PROPERTY LEGAL (MANCHESTER) LIMITED

We had a truly wonderful experience with Kelly and the entire team at PLS Solicitors. From start to finish, they were professional, approachable, and incredibly supportive throughout the whole process.

They were always patient, responsive, and took the time to explain everything clearly, which made a potentially stressful journey feel smooth and manageable. The team worked efficiently and kept us informed at every step, giving us real peace of mind.

We’re genuinely grateful for all the hard work and dedication that went into helping us reach this important milestone. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend PLS Solicitors to anyone looking for reliable and caring legal support.

Thank you again, Kelly and team, for everything you’ve done for us!

Excellent service from PLS Solicitors. Megan Williamson and Sophia Ashton were both extremely professional, responsive, and supportive throughout our first home purchase. They handled a complex overseas source of funds very carefully and kept us well informed up to exchange. All document management and signing/approval processes were handled efficiently through their online portal, which made the whole process very smooth. Highly recommended.

From the onset, it was clear that PLS would be more expensive than others. This would have been acceptable if it came with a corresponding level of professionalism and expertise. Unfortunately, my experience suggests otherwise - I found them to be disorganised and lacking in competence throughout the process.

One issue involved the withdrawal of funds from our Lifetime ISAs. PLS charged £150 per withdrawal, but in return provided little to no service. In my case, they sent the wrong forms and offered no guidance, leaving me to figure out the correct procedure myself. Had I filled out the form they provided, I would have been charged an additional 25% on top of my withdrawal. Essentially, I paid £150 just for someone to sign and date a document that I had to provide - there was no real expertise involved. For comparison, other solicitors we considered charged around £0-£50 for the same service—PLS charged three times as much and delivered far less.

PLS also caused delays that ended up costing us financially. A simple failure to take proper notes during a phone call meant our process was pushed back, forcing us to pay an additional month’s rent. This wasn’t an isolated incident - phone communication throughout was unreliable and frustrating.

After exchange, we encountered further issues. We were sent documents watermarked "DRAFT" and after querying we were reassured we just needed sign and return them. After doing so - having arranged a witness and everything - we were informed that the wrong documents had been sent and we needed to sign the final versions instead (without the "DRAFT" watermark). This was another unnecessary inconvenience caused by a lack of attention to detail.

If you’re still considering PLS, be extremely cautious when using their portal. They frequently attempt to add a variety of additional absurd charges. In our case, we noticed unexpected extra fees added to our file, which were suspiciously retracted without explanation after we queried them. It gave the impression that they were testing whether the fees would go unnoticed.

The PLS mobile apps were particularly poor - the save function didn’t work, and the forms differed from those on the web-based version, leading to further confusion. The web-based portal was slightly better, but not my much.

--Edit--

After multiple mistakes and repeated communication failures, the senior staff at PLS still claim they did nothing wrong, despite other members identifying faults. Feels like they just want a quick cash grab without caring about the stress and costs they cause to their clients.

I’ve been using PLS Solicitors to help with my house purchase, and I honestly couldn’t be happier with how things have gone up to the exchange of contracts.

From the very beginning, they’ve been on the ball, clear communication, quick to respond, and always keeping me in the loop. Buying a house can be stressful, but having a team like this behind me made a huge difference. I never felt like I was chasing updates or being left in the dark. The tracker tells it all via their portal!

They were really thorough with all the legal bits, raised the right questions, and explained everything in a way that actually made sense. I always felt like they had my back and were genuinely looking out for me.

We're now at the point of exchanging contracts, and the whole journey so far has been smooth and well-managed. I’ve felt supported the whole way through, and I’m really glad I chose them.

Looking forward to getting the keys soon and very happy to recommend PLS Solicitors to anyone buying a home!

Firstly, the context of this review. We dealt with Amy Atkinson's Team, primarily Clare and Chloe. They were instructed on 21st February with the intention of completing a purchase of a new property by a 1st time buyer on or before the 31st March. The objective seemed stretching but achievable and was actually achieved on the deadline day.

Whilst we got to the destination the journey was fraught with difficulty and a real roller coaster. The early impression was that PLS had received a bad audit report on money laundering checks so were being pedantic in the extreme and seeking historic information way beyond the previous 6 years. They also wanted historic gifts documented as current. There were frustrations involved in being unable to speak directly with decision makers.

As we got closer to exchanging contracts it became obvious the Portal facility was not being updated with progress. Whilst it was useful as a site for downloading documents it performed only a small fraction of its functionality and the Tracker feature became redundant. The Portal charge is £135 + VAT and was totally overpriced for our transaction. A failure to display the monies received added considerably to the stress involved, particularly given the frequent stories that are published about criminals intercepting such transactions.

So a very mixed picture. They probably had insufficient resources to handle the volume of work and being under so much pressure resulted in a customer experience that was below average during a time of high volume property deals. In fairness other teams in quieter times have attracted superior customer ratings.