one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made was using Allan Rutherford solicitors for the sale of my house. They do not return your calls or emails, loose important paper work sent by recorded delivery - the staff are unbelievably rude and defensive. Our purchaser threatened to pull out if we didn't change solicitors (which we have now done) - I have asked for a refund of our £100 they took at the start of our proceedings with them, but I was sent a nasty email telling me I would not get a penny back 'as they are not a charity'. It has been totally stressful and upsetting, I do not know how they are still in business. DO NOT USE. read more

I would give 0 stars if I could. Please avoid this firm at all costs. I had a simple transfer of equity to complete (no money was even being exchanged) yet it has taken 8 months so far and it's still not finished. On 4 occasions I have been unable to get hold of them for over two weeks despite numerous calls and emails. The longest "communication blackout" being over a month! One two of these occasions I have only managed to get a response when I threatened to report them to the legal ombudsman. Absolutely shocking. Please don't just use them as they are cheap as the stress they will cause you is unreal. read more

absolutely terrible in every single way! AVOID this utterly discriminate horrible organisation with everything you have. Not only do they only seemingly use pencil pushing trainee solicitors who constantly make huge mistakes on your case but they wont talk to you, they dont send paper work when they say they do and they are utterly rude at every single chance they get. The job worth receptionist even told me to get off the phone as she had other calls to make! nice. They dont even follow complaint policies, they are just a disgrace. Although I should say they have been successful in delaying my case by apx 8 months - so well done for that I guess 0/10 ! read more

By far the worst Solicitor I have the misfortune to deal with. They never return my calls, have done nothing but delay and to make things worse they dont even know how to deal with a exchange on a property (not knowing you need the mortgage money in place before exchange). I would never use them or recommend them to anybody. Do not touch them with a barge pole read more

If there was zero stars that's what I would rate this solicitor. Do they even know how to conveyance property? Who knows? All I know is that we (unwisely) engaged this firm back in May 2014 to sell and buy a property and now, 3 1/2 months later we have no idea what is going on. They don't return calls or emails, even complaint emails sent to the director. It took me 12 tries today to reach a person, other than 'mailbox full' on ALL of the extensions. I was so desperate I tried to speak to ANYONE in the building. A joke is that the phones were 'upgraded' last week - now you can't even speak to the operator to leave a message. The Director, Ian McNally has promised two return calls and reneged on both. We are trying to contact these people unsuccessfully on a daily basis, which is causing frustration and is very time consuming. This company is a joke! read more

Worst solicitors ever? Used Allan Rutherford for conveyancing on purchase of flat. Worst mistake ever! They would rarely answer the phone or reply to email messages; provided incorrect legal advice; refused to explain the advice given; did not respond to my complaint about poor service; stopped communicating with myself and vendors solicitors. Finally vendors got fed up and set a deadline; still they refused to communicate with me or vendors and all I ever got was that they would e-mail me. Finally the night before the deadline they sent me the e-mail, which said they did not think they could act for me any more! Shocking service. Avoid at all costs. read more

Unfortunately these have to be the worst solicitors I have encountered in many years of buying property. Although competitively priced, the service was terrible so that a straightforward purchase actually took 4 months to complete! No-one returns calls, either from myself, the estate agent or the vendors solicitors and even basic searches took them weeks when they should have taken days - they obviously didn't follow up anything and left the customer (me) very frustrated. Avoid at all costs read more

warning: they will take your money and then disappear!!! do not use this firm, they will not reply to your emails and telephone calls. worst company ever!!!! read more

DO NOT USE THESE SOLICITORS!!!!!! They are completely incompetent and the staff are VERY rude. You can never actually speak to the person that is supposed to be dealing with your case, all calls are screened through a receptionist that are not in the slightly interested in your problem/concern/worry/query. They are VERY VERY bad service and not worth the stress even if their prices are low. DO NOT DEAL WITH THEM!! read more

Disgusting service. Completely ignore your emails and calls. We're not prepared on completion date and ended up missing the deadline. Now that I want compensation they are ignoring my emails and calls. Unprofessional family business. read more

The most unprofessional firm I have ever dealt with. No replies to telephone calls, no replies to emails. Contracts not sent when they categorically stated that they had. After weeks of trying to get things moving I found it necessary to instruct someone else. I have wasted a month on a very straightforward sale and now have to start from the beginning. read more

Absolutely the worst Conveyancing solicitor I have ever used. Useless. Totally uncommunicative , don't ever respond to emails or answer their phone, it rings for hours and hours and no one answers. At one point I thought they had gone bust. All I was doing was remortgaging not even moving house so it was the simplest job they could have had. Don't be fooled by the low price. They held onto my excess funds for weeks too, in fact I thought I'd been a subject of fraud. I emailed them about this and no response. Claire Parker is downright ignorant.! Avoid at all costs! It also took them months so I lost 4 months out of a 2 year fixed mortgage deal, I had to change product which cost me an extra £100 and there wasn't even an apology. RUBBISH! read more

Do not go near them.They are bunch of rude people,slams the phone on you if you are lucky to even get your call answered,doesn't respond to their emails,We sent original driving licence and residence permit card to them for convenyacing but they lost it.They don't take responsibilities for their actions.I wonder why dey are still on halifax preferred solicitors list for conveyancing.We had to change our solicitor.They are just a waste of space. read more

We did read the reviews and were assured (face to face at the Ipswich Office) that they related to the Norwich Branch and to internal problems that had been resolved. MORE FOOL US. So far (3 months+ in and still no nearer completion for a cash purchase and a seller who requested a 28 exchange). We are going to their offices to tomorrow to try and get our house purchase back on track. We should have realised it wasnt going to well after the sales team (yep a sales team for conveyancing!) messed up our initial instructions and then denied any knowledge of the conversation (which took place face to face and with both my partner and I present). So far we are disgusted with the service, attitude and progress. They seem to have forgotten that they are working for us and not the other way round. Update : We tried to address the issues we were having face to face, we were met with a defensive and hostile solicitor who managed to get our names wrong (The name under which we announced our visit at reception not two minutes earlier), failed to introduce herself, failed to explain why the person we had requested to see (who was the person we had at least had some brief correspondence with) had not come down to talk to us. And then proceeded to discuss our private business in reception !! From there things went further down hill and we intimated that we were seriously considering taking out business elsewhere. Then surprise surprise we recieved a letter saying they could no longer act for us and that WE had been "disinstructed". This seems to be their standard practise if you are not happy with their excuses and lies. Oh well Lesson learned. How any self respecting professional can continue to be associated with this kind of shoddy practice is a mystery. read more

the most inefficent company i have ever dealt with,never reply to phone calls or emails,never anybody available to speak to,actually lost our house purchase,so decided to use another solicitior,"avoid at all costs" read more