Longmores Solicitors

Avoid this firm. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Worst experience ever of a solicitors firm.
[Update July24:Solicitor who did this to me was a partner1 (main one), Lauren McKenzie, Kirsty Adamson, partner2 (complaints); despite my complaints, the firm still leave him dealing with my complaint & me. They refuse to agree payment terms, and now seeks after my house, wow, no one at this firm with ethics or humanity!!!)]

I'd agreed with the firm to stick a limit of £1400 and stop and alert me, the firm ACCEPTED THIS AND THAT THEY HAD FAILED IN THEIR COMPLAINT REPLY OR TO ALERT ME but they chose pursue me, horrific firm. To ignore that and ran up a £17k+. I had been given a fee for the case hearing of about £1200, and it turned out to be just under £20+k it seems.

Logged it with the Legal Omb and asked them to wait for that, they refused. They put it into high court chased me for costs I did not nor would have agreed to. I do not recommend this firm at all, they bullied me. Partner who I've never met due to the pandemic and when I suggested to do a video intro, he refused. Despite it being their solicitor who failed to correctly do things and it left me feeling suicidal and they still proceeded to threaten me. Their values in their website say "no surprise bills". Avoid at all costs is my advice. I was tricked by him. I was mentally unfit and the firm refused to stays demanding their "false debt"), and I Iost in court by £259 because of some errors by the judge, though the bill was reduced by about £5k for overcharging, and this firm never gave me a second bundle I was entitled to, basically an unfair trial. They claimed £50k, then £35k for costs to chase two invoices!!! Judge gave £16k, leaving me a £33k+ bill now for what should have been £1400, and now I am trapped by them and the court system, just like the Post Office scandal! They refused to agree to a 5 year payment plan and stated that some of their partners are due to retire so it had to be sooner!

re your response below:
"The total of all our fees was within the budget"
- I do not believe £1400 is the same as £20k+??? !!!
"It was not, however, significantly more than the amount of previous monthly bills"
- Your earlier bills were inflated too and I will be challenging them
"After you expressed shock at our final bill we invited you to discuss it with us and to agree a fair fee for the work we did."
- If you do £20k of work I never asked you to do, what is a fair price? ZERO, not forgetting overinflated bills from before. But you proceeded to threaten me despite knowing how ill I was.
- Difficult to do when left feeling suicidal and the bully firm still threatens. Who wants to engage with a bully?
"In the circumstances, it appeared to us that the only fair thing to do was to ask the court to look at our bill" [note it is highly unusual for a firm to do that normally its a client challenging a bill but they bypassed the court process for me to counterclaim doing it this way]
- Really? Why is it not fair to first wait for the legal ombudsman, given you had breached your firms values & numerous Client Care terms. Potential clients take note.

(Update Oct22). They refuse to respond to any of my queries. You say you told me a budget, evidence where you showed me a CMC would be £20k+? Lies. You said £1400. I asked for a time extension of 3 months for this billing high court case, as my health was very poor still, gave firm details. Your firm refused. You couldve agreed for free, instead you didn't &I had to pay a court fee to extend for my poor health,&judge only gives one month so now I have to do it again &pay another fee because the firm will refuse to bully &intimidate &put pressure on me despite knowing how ill I am, zero regard to the strain to me! Fair is not duping clients as if you have a blank chequebook when told the opposite, apparently "things were too fast moving for me to be able to tell you" he was running over £16k over the sum I agreed! Your firm are atrocious, you do not even deserve 1 star it should be -100, firm refused mediation said it was too expensive.

Avoid this firm. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Worst experience ever of a solicitors firm.
[Update July24:Solicitor who did this to me was a partner1 (main one), Lauren McKenzie, Kirsty Adamson, partner2 (complaints); despite my complaints, the firm still leave him dealing with my complaint & me. They refuse to agree payment terms, and now seeks after my house, wow, no one at this firm with ethics or humanity!!!)]

