Gardner Leader LLP - Newbury

Simmi Rihal

Where do I start!

My husband and I were first time buyers, and our solicitor Ameeta walked us through the process with such patience, and also took the time to explain each step of the journey to us in detail.

Ameeta and her team are an absolute credit to the company and deserve the highest recognition! The service we received was professional and charging structure was explained thoroughly. We felt incredibly looked after, and communications were timely and crystal clear.

I would definitely recommend the team to anyone considering using Gardner Leader. I know where I will be directing my friends and family. Thank you all so much for the wonderful experience of buying our first home!

Alan Wheable

The team at Gardner Leader gave an excellent service during the conveyancing of our existing and new properties. They provide the expert advice and reassurance needed to keep the property chain together during very challenging events. I would wholeheartedly recommend Gardner Leader to anyone embarking on the challenging journey of selling and buying houses.

James Collins

I had a very disappointing experience with this solicitor. After receiving the invoice, I was shocked to see that I was being charged an excessive amount for the service received. Despite my request for a detailed breakdown of the fees, the solicitor refused, stating that they operate on a fixed-fee basis. This approach seems convenient when the work required is minimal. I can only imagine that when additional effort is necessary, the ‘fixed fee’ is swiftly abandoned. Our estate agent received the same lack of response and even advised me that the charges were far above what is typically expected for the services they had provided.

Throughout the process, the support I received was minimal. I had ongoing drainage disputes that required urgent attention, yet my repeated requests for assistance were vastly ignored. When I did receive responses, they were little more than brief acknowledgments of the work I had no choice but to conduct myself, which was then passed on to the vendor's solicitor with no further input.

Overall, it was clear that they lacked the understanding, experience, or expertise to assist us properly, which inevitably contributed to the collapse of the sale.

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In response to the reply to this review:

Thank you for your response, but I must clarify several inaccuracies in your reply. At no point were we offered any goodwill gesture or discount as claimed. In fact, I was charged 50% of the estimated fee as initially agreed, with no breakdown of the bill provided, despite my repeated requests.

To state that you reduced the fee to “just over 25%” is misleading and simply untrue. I have since contacted your finance department, who confirmed that no such goodwill gesture was extended to us. Following further communication with your team, we were offered a mere £68—far less than the 25% reduction mentioned in your response to this review.

This misrepresentation of the facts is misleading to those considering your services.

Maria G

Just book them. Emma and Helen were the only ones who kept my sanity in the house buying process. I move to them from another solicitor, with whom I had the most stressful experience with. On contrast, gardner leader was extremely professional, communicative, polite and responsive. They are a credit to the profession and our massive thank you for the assistance for our new build purchase. They were also able to change some TP1 clauses to which our previous solicitor said was “non negotiable”. Shows you Gardner and Leader has teeth and competence to get things done.

Richard Chandler

I used Heath Buckeridge Solicitors about 18 years ago to purchase a house and recently needed details for sale and CGT reasons ... Gardner Leader LLP have taken them over and the service is brilliant ... Megan has done a great job of retrieving the information I needed to do this with a more local solicitor to handle the work I needed to do the sale and purchase. I'd heartily recommend them.

Gail Foad

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Gardner Leader. We were looked after by Cate Beavis and Jo Dainty but we'd like to give particular thanks to Charlotte Tindale who did a lot of work behind the scenes to get our chain through to the point where we could exchange.

Katherine West

We had a fantastic experience with conveyancing by Emma Jones at Gardner Leader - she is utterly professional, brilliant and caring. The personal touch involved went above and beyond and we wouldn't be in our new house without her! Vicky, Jo and Helen were also invaluable and together made a brilliant team. Highly recommend Emma and Gardner Leader to anyone.

Andrew

We have used Gardner Leader on multiple occasions now, for both purchasing of property and for remortgaging.

On both occasions, the service has been absolutely fantastic. The team we dealt with (Newbury branch) have always been very quick to respond to messages/queries and are professional and informative.

I have found the services we used very good value for money. It was evident lot of care went into our case each time.

A special thanks to Emma (Newbury branch) - who managed our case on both occasions and was the reason we went back to Gardner Leader. Her knowledge and professionalism is a credit to the branch. Additionally Helen was also brilliant too. Thank you both!

I will summarise our review with:
We will be using Gardner Leader LLP for many years to come, and would never go anywhere else!