Wilford Smith Solicitors Reviews 

Never thought I'd say this about solicitors but this team totally deserve it!

From our HR through to conveyancing and (sadly) bereavement they have you covered.

Attentive, empathetic advice and legal journey with clear commercial consequences throughout.

Highly Recommended!

Our experience with Wilford Smith for the purchase of X Station Road has been a complete disaster and a study in professional incompetence.

Our house purchase has been delayed for three months because the firm has repeatedly failed to submit basic, mandatory documentation, specifically AML checks, Bankruptcy Searches, and Proof of Funds, to the seller’s solicitor (Leeds City Council). This failure persists despite us forwarding multiple emails from the Council stating the documents are still missing.

My mortgage offer has had to be renewed multiple times and is now critically set to expire again in December. The situation is urgent, yet our emails to the relevant teams (Orange Team, Ruqayya Ifham) have been repeatedly ignored for weeks, leaving us in the dark and putting the entire transaction at risk.

If you have a time-sensitive transaction or need a responsive solicitor, AVOID WILFORD SMITH. Their lack of communication, internal disorganisation, and failure to handle fundamental paperwork are shocking. We are now filing a formal complaint and considering escalation to the Legal Ombudsman.

Used Wilford Smith Solicitors for family probate following the passing of my uncle, service and attention to detail was excellent thank you Michelle & Melissa, on going support kept me up today throughout the process
Paul Roberts

I know Paul Fitzsimmons through professional networking and I’ve always been impressed by his approach. He is kind, helpful and genuinely supportive, while also being sharp and highly capable in his field.

Beyond his work at Wilford Smith Solicitors, Paul also takes on a significant leadership role within the business community, which speaks volumes about the respect he commands and the value he brings to others.

Although I haven’t been a client myself, it’s clear that Paul combines expertise with integrity and I would have no hesitation in recommending him and the firm’s services to anyone seeking trusted legal support.

In today's world of not knowing who to trust.....Wilford Smith Solicitors what always be the people I would refer to anyone with Humon Resources queries......simply the best....thank you Paul Fitzsimmons

From start to finish, working with Wilford Smith Solicitors was absolutely brilliant.

I was navigating a tricky conveyancing chain, yet they kept me informed every step of the way, answered the phone the first time I called, and delivered the outcome when they said they would.

What could have been a stressful process was handled with professionalism, clarity and genuine care.

I can’t recommend them highly enough.

When I first chose Wilford Smith, I did so because they appeared to be a reputable and well-reviewed firm. The initial onboarding process reflected the professionalism and core values they promote, and I genuinely felt confident that I was in good hands especially as my purchase has no chain or complex timing issues. Sadly, everything that followed fell far short of those early expectations, and my experience has not matched the standard the firm claims to uphold.

I have been unbelievably patient throughout this process, but my experience with Wilford Smith has been nothing short of disappointing. I instructed them to handle my first property purchase and work on my file started end of July 2025 and from then communication has been painfully slow, inconsistent, and often non-existent.

Weeks have gone by without a single update. Every time I’ve had to chase for progress, I’ve been met with vague responses or complete silence. I was told on 15th October that my file had been passed to a supervisor to raise enquiries, but since then, I’ve heard absolutely nothing, no confirmation, no timeline, no clarity.

I have tried to remain polite and patient, giving them every opportunity to simply communicate where things stand, but this level of disregard for clients’ time and trust is completely unacceptable. Buying a property is stressful enough without being left in the dark for weeks at a time. It’s now November and I simply do not know where things stand at all.
What’s even more frustrating is that, after reading through other recent reviews on Trustpilot, I can see that I am far from alone. Many other clients have shared similar experiences of poor communication, delays, and being ignored, which clearly points to an ongoing issue within Wilford Smith rather than an isolated case. The canned responses to these reviews seem to be, in my view, quite dismissive and even defensive, rather than empathetic or solution focused. Like many others, I simply want my case resolved, and being told to start a lengthy month-long complaints process after already facing significant delays and lack of clarity is both discouraging and unhelpful.

I now deeply regret choosing Wilford Smith. After months of waiting with virtually no progress, I’ve been left in a position where; to move my purchase forward, I’ll likely have to instruct a new solicitor despite already having paid part of the fees. It’s an incredibly frustrating and disheartening situation. I would strongly urge anyone considering using Wilford Smith to think twice. Clear and consistent communication is the absolute minimum you should expect from a solicitor, and unfortunately, Wilford Smith has fallen far short of that standard.

Echoing other poor reviews. Poor firm.
This solicitors are useless. No communication, no actions. You have to beg them to even respond, let alone actually do anything, then when they do they will partially answer one question and leave the remaining ones unanswered. I raised a formal complaint and still nothing has been done. I lost my buyer after weeks of inactivity, and was left completely gutted.
A house sale and purchase is a huge thing - please for your own sanity DO NOT use this firm.

EDIT to add a reply to their reply. This is the most communication I have had from WS in the 18 weeks they've been hired - no previous mention of restructuring or requesting patience during this period. So whilst WS think it's a shame that I've gone to reviews, I feel that I have been forced to, to elicit any kind of response. What a shame they feel it necessary to have a dig at that instead of sending an apology. I'm also not sure why that is an excuse for such poor service given I was not notified of this ahead of hiring them, to allow me to make a fair decision. Clearly they can't manage the workload right now, so shouldn't have a accepted the work. Let's see if a fair result is offered after the formal review process is complete so I can update other potential Clients.

A special thank you to Lisa/paul for going above and beyond to get everything completed on time. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Wilford Smith to anyone looking for a conveyancing service that’s efficient, friendly, and five-star from start to finish.

