J B Leitch Recensioni 

These vile parasitic scumbags charged me over £1000 for a £166 debt in administrative and legal costs. These people are extortionists plain and simple, they symbolise everything wrong with this country. Scum.

Could not have been more rude, dismissive, or unhelpful.

The receptionist was genuinely friendly and helpful — the solicitor was the exact opposite.

After seeing all the terrible reviews this firm has, I shouldn’t have been surprised. JB Leitch, you need to do far better. The issues mentioned in your reviews are not one-offs — they’re recurring and embarrassingly consistent. 😬

Even more frustrating is how you respond to criticism. Constantly dismissing negative reviews as ‘not been posted by JB Leitch’s many satisfied commercial clients’ (yeah, right) is ridiculous when almost every review says the same thing. Brushing off feedback instead of fixing the problems shows a shocking lack of accountability.

And you want people to come to you for legal advice when this is how you are? I sincerely hope the receptionist (apologies I didn’t catch your name) finds a place that matches her professionalism and friendliness — because it’s clearly not here.

It’s frustrating that one star is even an option. This firm charged me nearly £1,400 for a simple debt collection task, which, after consulting the Leasehold Advisory Service, is clearly excessive.

Their client, Pier Management, has also charged me over £1,043 in insurance premiums (over three years) despite me demonstrating that I could obtain much cheaper insurance elsewhere.

Leaseholders should not have to deal with such unreasonable and inflated charges. When will this nightmare for leaseholders finally end?

Leitch. act for First Port, a company which is difficult to describe other than racketeers and extortionists. First Port's activities (likely to soon be outlawed) are aided and abetted by Leitch. Leitch do not even have the wherewithal (or decency) to send their threats to a correct address.

I am providing this review based on my direct experience with J B Leitch LLP concerning alleged estate charges and associated administration costs.

Despite repeated, reasonable requests for documentation and transparency:

My account was referred to a debt collection agency without prior notice, which constitutes a significant procedural concern.

Charges labelled as “administration costs” were applied without proper itemisation, justification, or supporting evidence, contrary to professional standards expected of solicitors.

Correspondence sought to characterise statutory rights to recourse via the First-tier Tribunal as a ‘threat’, which is inappropriate and inconsistent with the proper exercise of legal practice.

Communication has been dismissive and aggressive, impeding constructive resolution of the dispute.

Professional standards require solicitors to act fairly, transparently, and proportionately. In my experience, J B Leitch LLP has not met these obligations. I would strongly advise clients to ensure full documentation and verification before responding to any claims from this firm.

JB Leitch pursued me for “non-payment” of an insurance bill that was not even due — my invoice clearly showed the correct due date weeks away. Despite this, I was threatened with legal action and repeatedly told I was in breach of my lease.

When I tried to explain, the agent was dismissive, threatened several times to end the call, and ultimately hung up. The follow-up email I was promised would “explain my obligations” contained nothing useful — only generic information and screenshots of their system. No real effort was made to investigate or resolve the issue.

I eventually contacted the property manager directly, who admitted the case had been raised in error, reinstated my account, and confirmed I could pay as normal. In other words, the case was utterly without merit from the start — but it still caused me needless stress and wasted time.

JB Leitch I can only describe as a demonically criminal company. After receiving a bill of £4111.34 on the 9th July 2025, £456.00 of this was administrative fees £625.20 legal costs, this bill jumped to £5835.34 on Monday 1st Sept.
No information on how the increases are calculated. I phoned them numerous times, only to have the phone put down on me every time.
I finally spoke to somebody and was told that there was an administrative error in the amount they had calculated. Again, couldn't get a correct figure or any reply to my emails.
There is a deliberate effort on their part, to fleece people out of money, but the scale is demonic.
I have contacted the Legal Ombudsman in the hope of some redress.
I cannot believe this sort of thing can happen legally .

