Valerie Holmes Law

Laura Sheriff was very efficient and helpful butat start of sale. the solicitors of buyer needed chasing more readily

Very very professional and diligent, found issues with 2 of our purchases we didn’t see

Some early problems with communication, possibly due to their relocation, but once rectified they were excellent. Could not have asked for more. Quick, effective and pleasant to work with.

Thank you for your work on our house sale and purchase journey at a time which was extra pressurised for everyone concerned due to imminent Stamp Duty increases and personal Circumstances which meant we had to get moved in a timely manner . Stephanie was understanding of our situation and kept the pressure up for us .

A difficult experience compared to 12 others I have had when buying and selling properties over the last 25 years. Communication was poor and not customer/client friendly. The conveyancing took 5 months costing us thousands of pounds extra in interest and service charges on an empty property. I was passed from pillar to post dealing with and hearing from different people. When I raised a serious complaint I was chastised and perhaps the process was prolonged as a result. I would simply NEVER use Valerie Holmes again for anything nor recommend them to anyone.

I was assigned this firm via an online broker on 28/11/2024 for an uncomplicated transfer of equity. Their welcome pack stated “8-12 Weeks for Transfers of Equity from the point of allocation to a property lawyer” However, it is questionable when the allocation occurs as the name of my conveyancer was not communicated until 12/02/2025 after I sent an unhappy email (they’d invited me to a new office coffee morning but not responded to communications!) and I complained to the broker about the lack of progress, communication & difficulty in speaking to anyone by phone or getting a reply to emails. The phone is never answered & calls very seldom returned. There are no direct lines. Things seemed initially promising with Maisie contacting me about ID checks & gift declaration forms, although there was an error with the transfer figure I had to correct myself. The process to verify source of funds via their Armalytix system was nigh on impossible & seemingly ignored, whilst their compliance for a mere £15k inheritance received over 8 years ago seemed unnecessarily stringent. I ended up voluntarily sending 7 years worth of statements because the whole process had already been so slow! I was asked to re-provide Land Registry documents because of formatting errors, which they’d sent to me that way. Additionally, I was asked to provide documents I had already sent by post & emailed again, which they seemed to have no oversight of. As a direct consequence of their slowness, despite timeframes being clearly & repeatedly communicated from the outset, my mortgage offer expired in mid January & I had to pay for an additional one. The whole experience was unnecessarily slow, frustrating & stressful. I was told that my ex’s solicitor had passed the matter to their own conveyancer, hence delays, but I’m not convinced they were even contacted until February because any answer to direct questions asking this were avoided. I would’ve preferred to handle the matter myself, had the mortgage company allowed it. I would not recommend thus firm based on inefficiency, slowness & poor communication.

Poor and slow service missed deadline required by court. Minor errors could have spotted earlier. Slow responses to email and telephone mainly on Friday as you can never call them.

Excellent experience Laura Sheriff was excellent and kept me updated at all times.

May not be the most one to one solicitors I have used but did the job despite complications generated by the sellers agent. Reasonable price.