The Society for Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has urged caution as two of the firms within the Metamorph legal consortium – MLL Limited and Beaumont ABS Limited – are said to be facing a new winding-up petition.
The SLC issued the following statement regarding the situation:
“We have approached the CLC to ask for their guidance in respect of any outstanding transactions, and taking new instructions, where Metamorph firms are acting on the other side.
We have also asked the Law Society if they are issuing any guidance.
We will keep you posted as soon as we get any response.
In the meanwhile, we suggest that you exercise caution in respect of all matters where Metamorph firms are acting – please see the link above for the names of their firms.”
This comes as several social media posts have been made by Metamorph staff claiming that they have not been paid on time.
Metamorph first encountered difficulties earlier this year as the company’s accounts for 2021, which were due in June, never appeared.
It was then reported that the company was operating at a loss and facing nearly £12 million of debt, with staff reporting an absence of their wages as early as July, leading to Tony Stockdale’s resignation as CEO.
The consortium, which consists of over a dozen law firms and 650 staff as well as QualitySolicitors, then faced further difficulties after MLL Limited was served a winding-up petition by HMRC in October.
Despite being in “shock” at HMRC’s action, Stockdale, at this point now executive chair, said he was “very confident of a successful outcome” and that they “remained committed to [their] strategy”.
Come November, it is now reported that Metamorph is set to close at least one of its firms, with estate agency Connells submitting a fresh winding-up petition claiming to be a creditor of specialist conveyancing practice Beaumont. There are also reports that Stockdale has ended his directorship at the company.
Metamorph has been approached for comment on these claims but has not yet responded.
6 responses
To Quote:
……”The consortium, which consists of over a dozen law firms and 650 staff as well as QualitySolicitors, was then served a winding-up petition by HMRC in October”………
To be clear, the consortium has not been served with a winding up petition. Your article is misleading. There remain firms within the Group that are not affected by this. Wholly owned subsidiaries which are not affected. You should make sure your article reports true facts as should the SLC before sending any note to their members.
We are (were?) a client of Bplaw (Beaumont) and at the point of exchanging contracts on a purchase. This was over two weeks ago and no communication since then… what does that that mean for people like us, can anyone shed any light on what our next steps should be?
Metamorph have had to rely on partners of companies adding extra funds to the businesses to enable them to pay not only their own staff but those of the firms run underneath Metamorph, which since June have been continuously paid up to 3/4 days late.
Directors and management have jumped ship at the earliest opportunity…. leaving their faithful staff unaware of the underlying issues.
We could also get into how Metamorph pay under the national living wage… well thats when they actually manage to pay anyway……
Same here no correspondence past 10 days from BPLaw almost at point of exchanging contracts, does this mean we should switch solicitors asap?
Cannot obtain any response from BP who assured me were continuing Beaumont cases. Desperate to help the clients!
Is the only answer to reinstruct another firm, today?
2 remortgage clients BP continued for Beaumont, but no contact possible,close to Offers expiring
Any idea of how to ascertain from BP whether need to reinstruct another firm today?No phone nor email response, nor from Metamorph Compliance email to Courtney Squires. Cannot find her phone number..?