This Company has a terrible reputation that is well deserved. J B Lietch rely on intimidation with vast amounts of irrelevant paperwork on cases that are easily resolved with normal procedure. They create their own business with cases that are already fixed.
You have to ask the question . Why would a company choose to employ a solicitor with such a bad reputation ?

- Obstructive
- Inefficient
- Uncommunicative
- Not bothered
- Overpriced
- Very questionable ‘advice’
- Completely frustrated a transaction which ordinarily should have been straight forward
- Would have given a zero. I can really appreciate why there’s such a negative rating for this company.
- Avoid at all costs.

Giving them 1 star because 0 stars don’t exist. Totally unprofessional, rude, uncommunicative. WHAT IS THE LAW SOCIETY DOING ABOUT THIS ASSOCIATE TO THEIR GOOD NAME???

This firm of solicitors are trying to rob me of thousands of pounds. They should all be in jail.

If I had the option of giving 0 stars then I would have done so. I have a property where the roof was leaking and the management company refused to fix it even though it was part of the lease agreement. My tenant was suffering and they were expecting their first baby and quite frankly were living in appalling conditions. In the end I held out on the service charge and they did the bare minimum fix and I told them to fix it properly - next thing I know I was dealing with these guys trying to recover this debt. Their quality of people is truly shocking... I was dealing with Olivia Taylor who doesn't seem to grasp English very well. In the end I gave up and wanted to make payments but I had a banking issue where I could only pay 750GBP per day - I offered to do daily payments until the debt was cleared and got no response. After 11 working days she says she cannot accept daily payments but I had plenty of time to gather the money to make the full payment by now... she didn't grasp the fact that I had a banking challenge! In the end she threatened to take legal action and given the stress it caused, I was forced to use another bank account (not property related) to settle this. Companies like these being able to do business is one of the main reasons why I am so downbeat about the future of the UK. Minimum standards have to be in place in order to employ people or exist as a business.... I hope to never deal with these "people" again

Absolutely useless 'solicitors' based in Merseyside. Upon finding out I had an overdue service charge upon returning from being out of the country I immediately looked to pay it. They claim they emailed me a breakdown which never came through after even after chasing multiple times. Eventually I opted to pay via phone which also they were unable to accomodate as I kept getting cut off. After my fourth call over several hours they sent another email and I ensured them I wouldn't let them disconnect until I receive it - like magic that email came through immediately almost as if they never sent the first email they claimed to send. At no point could any of these dippers provide any value or exercise basic manners

Obviously it's not a big surprise that these guys haven't got a high rating on here - it's not easy getting money off people that don't want to pay or aren't in a position to pay, when ultimately their clients are paying them to recover money.

My poor experiece though is because of their process rather than them having to collect the cash.

My father slipped into arrears on his ground rent because he had dementia, and it took a while for me to get power of attorney and get a grib on all of his financial affairs.

As soon as a realised the balance was outstanding, I paid this in full to JB Leach, wanting to settle the account ASAP so I can sell the property. However, they're now messing me around, saying they're making me wait over 2 weeks for them to take the account out of breach (hopefully the buyer doesnt pull out because of further delays).

What they need to do better i would suggest - is once they get the cash in, apply some flexibility and common sense and provide some sort of positive customer experience

Absolutely disgusting company. They work with FirstPort Property Management company and that says it all.
You are mistreated my FirstPort and this disgusting company finishes of the mistreated treatment.
Karma is a real thing@

After receiving communication over 6 months ago, for late service charges, I replied advising, my Mum had sadly passed away, I had no response. I cleared any arrears to RMG. I received an email from J B Leitch, 6 months after my original email. It was aggressive, no empathy, and even though clearing arrears, they are demanding money from me. I have clearly stated, and having checked if arrears are paid, they have no legal authority to chase me. Leave me alone, your aggressiveness, and threats are being escalated. The most awful people I have ever had to deal with. How do you enjoy your job?

JB Leitch demanded £600 in legal and admin fees for alleged service charge arrears — even though my lease contains no clause that allows recovery of such charges. They wrote the original lease, so they knew this from the outset.

