Back in July 2024 I was selling my late mother’s bungalow and was recommended Leadenhall by the estate agents.
Big mistake!
I was assigned Michael McNally as my conveyancing solicitor for the sale.
Everything went well for the first few weeks while his assistant Bronwyne was handling the communications but after she left everything went downhill from there.
The property is a retirement bungalow with a leasehold so you have to purchase a management pack for the buyer.
I paid for the platinum pack which has a two day turn around but after a few weeks of chasing Michael for an update all I heard from him was an email saying that he was chasing but had not heard anything from the management company and asked “ME” to chase.
“I” picked up the phone and called the management company and was told that they hadn’t received the payment for the pack so this was the reason that Michael had not received it.
Between “emails” with Michael and “calls” with the management company the reason for this was that Michael had sent the wrong reference with the payment.
It was at this point, September 2024, nearly a year ago that the service from Michael became even more abysmal.
The management company kindly refunded the difference between the standard pack and the platinum pack.
As of today, Wednesday 20th August 2025, I am still waiting for confirmation that the refund has been received and applied to the account.
Again “I” chased this with the management company and in November 2024 I confirmed with Micheal that the refund had actually been sent on the day I had chased with the company in the September before and that they had sent Michael an email confirming.
Shortly after this our buyer pulled out because the sale was taking too long. Admittedly, part of this was due to trying to purchase a small patio area to the side of the property, but it was not helped with the lack of communication from Michael during the process.
Over the past 11 months I've sent numerous e-mails asking for confirmation of the refund and at one point had built a chain of five emails over five weeks, I numbered the emails when sending, before getting the usual “I’ll check” email.
In July I decided that I need to try a new approach to sell my mother’s property so I released the estate agents and also sent an email to Micheal to terminate his service as well.
After three emails requesting confirmation of my request and confirmation of the account status I was left no choice but going to Leadenhall’s office to chase face to face.
I was met in reception by someone I think may be Michael, the person never introduced themself, and said that they would look at the details and confirm by the end of the day, 8th August. I did receive an email from Michael confirming receipt of the termination request and that he would speak to the accounts team on the Monday, 11th August.
After not hearing anything from Micheal by the 12th I messaged Michael to chase and got an out of office reply with a contact name for Daniela Gonzalez who I am assuming is Michael’s assistant.
As Micheal was out of the office I followed this up with Daniela but as of today, Wednesday 20th August, I have not even received any confirmation that Michael and/or Daniela have read the emails and are looking into this.
The only decent service I have received from Leadenhall in the past 11 months was from Bronwyne Faye Nicol who left the company after a few weeks the sale. I wonder why!
If this is dealt with soon to my satisfaction I don’t have any choice but to raise a complaint with the Legal Ombudsman service.
Absolutely abysmal service.