A London lawyer bought hundreds of Sheffield freeholds. Then the ‘very aggressive’ letters arrived

We first heard about the letters two weeks ago. Sheffield homeowners with leasehold properties were being contacted by a City of London solicitor, Andrew Milne — and many were feeling alarmed. As we began asking around we found more and more cases of people Milne has contacted. We soon realised that Milne had acquired freeholds to hundreds of properties this summer, mostly in west Sheffield.

There’s nothing unusual about the fact Milne has been getting in touch with leaseholders — in fact, it’s required by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, so people know where to send their ground rent. But that doesn’t appear to be Milne’s interest. Instead, he’s been looking to sell the freeholds on to the property owners. In some cases, Milne simply lists a high asking price, accompanied by several pages detailing how leasehold properties, without the freehold, are “not saleable”. In others, he alleges that covenants have been breached, and threatens High Court action if people don’t pay sums of £25,000 upwards to “settle the breach”.

Olivia Blake, the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam (where most of these properties are based) has become sufficiently concerned about the nature of Milne’s communications that she spoke to The Tribune in strong terms. “The letters are very threatening,” Blake told us. “It’s very aggressive… it’s clearly aimed at people’s vulnerability as leaseholders.” She noted that “it's really scary for some people who have expected to live comfortably, and then they've ended up with these demands and scaremongering.”

Blake has contacted the Secretary of State for Justice to raise the issue as a matter of urgency. And this morning, she tabled a series of parliamentary questions in response to Milne’s activities. These included asking Steve Reid, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, about preventing freeholders from demanding disproportionate payments from leaseholders for historic breaches. 

After being presented with evidence of Milne’s communications, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told us: “Exploitative behaviour is completely unacceptable and should never be tolerated. Departmental officials are seeking further information in relation to the issues raised and have also raised this with the Leasehold Advisory Service, which we would encourage leaseholders to contact so they know their rights. We will be reforming the leasehold system so people can challenge unfair charges and are better protected from these predatory practices.”

But in the meantime, several homeowners have already paid Milne £25,000 — plus legal fees — to buy the freeholds to their properties. The situation continues to develop, with more letters arriving this week, and many leaseholders that The Tribune spoke to were not yet aware their freehold had been bought by Milne.

While some leaseholders were willing to go on the record in speaking to The Tribune, most people we spoke to did not want to be named, with some telling us they were worried Milne might increase his demands if he saw their names in print. “It broke my heart, that was my savings towards a new car,” one woman who paid Milne tens of thousands of pounds told us. “He has just wiped me out.”

But Milne’s reputation in court is a matter of public record. In another case last year, Milne was taken to court by Moira Goulden on behalf of a group of leaseholders in North Wales, who lived in a block of flats where Milne had acquired the freehold. (The full judgement is available here.) Judge Keyser, in his summing up, said that “I do not consider him [Milne] to be an honest or credible man… For his own ends, he is willing to resort to intimidatory and threatening language, advancing allegations that he cannot possibly believe to be justified.” (Milne was ordered to sell the freehold).

Milne has also previously been arrested and charged with stalking offences. He faces trial at Stratford Magistrates Court on 12 January.

We put the concerns of local householders to Andrew Milne. He responded through his own law firm, telling us: “We deny every allegation of impropriety that you have made and we will definitely bring proceedings for Defamation and Malicious Falsehood if you publish such complete and malicious lies.” Milne also asked our journalist: “How many hours a month do you work on your ‘newsletter’? What is your real job?” Despite us repeatedly pointing Milne to our website, he wrote: “Please explain who 'Mollie Simpson' is and the capacity in which she is writing to us and provide her address”. (Needless to say, we will not be providing the personal address of one of our reporters.)

We’ve since been checking Milne’s claims and speaking to several people who have received letters from him. In today’s story we are laying out the facts, and will allow readers to judge.

It’s the 25th June, the date of the property auction at Mark Jenkinson auctioneers. This used to be a big monthly get together at Bramall Lane, but since the pandemic the cut and thrust of the auction house has been replaced by quiet clicks on remote laptops. And somewhere, behind a computer screen, Andrew Milne is placing bids.

There’s an eclectic mix on offer — the site of a former social club in Barnsley, some woodland in Colwyn Bay — but Milne isn’t likely to be interested in these. The bundles of freeholds in the Sheffield area are what he really seems to be here for. These are being sold off by Torren Properties Limited, which is running down its portfolio of Sheffield freeholds.

In the end, Milne buys up three lots, covering 199 properties, and pays £74,500 in total — roughly £375 each. 

