Gilson Gray LLP Edinburgh reviews

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Why not add stress to your home purchase?

Our buyer was unfortunate to Cristina Resende from Gilson Gray as their conveyancer. I have dealt with a few solicitors before but this experience was nothing short of a nightmare. Our solicitor has had to continuously chase her for information and updates. We had a chain of 6 ready to exchange contracts and on the agreed day, Cristina was asking about asbestos... The result: the chain lost confidence and broke. Luckily we didn't miss out on the house we wanted to buy, just....My advice is to run as fast as you can from Gilson Gray and save yourself and the people in your chain a lot of trouble and sleepless nights.

Telmo · 15 March 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

watchdog at bbc.co.uk my next step

Communication has been atrocious - Same old story as all the other reviews (I’m reserving my energy to tell my story as it’s sounding like groundhog day looking at all the other reviews)we were all set to move today 5th dec. we didn’t thanks to G&G - Waiting to hear if our buyers are pulling out. Currently sat on boxes upon boxes so close to xmas, lost out on removal deposits, days taken off work, •internet is now off and my husband works from home running a software company •i’ve now lost 4 days worth of income from clients because i’ve had to cancel my classes•We are helping our onward chain cover her removal cost as she’s lost deposits - as have we (We can’t afford to but will take the hit elsewhere) but we need to move literally now

Emily · 11 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

absolute waste of time

I am really not sure how I can be constructive with this company as they dont listen.Having been very dissatisfied at the length of time it took to sell a property I owned with no chain[7 months]I contacted there complaints dept 3 weeks ago and surprise surprise I have not had a reply as yet.I can only assume there complaints dept is very very busy.The only response you ever get is generic,when you contact the complaints dept they never respond

Tony · 10 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Does anyone even work there?

I can only repeat what has already been said on here. Zero communication - our case officer might as well not exist. Chased her via email and phone calls for weeks. She never answers the phone. Apparently they've had our contract since October but we only know that because we've spoken with the seller. We are now closing our file with them and going elsewhere. I'd rather take the hit and lose some money than deal with this company a second longer.

Daniel · 6 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Absolutely shocking service

Absolutely shocking service, third time lucky we eventually completed Friday after our estate agent running around Friday morning, to solve an issue that should have been picked up the middle of last week. Lost one purchase due to the delays, has taken weeks to action things when you eventually get through you are told that our solicitor had it days ago and has sat on her hands. Honestly avoid I wish we had not gone with a recommendation from our mortgage broker.

Suzanne · 5 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I actually can’t believe there’s a…

I actually can’t believe there’s a company as inept as this. Because of this “law firm” I’ve already lost out on £150 for a removal van because they didn’t order the funds in time, I found this out two hours before I picked it up.Now I’m sitting in a house filled with boxes waiting to exchange today December 4th (which I highly doubt) if it doesn’t complete I’ve very tempted to pullout of the entire thing.Please don’t waste your time and money on these absolute mouth breathers. (That’s me trying to be polite) if it doesn’t happen this week I’ll be visiting the office in person.We will see.

Fionn · 4 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I wish I could give them 0 stars

I wish I could give them 0 stars, over 60% 1 star reviews sounds about right! Our sellers have Gilson Grey as their solicitors and the incompetence is unbelievable I don’t know how the law society haven’t closed them down and I would recommend all 1 star reviews reporting them. They do not communicate for weeks and have delayed our completion considerably despite all parties agreeing to a completion date at great personal cost to us. I can’t believe they are allowed to keep operating. When you charge for a service you can’t deliver it’s fraud and clearly by the number of negative reviews this firm can’t deliver the service they claim to offer.

Alex · 2 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Google

Avoid at all costs. Terrible Comms (virtually non existent) and requires more effort for you to chase every day and still not get any responses. Took a while for the purchase to go through and got asked to review their services - so here it is. Also paid for a service which I never even got the documentation for (indemnity policy documentation) - still chasing to this day 1 month after completion and I've had 0 responses. Use this solicitor firm at your own risk.

