Birketts Reviews 

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.

In Autumn 2020 we put offers for two properties. The process was horrendous, because of difficulties with the lender (LendInvest) and the lender’s demands to use their own solicitors - Birketts. The lender took a long time to respond. Then they insisted on using their own solicitor (Birketts), instead of using our solicitors, as the big banks do. True, the lender did offer that we could use their solicitor, but we had already contractually committed to our solicitors. To buy a modest house with a modest mortgage, no chain, took from October to April! While much of this was the lender’s fault, Birketts were unresponsive, inept and several times seriously wrong. Birketts insisted on doing searches afresh and would not take the already gathered evidence into account. They demanded indemnities for matters that were already dealt with elsewhere. On both house purchases, I had to tell our solicitors, and the lenders, that the figures that Birketts had asked us to send to them to complete the deal were WRONG.

Birketts may do excellent work for their bespoke services. But we got the strong feeling that they used junior/inexperienced staff to do high volume conveyancing work. They adopted a tick box strategy that pushed costs and effort onto other people. This brought anxiety and tears to vendors and purchasers alike, for what were simple transactions.