On the face of it, it’s a poor investment. The ground rents from these properties only add up to £2,621 a year, meaning it would take something like 29 years for Milne to get his money back. And that’s before you factor in inflation and the cost of chasing up 199 leaseholders.

And yet, in August, Milne is back again, paying £7,500 for another 84 freeholds. By now he had the freeholds to almost 300 properties, in S2, S3, S5, S6, S7, S10, S11 and S17 postcodes, with particular concentrations in west and south west Sheffield.

The Tribune has been made aware of four auction lots where Milne was the successful bidder. Lists of properties included are available here, here, here and here.

Helen* remembers the moment she found them on the doormat. Two letters, sent from the same address. She opened them to see a letterhead from a City of London solicitor, and immediately she was worried.

Helen quickly discovered that, though Milne was a stranger, they had a legal relationship: he now owned the freehold of her property.

The first letter contained the threat of legal action. “Your lease is subject to forfeiture”, she was told. Changes that had been made to her property were “believed to be unauthorised, in breach of your lease.” In two weeks, Milne would initiate court proceedings in the High Court, unless Helen could prove that she had been given authorisation to make the changes, or undertook to demolish them in short order. Milne attached a mock up of High Court proceedings, with his name versus hers and a list of his claims, to demonstrate the consequences of failing to do so.

The second letter contained the other way out. It offered a simple solution: Helen could buy the freehold off Milne. A reasonable price, given the changes, would be £50,000, Milne indicated. But he was willing to offer £25,000 (plus legal fees) if the sum could be paid within two weeks. Given Milne had been acquiring freeholds for under £400 each, this equated to a potential profit margin of over 6,000%.

Helen says the letters have caused her a huge amount of stress. “It’s caused arguments between me and my husband, and my parents as well, I’ve snapped at the kids,” she recalls. Others have reported sleepless nights and feelings of deep anger in response to Milne’s communications.

The Tribune has now seen enough versions of these two letters to establish them as something of a modus operandi for Milne. There are some small variations, but the basic model is the same. One letter alleging a breach of covenant, with an attached draft of High Court papers. And another, typically arriving on the same day, with the offer of the freehold, typically set at £25,000 for a short period of time, before increasing. We are now aware of four cases where individuals have paid Milne. 

But do the arguments Milne presents to Sheffield leaseholders hold legal weight?

It’s easier to begin with some of the other letters Milne has been sending. In these cases he doesn’t identify a specific breach of covenant, and sets out a more general offer to sell the freehold. The Tribune has seen a few copies of this letter sent to leaseholders in west Sheffield. It offers an “Initial Special Offer” to buy the freehold, at a price local solicitors tell us is above what would be deemed the fair value.

“The vast majority of houses locally are now freehold”, the letter asserts. While nationally this is the case (93%) Milne’s letter uses the word locally. And in the areas of Sheffield where Milne’s freeholds are based, leaseholds remain widespread. According to local estate agent Reed Rains, in S10 “there are 10,597 leasehold properties, which represents 60.65% of all the households in S10”, and in S11 “there are 9,466 leasehold properties, which represents 68.59% of all the households in S11.”

The letter continues: “My opinion is that the property would not be saleable without the freehold. In any event, both buyers and mortgage lenders are very reluctant to deal with leasehold houses and the house is one of the last leased houses left in the area.”

The idea that leasehold houses are barely found in Sheffield — and aren’t saleable — is clearly untrue. We searched the Prices Paid Dataset at the Land Registry for every property in the S11 postcode area that has sold over the last year (between September 1st 2024 and August 31st 2025). There were 120 transactions for freehold houses and 199 transactions for leasehold houses, meaning that 62% of property transactions in S11 last year were for leaseholds. Similarly, the majority of transactions in S10 were also for leaseholds.

Milne’s letter also states that: “I have been told that less than 1 in 50 houses are now leasehold”. The true figure is more like one in fifteen for England (7%). Milne insisted to us that because this was 8% a year earlier, leaseholds would be all but gone in a few years.

We asked Andrew Milne why he was using inaccurate statistics to suggest to people that their leaseholds were not “saleable”. Milne told us: “The fact that you are still quoting figures for leasehold flats (of which there are huge numbers) which you seem unable to understand are not leasehold houses suggests that even if your correspondence was for a school project you would fail your school project”. (We don’t fully understand Milne’s point here, as the figures quoted above relate to houses, not flats, something we set out clearly in our e-mail.)

Milne also told us: “Today, leasehold houses are extremely unusual and buyers normally insist on the freehold. If a buyer wants to have the flexibility to make alterations in the future and the Lease prohibits all alterations it is essential that they buy the freehold and in such circumstances sales are often abortive if they cannot get the freehold.” He added: “Anyone who has purchased from our client has been represented by solicitors who have provided independent legal advice and then conducted the conveyancing transaction in accordance with all their own requirements”.

