Warning - do not use wolstenholmes solicitors

mjmal51

homelessmat - that is really bad news, especially as the SRA could have prevented so many people like yourself falling into this mess.
To quote from a letter I received this week from the SRA, "there is no evidence that Wolstenholmes was dishonest" (!!!!)
Are they as up to date as Crains' Manchester Business?
Another quote from Crains' relating to a financial claims firm being investigated
"The SRA's recent intervention into the affairs of Cheadle-based conveyancing firm Wolstenholmes Solicitors showed that the longer investigations drag on without any action being taken, the bigger the mess that eventually needs to be cleaned up. "

Aldrigde

I am very glad I got my monies back when I did .If I had held out for additional compensation I suspect I would have recieved nothing todate. May I wish you all well with your claims.

Brahan_seer_3

mjmal51 wrote: »

homelessmat - that is really bad news, especially as the SRA could have prevented so many people like yourself falling into this mess.
To quote from a letter I received this week from the SRA, "there is no evidence that Wolstenholmes was dishonest" (!!!!)
Are they as up to date as Crains' Manchester Business?
Another quote from Crains' relating to a financial claims firm being investigated
"The SRA's recent intervention into the affairs of Cheadle-based conveyancing firm Wolstenholmes Solicitors showed that the longer investigations drag on without any action being taken, the bigger the mess that eventually needs to be cleaned up. "

I assume your quote from the SRA was in relation to your matter as I do not see on what basis they could otherwise make the claim at this stage.

Whilst I personally know of any dishonesty whether there has been any has still to be established. We don't yet have trial by press in this country, although I sometimes wonder. What I do know is that Wolstenholmes' conveyancing and Accounting departments were shambolic. They had few proceedures in place and what was in place didn't work very well or in some cases at all.

What does concern me is that I have heard that Wasim Saddique and Mario Cardinali have "bought" another firm. Hopefully that is just a rumour, but does anybody out there know anything about this?

moongate

i have heard that Ilyas is looking for more offices in Manchester.

Horrified_Solicitor

homelessmat wrote: »

My only option then will be to put a claim into WH's insurers to pay. However at this point the LCS involvement stops and to quote my LCS caseworker "the LCS has no power over the insurers to enforce them to pay". Apparently the LCS can only adjudicate on whether I received "poor service" and cannot adjudicate on whether WH were "negligent", only a court can decide that, and the insurers may choose to only pay out on negligence claims.

As there is a substantial overlap between poor service and negligence, if the insurer refused to pay, you could simply threaten to sue in negligence and then they would be obliged to pay out and pay legal costs on top.

siliconbits

I was caught in this earlier today when I got an email that advised me that I was still not the owner of my house despite living in it for six months already. Talk about being shellshocked!

anotherproblem

siliconbits wrote: »

I was caught in this earlier today when I got an email that advised me that I was still not the owner of my house despite living in it for six months already. Talk about being shellshocked!

Hi I really am sorry to hear of this but on a brighter note you may find that you can leave DWF to sort out your property registration as this seems to be what is now happening. As you have possesion of the property it's a good start. Good Luck.

anotherproblem

mjmal51 wrote: »

SDLT was filed over 30 days ago now but still expect it to land on doorstep, will be handled by SRA anyway so not too concerned.

Hi I had to pay my soliciter the £100.00 fine when the SDTL was filled in - I am suprised if you were able to send one in late without payment. The solicitor just got the form in before the £100.00 fine became a £200.00 fine.

To add insult to injury the Indemnity policy for my property turned out to be a draft policy. Having just paid the final bill to the solicitor and with it in mind that at last it was over and done with - I was devastated to find that it was not. In desparation I rang the SRA who said to send it in to them with my claim for solicitors fees and so forth. So this morning I sent in the final letter to the appointed case manager with a request that the extra £140 was paid and that as I did not have a soliciter that maybe they could sort it out as their intervention had caused my problems.

I also made it very clear that I felt that I had been treated dreadfully by all interested parties and that my file was going to be placed in my MP's hands as soon as I had received payment. I have never in my whole life met up with such incompetance. Lots of bums on seats who did not appear to have a clue what to do once the intervention had taken place. I think if the SRA intend to repeat the WH saga at any point they need to get their act together. So lets see how long it takes for the SRA to sort my claim out. Thank goodness for the forum thats what I say.

Brahan_seer_3

anotherproblem wrote: »

Hi I had to pay my soliciter the £100.00 fine when the SDTL was filled in - I am suprised if you were able to send one in late without payment. The solicitor just got the form in before the £100.00 fine became a £200.00 fine.

To add insult to injury the Indemnity policy for my property turned out to be a draft policy. Having just paid the final bill to the solicitor and with it in mind that at last it was over and done with - I was devastated to find that it was not. In desparation I rang the SRA who said to send it in to them with my claim for solicitors fees and so forth. So this morning I sent in the final letter to the appointed case manager with a request that the extra £140 was paid and that as I did not have a soliciter that maybe they could sort it out as their intervention had caused my problems.

I also made it very clear that I felt that I had been treated dreadfully by all interested parties and that my file was going to be placed in my MP's hands as soon as I had received payment. I have never in my whole life met up with such incompetance. Lots of bums on seats who did not appear to have a clue what to do once the intervention had taken place. I think if the SRA intend to repeat the WH saga at any point they need to get their act together. So lets see how long it takes for the SRA to sort my claim out. Thank goodness for the forum thats what I say.

At least Gordon Brown's making some money out of this. I wonder if HMRC are able to say how much has been collected in fines from former Wolstenholmes' clients - possibley enough to cover at least one MP's expenses!!!

lytton-man

For all those facing fines from HMRC, I appealed the fine on the grounds that as a normal 'man in the street' and without any evidence to the contrary, I had assumed my solicitor had submitted the SDLT 1 and paid the stamp duty. I received a letter today from HMRC confirming the penalty for late submission had been cancelled because 'your agents Wolstenholmes were intervened within the 30 days of the return being received.
My case is slightly different from many of you because I completed in August 2009, my property was registered by Wolstenholmes in November which was obviously when they submitted the SDLT 1. Unfortunately they omitted to pay the £11850 stamp duty owed so I am presently using DWF's legal bods to claim this (and any interest accruing) from the SRA.