I'd agreed with the firm to stick a limit of £1400 and stop and alert me, the firm ACCEPTED THIS AND THAT THEY HAD FAILED IN THEIR COMPLAINT REPLY OR TO ALERT ME but they chose pursue me, horrific firm. To ignore that and ran up a £17k+. I had been given a fee for the case hearing of about £1200, and it turned out to be just under £20+k it seems.

Logged it with the Legal Omb and asked them to wait for that, they refused. They put it into high court chased me for costs I did not nor would have agreed to. I do not recommend this firm at all, they bullied me. Partner who I've never met due to the pandemic and when I suggested to do a video intro, he refused. Despite it being their solicitor who failed to correctly do things and it left me feeling suicidal and they still proceeded to threaten me. Their values in their website say "no surprise bills". Avoid at all costs is my advice. I was tricked by him. I was mentally unfit and the firm refused to stays demanding their "false debt"), and I Iost in court by £259 because of some errors by the judge, though the bill was reduced by about £5k for overcharging, and this firm never gave me a second bundle I was entitled to, basically an unfair trial. They claimed £50k, then £35k for costs to chase two invoices!!! Judge gave £16k, leaving me a £33k+ bill now for what should have been £1400, and now I am trapped by them and the court system, just like the Post Office scandal! They refused to agree to a 5 year payment plan and stated that some of their partners are due to retire so it had to be sooner!

re your response below:
"The total of all our fees was within the budget"
- I do not believe £1400 is the same as £20k+??? !!!
"It was not, however, significantly more than the amount of previous monthly bills"
- Your earlier bills were inflated too and I will be challenging them
"After you expressed shock at our final bill we invited you to discuss it with us and to agree a fair fee for the work we did."
- If you do £20k of work I never asked you to do, what is a fair price? ZERO, not forgetting overinflated bills from before. But you proceeded to threaten me despite knowing how ill I was.
- Difficult to do when left feeling suicidal and the bully firm still threatens. Who wants to engage with a bully?
"In the circumstances, it appeared to us that the only fair thing to do was to ask the court to look at our bill" [note it is highly unusual for a firm to do that normally its a client challenging a bill but they bypassed the court process for me to counterclaim doing it this way]
- Really? Why is it not fair to first wait for the legal ombudsman, given you had breached your firms values & numerous Client Care terms. Potential clients take note.

(Update Oct22). They refuse to respond to any of my queries. You say you told me a budget, evidence where you showed me a CMC would be £20k+? Lies. You said £1400. I asked for a time extension of 3 months for this billing high court case, as my health was very poor still, gave firm details. Your firm refused. You couldve agreed for free, instead you didn't &I had to pay a court fee to extend for my poor health,&judge only gives one month so now I have to do it again &pay another fee because the firm will refuse to bully &intimidate &put pressure on me despite knowing how ill I am, zero regard to the strain to me! Fair is not duping clients as if you have a blank chequebook when told the opposite, apparently "things were too fast moving for me to be able to tell you" he was running over £16k over the sum I agreed! Your firm are atrocious, you do not even deserve 1 star it should be -100, firm refused mediation said it was too expensive.

Karen Fletcher dealt with our case. Very efficient and good communication. Would highly recommend.

I wouldn’t recommend their services. After signing up, I was only informed that my solicitor was frequently on her days off and then went on holiday. It would have been helpful to know this upfront, as I could have chosen someone more available for my time-sensitive case. Additionally, I ended up paying nearly £3,000 for advice that mainly consisted of “let’s wait and see” and repeated threats to the other party. If proactive steps, like sending notices to the relevant parties, had been taken, I could have saved a significant amount of money. Unfortunately, it felt like my case was deliberately prolonged for the firm’s benefit, as they profited from the back-and-forth. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend their services.

I have just completed the sale of my property assisted by Longmores who handled the conveyancing process on my behalf. From start to finish communication and correspondence was efficient and well managed. Any discussions I needed to have were straight forward and with best advice given. Their fees were fair and reasonable for the conveyance, the process was speedy and as a result I am very happy to recommend their business very favourably. Nick