Just called to kindly ask about work experience as a year 10 student. The man who answered was extremely abrupt and disconnected the phone whilst I was speaking. Would not recommend.
Very odd. Promise to call back and don’t bother. Never reply to emails. So different ro the last time I used them. Cannot recommend at all. Go elsewhere. Such a shame as they used to be excellent.
Taken over 5 weeks for a deed of variation. Very slow to respond to emails. Paid £300 for a service and customer service was awful, not what I expected paying after paying such a sum of money Update: despite me paying for the service I had paid through my solicitors so their response was a complaint file cannot be opened as I am not their client! I've never come across such a scam. Update 2: To my displeasure whilst selling my home we needed some documents from Barratt Homes who built our house and SHMA represented them. 2 weeks and several calls later and still not heard from them, they keep saying Sarah Hussain will call me back but no one has. I think they have black listed my address because I left a one star review. Sums them up, outrageous behaviour. Will never buy a DW/Barratt Home again simply so I never have to deal with this company again
They helped me buy a house and it was really quick and easy. They were good price too.
Thumbs up
We just bought our new home through Shakespeare Martineau. Our transactions were being handled by Janet Clarke. Everything was going smoothly till it was discovered that there were a few disputes with the property we were buying. This was not a regular property buying contract, this needed a keen solicitor who could envision unforeseen future scenarios and insert clauses that were water tight. So lucky we had Janet taking care of this. She was tirelessly in correspondence with everyone involved. Even during her breaks. To make things more difficult for her, we had to exchange contracts with our buyers independent of our purchase. Janet proactively pursued the vendors solicitors, both the Estate Agents, our buyer’s solicitors and a few other parties involved in sorting out everything. Meanwhile, I would often call her early morning before she even began work and she would patiently answer. She sometimes sat late in her office if something needed urgent attention. My Emails to her were responded to within minutes, very reassuring to know your solicitor is treating your transactions this way. All this in a particularly busy property season, not to mention property buying and selling is only a small proportion of her work as a solicitor. But, everything said above is not all Janet did for us, she was also a constant source of reassurance throughout these unsettling times. We cannot thank her enough for that.
I used this firm both with the sale of my house and for a personal family situation. Regarding the sale of my house that fell through the first time just before exchange, they were amazing and very empathetic to what had happened. They then only charged me when the house actually sold and only charged for one sale not two like some other firms do. They were also fabulous helping me with my family issue, very caring, helpful and very reasonable. Would 100% recommend.
Allowed Coventry Building Society, my remortgage company, to assign their default lawyers. Found Shakespeares as inefficient and fleecing. The charges for transfer of equity from one bank to another is exorbitant; banks transfer for £20, while you charge £36. Was not on the scheduled day of completion that we missed the deadline at 12 noon - because the old bank did not send the statement in time. 12noon is an very early cut off time given that the business day runs till 5pm. Was never made aware of this. Was not informed either, till we had to call the company. One could have the cutoff at 10am itself! Such early cutoff times result in small but penalty rates for the customer. Have a noon cutoff for mortgage transfer/completion shows that they are inefficient during the day; from what it seems a mortgage redemption statement involves an amount that the redeeming bank asks for. It does not seem like too much to review one side (yes one side) of an A4 sheet and ascertain the sums are correct. Wish I had not chosen CBS to assign their default solicitors during mortgage transfers. Would NOT recommend.
Shakespeare Martineau is located at 2, Exchange Square, 21 N Fourth St, Milton Keynes MK9 1HL, UK
You can contact Shakespeare Martineau at +44 1908 696002
You can find directions to Shakespeare Martineau by following this map link