What about Milne’s other letters – alleging breaches of covenants and demanding tens of thousands of pounds to sell the freeholds?

In a letter sent to a retired teacher living in Crosspool, Milne demanded £25,000 for the freehold, saying that if he did not comply, he would initiate court proceedings against him for “unauthorised building activities”. The issue? A roof extension and a new Velux window, both of which the resident claims were installed before his time and as such, if any written permission from the freeholder exists, it’s not in his possession. In any case, he and his partner moved into the property in 1991. Any claims for compensation due to breaches of leases generally must be brought within twelve years of the breach occurring.

Jeffrey Shaw, a property solicitor at Nether Edge Law questioned Milne’s argument that he was owed money for breaches to leases, even in the event where such a breach had happened. “The breach doesn’t affect the value of the freehold,” Shaw told us. “Even if the court said there was a breach of covenant, the most Milne could claim compensation for was what he’d lost. But if you’ve got a ground rent of ten pounds a year on a house with a 800 year leasehold, you’ve lost nothing. You’ve still got ten pounds a year… even if the claim was successful the damage would be zero.” Another solicitor, Nicola Bailey at Wrigley’s, told The Tribune that in cases where respective planning consent was required this might cost in the realm of £3,000 — but again, the freeholder wouldn’t have suffered a loss.

The Tribune has also seen two examples in Milne’s letters where he describes other properties in their area where people have bought the freehold off him, giving the exact addresses and the amount they agreed to pay. We asked Milne if he thought it was appropriate to tell people’s neighbours that they had sold to him, and how much they had paid. He did not respond to this point. We also asked if he agreed that sending people documents in the style of High Court proceedings amounted to intimidation. Again, he did not respond.

But Milne has previously sued people for a variety of reasons, making homeowners wary even if their case is good. Margaret* told us “I wanted to take it further, I wanted to get a barrister, but I couldn’t afford it.” She added: “I know probably I would have won but I couldn’t chance it. My solicitors bills are maybe £3,000 now and I didn’t get anywhere. In the end he just wore me down.” She added: “it broke my heart, that was my savings towards a new car. He has just wiped me out.” Others told us that — due to Milne having previously gone bankrupt — they were worried he might do the same again and they wouldn’t be able to recover their costs.

Local solicitors The Tribune spoke to also highlighted that Milne has been applying pressure in cases where people are looking to sell. Jeffrey Shaw, from Nether Edge Law, noted that anyone selling their house would have to disclose the communications from Milne to their buyers, in itself making it much harder to sell. We are aware of two cases where individuals selling their homes felt they had no choice but to buy the freehold for a five-figure sum out of concern that without it their sale would fall through.

A property manager was among the residents to receive what he described to us as a threatening letter. Ever since, he has been compiling resources to make sure his neighbours understand their options. Residents are entitled to pursue their statutory right to buy the freehold under Section 8 of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, offering a fair market sum, and if a price isn’t agreed with Milne, they can go to a land tribunal for a fair determination.

The resident said the experience has had a profoundly damaging effect on the community, some of whom are living with long-term illnesses and mental health conditions. He says he has concerns about an elderly neighbour in her 80s who lives alone. “We visited her yesterday afternoon and she looked like a ghost,” he told us. “She’s depressed, anxious, and we said calm down, we are with you, we are all together, don’t worry about it. We are all trying to help this elderly vulnerable lady to cope.” 

He added that one of his neighbours has accepted the offer to buy the freehold to make Milne go away. The neighbour told him: "We paid £25,000 just to get him out of our lives.”

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have confirmed to The Tribune that they have an ongoing investigation into Milne. Olivia Blake MP has written to the Chief Executive of the SRA, urging them to confirm the standard timeframes for SRA investigations, and to prioritise this investigation. Today, Blake has also formally asked the Secretary of State for Justice “what discussions he has had with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on steps to help reduce investigation times”.

We asked Milne whether his recent letters might give weight to the idea that he was not fit to practice as a solicitor. He did not respond to this point.

The Tribune understands that Milne’s letters are still arriving. This morning, we heard from several more residents who have received letters in the past 24 hours. “They are dropping left, right and centre,” one person told us. 

That means dozens of people in Sheffield now face a daunting choice: take on Andrew Milne, or pay up.

The Tribune is gathering letters and other documents relating to this story. If you have anything that could help our reporting, please get in touch.

*Names have been changed

This story was amended at 15:16 on 6th November 2025 to clarify that Reed Rains is an estate agent, not solicitor.