be happier with the service we received and will be recommending Eric Smith to friends and colleagues and will happily use their services in the future if we decide to move house.

Well done Eric Smith Solicitors ....showing others how it should be done!

Amateurs and liars who have no idea how to do conveyancing.

You aren't given a person's name just a general mailbox, which delayed the sale of my house by 6 weeks as nobody replies to emails or answers the phone. They would say one thing to my solicitors and another thing to the buyer.

They had no idea how the exchange process works and this process alone which normally takes a couple of days took over two weeks. 

Avoid them at all costs - they might be cheap but it won't be worth your sanity to use.

Rocky start with our first solicitor with quite a delay and very little to no response. However once our purchase was passed to steve it was done and finished in about 3 weeks, fast response and genuinely empathetic to our needs, Not a great start but ended well .

Polite and professional. Could have been a bit more diligent with regard to my situation e.g. I was a cash buyer, which I'd told them, but was asked for my mortgage provider. Not big issues.

Communication was OK, could have been a bit better. I had to chase to see what was or was not happening a couple of times.

And the time it took, three months was rather long for no chains either end, but that seems to be how long things take these days, so not necessarily at fault there. Why though?

A good price though. Which was nice.

“Thank you for the extremely professional, efficient and friendly service. Would not hesitate to use this firm again and highly recommend it to all. My solicitor, kept me informed throughout without inundating me with emails. She explained everything very clearly, taking care of the smallest details and making the whole process entirely stress-free for me. If you are looking for a high quality and personalised conveyancing service; carried out efficiently and with a smile, this is the firm for you!

Terrible service. Appalling communication, misspellings in legal paperwork and continuous mistakes with simple things like my address. Now having to contact them months after purchase as errors have been made as they hadn’t done the basics such as follow up with all parties? Really!? I am now extremely stressed and it’s ruined my experience of buying my first home. Do they seem to care or even apologise? Nope. I don’t yet know what extra this will cost me as no one can give me a clear answer. Customer is not first. It’s shame because the original conveyancer I dealt with was lovely but she has left the company in a rather disagreeable manner I have come to understand. I am chasing everyday and have just been ghosted. I have asked for email updates and get none. You have to call and pester to get anywhere which I don’t really want to do. When you get through on the phone they can’t wait to get rid of you. My advice to them would be to put yourself in your customers shoes and find a better way to communicate clearly. If you’re considering using them… honestly, find someone else

Absolutely appalling service received from this company. Employed them for conveyancing of a chain free purchase and eventually had to take my business elsewhere after wasting three months of being ignored and receiving unprofessional emails. I had three separate solicitors in three months as each left which speaks volumes in itself. I was told by the last one 'that she was sick of me having a go at her'. Yes those actual words, when all I was doing was chasing documents she had promised and failed to send. Ironically when I emailed to advise I was going elsewhere she responded to that email within three minutes!

Avoid at all costs! I’m appalled at the service this solicitors have or should I say haven’t provided to the buyers of our property. They were acting on behalf of our buyers so that we could purchase a bigger property. As it stands if this doesn’t complete this week we will lose our house. We sold this property in
June 2022
And this solicitors have worked for our buyers since august 2022. Since then they have had 4 case
Handlers and Brittany had lost paper work, not done mining report
Until late then sat on it for 4 weeks not knowing what to do with it. 7 months later and we are still not
Sure if our sale and purchase will complete but we only have until
The end of this week to do
So
Or
We
Will have to pull
Out. I’m
Am
Beyond angry with how this solicitors works

Fantastic experience with Eric Smith Solicitors who were extremely helpful in keeping us updated with the progress of our property purchase and sale. They answered the phone and emails very quickly and were true to their word if they said they would provide an update by the end of the day or week.
If you're looking for a reliable, thorough conveyancing solicitor who genuinely have their clients interest at heart, give them a call!

A special shout out to the London team who were incredibly responsive, helpful and straightforward to work with. We never felt left out of the loop during our house purchase and we very rarely had to chase anything. They offered us plenty of advice to help us with the exchange, completion and moving process.

I'd also like to mention that their prices were much more reasonable than local quotes we received. Overall, we're two very happy first-time home owners. :)

Eric Smith Solicitors have been amazing at helping us to complete on our first purchase. The top rate online reviews for Eric Smith Solicitors did not lie. It is only thanks to their dedication, patience and support that we are finally in our dream home. I cannot recommend the firm enough they truly act in your best interests Diane in the London team was prompt, professional, efficient. She was very approachable and friendly, maintaining a sense of humour even in the face of our complicated chain and all the last minute rushing towards the exchange of contracts. She was knowledgeable and helpful, always available to talk to us when we called or e-mailed.
My experience from start to finish has been excellent with every aspect of the business including communication, giving regular updates - where needed, professionalism ensuring that I fully understood every aspect, time frames etc, they explained things which I was a little unsure of - I felt as though I was at the heart of everything.
Anybody who would like to experience a swift buying process should choose Eric Smith Solicitors.

Avoid! It's a fake reviews, incompetent firm using third party solicitors all proceeds was horrible! Lost paperworks,you can't get in touch. Transfer funds to be paid for land registry, not done since Christmas! No replies nothing! Thinking to report to Trading Standards. Avoid!

AVOID AVOID AVOID!
no way of contacting them at all!
Solicitor 1 - lied to me, lost all my documentation then was sacked / left
I was then passed to another
Solicitor 2 - agreed an exchange date then again lost documentation so this couldn’t go ahead, again unable to contact as the company refuses to speak on the phone, the only contact is by email and they take around 1 week to respond
Finally exchanged, 2 months late due to faults within Eric smith
The Legal paperwork is still outstanding!
I now have a auto reply from solicitor 2 stating she has also left / sacked and I’m on solicitor 3
Solicitor 3 - I have had no response and it’s been nearly 3 months and I still do not have my paperwork!

I am currently in the process of reporting to trading standards, in the hope I will receive the legal documentation which I have already paid for but never received!
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!

I am still currently trying to make my purchase of a property which began in August of last year. I have been passed to 4 different case handlers, with no prior warning, spent days and weeks trying to make contact with them, documents have been lost, communication has been awful to zero and I cannot understand how anyone can give this firm 5 stars. If there are professional case handlers at the firm can I get one, please?! Honestly, I regret so much choosing this firm. I paid a £300 deposit for searches in August and don't know if they have been carried out yet, I can't get an answer to this question. My first case handler left the company, the temporary case handler batted questions away, the third handler literally never did anything on the case for over three weeks, I left a one star review on Review Solicitors on the 3th of Jan just to try to get any response and miraculously was assigned a new case handler the very next day. Yesterday evening found out via the case portal that that case handler is not my case handler any longer but the first case handler who I was told in September had left the company. What is going on? I don't know. In my opinion, I would avoid this firm, I wish I had.

Having just completed I am happy to say what a Great service I received. Everything was organised and completed in very good time.

Thanks Julie T for all of your hard work with working through our purchase - It is very much appreciated!