Surrey Family & Mediation Services - Epsom

Tim Howett

In the words of my son when you ask him to describe some things, he regularly says “not the best”. This sums it up for me.

For an organisation that is based around communication, they are frankly terrible communicators unless it is with regards to collecting money. If you are happy to chase to prompt a response, get frustrated and be let down on expectations they themselves set, then this is the company for you. If you’re not happy with this, shop around!!

Giuliano Bertello

Monica is the worst mediator you could ever have. whenever a sticking point came up she did nothing to mediate but all she ever said was "you need to seek indipendente legal advise"
Which is what I ended up doing, switched to solicitors to proceed with my divorce. Monica also never sent us any co-parenting plan to compile, I had to Google that and find one myself.
Absolutely avoid this company for mediation services!

stylishnene 01

This is a beautiful, well-organised organisation. So efficient. In 2 weeks, they got me a mediator, arranged the legal aid, the manager -Tamsin was emailing constantly (so efficient).
I was surprised with the service. So fast.

The admin is polite in their emails.

However, the mediator Jenny was so biased/more concerned about timing . Forcing decisions i didnt want. If I disagreed with things, she will say, well you have to do it. If the man refused, she would keep quiet.she did not even documenting that my disagreement.
However I would recommed the organisation but avoid that mediator.

Sarah Bartlett

I felt that the mediator we were assigned made this a positive experience. I was fearful of having to be in the same room as my ex husband in this capacity, but once we got started I felt safe, and free to speak openly and honestly about our situation.
The mediator was very helpful and understanding, and had excellent knowledge of our legal system.
Despite obvious animosity between myself and my ex, our mediator was able to maintain a calm environment and encouraged us to have civilised discussions about our issues.
I would highly recommend this service.

Rebecca S-T

My experience with Mediation Surrey was a nightmare. The mediators were unprofessional, incompetent, and rude. If we had not insisted on ending the process, we would have been completely bulldozed by the mediators and the other party.

For context, I agreed to go to mediation as a neighbour was harassing me about trees I don’t even have. He had felled his own 15ft+ trees which I was completely fine with. Despite saying this to him on numerous occasions, he sent threatening letters and trespassed on my property. The harassment only stopped after 2 months when I contacted the police. He promised to sue me for non-existent bamboo/leylandii and said I would be blamed for his wife’s possible miscarriage. After going to the police, they agreed that he probably had mental health issues and recommended Surrey Mediation.

In hindsight, it was evident that the mediators had no idea what they were doing:
-No aims/objectives were set at the beginning.
-One mediator (Jenny) was extremely biased from the start. During the first session when we asked her to let the other party know that we genuinely wanted to reach a friendly resolution, she said the first meeting was only to gather information, not to share comments. However, after her first session with the other party, she insisted on reading a personal statement they had prepared without interruption. This included hugely misrepresentative statements about events to date and personal comments about our family.
-The mediators refused to look at any evidence. We sent photos to show that we had no trees, and included the aggressive letters the neighbour had sent. Jenny said they wouldn't read or look at them as the other party had not mentioned writing any letters.
-The mediators allowed the neighbour to change the process and rules. When we said we were apprehensive about a face to face video call, Jenny said we had to do it otherwise there was nothing they could do to help us. When we asked about shuttle mediation, she said it wasn't a viable option. However, she did let the other party initiate shuttlie mediation without notifying us and allowed them to cancel group calls at the last minute with no explanation.
-There was no duty of care from the mediators. They had several calls with the neighbour but left us in the dark for weeks. When I emailed them to say I was concerned about the threats in the neighbour's letter (ASBOs / potential miscarriage), I had to chase for an update 2 weeks later. Jenny said this was completely fine and the threats were not their concern.
-When I finally insisted on an emergency call to end this process because it has become so stressful, Jenny blamed me for making the process difficult by being afraid of joining the initial group call. She ignored me when I reminded her that the other party had cancelled it last minute, told me to stop interrupting her, and said she had set up this session to start shuttle mediation like I had wanted. I didn't even know that they had started shuttle mediation because we were given no notification...
-The mediators lied to my neighbour about the assurances I agreed upon. They said that I agreed to keep my trees to 6ft - this was not true, I did not even have any trees!

I ended up submitting a formal complaint to Surrey Mediation. They acknowledged in a letter that the mediators “contributed to our distress” because their “policy and procedures had not been clearly set out”. Despite this acknowledgement, they concluded that “both mediators did not act inappropriately”!

I would not recommend Surrey Mediation to anyone. It was a complete waste of time which made the conflict with my neighbour worse. They took advantage of someone who was going through a mental health crisis so they could close our case as soon as possible. I feel hugely betrayed by the council services which are designed to support and protect us.

Samina Williamson

I've been using this service on and off for 2 years and have found the staff and mediators nothing but helpful and friendly. Would 100% recommend this service.

James Anderson

The service is good. But prohibitively expensive.

Chris Riley