Warning - do not use wolstenholmes solicitors

Summer123

Please note Norman Saville & Co Solicitors based in Birmingham and London were formed from wolstenholmes and which surprisingly enough has also been shut down. Although they have now opened an immigration firm of solicitors somewhere in Birmingham. Beware!!

rfsp

mjmal51 wrote: »

All the best for success in your claim, I gave up on the possibility of the insurers paying and LCS were all too keen to close my case asap.
The original statement at intervention was that over 4,000 people were affected but the range was from people paying a deposit of £2/300 to a sale that had reached completion stage with WH holding the money (£400,000).
I doubt many people got to the LCS claim and just settled for SRA compensation.
I do wonder if there are still people out there who are blissfully unaware that they are affected, ie. WH did not register the property, did not pay the correct SDLT or even pay it at all?

I also gave up my LCS claim after reading other posts in this thread... would love to hear from anyone who has got compensation from the insurance company.

Ekroy

rfsp wrote: »

I also gave up my LCS claim after reading other posts imsn this thread... would love to hear from anyone who has got compensation from the insurance company.

We used Wolstenholms last year to buy a new house, moved in November 2009. We had a letter in April from the solicitors who are dealing with Wolstenholms closure and accounts saying Wolstenholms may not have registered the house. We found out this week they have definitely not paid the stamp duty, land registry, no NHBC guarantee and goodness knows what else.
all the rubbish we went through and still going through I just want it sorted and compensated but it looks like we won't get the latter.
How long does it take for the claim to go through the system? We have proof of payment.

Catwoman8950

Ekroy wrote: »

We used Wolstenholms last year to buy a new house, moved in November 2009. We had a letter in April from the solicitors who are dealing with Wolstenholms closure and accounts saying Wolstenholms may not have registered the house. We found out this week they have definitely not paid the stamp duty, land registry, no NHBC guarantee and goodness knows what else.
all the rubbish we went through and still going through I just want it sorted and compensated but it looks like we won't get the latter.
How long does it take for the claim to go through the system? We have proof of payment.

I submitted my claim against Wolstenholmes to the SRA in April 2010 and although they have acknowledged receipt of it, they have not done anything with it yet. The high volume of claims they are having to deal with was given as the reason when I contacted them last month . I am in a slightly different position than most people on this forum though as my claim concerns a probate matter, not a conveyancing matter and my claim might take longer to process because of that.

mjmal51

Ekroy wrote: »

We used Wolstenholms last year to buy a new house, moved in November 2009. We had a letter in April from the solicitors who are dealing with Wolstenholms closure and accounts saying Wolstenholms may not have registered the house. We found out this week they have definitely not paid the stamp duty, land registry, no NHBC guarantee and goodness knows what else.
all the rubbish we went through and still going through I just want it sorted and compensated but it looks like we won't get the latter.
How long does it take for the claim to go through the system? We have proof of payment.

As I suspected (in my post #1299), there are people out there who were not aware that they were affected by WH. I also completed purchase back in Nov but thanks to the forum I realised by digging around in Dec that WH had done no post completion work, about £11,500 gone "missing".
This was before the SRA intervention, for which I was one of the official complaints. By keeping abreast of the forum I was able to get my claim in as soon as allowed. I think it still took about 6 weeks to get the cheque, but they were still getting official management guidelines at the time.

rfsp

Ekroy wrote: »

We used Wolstenholms last year to buy a new house, moved in November 2009. We had a letter in April from the solicitors who are dealing with Wolstenholms closure and accounts saying Wolstenholms may not have registered the house. We found out this week they have definitely not paid the stamp duty, land registry, no NHBC guarantee and goodness knows what else.
all the rubbish we went through and still going through I just want it sorted and compensated but it looks like we won't get the latter.
How long does it take for the claim to go through the system? We have proof of payment.

Hi

Before making SRA claim you need to appoint a solicitor to do the remaining post completion works of your property.

mjmal51

News item on BBC today, nothing really new apart from 2 of those suspended now allowed to practise again
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11137574

31 August 2010 law firm closure 'to cost more than £10m'


The forced closure of a Stockport-based law firm is expected to cost more than £10m, administrators have said.
Wolstenholmes, which opened in 1818, was closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in December.
Five solicitors had their licences suspended amid claims of dishonesty and that accounting rules were broken.
The SRA has already paid out £9.4m in compensation but administrators Berry and Co say the total clear-up costs will exceed £10m.
Thousands of customers are thought to have been affected by the closure.
Most of them were using the firm to help them buy a house.
Many complained to the Legal Complaints Commission (LCC), saying they had lost money.
'Missing Porsche'
An SRA spokesman said: "As of Friday, the SRA has investigated and concluded more than 550 applications relating to the intervention of Wolstenholmes LLP and has, as a consequence, paid out £9.4 million (including emergency funding) from the compensation fund."
The administrators told the BBC that Wolstenholmes owed £3.5m to creditors when it was closed down - including to staff and Lloyds TSB bank.
The bank also paid for a Porsche sports car for the firm, which is missing, the administrators said.
Solicitors Imran Hussain, Helen Murgatroyd, Bobby Shabbir, Bilal Khawaja and Nasser Ilyas all had their licences suspended in December.
Mr Khawaja and Mr Hussain are now being allowed to practise, subject to a strict set of conditions, the SRA said.

