Willans Reviews 17

Willans' conveyancing department has long provided capable and efficient service. I can't speak for the other departments there, although the reviews I have read here complaining of overcharging could apply to most firms of solicitors. On conveyancing they are highly recommended, reasonably priced by way of fixed fee and know the ropes of property sale and purchase. We have used Willans several times over the years, always been pleased.

Absolute thieves. Insane fees for endless emails and phonecalls which they they then misunderstand and push for more emails and phonecalls. The bill was quadruple that of the quotes from other solicitors

I've had two involved experiences with Willans Solicitors. Once in 2021 and again in 2026.
Based on my experience, I would strongly recommend avoiding.
When in time of need, this company is the epitome of the financial leech you need to avoid.
EVERY email £23 (+VAT)... even when they just say "thanks for your email"!
£4k for just 4 weeks being a intermediary with a barrister that actually knows what they're talking about.
They even added on additional expenses for talking between themselves, despite my instructions being uber clear that I only wanted instructions from a barrister!
Paul Gordon and his team, specifically Kafula (totally useless), should be avoided at all costs.
I hope this helps others when in time of need. These guys certainly won't!

Conveyancing solicitors great, Wills department dishonest. Extortionate fees, constant delays and inefficiency charged to you at rates rising skyward all the time. Terrible experience. I was reduced to silence or monosyllabic replies while solicitor chatted away, billing me for the time wasted. Awful feeling reading other reviews here - wish I'd seen these warnings before asking the Wills department for help.

Terrible experience of the Wills and probate team after a previously very professional experience with the conveyancing team. They will ensure you have to chase them repeatedly and will then charge you for the privilege. I needed a simple form (which itself is available online) filled out. They dragged this out for 2 months and when they realised they had completed the form incorrectly and had to do it again. Because they had already been paid, they managed to re do the form in 1 day. This company does nothing to encourage trust in solicitors. Would never ever ever recommend. My family have used this firm for years and will never do so again.

I was told about Willans by a friend and so i thought i would give them a try. I made an appointment with Robert from Probate. Our meeting lasted an hour. I got the terms and conditions and fees the next day by email. I decided there and there that paying someone / Solicitor by the hour is a dangerous thing and the charges are high. I called up and said that i would not be going ahead and would need to collect all my papers that i had left. I was told that they had gone into storage already interesting and i could not pick them up straight away and also the secretary was on holiday so i needed to wait a few days. I eventually picked up all my papers and left. A week or so went by and one morning i opened my laptop and to my horror i found a bill from Willans/Robert Lyn to the amount of 1,400.00. I was shocked and so angry. Did this man take me for an idiot, obviously he did. I was so furious and i refused to pay the bill. He claimed he had done so many things searches etc etc and outlined them and the cost. I told him that i had not signed anything and informed the office that i would not be going ahead with his services which obviously was to his dislike and refused to back down but I was not going to back down either. I sent an email to Robert saying that i didn't mind paying for the meeting but that was all and if this was not resolved i would take it the the Ombudsman. Shortly afterwards i received an email from Robert saying that a collective decision was made to cancel the bill and a new bill would be issued for just the meeting. Even that was not worth paying. Does Mr Lynn take people for idiots and i had spoken and told my story to a lot of people who were shocked. Willans is known in Cheltenham to be very expensive but this was shocking. My only concern is how many other people have been issued with such outrageous bills especially when people are dealing with matters that are so sensitive. I would advise people to really shop around be aware of this practice. I have learnt my lesson. It has taken me a while to write this review but i think people should be aware of stories like this and also Mr Lynn is a Senior Associate at Willans scary.

I went to this firm initially without coming to Trustpilot first which was a mistake!

I initially sent an email to a person represented on their website asking them a single question about leases all I really needed was an email back with a yes or no answer OR yes, it is possible BUT, instead I was passed to somebody else who appeared disinterested and just wanted to chat on the phone, if I did not chat on the phone, they could not help me.

Weird experience…

After reading the reviews it appears I dodged a bullet.

A fabulous conveyancer made all the difference. Buying a house was one of the most stressful experiences I have come across, not because of the people involved but the sheer amount of bureaucracy. Mary from Willans made it so much easier though. She was very responsive and went the extra mile to provide the information I needed through the process.

I recently used Williams to settle a repossession case, and unfortunately, my experience was disappointing. I found that even the simplest communications, such as emails or phone calls, were burdened with hidden costs. Their billing practices were unclear, and I often felt blindsided by the charges applied. While other firms offer fixed rates for repossession matters, Williams made the process overly complicated, which only added to the confusion and expense.

Given that repossession cases are something they presumably handle regularly, I was surprised by the lack of transparency and efficiency in their service. For these reasons, I cannot recommend

Absolutely abysmal service from this company.

It’s taken me 6 months to actually bring myself to write this review. It’s important that I do so, not only to warn anyone looking for legal representation but for my own mental health so I can finally put it to rest. Unfortunately, this review can’t come close to representing the abominable service, or lack of it from Willans as I couldn’t possibly list every single error or insulting action from them so please just accept this summary as a very abbreviated warning to any potential client.

