Cookandtalbotsolicitors Reviews 16

My parents instructed Cook & Talbot in 2024 to prepare their Lasting Powers of Attorney and Wills at a cost of approximately £1,400. At that time they were elderly (88 and 90) and wanted peace of mind that everything was properly arranged.

In February this year my father, aged 92, was suddenly diagnosed with inoperable cancer and deteriorated extremely quickly. He returned home from hospital knowing he was dying. One of his final wishes was to amend his Will to include his grandchildren. He was far too ill to travel the short distance to the office, so I personally attended Cook & Talbot to ask for urgent assistance.

I explained clearly to reception the gravity of the situation — this was not routine, my father was on his deathbed and time was measured in days. I was told the solicitor who prepared the Will, Jennifer Wilkinson, was on annual leave but would be back in the office on Friday and that she would be informed as it was urgent.

Days passed and no one contacted us.

I telephoned again and was told my 92-year-old dying father would need to attend the office to give instructions. I explained repeatedly this was impossible. I asked for a home visit — a very common service provided by many solicitors in end-of-life situations. I was then told he could send an email. I again explained he was not capable of doing so.

I was eventually informed that Jennifer Wilkinson “doesn’t do that sort of thing” and another member of staff would deal with it, however that person was unavailable due to half-term. I was assured someone would contact us and come out.

No one ever did.

My father died before any solicitor from Cook & Talbot even made a phone call.

Not a visit.
Not advice.
Not even the courtesy of ringing a dying client’s family back.

This was not a complicated legal matter. It was a simple request for urgent will instructions for an existing elderly client in the last days of his life. We were not asking for charity — we were asking for a professional service from the firm he had already trusted and paid.

At a time when families are distressed and vulnerable, you expect compassion, professionalism and basic communication. Sadly we experienced none of these.

The lasting memory for our family is that my father’s final wish — something that mattered deeply to him — could not be fulfilled because the firm he trusted would not come a mile down the road or even pick up the telephone.

Given the circumstances, I now intend to pursue a formal complaint regarding the conduct and lack of professional care shown to a vulnerable, terminally ill client. I will also be referring this matter to the appropriate regulatory bodies.

What has upset our family most is not simply that the Will was never amended, but that in my father’s final days — after he had already placed his trust in and paid this firm — no one from Cook & Talbot found the time to make a single phone call, offer advice, or travel a mile to see him.

Families place enormous trust in solicitors at the most sensitive moments of their lives. In our experience, that trust was entirely misplaced.

Max Henshaw Snr

I would just like to commend Luisa Thomas my solicitor who while carrying out my conveyancing had to endure initial uncertainty by me then months of delays by the leasehold management company. Throughout this process Luisa and her team were very professional and very efficient. They helped me navigate the progress App which I was unused to. Finally completion was achieved and I would just like to thank Luisa and her team for all they achieved in difficult circumstances on my behalf. I am sorry for the delay in writing this review Luisa. BIG THANK YOU.

Would not recommend. Luisa Thomas was our conveyancing solicitor. She was very difficult to contact, unhelpful in her replies and very slow to respond. The purchase almost collapsed due to slow progress and poor communication.

I instructed this firm for conveyancing on a recent house purchase. While the purchase was completed, I was disappointed with the level of service.

The most Important information that later turned out to have a significant impact on my property, such as a nearby development, was only briefly mentioned in documents and not clearly explained. This left me feeling that the advice was not proactive and fell short of the professional guidance I expected. Overall, the experience was poor and I was left dissatisfied as a client.

Pros:
• On the occasions that Amanda and Chris got involved, things would usually start moving and progressed faster.
• In the end, nothing truly disastrous happened, and we did manage to complete the sale and purchase.

Cons:
• The whole process took around 5–6 months. Not incredibly long but definitely felt longer than it needed to be, as although there was a chain, there were no other major complicating factors. Towards the end, our seller’s estate agent was chasing us constantly asking what the hold-up was, and we had to tell him we honestly had no idea.
• We were pushed to set a completion date before exchange was even in sight, which made no sense. In the end, there was less than 24 hours between exchange and completion, which is not normal and creates huge problems for planning things like removals, work leave etc. It was confirmed to us that we could start planning removals the afternoon before completion day - luckily, we took a chance and planned earlier, otherwise I’m not sure how we were supposed to organise everything in the few hours we were given. It felt like they either forgot that real people have real logistics to deal with or just didn’t care.
• Communication from Vicky was especially poor. She didn’t send us the initial set of documents for the purchase, then later asked why we hadn’t returned them - only after our mortgage advisor chased things up. There was very little urgency on her part on general, and it often felt as though if we hadn’t kept chasing, things wouldn’t have been done. Her responses were vague and often contradictory, as though she wasn’t fully aware of what was going on. It sometimes felt like talking to an AI chatbot that just replies with generic information instead of addressing the issue at hand. She also seemed to be on annual leave every other week - which, fair enough, people need breaks - but if someone’s going to be away that often, they probably shouldn’t be the main point of contact on something this important. Though the silver lining of this was that she was on leave towards the end of the process, which meant Chris took over and things did finally progress.

