Blanchardsbailey Avis 

My wife and I used Blanchards Bailey for what we expected to be a standard conveyancing job: selling our existing house and buying a new one. We assumed all solicitors would have a reasonable level of competence and attention to detail but we were dismayed by our experience of incompetence from BB.

We were correctly warned to read and check every document BB sent us for signature but it quickly became apparent that this was especially necessary because they didn't check the forms they sent to us. Instead of BB working for us it seemed we were working for them. At a stressful time when we were preparing to move house we had to spend too many hours marking their homework.

They sent us a purchase contract for the house we were buying. All the information on the form had been previously discussed with BB and agreed in writing yet the purchasers' names on the contract were incorrect. We pointed this out and a new contract was sent. This time the address of the property we were buying was stated as being in London when it was actually in Shaftesbury. We pointed that out and another contract was sent. This one stated a purchase price £10,000 higher than the agreed price. Yet another email to BB, and yet another copy of the contract was sent but by this time we had lost all confidence in Blanchards Bailey. No apology or admission of their mistakes was ever given to us by anyone at this firm. We were made to feel like a nuisance for pointing out these extremely important errors.

Shortly before we completed our sale and purchase our solicitor notified us that she was leaving the firm, which was no surprise to us but no one at BB bothered to contact us to say who was now handling our case. Completion day dawned with uncertainty over whether we would actually be moving house since we didn't have the name of the solicitor overseeing our transaction.

I don't tend to leave negative reviews on here but I cannot recommend Blanchards Bailey and feel I should warn other potential customers about our experience.

Con artists. Said they could help with an employment tribunal, invoiced for thousands then declared they didn’t have the expertise. Paul Dunlop is liar and a fraud.

Mike Herbert is appalling as a solicitor. He did not advise us properly on a purchase of a freehold and this subsequently led to huge problems with the other freeholder and increased costs which could have been avoided if he had instructed us properly