Smithpartnership Reviews

Very Disappointed with Smith Partnership Derby Office

Very disappointed with Smith Partnership In 2013 my parents and myself took out LPAs with our long-term family solicitors Pinders However Pinders later closed down and handed over their clients including ourselves to Smith Partnership This is the second time since then that I ve had to resort to leaving a one-star review due to a total lack of response from SP This time around the issue is with regard to my mother s LPAs which are in the hands of SP The social worker who is dealing with my mother s case phoned SP a month ago to request the documents be posted to me abroad ASAP as it was an emergency and my mother s care home fees had to be paid The person she spoke to said they would contact me and put the documents in the post I heard nothing from SP and have not received the documents At that point the social worker asked me to get in touch with SP too to hopefully get the ball rolling so I emailed one of the senior partners who was the person who contacted me the last time I posted a one-star review on here My email to her hasn t been replied to either After further discussion with the social worker we have decided to forget about SP and she has contacted the Office of the Public Guardian directly to have copies of the LPAs sent from there instead I m also very disappointed to recently learn from the legal experts at the local council that SP ought to have told me that I had every right to demand that Lloyds Bank accepted my LPAs despite my living abroad Instead SP advised me to apply for Court of Protection In addition they did this after wasting my time discussing intermittently the ins-and-outs of the LPAs CoP for several weeks without checking the particulars of my mother s records When they finally checked her records I was told they had discovered my mother had no open files with them had not paid a retainer to keep their services and as she no longer had capacity wouldn t be able to re-engage them It goes without saying that they should have checked my mother s records as soon as I contacted them and would thereby have avoided wasting my time and delaying the progress of my mother s applications In the same mail I was also told that they were no longer dealing with applications for Court of Protection - again clearly something which they ought to have informed me of at the very beginning of our communication I now consider this company to be totally unprofessional When I had issues with them not contacting me several years ago I gave them the benefit of the doubt but I now see things differently and suspect that as they have never actually received any payment from us the payments for the LPAs having gone to Pinders and they know that my mother now lacks capacity and is therefore no longer a potential future client they have no motivation to engage with us I have to return to the UK in 6 weeks time and I will be looking for a new solicitor to handle my mother s affairs Reply The day I have dealings with Smith Partnership again will be the day on which Hell freezes over Only a fool would expect any improvement in your services I may be a lot of things but a fool isn t one of them Update I m coming to the UK in 10 days I m coming to visit you IN PERSON

The purchasers of my property are using

The purchasers of my property are using Smith and Partnship to buy my property and all I can say DON T use them The communication with them is diabolical they do not reply and make as many excuses as possible you have been warned avoid them at all costs

If I could give 0 stars i would

If I could give 0 stars i would terrible service just going around in circles

A distressing unjustifiably long-winded struggle

A distressing unjustifiably long-winded struggle That s how I would describe my experiencewith the Smith Partnership Derby who were the legal executors of my late long-term partner swill in which I was a major beneficiary Getting any information from them was like getting blood out of a stone Requests from my ownsolicitors were rudely ignored for months and when there finally was a response it was uselessas it was so evasive and misleading Vital information to which I was entitled like the will and Memorandum of Wishes wasactually withheld and every obstruction was put in my way in getting my rightful legacy Thecorrespondence that Smith Partnership sent to me was really insensitive to add to the distressof the bereavement As the professional executors Smith Partnership s job is to act in an unbiased neutral way toALL the beneficiaries and advise the family co-executors accordingly but instead they weretotally biased towards the latter According to other legal experts one of the clauses in the will written by Smith Partnership wasambiguous and badly worded Unfortunately beneficiaries have no say in the appointment of legal executives they are chosenby the person who made the will If my partner could have forseen how unprofessionally unfairlyand insensitively the execution of his will had been handled he would NEVER have used the Smith Partnership