Overall: Everything did eventually get done, and some team members were good, but the lack of communication, urgency, and general clarity made the process much more stressful than it needed to be.

One star is too generous, they were totally inept and missed some fundamentals such as the need for deeds of variation that I had to point out on multiple occasions.
There was no urgency in their service whatsoever until 2 weekend before my mortgage offer was about to expire and even then they were still telling me they had to delay things so I had time to move. I already lived in the property which they were obviously well aware of

I am currently selling my house and my buyer is using these solicitors.
The process has been ongoing now for nearly 6 months, they are slow at replying- or just don’t reply to the numerous times my buyer and estate agent have chased. We are very near the end of this whole process, and they are choosing to delay matters by not responding to the latest replies to enquiries.
Very poor and I am not even using them, it is frustrating for all parties. Still currently waiting to hear from them!!

I recently used Cook & Talbot for the purchase of my property and received excellent service. My case was dealt with by Amanda, Vicky & Chris and I always received fast communication and they were extremely helpful. I will definitely use you in the future.

Following on from a recent review this company is now refusing to help me with a issue i had after completing my purchase.

Because i wrote a honestly review that i am entitled to do, Cook and Talbot directors sent me an email stating they are not refusing to help me unless i take the review down… and now ignoring my emails.

Think twice before using this company, wouldn't want anyone to be left in my situation 👍🏻

Caitlin Maher dealt with my property transaction. Alongside this, I had other properties going through with other conveyancers, and there was a world of difference! Although things did crop up along the way, Caitlin just sorted everything and kept things moving forward. I was more than happy with every aspect and won’t be using any other conveyancer

This is the 3rd time we have used Mark and his team, twice for a house purchase and once for mortgage and deed transfer.
100% recommend them, good communication and very good pricing, kept informed all the time and the purchase went through without any issues.
Buying a house isn't easy with many pitfalls along the way which are no fault of anyone really, but Mark and his team negotiated all these and the transaction was completed easily in the end.

Absolutely shocking service when we bought our first home this year. You can hardly get through to the receptionist or speak to anyone dealing with our case. We spoke to someone handling our purchase, at most, four times during over a period of 13 months and we tried so many times only to be met with silence or a very delayed short email. We weren’t updated regularly and I had to chase things up myself which frustrated me and my husband so much. It didn’t help when they weren’t even aware that our chain had collapsed. Mark Lloyd even wrote the wrong address on our deed papers and had our mortgage term down as 30 years instead of 33 which I had to inform him. No attention to detail whatsoever. He even argued with me during the only time I ever spoke to him when I complained that they weren’t doing a good enough job in communicating with us and not reading our emails we sent giving them important information. In our reports we were asked to check things and contact them if we had any questions - to which they wouldn’t reply without being constantly chased when we did. I had to threaten action to the ombudsman to get someone to contact me at one point. We didn’t get our deeds until 8 months after the purchase completed (which I had to chase yet again) and blamed the issue of stamp duty ending as the reason why they hadn’t sent them when they were completed in May. This is despite them sending leasehold documents through in June via email. Do yourselves a favour and look elsewhere for a conveyancing solicitor because you will be so frustrated and upset with this firm. Will not be using them again!!!

Engaged this firm for my property sale, but after weeks of trying to get someone to do something I had to switch solicitors. They don’t respond to emails or return phone calls. Waste of time and money. Extremely frustrating. Avoid!

Really poor experience from beginning to end. Felt the whole experience was completely financially motivated rather than working on your behalf. As first time buyers the whole prospect of dealing with the purchase process is daunting enough and they made this more stressful than it needed to be. Poor communication from beginning to end. They rarely responded to emails and phone calls unless it was in relation to obtaining funds. Failed to return phone calls and emails. They also failed to make myself and my partner feel like a valued client by referring to other clients correspondences in response to emails and supplying incorrect data at times. Their overall final fee was different from the estimate invoice with no explanation of where extra fees had been incurred and then made us feel that if we didn't agree to the fee they would delay the purchase of the property 2 days before completion.
When discussed my concerns with the company that referred myself to them it was concluded that cook and Talbot had taken on too many clients and where struggling with the current work load. This as anyone can expect is a poor excuse for poor service and if this was the case they should of expressed this at the beginning and other options could of been utilised rather than offer poor customer service.

I have been a client of Mark Lloyd and the team at Cook and Talbot for 12 years. They are a rare shining light of professionalism, integrity and genuine care for their clients. They are always quick to respond and go above and beyond, often working evenings and weekends, to turn things around as quickly as possible and in your best interest. Their advice is practical and balanced and always with your best interest at heart. They are never the solicitor holding things up and are always on hand to give honest advice and support. They are not old fashioned and do everything online which just makes the process so much easier and have an online portal to keep you up to date too. They are just fantastic and I’ll never use another solicitor. Thank you Mark, Anne and team again for your amazing services!

Terrible experience from beginning to end of house purchase with little communication, almost no switchboard availability, several mistakes made during the process and very slow progress.