Hanspeter · 2 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

1 star is generous for this company

1 star is generous for this company. They are absolutely awful from start to finish. The sellers we were buying from used this solicitor based on a recommendation from the estate agent and they made the process of purchasing our first house stressful and unenjoyable., Where to begin, they have ZERO communication skills, unprofessional and incompetent. It took them around 6-7 weeks to respond to enquiries sent from our solicitor and 80% of them were not responded properly/wrong. Not only that but our solicitor had to create the contractor for them because they were not competent enough to do it themselves. Imagine calling yourself a solicitor and not being able to write your own contracts! I doubt this review will even get escalated judging by the generic replies to everything on this Trust Pilot page. We will be putting in a formal complaint and making sure the people involved are named and shamed.

Oliver · 30 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Always read trustpilot first!

I accepted an offer on my house on 9th April. My buyers solicitor was Gilson Gray. My solicitor sent my contract to them on 29 April. My Buyer had a cash buyer so it should have been simple. I moved out for the July 10th completion date but heard nothing. Gilson Gray were not responding to emails from my solicitor or estate agent so we had no idea what was going on. After 9 months of waiting for issues to be resolved my buyers buyer finally pulled out on 19th November. There have been 108 negative reviews for GG on here since our planned completion date of 10th July. If I am lucky enough to find another buyer I will check their solicitor on trustpilot before I accept the offer!

Ama · 26 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Right from day 1 the service was…

Right from day 1 the service was unprofessional, we had an initial case handler called Francesca who then left then numerous other people were sending emails requesting information we tried ringing them and they never answered and the one time someone called me they was working from home with kids in the background and must have been cooking tea and it sounded like she had been drinking as she was slurring her words We had a total of 8 different people working on our house move including a few snowflakes who couldn't take feedback or comments without crying to their managersomeone working from home told me she knows her number that was given to us doesnt work and would not provide us another way of contacting her as she never answered any emails This company is a sham and airing on being fraudulent and could come under failure of the trades description actThe whole company is a joke stay away at all costs

Vince · 23 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Dreadful company - avoid at all costs

Would give zero stars if possible. As others have said they don’t answer emails, phone calls and no call back if you request one. Have been asking for an amended contract for my purchase for 10 WEEKS and confirmation they have some documents I sent them and still have not received an answer. I have made an official complaint and was assured it would be looked into and someone would call to ‘reassure me’. Nothing. No communication at all. Service not improved and I’m very concerned that I will lose my purchase property. Sending emails practically every day now and still no answers. Given up phoning. Causing untold stress - not sleeping and worrying all the time. If they are so busy they don’t have time to communicate or do the work they should not take it on. So much for their statement ‘our clients are at the heart of everything we do’.Avoid these people at all costs!!!!!! Don’t know how they are allowed to practice. I know they won’t, but it would be good if someone would actually call ME to discuss this as I have contacted their ‘named’ conveyancing/complaint managers with no joy apart from ‘we’ll investigate’. Avoid this firm at all costs. I will be taking this to the ombudsman if it is not resolved satisfactorily and the service improves.

Linda · 22 November 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Very helpful and knowledgeable dealt…

Very helpful and knowledgeable dealt with problems quickly and without fuss.

Mike · 5 September 2026

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Exceptional …

Excellent experience and efficient service from start to finish. Was a seamless process and the customer service from Tracey was exceptional. Can’t recommend enough for buying and selling your property.

Sinead · 17 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid! Countless issues.

