Meet the team… Rhiannon Edwards

In our latest ‘Meet the team…’, we speak to Rhiannon Edwards, Partner in HCR Law’s Residential Property team.

Based in our Cheltenham office, Rhiannon is a heritage and listed building expert and one of the few UK residential conveyancing solicitors experienced in listed building prosecutions.

What first attracted you to a career in law?

I’ve always enjoyed solving problems, which is what first attracted me to the law. I still enjoy the fact that no two days, and no two transactions, are ever the same.

What type of legal advice do you provide and to what types of clients?

I specialise in residential property, acting for individuals, families, investors, developers and charities. I have particular expertise in listed buildings, sales with neighbour disputes, disclosure and misrepresentation, complex transactions and title defects.

During my career, although I started as a residential property solicitor in private practice, I spent a number of years as the Chief Legal Officer and Monitoring Officer for a local planning authority. As part of this role, I prosecuted listed building and planning offences, giving me expertise in relation to listed buildings that few residential property solicitors can offer.

What is your most memorable legal experience and why?

Over the years, I’ve been involved in some remarkable transactions:

• I’ve stood in the gun room of a Napoleonic seafort in Milford Haven on a wet Saturday morning, wondering why my client had sold his family home to buy it
• I’ve prosecuted the owner of the house where ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ was composed following the decimation of the Jacobean mansion (£60k fine, £240k costs)
• I’ve completed two transactions where armed police were called out during completion because neighbour disputes had escalated so dramatically.

Those experiences certainly make for good stories, but they’re not the ones that have stayed with me. Looking back over my career, the moments I remember most are when the children of clients I first acted for in the 1990s ask me to help them buy their own first home. Equally rewarding was acting in the purchase of a listed building where, after seeing how I had handled the transaction, the seller later instructed me to act on their own purchase.

The unusual properties and extraordinary situations are part of what makes residential property so interesting. But the moments that matter most are the relationships built over many years and the trust clients place in you by coming back or recommending you to others. Those are the experiences that linger in the memory.

What is your top tip for clients?

The conveyancing process isn’t there to delay a transaction; it’s there to identify and manage risk. The best outcome isn’t always the quickest one – it’s the one where the client knows exactly what they’re buying.