26 reviews (3/5) and information for Swift Lawyers Limited, Bolton

19/12/25 - Reviewed by Feroz Talukder

Swift Lawyers - Avoid at all costs !!

In November 2024 I paid Swift Lawyers £459.42 which they told me was required by Stonewater Housing Association In respect of maintenance of the common areas £359.42 and £100.00 transfer of ownership fee.

Stonewater has never received this money and I have spent the last 13 months asking Swift Lawyers to provide proof of this payment to Stonewater.
As we approach month number 14 they have still not provided this information.

In addition, Stonewater has indicated that the maintenance charge would be approximately £178.00 pounds and my numerous requests to Swift Lawyers for verification of how they arrived at the sum of £359.42 have also remained unanswered.

In May 2025 Swift Lawyers were fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority due to a breach of the following rule;
Swift Lawyers Limited will pay a financial penalty in the sum of £12,759, under Rule 3.1 (b) of the SRA Regulatory and Disciplinary Procedures Rules,
This resulted in a referral to our AML Investigations Team, where breaches of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 (MLRs 2007) were also identified.
Between 6 October 2011 and 25 June 2017, the firm failed to establish and maintain appropriate and risk-sensitive policies and procedures (P&Ps), pursuant to Regulation 20(1) of the MLRs 2007
Broadly speaking Swift Lawyers failed to keep accurate records regarding the financial transactions carried out at the firm.
This is the link to the Solicitors Regulation Authority where you can read a full account of the breaches and the penalties imposed : https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicitor-check/563659/
I am submitting this review to warn existing and potential clients that based on my experience they may need to be extra vigilant when being asked by Swift Lawyers to make payments and check that the payment being requested is accurate and more importantly that it reaches the correct recipient.”

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06/11/24 - Reviewed by Joe

DO NOT USE SWIFT LAWYERS. I don't know where to begin. How do I find the words to describe how inept, unprofessional, incompetent and borderline illegally negligent Swift Lawyers truly are? Every moment of the over 9 months it took us to complete a totally chain-free, absolutely bog-standard flat sale was excruciating agony... It is nothing short of a miracle (performed by our fantastic solicitors - The Partnership) that it was ever completed at all. Our buyer foolishly chose Swift Lawyers based on making a saving of a few hundred pounds. In hindsight, I would have very happily gifted him several thousands to not go through the nightmare. The first 3 months were almost totally contact-free for all of us. At this stage we started to wonder what was going on. The Swift 'solicitor' our buyer was assigned was impossible to reach on the phone or by e-mail. But this must be normal, we kept saying to ourselves. We began to try to contact Swift to find out what was going on. They took so long with our buyer, that he had to repeatedly submit his details as they had fallen outside of the window of relevancy. They began asking for the same details, over and over and over again... Our only contact after this stage was a monthly, illegible, and previously answered enquiry, in broken English. You won't find a more patient and understanding person when it comes to non-native speakers. I challenge anyone reading this to understand the laughable, Google Translate gibberish that was sent to our solicitor. From a professional firm? Embarrassing. Fast-forward to 6 months and by this stage both parties are truly pulling their hair out. Swift somehow kept the process alive through gaslighting our buyer. To what end, we'll never know. I can only assume it was to buy themselves more time as their unscrupulous owner takes on more than any of them have the ability to complete. At the very final stage, 9 months later, we felt terrible about it, but were left with no choice than to make good on the empty threats we had made to take the sale away from our buyer. It is ONLY THEN that the thing was completed. Remember, this was a straight-forward, chain-free sale of a small flat. I'm going to end here but I don't know how else to put this other than by begging you not to choose Swift Lawyers. Go with The Partnership, they were faultless at every turn. We will never get back the 9 months we spent with the sword of Damocles hanging over us at the behest of this 'firm'. The 5 star reviews must be fake. DO NOT USE THIS FIRM.

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25/11/22 - Reviewed by Anonymous

Please avoid at all costs!
I made the horrible mistake of using swift lawyers to sell my home. I instructed them in March, with my solicitor being Sumaya Raja. She stopped emailing me in June and had zero contact with the firm, bearing in mind we were due to complete 5th September! I had already paid a deposit to moved out of the property in late August in preparation to complete. I them chased the firm over and over to be told they have just gave my file to Rishi Bhalla. He done nothing, was extremely slow and unresponsive. I would call several times because he was not replying to the buyer and they wanted to pull out because of the delay. He told me 'if you stopped calling then maybe I'd actually be able to do my job'.

They was never reachable, never responded to emails or calls, and when they actually answered (very very rare), you was disregarded with lies and empty promises and being spoken to like a worthless client.

By this time I had already vacated my property and had to pay for 2 extra valuations as they only valid for 3 months due to the delays. I was extremely stressed, and couldn't afford to pay my mortgage due to paying the extra valuations.

Then Rishi left my case and I was assigned Kayleigh Harrison who took about an hour to reply to enquiries that were sent it in August. Within a week of her taking over the case, we had finally completed. Just 3 months too late!

I sent a complaint to them which they haven't replied to and am currently in the middle of my case with the legal ombudsman.

Please take my advice and avoid! They have cost me 1000s, I became so depressed and stressed during this process. Was not a good experience at all and I wish I read reviews before using them! Super unprofessional!!

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23/09/22 - Reviewed by Anonymous

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!
I wish to God I read the reviews before instructing this firm. Price competitive but utterly shambolic. It’s hard to critique a service which simply isn’t provided but here we go:
I spent hours completing various documents that they requested after which, radio silence. Absolutely nothing. They never replied to emails, I never got an “out-of-office” to explain a delay in communication. When I called the office, the phone would ring and then cut out (if indeed the number extension was even recognised). I nearly lost a sale as a consequence of their complete inaction and incompetency.

I emailed a complaint to the Chief Executive Officer – no response. I then used the “Meet the Team” page on their website to email every single employee in the hope that someone would give a s**t. By this stage, I’m threatening to go via the small claims court to get my money refunded. Again, nothing for ten days. Eventually, my existence is acknowledged and I finally get the refund I wanted. But even then no explanation, no empathy, no apology.

Without question, the worst customer experience I’ve ever had. Save yourself the hassle and don’t bother. They couldn’t care less.

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16/02/22 - Reviewed by Gordon

Finally some good news 2nd time lucky, Swift Lawyers persevered with us as our first house we where going to purchase the sellers pulled out Swift allowed us around 2 months to find a new house and didn't charge any additional fees. highly recommended.

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