'Law firm closure has left us stuck in ongoing nightmare'

Amy-Jade Hughes thought she was weeks away from starting a new life with her young family in Australia. Instead, the mother-of-two is one of thousands of people caught up in the sudden closure of legal firm PM Law.

The Sheffield-based business, which specialised in personal injury, wills and conveyancing, shut its doors on Monday, leaving clients and staff in the dark.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has since said it had taken the decision to "intervene into the group of firms", which include Proddow Mackay, Butterworths Solicitors, WB Pennine Solicitors and Angela Viney Conveyancing Services.

The BBC has made repeated attempts to contact PM Law at their Sheffield headquarters in person, by telephone, via email. We have also put questions to them via the SRA and the law firm appointed intervention agents by the body. In addition, we have put questions to a number of senior staff via business social network LinkedIn.

Hughes, 27, had been in the process of selling her home in Worksop in order to move down under with her partner and two children.

While the sale of the home had been legally completed and the purchase money was received, she said PM Law had not paid off the mortgage.

She said she had since been told by her bank that she continued to be liable for nearly £100,000 of debt.

"We're now stuck living at my parents' house with a toddler and a newborn," she said.

"It's devastating, extremely stressful, and has turned what should have been a fresh start into an ongoing nightmare."

Hughes, who is from Rotherham, said they had already started the visa process for their move but the family had had to put their plans on hold.

"We're still in limbo, the mortgage still hasn't been redeemed, and nothing is actually resolved at this stage," she said.

"On top of that, we've now been told we may need to instruct and pay for a new solicitor just to retrieve our files and attempt to sort the mortgage repayment, and even then, there's no guarantee they'll be able to access everything or fix it quickly.

"It's another unexpected cost and another layer of uncertainty, all caused by something completely outside our control."

Ellie Vaughan and her partner William Mann, 29, used PM Law for what they thought would be a straightforward remortgaging process.

But the firm suddenly closed on Monday without completing the transfer.

"We're expected to pay over £2,000 a month, which obviously is just not affordable," said the 27-year-old from Coventry.

"It's worrying and it's concerning really that we're just stuck in the situation of two active mortgages on one property that neither bank is going to back down on at the moment."

Katie Brown, from Staffordshire, said the stress of the situation had directly impacted her health.

"I was meant to have a small operation on Wednesday. I have a failing kidney transplant and when I got to hospital my blood pressure was too high and I had high infection markers due to stress," she said.

"So they cancelled my operation."

The 38-year-old said they had instructed John M Lewis & Co in Derby to help with purchasing a house.

On 20 January, contracts were exchanged and more than £49,000 transferred to cover stamp duty, the deposit and fees.

She and her partner were meant to get the keys to their new home on Monday, but instead came a phone call from the estate agent to say the sale could not progress as no money had been transferred to the seller.

"We just don't have the keys because we haven't been able to transfer any money," she said.

On top of having to fork out more money for a new solicitor, the couple said they will also have to pay £800 in rent and £900 for their mortgage.

Brown wants more transparency and guidance from the SRA, as well as a time frame for when cases will be reviewed so people can begin to plan.

"I think people need reassuring that this situation can't happen again," she said.

"For a company as big as PM Law to disappear overnight - policies have to be re-looked at in order for this not to happen again to somebody else in the future."

Meanwhile, Micah Williams in Braintree, Essex, said she was running out of time.

The 30-year-old explained she and her partner were due to complete their house sale on Tuesday but, with the sudden closure of PM Law, their buyer had been unable to transfer the deposit and mortgage funds.

The delay is now jeopardising the purchase of their onward property.

"We've now also been served notice from our sellers, meaning we had to complete within 10 working days or we default on completion and lose our £90,000 deposit on top of the whole sale falling through," said Williams.

In addition to the many clients affected, around 600 staff employed under the PM Law umbrella are also faced with uncertainty.

One staff member told the BBC on Tuesday that no redundancy plans had been put in place, and many employees only discovered the workplace had closed when they saw a notice pinned to the office window.

The BBC has so far been unable to contact PM Law for comment.

According to the SRA, law firm Gordons LLP is currently supporting the intervention. Further details on how it will be supporting clients are available on the firm's website.

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