1st Sept edit. Now 3 people now being allowed to "practise" again
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/business/s/1315586_94m_payout_for_wolstenholmes_victims

Clients of a Stockport law firm that was closed in 2009 after five solicitors had their licences to practice suspended have so far been handed £9.4m in compensation, new figures show.
Wolstenholmes, which had offices in Cheadle and Birmingham, was closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which regulates solicitors in England and Wales, after 'serious allegations' of dishonesty and that accounting rules were broken.
The SRA administers a compensation fund for clients who have suffered losses through dishonesty by its members.
The SRA investigated more than 550 applications for compensation from Wolstenholmes' clients and has already paid out £9.4m, with the ultimate settlement figure likely to top £10m.
Of the five suspended solicitors, three have now been allowed to resume practising, although restrictions have been placed on what kind of work they are allowed to undertake.
An SRA statement read: “The SRA has imposed stringent conditions on the practising certificates of Imran Hussain, Bilal Kahawaja and Bobby Shabir, former solicitors at Wolstenholmes, which was closed in December 2009.
“Details on the controls can be found on our website at www.sra.org.uk
“The practising certificates of the other two solicitors, Helen Murgatroyd and Nassir Illyas, remain suspended.
“The investigation into the firm is ongoing and the appointed agents are dealing with client files.”

I am surprised that only 550 case dealt with so far by SRA when they say that over 4,000 were affected negatively. Many still unaware?
This is about the one year anniversary of when I first appointed WH to act for me, ignorance was bliss!

Catwoman8950

mjmal51 wrote: »

News item on BBC today, nothing really new apart from 2 of those suspended now allowed to practise again
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11137574

31 August 2010 law firm closure 'to cost more than £10m'


I am surprised that only 550 case dealt with so far by SRA when they say that over 4,000 were affected negatively. Many still unaware?
This is about the one year anniversary of when I first appointed WH to act for me, ignorance was bliss!

I was surprised too. Does this mean that they have already paid out 9.4 million for only 550 cases? If so then the total is going to be a lot more than 10 million! They have not included my case in this figure. Although I sent my claim off to the SRA back in April they have only just got round to handling it. Finally I have been assigned to someone in their claims department. At this rate it will be Christmas before I see my money, i.e. one year after the intervention!

mjmal51

From the FT (I tried to post a link rather than cut and paste but you have to register, for free, but failed to see how to share the article)

Criminals move to exploit failed law firms

Criminals are suspected of hijacking dozens of law firms whose owners sold up under pressure from the financial crisis, a senior investigator has warned, amid wider concerns over the management of some high street practices.
Steve Wilmott, head of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s fraud bureau, told the Financial Times that the authority was working with several police forces over dozens of cases in which criminal groups were suspecting of taking over troubled firms.
“There are lots of practices up for sale at the moment because of the recession,” said Mr Wilmott. “What we are concerned about is criminals buying them up and using them for nefarious means.”

Takeovers of legal businesses would be better vetted in future after some clients lost money in failed firms and others had cash frozen pending official investigations, Mr Wilmott said. His comments highlight the industry house-cleaning taking place as the economic downturn forces a number of smaller law firms to cease trading or seek rescue buy-outs or mergers.
The suspected offences involving hijacked firms included fraud related to mortgages, advance fees and immigration, and staged accidents and money laundering, said Mr Wilmott, former head of economic crime at City of London police. The businesses sometimes opened sham offices and often used recently qualified lawyers to front the operations. “Some of these are witting – and some of them aren’t,” he said.
The concern about firm hijacking is part of a wider worry over the quality of management at law firms whose businesses have unravelled amid big alleged losses to clients and other creditors.
One notable example of the bigger question is Wolstenholmes of Cheadle and Birmingham, which was shut down by the solicitors authority on Christmas Eve. The authority declined to comment on the case, which has not led to charges against the firm or anyone connected with it.
Stephen Berry, Wolstenholmes’ administrator, said in a report filed at Companies House last week that the firm and its members were suspected of breaching professional practice rules. He said the prospect of the firm returning all the money owed to its clients and other creditors – 550 of whom have so far claimed a total of £9.4m in compensation from the solicitors authority – was “nil”.
Wolstenholmes’ former managers could not be reached. A Wolstenholmes representative had previously responded to a string of complaints about the firm on a popular consumer website by saying it was “working really hard to put processes in place and correct any past mistakes”.
The solicitors authority says it will shortly launch revamped vetting rules for the legal profession, with tougher standards on the authorisation of firms and the people who run them. The authority sees the work as particularly important because of new legislation that allows lawyers to go into business for the first time with other professionals, ranging from accountants to architects.
Mr Wilmott said the action the authority was taking against suspect and incompetent law firms was “beginning to work” and would “get even better once we get our vetting schemes in place”.

isayoldchap

I spoke to Adrian Neve from Fishburns solicitors yesterday evening.They are the solicitors appointed by Wolstenholmes insurers.He tells me he is dealing with quite alot of Wolstenholmes claims and is having to work late to sort these out.
I am sending him further information on my case.
I am lucky as Wolstenholmes paid eventually my balancing cheque after the sale.
My claim is the adjudicator decision and intrest as they claimed the mortgage earlier than the actual move date and held onto my cash after the sale.£600 compensation plus £75.77 intrest.
The SRA have also asked for an update on progress with the claim from Fishburns.
I hope to report back soon
PM me if you require any further assistance