Watson Woodhouse Solicitors Anmeldelser 

I have used Mr Richard Rutter on a couple of house sales over the last few years and he has provided excellent service and guidance. I will continue to use Watson Woodhouse in future and have found them to be very informative, helpful and professional. Highly recommended.

The Stockton team involved in our sale provided and excellent professional service.
The sale was conducted efficiently and we were kept fully updated with the progress being made, all the required documents were sent and processed quickly.
Every member of the team we spoke to were very polite, knowledgeable and helpful. We would recommend the conveyancing team at Watson Woodhouse Solicitors without hesitation

Richard Rutter and Gail Smith have been excellent throughout. Watson Woodhouse are the solicitors I would recommend for any conveyancing work.

We have recently completed our 3rd house completion with Watson Woodhouse Geoff, Katie, Lorna and the team went above and beyond our expectations. We can't recommend them enough and we wouldn't use another solicitor from now on. Thank you

I’ve never dealt with a ruder bunch of people in my life at both Middlesbrough and Stockton branch, I’m currently in the middle of a house move and I’ve spoken to my solicitor twice this full time who when I did speak to her was actually very helpful and thorough but whenever I ask to speak to her I get told she is too busy etc. Asking for an update is like you’ve just punched them in the face the way you get spoken too so blunt, rude and abrupt and everything is like a chore for them to do when it is simply there job!! When I asked if a search was back I got told ‘dunno but you’ll know about it if it is cos we will email you’ so unprofessional for what would of taken two minutes to check our file to see if the search was back. I’ve not ever had a phone call or email from them first it has been me chasing them from day one which you should not have to do with the amount of money they’re getting paid to deal with your house move for you. Would not recommend unless you want to be spoken to like a piece of muck and do there job for them. Useless!

Thank you all , I was in some trouble in and few ways and you came to the rescue.
My hero's, I am so grateful.

Paul was very helpful and kept me updated through claim. Would definitely recommmed and use again 👍

Good morning I found the staff very nice and friendly to me and helpful thank you for all the work you done for me David caul

Amazing work from paul Henderson who dealt with my case.

Claire did an excellent job for me .process was kept simple and a good outcome.

Id of given NO STARS. Absolute abysmal company. The rudest receptionist who practically shouts at you down the phone and is very rude, when all you want to know is why they are not following up on my move. Sheer rudeness at its best. Unprofessional and unless you want to wait five months to complete on a property move I'd avoid them like the plague. Total shambles..refused to print off pages of a document sent to them.(which was needed by them to complete my daughters house purchase) .wanted the other party to print and send in the post. Laziness and unprofessionalism at its utter best. AVOID AVOID if you want to complete a purchase within 5 months.Utter disgrace. Land searches only take up to 2 weeks at the moment as I've enquired with several other solicitors. No excuses ..... -((((

We are in the process of buying a house and Watson Woodhouse are acting for the sellers. They have consistently failed to deal promptly with queries. In particular they took 7 weeks before dealing with an issue that is critical to the house purchase. As a direct result of this we are now in rented accomodation having sold our previous house and incurring storage and additional removal costs. Although they are not acting for us we are suffering from their apparent incompetence. We do not recommend this company.

Our recent house sale was during Covid lockdown. Watson Woodhouse conveyancing team were supportive and efficient, giving reliable advice when we needed it.
Highly recommended.

Professional, helpful and friendly from start.

Took the time to explain every detail I needed to know.

Realy appreciate everything they did to help me thought one of the hardest times in my life.

He always asked me how my problem was, every time we spoke on the phone, which I truly appreciated.

Highly recommend

Good service in dealing with personal injury claim.

Both Paul Henderson and Chris Thame have been professional and have succeeded in my favour regarding every issue they have undertaken for me. 5 stars are not enough for these guys...

I used Watson Woodhouse last year to purchase a property. A simple transaction I assumed, as I had no property to sell and there was chain in the property I intended to purchase. Due to work move, I needed to complete as soon as possible.

Initial contact was OK, I received the forms, filled them out and physically dropped them off at their Darlington office. Darlington were very helpful, I got them to check all the forms were correct, so there would be no delays due to errors or missing information.

I was told that the land registry search would take 2 to 3 weeks, which I believe is standard for this process. 3 weeks later, I call the Middlesbrough office for an update, to which I informed by the receptionist (in a quite dismissive / almost rude way) that the land registry search would take 2 to 3 weeks. I acknowledge that I was aware of that and I had submitted the forms 3 weeks prior and wanted an update due to my circumstances. I was informed at that point that the search had not been submitted yet. By the time the searches were submitted and returned 2 months had almost passed.

I was repeatedly asked the same questions, and each time I had contact with them, it was like my first. Very frustrating. Time then appeared to standstill, with little in the way of progress, but without any real explanation.

Months passed, and I was now in a position where my work commitments and deadlines were approaching fast. I again contacted their Middlesbrough office, yet again went through the same information, and gave them the hard deadline that I was now working to.

I finally attended the Middlesbrough office to sign all the documentation, I sat in reception across from the receptionist. What I heard, in that 10 minutes or so while I waited was beyond belief. I sat and listened to the disrespect conveyed from the receptionist about clients to other members of staff / the solicitors themselves. I heard the the very same questions and requests I had asked, being asked by clients on the phone, to then have the receptionist belittle them in the open forum (reception area) of the reception area to someone else on the phone. As I sat there, I could only think that, that is how my calls were received and conveyed.

With more, toing and froing, I finally get to the completion week. Still many ifs and buts. I was told that it took “x” number of days for the mortgage to be released, to which I asked why has it not been applied for already? - no real reply. I asked a few random questions, like, “I assume you would like the deposit etc. in your account before completion. How and when do you want that?” They sent me out the invoice which I paid. I then realised they had not included the Stamp Duty. I rang them, having to explain again it was a second property etc. and paid it. I then get a call from them saying they have overlooked another charge which would need paying prior to completion, wish again I paid. All the while the clock is ticking and I am now down to literally hours from my absolute deadline.

With everything in place and I wait. I was contacted by the estate agent, who had been contacted by the other party’s solicitor asking what was going on, to which I had no answers.

After completion, I had to spend time chasing up the cashback as part of the mortgage deal. Once again, it came back to the poor administration and attention to detail at Watson Woodhouse. This was eventually rectified.

Finally, I had the property, I was moved in and put it all down to a bad experience. I then received an email saying that the some of documentation was wrong and would need to be redone. At this point, I was working away, so there was a delay in my returning the completed forms. I was chased up a couple of times on when I would get the forms completed as it was very important. The irony!!!

I fully understand there was a pandemic going on, and we had just had the first lockdown lifted, compared to the service and attention to details other people received going through the same process around the same time with different companies, you need to avoid Watson Woodhouse.

Watson Woodhouse have handled both a property matter and criminal matter for me; they are 'form fillers' not lawyers so to speak, i.e. they can't really formulate intelligent arguments or fully comprehend what has been presented to them, they merely take the statistical easy way. I would recommend avoiding this firm unless it is only for administrative matters.

Edit: the company has responded below, though are avoiding calls and emails prior to responding. The SRA is not an indication of quality but of a threshold (you'll never see this firm in the legal 500). The unprofessionalism of responding to a public forum but not communicating directly with a client and avoiding their calls speaks for itself - I downgraded the rating of this review from 2 stars to one for that reason only.

Edit 2: Several weeks on and the firm is still hiding (has not responded to emails or calls).