Leighton Clark - www.leightonclark.co.uk

We payed Leighton Clarke a lot of money only to find that they handled our rates appeal wrongly and then refused to come back out to redo their work.

Totally unprofessional and now uncontactable

As per the various other reviews, this company are clearly not doing what they say they will. It is a joke and we intend to take it further with the Office Fair Trading. They ignore emails and phone calls. I would suggest that nobody accepts their cold calls and is not hoodwinked by their very convincing sales patter. Like most things that sound too good to be true...............it is simply not true.

You have been warned!!!!

My company was cold called one day by

Leighton Clark offering to challenge our business rates.

I received and email from a lady in Manchester

arranging a meeting with their representative who was in the area next day

After 2 meetings we then paid a cheque for a considerable amount of money.

Having extremely high business rates for this part of London it sounded convincing but then I spent the next 8 months chasing them for any action or update on my case before I myself called the Valuation office and found out the

shocking truth.

I spoke at length with a two staff members on multiple occasions and was told on many occasions that negotiations with the VO office were always still on going.

They even sent a VERY unconvincing ‘surveyor’ after reminding them to do so on numerous occasions.

Then after calling their office again I received this said correspondence DATED 1ST June 2015

"At the moment you file is with our negotiator being checked over to see if there is any angles in the appeal process that may have been over looked, you will have to appreciate that these are the only documents that I have at this moment in time also most of the negotiations are done over the telephone and are not documented.

Please be aware that any correspondence you receive from the VO is meant to be forwarded onto us as per your agreement"

Unfortunately after ringing the VO office myself I found out the Leighton Clark has lodged a appeal in November 2014 but then had simply withdrawn it 5 months later on the 25th of March 2015 without taking any other action whatsoever.

So it seems clear they took the money and did nothing and then lied about the progress after they had already withdrawn the appeal.

So it seems easy money to trick businesses for £500.00 a time

My advice on rate challenges are that reputable companies don’t charge up front fees.

this company took £500 from us with the promise to lower business rates we have not heard in nearly a year and are appalled we are a small company hoping for a saving, and now at a loss.  I wouldn't use any company like this and we intend to repost them to trading standards.

We were approached by this company in 2014 and had a "surveyor" visit us and guaranteed we had a case to challenge the rate valuation we were paying due to the change of use in our building. Paid the one off fee and was then informed our appeal had been rejected.

Contacted the company 6 times over a 12 month period to request a copy of the survey they said they submitted as I was told we had a nailed on case.

No report ever sent to me after been promised it would be in the post on a number of occasions.

ive been waiting since march 2015 and no one has called me and done anything about this - DO NOT USE!!!!

promised the earth by unscrupulous 'salesman', fell for their blatent lies!

Paid upfront fee for nowt! Could have appealed myself for nothing.

VO said my rateable value was correct for my property and had no chance of a reduction

never pay any money upfront for this 'service'.

Approached us after we had moved into new premises. Very plausible, said that our rates assessment had been based on incorrect assessment of our premises, stairs, staff area, etc. A 'surveyor' called around; did some measuring and said that we were definitely paying over the odds and we would definitely get a reduction. Although their success fee would be 25% of rent saved, there was also a one-off fee. Paid them £895 for the appeal. I think they may have lodged a letter with the valuation office, sent a letter to say the appeal was pending but then after about a year they now write to say the valuation was correct after all. Avoid at all costs.