When I challenged the demand, JB Leitch stated that my lease did permit recovery of legal costs — a claim that was entirely false and contrary to established law. As a solicitor firm, they are fully aware that multiple rulings from the Court of Appeal, the Upper Tribunal, and the First-tier Tribunal confirm legal costs cannot be passed to leaseholders unless the lease includes specific, unambiguous wording. General references to services or management do not qualify.

Instead of addressing this, they threatened to escalate the matter and contact my mortgage provider if I didn’t pay within 7 days. I received no explanation, no legal justification — just pressure. I ultimately paid under protest and under duress, out of fear of further financial and reputational harm.

This was not a misunderstanding — it was a solicitor firm knowingly misrepresenting the law to extract payment from someone who had no legal obligation to pay. That is not lawful, and it is certainly not ethical.

Avoid JB Leitch at all costs. Their conduct is aggressive, dishonest, and shows complete disregard for the law and leaseholder rights. If you see their name on any correspondence, treat it as a red flag.

I, too, have had the absolute displeasure of dealing with this “law firm”. Similar to many other comments - delayed letters, unrealistic timescales, high charges (without any supporting information), incorrect information, heavy threats of forcing entry to property, possession and escalating costs. My lawyer has also advised me that their use of the Law and Property Act 1925 is not relevant in my case - am not sure if this is included in the letter to sound more threatening, or perhaps they’re not so great at law?

In my case, it turns out that their initial letter was for a debt that didn’t exist on a property that I didn’t own at the time. So, my advice is to really look at what they’re stating as fact and challenge whether they’re correct and even have a legal right to be demanding money.

I’d love to see something done about these questionable practices. I am following up a few avenues and if you have been treated badly then I’d really encourage you to do the same, otherwise these guys will just keep going in the same way.

I note that this firm has been specifically called out by MP Justin Madders in Parliament in 2020 - yet little seems to have been done to protect people. I have submitted a formal complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) as well as contacting our local MP and Councillor. Am also contacting JB Leitch’s client directly to complain of the erroneous and bullying correspondence (they’re not very nice on the phone either). And don’t forget LinkedIn - the management team appear on their website, and I’m sure they’d love to hear from you on a public forum like that. Good luck.

The misfortune of being in contact with JB Leitch is top 3 worst experiences of my life. This firm has put me through hell and back.

I fell into arrears after FirstPort failed to set up my account for almost a year, ignoring multiple requests for account access and leaving me unable to pay. When they finally responded, they sent a hefty backdated bill with no warning and were quick to instruct JB Leitch to pursue the debt.

JB Leitch’s very first communication included nearly £1,000 in fees. They escalated charges rapidly and senselessly eg adding a £195 fee just for requesting a password reset to access my blocked account. I couldn’t even pay my service charge if I wanted to—and I did want to.

Their colleagues were rude and combative on the phone. Eventually, I gave up calling and stuck to email just so I could somewhat be spoken to like a human being. I was financially bullied, and emotionally overwhelmed. The anxiety and stress caused by JB Leitch affected my mental health. I was trying to pay what I owed and move forward, they made that impossible. They rejected every payment plan offered through a debt charity.

Once they were satisfied with fees added, they pushed me to ask my mortgage provider to take on the debt. I did so because JB Leitch gave me no other managable route to resolve the debt.

This is not a one-off. They have 98% one-star reviews, and their conduct has been raised in Parliament. Their business model is built on rejecting repayment plans, holding onto the debt to escalate it with fees, and ultimately recovering a far higher amount than what was originally owed. This is unconscionable conduct and predatory debt recovery.

I otherwise love my flat but im considering moving just to get away from FirstPort and their solicitor of choice, JB Leitch.

Worst debt collecting agent ever!
We had pay the late penalty to First Port and admin charge to JB Leitch, as they didn’t accept our monthly repayment. The charges are outrages and has kept threatening us about further penalties. This is extremely disgraceful with this firm + First Port. Please avoid them at any costs. What a shame!