Warning - do not use wolstenholmes solicitors

sue276

Out of interest as I am in similar circumstances, who is the advisor, somebody from the SRA or LCS? My LCS advisor closed the file as the complaint had been dealt with!
Also what was the Inland Revenue's stance on fines, etc?

Hi
They are from the SRA. They sent us a letter saying that they had received our claim form and would be in contact shortly. Rather then waiting i called the number on the letter and was put through to my appointed advisor and she had just that day started working through my claim and said she was about to write to me. I have been in email contact with her since then sending in evidence to support our claim and as i mentioned it seems to be progressing so i have my fingers crossed for the end of Feb.

We have not heard back from the LCS about our claim for damages (i.e. the fines we are incurring) Although at the moment i am not chasing as i am less concerned about the few hundred £ fines and more worried about the £20k!

We wrote to the inland rev (HMRC) who called my partner yesterday and said they might be able to waiver the £100 fine but not the on going interest charges. We are going to ask our new soliciter to take this up with them and then look to claim back through the LCS

At the moment my main concern is getting back my 20k (that the SRA seem to be progressing) so my solicter can pay the stamp duty and register the property. When that is ok I will start chasing for the the other stuff where i have been left out of pocket!

mjmal51

sue276 wrote: »

We have not heard back from the LCS about our claim for damages (i.e. the fines we are incurring) Although at the moment i am not chasing as i am less concerned about the few hundred £ fines and more worried about the £20k!

We wrote to the inland rev (HMRC) who called my partner yesterday and said they might be able to waiver the £100 fine but not the on going interest charges. We are going to ask our new soliciter to take this up with them and then look to claim back through the LCS

At the moment my main concern is getting back my 20k (that the SRA seem to be progressing) so my solicter can pay the stamp duty and register the property. When that is ok I will start chasing for the the other stuff where i have been left out of pocket!

Just spoke to SRA and they confirm the whole claim is through them, money lost to WH, fines and interest charged by IR, cost of new solicitor to put things right.
I forgot to ask can we make a second claim later on if some of these extras do not become apparent until then.
LCS claim is purely for distress and inconvenience in the WH affair.

LadyLawyer

Yes you can make a second claim - my clients claimed once in an emergency type way as they had exchanged but WH had lost their deposit! And now we have the deposit back after speedy action by DWF, we are doing another claim following completion covering all sorts of extra costs that have been incurred. The main thing with the SRA stuff is to bombard them with evidence to make it easy for them to justify and process your claim.

Simply_Me_2

Dear All, You will recall that I lost £41k in this whole mess, I have just heard that payment has been approved and should be with me by early next week in order for me to effect exchange of contracts and completion.

My advisor, Cara at the SRA was most helpful, courteous and informative. Out of all the people I have dealt with throughout this whole affair that has claimed too much of my time, life and patience two women stand out the most for their understanding and help. They are Cara at the SRA Compensation Fund and a former practitioner now working on the LCS helpline who I had a most humourous telephone conversation with on 21/22 December, I do not know her name. Thank you both.

lovemotown

Catwoman8950 wrote: »

Yes, Gavin Wall is ex-WH. I don't know about the others listed on this site. There was another ex-WH employee (surname Gonzales I think) listed a couple of months ago but she seems to have gone.

Yes, Laura Wilson another - promised this that and the other and leached a big deposit off me to commence. Told me how good they were and only used solicitors etc etc.

Luckily I saw through them and cancelled before they did anything, (would still have been waiting) and got my money back.

Phew.....close call

mjmal51

LadyLawyer wrote: »

Yes you can make a second claim - my clients claimed once in an emergency type way as they had exchanged but WH had lost their deposit! And now we have the deposit back after speedy action by DWF, we are doing another claim following completion covering all sorts of extra costs that have been incurred. The main thing with the SRA stuff is to bombard them with evidence to make it easy for them to justify and process your claim.

This was confirmed to me by the SRA re. multiple claims. Wish I had known this 2 weeks ago as I would have then submitted my claim for the bulk of the money. It was the LCS caseworker that told me I had to wait until everything was completed. :mad:

So will now be putting in the initial claim tomorrow. Nice to see some posters now getting things moving :T

rfsp

Hi
I have already sent the form to SRA last week but not heard anything from them yet! does anyone know how long will they take to appoint a case worker/adviser?

Also an enquiry to land registry regarding stamp duty, havent had any response from them too......

Please let me know what was your experience on similar situations...

Thanks

Catwoman8950

Horrified_Solicitor wrote: »

It seems that a lot of the WH files have simply disappeared. One interpretation is that this was to get rid of evidence against them. However, there will be records (bank/credit card) of you payment to them and this should enable you to recover your money from the Compensation Fund.

My view is that the police ought to be called in and all the staff questioned as to what has been going on. Staff who have left and set up other firms ought to be questioned as well.

I wonder if files really are missing or perhaps they were never opened in the first place? Would it be true to say that all those who paid money upfront to WH have missing files? Perhaps WH just took the deposits and never opened a client file.

anotherproblem

Catwoman8950 wrote: »

I wonder if files really are missing or perhaps they were never opened in the first place? Would it be true to say that all those who paid money upfront to WH have missing files? Perhaps WH just took the deposits and never opened a client file.

Well my sellers files are conveniently missing = unfortunatly we both used WH without realising. Then when I questioned WH about it they said it was ok as it was different offices. It struck me that as no paper work was sent across at completion (none to be found) that along with the missing file was proof of the extra £140 that was paid for the indemnity insurence ( I paid the sellers half toward it) I have chased several firms to try and find the policy without success. (as I have said before sellors have emigrated) I wonder how many other people have not had indemnity insurence paid - or how many files have gone missing that should have contained indemnity insurence policies.

anotherproblem

rfsp wrote: »

Hi
I have already sent the form to SRA last week but not heard anything from them yet! does anyone know how long will they take to appoint a case worker/adviser?

Also an enquiry to land registry regarding stamp duty, havent had any response from them too......

Please let me know what was your experience on similar situations...

Thanks

Hi I have also been waiting over week I guess they must be a bit bogged down I think we have to be a bit patient. I would ring the land registry they are usually very helpful