Conveyancer at Valerie Holmes Law
Michelle Riordan
Conveyancer
Michelle has over 20 years of experience in the legal industry with a focus on conveyancing in particular. Michelle loves all aspects of her role, but particularly enjoys the interaction she gets with clients. Being able to guide clients through the conveyancing process is something she always enjoys. Aside from work, Michelle has a keen interest in cooking and baking. She’s passionate about experimenting with different recipes and creating delicious meals. Michelle also enjoys going to the gym to maintain a healthy lifestyle – and to work off the calories consumed during her culinary adventures!
12 Bradford Road, Brighouse, HD6 1RL
Licensed for 1 years
Practice Areas
Housing & Property
- Housing & Property 100%
16 Client Reviews
Overall experience
- Value For Money
- Approachability
About Michelle Riordan
Michelle has over 20 years of experience in the legal industry with a focus on conveyancing in particular. Michelle loves all aspects of her role, but particularly enjoys the interaction she gets with clients. Being able to guide clients through the conveyancing process is something she always enjoys. Aside from work, Michelle has a keen interest in cooking and baking. She’s passionate about experimenting with different recipes and creating delicious meals. Michelle also enjoys going to the gym to maintain a healthy lifestyle – and to work off the calories consumed during her culinary adventures!
Languages Spoken: English
Contact Michelle Riordan
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WORK EXPERIENCE
Title
Name
Duration
Conveyancer
PM Law LTD
?-present
Slow, inefficient & poor communication
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.
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 25 March, 2025
We are really sorry you feel disappointed with the outcome of your matter. Please do contact us directly for a further explanation as to the current position.
Was this review helpful? Yes
House purchase
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.
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 17 February, 2025
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Length of time taken
The whole process took far too long with both solicitors blaming each other for the delays
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 07 February, 2025
Thank you for your review. I will pass the feedback onto the team
Was this review helpful? Yes
Very average. But expected for the price.
Valerie Holmes was a very mixed bag. At first it felt like great progress was being made. But then, as the process progressed, it felt like drawing blood from a stone from our assigned lawyer. As a result, we felt like we did more chasing than what would be expected.
The assistant to Michelle, Maisie, seemed significantly more proactive and gave us much fuller responses to our requests, in some cases, we’d be lucky to have received one from Michelle.
It’s hard to actually get in contact with the conveyancer, and telephone communication felt like an add-on as opposed to normality and as a result of that, we asked to speak many times to Michelle, but was left with an email response if we got one.
Michelle was very friendly, and when you can communicate with her most of the information is accurate, and they do have the clients best interests. However, it certainly shows that their systems are dated, and as a result makes the buyer feel in the dark a lot of the time. If this gets rectified, the chances are you’d feel a lot more involved passively.
It would be much more preferred if you received more regular updates, even if there’s no new changes.
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 15 January, 2025
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the feedback and we will pass this onto the team.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Excellent from start to finish
Laura worked tirelessly with Michelle to finalise my sale and purchase. When time was of the essence towards the end of the process due to an ultimatum from my buyer, Laura was on hand to talk me through everything and reassure me but she also remained honest throughout. I cannot thank them enough.
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 20 December, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Mortgage
Good and professional. Service was good and a good listerner
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 19 December, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
House Deeds Name Change
Well and professionally handled, kept informed along the way.
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 17 December, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Professional and courteous
Was kept informed through the process, communication was professional and friendly.
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 06 November, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Property Sale and Purchase New Property
Michelle, Aliyah, Maisie and Stephanie dealt with my sale and purchase. They handled everything professionally and friendly. Thank you.
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 31 October, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes
Exceptional service
Thank you Michelle for helping us purchase our dream home. You’ve been extremely helpful and knowledgeable while guiding us through the conveyancing process and we would highly recommend VHL.
Lawyer named in this review: Michelle Riordan
A representative from Valerie Holmes Law responded to this review on 08 August, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
Was this review helpful? Yes