If I could give 0 stars I would. The way this firm operates is absolutely disgusting, they have no consideration for the impact their actions, or lack of, affect peoples lives. We recent sold a property and our buyer used the Gilson Gray Lincoln branch, from the start there were issues, queries being raised one at a time and at the last minute, weeks of silence only to raise another query when we asked for an exchange date. The last 2 weeks before we finally moved were absolute hell. We were supposed to exchange on the 1st November and complete the following Friday. Every day our solicitor and estate agent were told lies, mislead, completely ignored or delayed by Aisha who was the person working on this case. First she told us she was waiting for the buyers final authorisation to exchange, but the buyer was calling the estate agent complaining that she hadn’t received anything from Aisha, couldn’t reach her on the phone and wasn’t getting a call back or email response. We had our estate agent chasing the lender to confirm funds could be released in time to complete only to find out Aisha hadn’t requested the funds 3 days before as she claimed. She then said she will request it while on the phone to the broker, it was not requested until nearly 5pm which was then too late for us to get confirmation and exchange. When the money was finally authorised she raised another query regarding our property and declared it to the lender, the document she wanted was for shared ownership properties, which ours wasn’t. After our own solicitor went back and forth with her for an entire day and finally typed out the email for her to send to the lender, they accepted. Only for Aisha to declare that she had asked for the wrong document and she needed something else in order to exchange, the document should have been requested months before! This happened at 5pm the day before we were due to complete….We scrambled to get her the document the next day only for her to say that she had sent the funds back to lender and would need to wait to request them again. After chasing all week we find out the funds weren’t sent back until Monday even though she said she did it Friday. The money wasn’t requested until very late on Wednesday, they only managed to exchange at about 4:30 on Thursday when we were due to complete on the Friday. Even on the day of completion Aisha caused issues, she did not send the funds from our sale to our solicitor until after 2pm! This then delayed our onward purchase, they were the first in the chain so there was no reason for the delay and this meant we were sat outside our new home without keys and our possessions loaded in a van until 4:30pm! If you are selling or buying a property and somewhere in the chain someone uses Gilson Gray I would run a mile. Believe me it’s not worth the stress.

J · 17 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Indescribably awful - like the worst sort of soap opera

With no chain, a buyer with a sound mortgage offer, a very good survey and no controversial issues of any description, you’d think selling our property would be a breeze. The agent we used really wasn’t very good. But in comparison with the service offered by Gilson Grey he was an absolute miracle of efficiency. GG was on the panel of solicitors put forward to our buyer by the agent. Not sure what the qualifications are to be on this panel, but competence, efficiency and good service are clearly optional (and not available at any time in this case).I imagine our poor buyer, inexperienced, first time and working abroad, must be regretting that she selected them; we certainly are. GG failed to answer or return calls or reply to emails, sent paperwork to the buyer’s UK address knowing she was working abroad, and laughably failed to provide bank details to the buyer so she could make her deposit. When she did get the bank details so she could make the deposit she paid extra to get it to them on the same working day. And guess what. They failed to acknowledge safe receipt for THREE further working days. Even our fairly phlegmatic solicitors were climbing the walls by this point.But there’s more! GG failed to do any money laundering checks until late in the day & then the person ostensibly handling the case went on holiday at the last minute without telling anyone or arranging cover. They were reliably awful to the last and when we eventually completed it was hours later than expected. Quite extraordinary behaviour and horribly stressful. The way we feel at the moment is that if we were ever involved in a house sale or purchase again and found the other side had instructed GG we would ask them to change solicitors or would have to walk away from the deal.

Kate · 8 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Go somewhere else!

Awfull doing business with this company. Almost lost my house due to no comunication with myself or the seller.. Maybe 2 or 3 ( can't remember as my 28 days they quoted turned into 4 months).. people dealt with my purchase, I had to extend my tenancy 3 times, there were numerous repeated checks, the cost did not match the fixed agreement made with Optimus, the only response to emails i had were for payments and to top it all.. I had to go back to the mortgage advisor to help me complete and I was eventually advised I could go get my keys before the seller had released them!. If I could rate no stars I would still want less than that!. Avoid this company is my advise!