The solicitor i had was absolutely amazing i cant thank him enough

It wasn’t like this when I used them previously… The people at WS this time tried to be helpful, when you can get them to communicate with you. But after 8 weeks of confusion, repeated communication, and very little progress on our purchase I’m glad we changed our firm. We will now spend the next few weeks trying to gain the sellers’ confidence.

We used Wilford Smith for our sale and purchase which started back in April 2025.

In the initial contact was good and the team seemed keen to have us on board and help us with everything.

However, it soon became clear that a lack of communication would impact the process. With complaints from estate agents on both sides, we did consider transferring but we were give assurances that our case would be dealt with 'personally' but that individual then left the company and we were not informed.

We continued to use the services as we were far down the line at this point. However, the lack of information or updates made the process very stressful and it felt like it had become my job to case management companies, land registry and other services in order for the sale and purchase to successful. We were fortunately supported by our estate agent.

We did make a complaint in August about the service we were receiving as we had to make additional payments for management packs to be expedited when they should have been ordered by Wilford Smith.

Towards the end of our transaction, the staff members change again, which again caused confusion right up to the day of competition.

Overall, the staff we did speak to over the process tried to help but the people dealing with our case were often 'in a meeting' or 'at lunch' which made them unable to help us. I am grateful to the individual to did try and help our house sale and purchase through but unfortunately the over all service fell very short of what I would expect.

While the individual staff members were kind and clearly wanted to be helpful, the overall team appears overworked and unresponsive. Our conveyance was plagued by significant delays, missed details, and repeated miscommunication. Most concerningly, the level of service dropped sharply after the sale closed and their fee was paid; the team has been completely unresponsive to all subsequent follow-up attempts. I strongly regret not choosing another conveyancer and would not recommend this firm to anyone looking for reliable and timely service

Initial contact with Wilford Smith was acceptable but a little slow, as time went on trying to contact them in regards to the purchase of the property was an uphill battle. Eventually they STOPPED reply to me all together and any phone calls made to them were met with "the team is in a meeting".

Had to Cancelled their services in the end, they then replied within a day.

This shows they do NOT care about the people they are "representing".

Avoid the stress and pick anyone else.

Helped me massively highly recommend

This was the third time I'd used Wilford Smith. The first two experiences had been reasonably good but this last engagement left a lot to be desired. Communication was woeful throughout and felt undervalued. Disappointed.

If I could give zero stars I would. Avoid avoid avoid.

We had an awful experience with Wilford Smith. They were consistently incompetent & slow to respond, both to us and to others in the chain, which caused repeated delays and almost jeopardised our move. Communication was poor throughout, and we often had to chase for updates or re-send information that we’d already provided. We often ended up having to communicate with our buyers' conveyancers through our estate agent instead.

We also ended up doing much of the legwork ourselves, including obtaining documents from the council and other parties. Key details were repeatedly recorded incorrectly, and it was clear they were out of their depth dealing with a leasehold property.

Due to their miscommunication with our buyers' team, we lost £1,200.

On completion day the proceeds were also sent to the wrong account for the wrong amount. This resulted in further costs to correct the error and significant stress on what should have been a straightforward completion. Despite having all the necessary paperwork and funds by mid-morning, they didn’t release these until 3 pm, leaving us literally standing on the pavement with our belongings waiting for the keys.

This is all just the tip of the iceberg on what was an extremely frustrating and unprofessional experience.

I have called them so many times. They have all the information they require from me and the other solicitors to exchange the property I’m buying and the other solicitors have heard nothing!

Subject: Re: File Reference Request

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your message.

To clarify, the file relates to Sienna.

While I note your comment that funds were placed on 9th September, that was nearly four weeks ago. I think it’s reasonable to have expected more progress or clearer communication by now.

I also find it concerning that you’ve asked for the review to be removed. My comments were made in good faith based on our experience, and I’m happy to review this once things are progressing. Please confirm you have actioned the searches.

Kind regards

Sienna

Please email me an update. I called yesterday and I still need confirmation that the searches have been done.

More to myself - always read the reviews on trust pilot as they all seem to identify problems with lack of communication. Now being reported to the SRA and Legal Ombudsman.

Avoid this company with a barge pole!!!

Can see now they give you a cheap quote to get you on board and they are now demanding another £999. Although my house completed without it? 🤨 My mortgage advisor has said in all her 30 years of providing mortgage advice she has never come across a company like it. She has taken it upon herself to personally help me through this mess to wherever it gets 'escalated' to as this is now the tone of emails I am getting from them asking me to pay. Paid deposit and fees (£1800ish in total) as requested day before completion, all sorted and they confirmed. Day of completion got a revised statement asking me to pay the extra £999 on the day to complete!!!! At first they claimed this was Leeds lenders fee which has been added onto the mortgage as I didn't want to pay straight off... So my monthly fees will include this. Obviously not paying twice for it!! Then it changed to this was extra solicitor fees... My mortgage advisor had said all along they were very cheap... And she thought they were trying to get extra fees. Ridiculous for it to be one price one day and then extra £999 the next - completion day. But how did my house complete without paying all the necessary solicitor fees 🤔... Answer - because I already had!
Just received email from Jackie Bruce demanding I pay fees before it is 'escalated'.
Needless to say, don't use them. Pay more for a decent solicitor. I think they outsourced mine to another solicitor anyway...
I'll be coming back to this review to update you all ..

Absolutely awful company - no service levels can’t speak to ‘lead reviewer’ don’t think they exist - would never ever wish my experience on anyone !