btmk.co.uk

Our experience with BTMK was shambolic to say the least

Our experience with BTMK was lacklustre at best, inefficient and shambolic at worst. As we live in Australia, we forwarded copies of communications with BTMK to several of our friends in UK to check that we weren’t being unduly unfair in our assessments of BTMK. They came back with a resounding ‘NO’ so we feel our assessment is fair and accurate. What makes this experience all the more disappointing is that my parents thought highly of Todmans who had always handled their legal matters and in fact we had been impressed with Simon Jones when he was assisting us before my Mother’s matters were referred by him to BTMK for Deputyship; just before Todmans became a part of BTMK. Examples below of reasons for our above assessment: Despite Saul Caplan being awarded Deputyship of my Mother’s financial affairs, the Nursing Home did not receive any money towards fees for several months and then only as a result of several contacts by us as Essex County Council kept contacting us Despite several requests for mail redirection to be actioned my Mother’s neighbours were still delivering the mail to BTMK for months after Deputyship granted. Email updates only sent after we contacted BTMK – often with weeks even months going by without any contact from them yet in response to my enquiries there was always an update that we could have been informed of sooner.Parents’ home standing vacant for nearly a year with no apparent action towards its sale - despite Saul having Deputyship Not being told by BTMK that once my Mother died that the Deputyship ended and we were entitled to a choice of legal firm. We only found this out when they sent a letter a few months after her death detailing their fees. It was on my query that they admitted that perhaps they should have informed us prior. We received several updates re house issues from my parents’ neighbours (as we asked them to keep an eye on the home as they live opposite) before being advised by BTMK inc: house break in, house damage and house actually being finally up for sale. no explanation as to why there was no action towards property sale between 14th November and the 'break in' 8th December and or why keys to my parents’ home were not in BTMK’s care again until 7th January. Failure to adequately secure the property after the break in, which enabled a cat to access and make mess in the home Having to tell BTMK that the central heating system needed to be drained, as not being used, to prevent cold weather swelling and damaging pipes. It took several contacts by myself on the nursing home’s request and finally the Manager as well for BTMK to provide funds for my Mother’s personal needs in the nursing home. This meant my Mother was poorly dressed (as she lost weight) and she always took pride in her appearance prior plus she would have been mortified to know that the poor hairdresser at the home was setting up a ‘tab’ for her just because her legal firm were incredibly tardy in arranging HER money to pay HER bills. Utilities at my parents’ home not being paid in a timely manner resulting in overdue notices. Again, my parents were never late paying any bills and would have found this behaviour abhorrent. BTMK re-packed items from my parents’ home for shipment to us in Australia. Luckily nothing was broken (despite ornaments moving in a box only 3/4s full) however things were unnecessarily dented and creased as there was no filler packing, no FRAGILE labels and no THIS WAY UP signs on the 4 boxes.Having to wait over 6 weeks for our final ESTATE payment was the grand finale in this shambolic experience. Apparently, the ONLY person employed by BTMK that was able to action this payment was on leave. When this so-called expert returned to work, they transferred our payments in BRITISH POUNDS to our AUSTRALIAN bank accounts which led to the money being returned, resulting in the transfer having to be actioned yet again in AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS days later.* Our experience started in September 2018 and ended in 16th August 2022 when I went to England and whilst there collected my Mother's Death Certificate* please note that all these events were documented via our email communications with Sophie Bacon at BTMKUPDATE 18 FEB 2025Following my Trustpilot review BTMK contacted me to request my permission to conduct a thorough review of my files. I can confirm that following their investigation, each of the points have been acknowledged and addressed and I can confirm that an amicable solution has been agreed

Date of experience: Aug 16, 2022