Ruts · 6 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

The worst conveyancers in the world

Gilson Gray are handling the bottom of the chain I'm in. My girlfriend and I are moving in together, and she is selling her shared ownership flat. In the time we have been waiting - since end of August - for Gilson Gray to do the conveyancing. We have seen - enquiries which are easily answered by simply reading the lease, no communication back to our solicitor, and then no communication *at all* regarding the exchange or completion dates. This was originally slated to be completed by 25th October, since both our purchase offer and buyer's lease expired on the 31st. Had to be put back (by everyone else) since GG simply didn't reply to communications. Last we heard, talking with the buyer, this was meant to be done on Monday just gone. It came and went, nothing. Tuesday, nothing, and now... nothing. We've escalated up in Gilson Gray and I understand talking to us is hard as we are not the client. However, all we've asked is that they actually DO something and feed back through the right channels. And... no change. AVOID. AT. ALL. COSTS.

Tom · 6 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Very slow to action a house purchase

A simple house purchase with no chain took 18 weeks to complete and I had to push every step of the way to keep things moving forwards. Despite being upfront from the beginning that we wanted to move as quickly as possible, there were constant delays for seemingly no reason. I got the impression that the team working on our case had very little time for us.Communication was extremely poor and frustrating throughout. I would reply almost immediately to any emails sent from Gilson Gray but then it would take weeks to get the next response from them. Meanwhile I am trying to call and speak with the team working on our case and being constantly sent straight to answerphone which subsequently started reporting "inbox full". Overall this company was a nightmare to work with and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'm sure individual team members are good people and work hard, but the service provided overall is appalling. I am just so glad to be done with working with them.

Miss · 6 November 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Professional and Reliable Service

I found their services to be professional and reliable. Throughout my interactions with the team, they demonstrated a strong commitment to delivering high-quality results and were attentive to my needs. While there were times when it was a bit difficult to reach them via phone, the team always made sure to follow up promptly and kept me updated on any developments. Despite these minor communication challenges, Gilson Gray delivered on their promises and met my expectations with diligence and expertise. Their attention to detail and dedication to client satisfaction were evident in every interaction. I appreciate their hard work and commitment to excellence, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them for their professionalism and reliability.

Mayowa · 4 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid!!

These guys are a terrible company to hire for conveyancing. We have been trying for seven months to sell our flat to my brother with no chain, it’s impossible to speak to anyone, receive a response. The emails that I have sent are always answered with a generic reply,we will get back to you within 48 hours, but they don’t!! I have called the office three times a week, sent emails and still nothing!They lost paperwork twice. Avoid at all costs!! I have instructed new solicitors locally to do the job!

EVANSON-SMITH · 4 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Keep removing my reviews and il keep coming back!

Just had my review from my horrendous experience in November 2025 removed again for the second time! Apparently because I named employees, however, read through the positive reviews that name employees and low and behold they are allowed! Any excuse to remove a poor review from a very badly operated firm. Lincoln branch. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!

Dawn · 24 May 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid, you have been warned.

31st October updateWell still in limbo with this lot. Just had a phone call from the estate agent, have I had anything back. Ha ha ha ha oops hysterical laughter,could be contagious. Have I had any feedback? I'm just the one that employed them to do the sales and purchase, why should I have feedback? Please do not think about using them, do your research on reviews first. I know there is variability on reviews but seriously think very hard before engaging this shower 9th October update.Many many phone messages and emails later. No real advance, no concern for customers despite the reply posted here. No one has had the curtesy to call me and get to the root cause of the problem. I have zero belief in the platitudes expressed. I again warn you. DO NOT USE !As many have said, what a dreadful organisation. I have complained and gone up the tree to the conveyancing partner all of which is a waste of time.Left messages for call backs, sent emails all to no avail. No response from the conveyancing partner either. That about sums them up. Zero customer care I would give zero on this review if I could.

Peter · 31 October 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Zero stars if possible

I was recommended this company by L&C. L&C services were absolutely amazing so I trusted them. But Gilson & Gray is a massive disappointment to say the least.My contact was D.V. Not Sure I can mention names. She is new there. But I doubt she is different than any of them because I did get to speak with her manager and she assured me things will improve. And they didn’t. I am not in the middle of a purchase and I have loads of questions. They do not answer emails or phone calls. It’s already the 4th week when i am trying to get a hold of them.Do not use this firm if you have a choice.

Oana · 31 October 2024