SCANDALOUS COMPANY AVOID AT ALL COSTS

If I could give 0 stars I would but unfortunately the lowest rating was 1 avoid this company like the plague they are cold-hearted and wholly unprofessional when dealing with such delicate matters we could and should take them to court to disbar them but have had too much of a bad experience over the past 18 months for this matter to continue any further My experience was a stressful and frustrating hassle The Derby office of The Smith Partnership were the legal executors in conjunction with two of his family members As requested I sent the documents to verify my identity address as well as bank account details At least two months passed with no acknowledgementor communication so I felt I had to be proactive I had to leave several voice mail messagesand emails before I had a response When they eventually got back to me they said they had never received my bank account details so could I resend them In order to facilitate things so I thought I gave details of an alternative account I held Much to my annoyance I discovered that the funds were in fact paid into the original account so Smith Partnership must have had them all along I couldn t help but wonder whether this was a delaying tactic Then I heard that other beneficiaries had had the same request I couldn t believe it To summarise these solicitor s total lack of communication mislaying of information and poor client relations makes one doubt their professionslism and competence to act as executors DO NOT USE THEM AT ALL COSTS

Dreadful

Dreadful My dealings were with the Family Division At the outset given the facts the solicitor was very talkative and confident about what I could expect from her and indeed I was persuaded by this In reality however she was inattentive and failed to attend several pre-arranged meetings As an excuse she told me she had her own personal problems to deal with There was a host of failings My experience left me emotionally scarred and financially disadvantaged I would urge you to find legal help elsewhere if you need help from the Family division RESPONDING TO SMITHS REPLY I REFERRED SMITHS TO THE OMBUDSMAN WHO UPHELD SEVERAL OF MY COMPLAINTS THE OMBUDSMAN AWARDED ME COMPENSATION WHICH SMITHS SOUGHT TO SIMPLY OFFSET AGAINST MY FINAL BILL EVEN IN THIS MATTER SMITHS BEHAVED INCORRECTLY AND UNPROFESSIONALLY BY FAILING TO CARRY OUT PROPER ACCOUNTING I HAD TO INSIST THEY ISSUE A FORMAL CREDIT NOTE IDENTIFYING OMBUDSMAN S COMPENSATION ALONG WITH A REFUND OF FEES DUE TO SOLICITOR OVERCHARGING OTHERWISE IT MAY HAVE BEEN RECORDED SIMPLY AS A BAD DEBT FOR THE APPALLING SERVICE I RECEIVED FROM SMITHS NO APOLOGY WAS GIVEN

Unprofessional Incompetent

A very frustrating really long winded affair That has been my experience when I was the beneficiary of a will The Smith Partnership in Derby were the lead executors Would I choose them to be my executors Absolutely definitely not As with other beneficiaries of the same will I was asked to supply bank account details proof of identity which I did like them I was asked to resend them I would say that their filing system must be unfit for purpose or maybe they were playing for time or maybe both Smith Partnership failed to send me a copy of the Letter of Wishes yet I was a beneficiary of a large number of household effects If another beneficiary hadn t told me I would never have known Talk about lack of communication I was then given two days to retrieve them or the family executors would dispose of them Getting the effects was a really upsetting struggle It was just one obstacle after another Smith Partnership completely sided with the family beneficiaries executors yet they re supposed to be unbiased I also discovered that Smith Partnership had set a condition on payment of my legacy which they hadn t told me about which meant a long delay in receiving it This was really unfair as another beneficiary who was receiving exactly the same amount had exactly the same role relationship with the deceased had received their legacy weeks before Where s the neutrality in that My conclusion - STAY AWAY

Selected Smith Partnership for family

Selected Smith Partnership for family law matter Stressful time but compounded by poor service from solicitor and team Basic administration not adhered to instructions not followed and many mistakes by Smiths which had to be covered commercially by myself Wouldn t recommend

it s a waste of your money and time

it s a waste of your money and time Lack of communication and engagement Have spoken with one solicitor during consultation and preparation for court hearing and trial just to see another solicitor named Terri on the day of trial Solicitor I have never personally seen before I had animpression that she has an occupational burnout syndrome and she was not prepared No cooperation No flexibility to listen to your instructions No good will to help out Just doing work like machine on minimum turnover without taking any consideration Now after few day passed after trial I am more than sure that she made my situation worse by asking really stupid questions I even did not think about that she could ask me this on trial day Again miscommunication and classification and exterior prevailed That is an amateur club Do not recommend At all costs