PM Law information

• 3M Law Limited – 666500
• Autonet Law LLP – 596704
• Butterworths Solicitors LLP – 596684
• Linkfield Claims Service Limited – 596707
• PM Law (Specialist Claims) Limited – 631962
• PM Law Limited - 421374
• PM Property Lawyers Limited – 631945
• Proddow Mackay (Conveyancing) Limited - 421372
• Proddow Mackay Limited - 421368
• Proddow Mackay Solicitors LLP - 464683
• WB Pennine Solicitors LLP – 596683

Full list of trading names of intervened into firms

You can apply to our compensation fund if you are:

• an individual
• a business with an annual turnover or assets of less than £2 million
• a charity with an annual income, net of tax, of less than £2 million
• a trustee of a trust with an asset value of less than £2 million

You should apply to the compensation fund if:

• you paid for work that was not completed
• you transferred a deposit or funds to pay stamp duty and you need to recover this money
• you are waiting for damages from litigation and the funds were held by the firm
• you are waiting for an inheritance and the funds were held by the firm
• you are still being asked to pay a mortgage on a house you sold. (We may also consider paying additional interest). 

To apply to the compensation fund you need to complete an application form.

You will need to provide the required evidence with your application. If you do not send this evidence, your application will be delayed.

If you have any questions, you can call our Contact Centre.

The number of applications we have received to the compensation fund has rapidly increased.

This means from 8 April 2026, we are prioritising how we assess and process all applications to the fund based on different categories of applications (outlined below), rather than the order of when an application was received. This includes all applications to the compensation fund.

Taking this approach allows us to make payments to those with urgent needs based on their situation or vulnerabilities, such as the risk of being homeless due to the collapse of a sale.

Where applicants can show particularor vulnerability in their application, we will take this into account in our initial prioritisation assessment.

We have set out below the current prioritisation criteria. These will be continually reviewed and any updates will be published on this webpage.

Emergency payments

We have a well-established process for dealing with emergency applications which allows swifter decisions in the cases where someone could face the most significant harm.

Our focus for emergency payments is where someone is likely to suffer exceptional hardship if they do not receive an urgent payment from the fund. The most common example is where a person is buying a house to live in and contracts have already exchanged. The applicant will be in breach of contract if they cannot complete and risk losing their deposit and the purchase.

These will be processed immediately.

Individuals purchasing a property to live in

The next priority group after emergency payments are those relating to the purchase or remortgage of a residential property. For example, someone who:

• intends to purchase a property to live in (rather than to let out or as an investment), but they do not yet have a contractual obligation to complete the transaction
• has used alternative funds to continue with their property transaction
• has sold a property and purchased another, but their original mortgage has not been redeemed
• has remortgaged their home and their previous mortgage has not been redeemed
• who has completed their purchase, but the Stamp Duty Land Tax has not been paid or their purchase has not been registered with HMLR.

These will be processed immediately.

Individuals who have paid for legal services that have not been completed

The next category of applications relates to funds paid for legal services that have not been completed. We acknowledge that applicants will need these funds to continue their transactions, but they are likely to be smaller sums than those in the categories above and do not have the same level of impact. For example, someone who:

• has paid upfront for legal work which was not completed
• who is due money back in respect of their transaction.

These will be processed three months from the date the application is received.

Individuals selling properties and individuals buying investment properties

 Applications likely to meet this description include:

• those purchasing an additional property to their primary residence
• those who have sold their property and are due funds that a law firm was meant to be holding (to include any retentions where applicable).

These will be processed six months from the date the application is received.

Trusts and probate matters

Applications that are likely to meet this description are:

• from the executor of an estate where a law firm held estate money
• from trustees for funds held in trust.

We appreciate that this will have an impact on the beneficiaries to the estates involved. However, we need to ensure that we are considering the applications that have the potential for the greatest harm to applicants. It is not unusual for beneficiaries to have to wait some time to receive money from an estate or trust.

For this category in particular the consideration of whether an applicant can show will be particularly important and may lead to the application being prioritised.

These will be processed six months from the date the application is received.

Commercial transactions

The final group of applications we will consider will be transactions where a law firm was instructed by a sole trader, business or company.

These will be processed nine months from the date the application is received.

We have considered the impact of our revised approach to prioritising applications to the compensation fund, including on people with particular protected characteristics. The criteria are intended to prioritise applicants who may be in a vulnerable position. We have not identified any evidence to suggest there will be a differential impact on any particular group as a result of the criteria we have adopted.

No, you won't need legal advice to complete an application to our compensation fund.

You do need to answer any questions we may have and provide evidence.

In most circumstances, you must make your application within 12 months of when you first knew, or reasonably should have known, of your loss.

We will not pay for any additional costs that result from instructing a new solicitor.

No, you don't have to repay money received from our compensation fund.

You may be able to claim back money you paid to the closed companies from your credit card provider or bank. This is a matter for the credit card company or bank – we can't provide advice on this.

HMRC is aware of the unexpected closure of PM Law Ltd and its associated firms on 2 February 2026, and understands that some customers may be concerned about whether payments they made as part of their property transaction, including Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), were correctly forwarded to HMRC.

If you used PM Law Ltd or one of its associated firms to pay your SDLT and aren’t sure whether the payment reached HMRC, you can call them on 0300 200 3510.

PM Law and its affiliates have announced that they have closed. If you had ongoing work with any of the firms involved, you will need to find a new lawyer to help you and progress your matter.

If you need help finding a solicitor, you can use the Law Society's Find a Solicitor site. Simply put your postcode in to find law firms near to you and then select the relevant work type, such as conveyancing.

You might not need your file to instruct a new lawyer.

Firstly, gather together all the communications and documents you have received connected to your matter, along with details of others/other lawyers involved in the transaction (if you know them). This may be enough for a new lawyer to begin to get your legal work back on track.

We appreciate that this may be a stressful time. Former clients can rest assured that our intervention agent, Gordons LLP, is diligently working through PM Law's files to identify and, wherever possible, contact all former clients of the firm.

Please be aware that due to the volume of files we have collected, it may take some time before we are able to do this. Our agents will prioritise identifying former clients with the most immediate and urgent legal issues to be resolved.

Our archive team will also take control of all documents relating to closed matters held by the firm, such as copies of deeds and wills.

If you think you had such files held by one of these firms, you can fill in our form to request their return.

Our intervention agent is identifying and contacting former clients with the most urgent or imminent matters. An example of this is if someone has exchanged contracts on a property sale.

Where such cases are identified, they will attempt to contact you to advise you of the need to instruct another solicitor or law firm to progress the work.

In some exceptional circumstances where there is no time for this to happen — for example if you are due to complete on a house sale or purchase within a few days of the intervention — the agent may, at their discretion, be able to act on your behalf on an emergency basis.

Gordons LLP have provided further information for former clients of PM Law on their website.

They are currently working through tens of thousands of files belonging to the firm and quickly identifying former clients who have the most urgent or immediate need. They will contact you as soon as they are able to, but please note that this may take some time.

If you need to make urgent contact with an intervention agent, please use the following details:

John Owen
Gordons LLP
1 New Augustus Street
Bradford BD1 5LL

Telephone 0113 227 0368
Email PM@gordonsllp.com