The Team @ Leslie & Co

From 10 to 16 August 2026, the country marks National Allotments Week, and this year's theme is a lovely one: 'Grow to Learn'. It is a week that celebrates something easy to overlook, the humble patch of green where people grow...

You accept an offer. Everyone is delighted. Then a few weeks later the buyer's lender sends a surveyor round, and the property is valued at less than the price you agreed. That is a down valuation, and it can feel like the ground...

For many landlords, the end of a tenancy is the moment they dread. Will the deposit be returned smoothly, or will it turn into a drawn-out argument? The good news is that disputes are rarer than most people fear, and almost always...

Moving into your first home is a huge moment, and it usually starts with one big question. Do you rent, or do you try to buy? In 2026, with deposits, mortgage rates and rents all pulling in different directions, it is a genuinely...

When you are about to sell, a lower fee is tempting. It feels like the obvious saving. But the agent's fee is one of the few costs in a house sale that can quietly pay for itself many times over, or cost you far more than you...

If you pay a letting agent to manage your property, it is worth asking a simple question now and then. What am I actually getting for this? A good managing agent earns their fee quietly, in problems you never hear about. A poor...

Estate agents do not always have the best reputation, and it is worth being honest about that. In its 2025 Veracity Index, published in December 2025, Ipsos found that public trust in estate agents fell by five points on the year....

There is a phone call we take every year in the first week of September. Someone has decided, somewhere between the last barbecue and the first uniform run, that this is the year they move. Then comes the question. "Could we still...

The message usually arrives on a Sunday evening, and it is always polite. "We have been thinking about getting a dog. Would that be OK?" Since 1 May 2026, how you answer that is no longer just a matter of preference. There is a...

Everybody means to move in the summer holidays. It is the plan every family starts with. Six clear weeks, no uniforms, no school run, unpack in August and walk into September like nothing happened. Then the sale takes longer than...