Very quick and helpful from the first point of contact from the viewing to moving in, becky has been more than helpful and responsive making the move more relaxing than it would normally be,... Read more
93 days ago
Would avoid at all cost.
We just bought a property advertised by Reeds Rains, the house is lovely and we’re over the moon with it, but the level of service provided by the company is a joke – extra charges hidden in recommended solicitors fees are not something you’d expect from such a highly respected company, and it seems to be a common issue so beware!
Once the offer was accepted they recommended a solicitor who they worked with all the time and the original quote looked decent so we decided to go with them (the solicitors themselves were great!). Upon the arrival of the official solicitors quote I noticed that there was a fee on top of the total cost which was supposed to be paid (on top of the referral fee!!!) to Reeds Rains if we take out a mortgage as a 'mortgage referral fee', that was £150+VAT - may I add that we already had our mortgage application in place so we didn't use their services for that at all. When I questioned it with the solicitors they told me that this fee is being enforced by Reeds Rains themselves and it is not for any additional work the solicitor would be doing. I was advised to call the estate agents and asked for it to be removed... and that's when the fun really starts! NOT ONE member of staff could give me a reasonable explanation as to why that fee was on there and what exactly it was for ‘oh, it’s just a standard fee, it’s always there’ is what I got… I wasn't prepared to pay it if it was money for nothing. I couldn't understand why they were trying to squeeze extra money out of me when they are already getting a nice amount out of the sellers. I was told over and over again that it’s for handling the mortgage, but when I read through the paperwork that was already included in the total and this referral fee was for no additional work on the solicitor’s side. I instructed the solicitors to question what the fee was exactly for, the answer the solicitor got was ‘we don’t know, we’re looking into it’… as you can imagine I was far from impressed! I informed the estate agent at that point that unless I get a solid explanation for it I am refusing to pay it… This went on for weeks.
After about 6 weeks of constant phone calls to Reeds Rains (they were incapable of returning a promised phone call, every single time), constant upset and added stress I eventually had a call from the manager to say that the fee was waved, this was followed by a promise of an email confirming this to my solicitor and myself to make it official - yet again, I had to chase it a week later because it was forgotten about!!!
If you are looking to buy via Reeds Rains and decided to go with their solicitors, do it, but make sure that you check your paperwork because they will try and sneak an additional charge in there. £150 +VAT may not be much in a grand scheme of what you have to pay but why should they be allowed to get away with it!
Customer service in general was decent enough but I cannot highlight enough how unprofessional the management was - I was even told 4 weeks into the process that if I didn't like the fees I was free to go find a new solicitor - after they recommended me this one!
If i could leave a 0 star review I would...
-10/10 would not recommend and will certainly not use in the future.... Read more
1428 days ago