Review left by JamesB

Sale of a leasehold flat with Help to Buy redemption, completed May 2026. Sophie Kaler led the matter with Rebecca Welford handling much of the day-to-day. Both were courteous and professional throughout a long transaction: 27 months on the file, including a long pause while we found a new onward purchase after our first fell through. Rebecca in particular deserves credit. In March 2026, when we were going back and forth with the buyer over a hallway flooring allowance and a service charge retention, she handled the negotiations with real agility, often same-day, and kept multiple moving parts (allowance, retention, deed of covenant, updated statements of account) progressing in parallel. In the closing weeks she was just as quick with a run of urgent disclosures I had to make. Each was turned around the same day, and that responsiveness mattered a lot when timelines were tight. Sophie was also involved in some of these disclosures, and responded same-day; in one case responding on the morning of completion day itself, which was necessary in order to complete. She was also very fair on costs. When our first purchase fell through in early 2025, as we kept on the same buyer, she was accommodating in placing the file on hold, not pressing for payment while we searched again, which I appreciated. She also gave correct advice on a licence-to-occupy question (it needed whole-chain agreement, which the chain didn't support) and didn't charge for it when it didn't progress. I did note that the final completion statement was billed for a higher value than my original 2024 quote, with no prior notice of variation. This may have been as I was originally quoted by another company which Foster Harrington took over, but regardless, I needed to spot and query it, and they duly revised the number. Mid-transaction there were also a few queries that went astray, like a licence-to-occupy query (Oct 2025) which took around ten weeks for a substantive answer from a senior colleague, despite my chasing. Overall a workmanlike job that got us safely to completion, with Rebecca's late-stage responsiveness and Sophie's support in the final days and on the abortive bill being the standouts. Four stars rather than five because of the billing discrepancy and slower mid-stretch communication.