I had used Willans twice in the past; both for the sale and purchase of properties. Both these transactions were dealt with by Jamie, who had come recommended. Jamie was easy to work with and the moves were without major issue. I therefore decided to employ Jamie once more on the sale of my home and purchase of an onward property.

Things on this occasion were rather different. Jamie was slow in responses and had to be chased up repeatedly, then a couple of weeks into our agreement, I was abruptly told he was moving departments (this turned out to be untrue) and I would be dealing with Jade; not a solicitor but a ‘legal executive’, who would be taking over. I never received a welcome or an introduction from Jade, just a wall of silence to my emails asking for an update to matters that had been left unresolved by Jamie.

From day one, I faced a battle with Jade to perform the simplest of duties and keep me informed, and when I did ever get a reply it was full of excuses along the lines of being very busy without any sense of an understanding that what she was being asked to do was simply what she was being paid for. She was rude, discourteous and quite frankly, utterly incompetent. I see from their website she no longer works for Willans.

There were endless delays and an appalling disregard for keeping me informed resulting in me making a complaint and cc’ing it to one of the partners. I got absolutely NO reply from anybody, as if I was scotch mist. Every person in the chain, including my buyer and my agents were complaining about them and I was constantly having to placate my buyer to try to keep them on board.

I was asking almost daily to receive the T10 and TA6 forms but got absolutely nothing from Jade until just 10 days or so before completion and exchange were due. I then not only got the forms, which of course needed correcting, but was dumped over 250 pages of legal documentation to read through that I was asked to sign and return asap. When I raised a number questions from this, due to there being so many errors and omissions; rather than replying in plain English, she dumped another 50 pages of legally worded replies cut and pasted straight out of their law books to decipher as her response.

After a further official complaint, I eventually got a call from Suzanne O’Riordon, one of the partners. I didn’t image anyone could beat the arrogance I’d dealt with from Willans up to this point but this woman took the biscuit! She was patronising, insincere and totally lacked empathy, despite expressing how ‘difficult’ the experience must have been for me and that the service received ‘fell short of what it ought to have been’ - Staggering understatement!

So Suzanne, who came in at the eleventh hour did eventually manage to conclude the sale and purchase but expected praise and glory for doing so, despite never acknowledging that in fact, to date, all the work that had been urgently required to keep the sale and purchase on track had been taken on by myself and Treagust estate agents, who weren’t even MY agents but my buyer’s but who recognised the appalling mess that I’d been left in and went above and beyond to keep everything on track. To them I am extremely grateful.

In light of my complaint and demand for an apology and compensation, I was offered a staggering £150 - not even the equivalent of a solicitor’s hourly rate!

It was one of the most stressful times of my life and all completely unnecessary had they simply done their job. A job that they are paid an exorbitant and unwarranted fee for.
I have no doubt this will prompt a response from Willans with more glossing over of their incompetence and unprofessionalism but I’d expect nothing less.

I’ve recently used Willans for my house sale and Steve D was absolutely marvellous in every way.
Can’t understand the negative feedback as my experience was positive from beginning to end!
I would not hesitate to recommend Willans and will definitely use them again in the future

DO NOT GO NEAR THESE PEOPLE!

They charge extortionate sums and don't actually get the simple work they were employed to do completed (Yes you Janine). I will now need to go through the legal ombudsman to try and recover some of the money they have stolen.. Don't become another victim of Willans.

I WON’T TOUCH THEM WITH A TEN- FOOT POLE!!!!!!!

Horrible solicitors! Beware before you engage them. They will present an excellent pitch to get engaged for their commercial benefit.

After engagement and when the initial retainer is paid, the turnaround is non-existent. What is constant and v efficiently sent are invoices. Fees are exorbitant relative to actual service rendered.

They offer solutions justifying long legal processes with inflated legal fees that do not bring you anywhere close to a resolution. James Melvin-Bath and Paul Gordon are absolutely useless solicitors, and are mouthy and rude.

I wish I’d read the negative reviews first. The recurring themes are no coincidence. They bring new meaning to the name ‘fee earners’. Don’t be fooled by the lure of ‘fixed costs’ work. When you dip one toe into the water of ‘non fixed cost’ work their charging system is the sort of thing that gives solicitors a bad name. They charged for a trainee solicitor to do the work, a qualified solicitor to amend and correct the trainee’s work, and an equity partner to ‘review’ the work; Really disappointing. I’d look elsewhere.

We have been so impressed by Mary Young at Willans in Cheltenham. She was always so helpful, quick to respond, proactive and highly efficient. We had a very difficult chain: the conveyancing on our sale took six months to go through because of incompetence down the chain but Mary supported us wonderfully and really went the extra mile. If it weren't for her the sale would doubtless have fallen through! Highly recommended!

I have consulted them twice for advice on two different unrelated matters.
Neither time did they manage to sort out the problems, and I was left with no resolution to either problem but with very expensive bills.
I have since found other local solicitors, which in my opinion, are much superior.

Charged £1651 for a letter to be sent.!!!!!
When queried told because of extra e mails sent ( even though it was information to reinforce the letter substance and ammendments with factual inaccuracies included in draft letter by solicitor.)
Reduced bill by £200 when queried.
They will charge for absolutely everything!!!!!
Avoid at all costs.....