Warning - do not use wolstenholmes solicitors

isayoldchap

Yvn4jan wrote: »

I sold my house on 18/12/2009 and although the mortgage was paid off the same day, my equity has not been paid to me. I was promised it would be sent 22/12/2009 at 10.30am, but of course, it didn't happen! I have now had to instruct a new solicitor to try and get the file for my purchase and dealing with the SRA and the intermediary solicitors to try and get my equity. I'n not a happy bunny!
My solicitor was Jo Davis and I am going to defend her. Although at the beginning it was a sloppy service, Jo took responsibility for getting the sale through on time, as my son was buying my house and it needed to be completed before the end of the year so he did not have to pay stamp duty. She worked really hard on my behalf and managed to get it all done. My mortgage was paid off but just not my transaction to my account. Jo kept in contact with me all that week by phone and e-mail. I know I may be being naive here, but Jo phoned me on the Friday afternoon to say their cut off time to get the CHAPS payments done was 3.30pm and she was desperately trying to get both transactions done but the mortgage took priority. Jo said that if it didn't go on the Friday, it definately would on the Monday. Now, she was either blatently lying or she really did believe that the payments would be made and the offices would be open. I'll leave it to you to decide for yourselves, but I do think some of the staff were as much victims in this mess as we are. Although there is going to be a delay in my purchase and I am losing interest on my equity, I still have a job, these people don't and they don't have any redundancy either. I know who's shoes I would rather be in.

Hi
Welcome to the forum
I sold 6/10/09 and after being advised my large cheque of the balance would be despatched soon after,it wasn't until 19/10 that accounts posted it.
I then found out that it was sent to my previous address.
Furthermore Wolstenholmes asked for the mortgage from Alliance @ Leicester some four days before the agreed move date costing me intrest .
All the time the funds were earning them intrest.

I have a complaint going through the Legal Complaints Service.

I do hope you get it sorted

I do hope Helen Murgatroyd (she was the voice of complaints at WH),actually gets challenged on why she never responded to my complaint

cakinwande

isayoldchap wrote: »

I do hope Helen Murgatroyd (she was the voice of complaints at WH),actually gets challenged on why she never responded to my complaint

As far as I know, she never responded to any complaints. My solicitor managed to speak to her a couple of times to hound her for a response but never recieved one. She was pretty uneffective as the head of this department! News for me is that before WH was closed, my solicitor was preparing a report for my case was passed to an Adjudicator.

I hope everything is going better for you all xx

mjmal51

rfsp wrote: »

Many people on the verge of completing their property purchases were left in limbo, so the Solicitors' Regulation Authority (SRA) has made £3m available to help the most urgent cases.
A spokesman for the SRA, which has appointed Manchester lawyers DWF to handle all client files, said: “The SRA has sent £3m to DWF to enable them to help clients who exchanged contracts on house purchases but were unable to complete before Christmas.
“If more is needed it will be made available. We now have about 4,000 live files that we have recovered from the firm.”
.

Thanks for that useful info. Originally DWF collected around 600 files from the Heald Green office after the SRA intervention. As this has now escalated to 4,000, (presumably coming in from Stirling and others?), then it is no wonder that DWF have a real job in hand. Will wait patiently for somebody to post here that the Agents have made a breakthrough on their file.
(Glad to see the thread getting back to facts)

Wherever Stirling had a file without written consent then it had to be passed to DWF.

DWF looking for about 40 volunteers to carry on going through the files this weekend and recommending when possible/suitable that you apppoint your own local solicitor to take over the file when it is found. They will be sending out letters to all concerned when the initial work is completed.

anxious_24

hi just come back from stirling law ,sheridan very helpful and handed us the file ,it is now in the hands of our new solicitor . she also handed us the paper to prove the amount what abbey had paid and details of the account it was paid into which had just arrived that morning .

Catwoman8950

mjmal51 wrote: »

Thanks for that useful info. Originally DWF collected around 600 files from the Heald Green office after the SRA intervention. As this has now escalated to 4,000, (presumably coming in from Stirling and others?), then it is no wonder that DWF have a real job in hand. Will wait patiently for somebody to post here that the Agents have made a breakthrough on their file.
(Glad to see the thread getting back to facts)

Wherever Stirling had a file without written consent then it had to be passed to DWF.

DWF looking for about 40 volunteers to carry on going through the files this weekend and recommending when possible/suitable that you apppoint your own local solicitor to take over the file when it is found. They will be sending out letters to all concerned when the initial work is completed.

I've just had a call from DWF regarding my case. My file is with Stirling Law and DWF will recover it. As my case is a probate matter, it may be treated differently than everyone else in this forum but the procedure explained to me is that DWF will retrieve my file from SL and once DWF is in possession of it, they will notify me. I then have the option to instruct new solicitors to finish off the work. Concerning the money WH still owe me, I will have to fill in an official claim form (or my new solicitor will have to do it) and provide documentary evidence to support that claim. The claim is then handled by DWF as agents of the SRA. I appreciate this is not going to be a quick procedure and it may take some weeks before I see my money. I think priority will be given to the conveyancing files and I imagine they will be handled much sooner.

Lurking_Lawyer

Wiseman52 wrote: »

Naisr Ilyas acquired the practice back in 2006 and end of 2008 the firm was three weeks away from bankruptcy until such time NI enlisted the help and investments of Waseem Siddique and Mario Cardinalli who were non- lawyers management.

This explains a lot...

I interviewed for a job at Wolstenholmes around March last year. I had taken voluntary redundancy at Christmas in a case of jumping before I was pushed and so, while Wolstenholmes wasn't really the kind of firm I was looking at, I had a mortgage to pay, a wife and 1 year old to worry about and so let myself be talked by a recruitment consultant into going for an interview.

I was due to be interviewed by Waseem Siddique, and did wonder beforehand why I wasn't going to see the solicitor who headed the department I was interviewing to join, but assumed this was just a first interview and that I'd see someone qualified at a second interview.

In the event, I was interviewed by WS and Mario Cardinali, with the latter doing most of the talking. It wasn't really like any other interview I had had - all they wanted to know was how much I could bill from Day One, how many clients I could bring etc etc That's not really how interviews for solicitors generally go.

I left at the end thinking it wasn't somewhere I particularly wanted to work. I had no idea at the time how accurate that perception actually was! I should count my blessings that I heard nothing further from them....

As a couple of the other solicitor-posters have said previously, please don't tarnish us all with the same brush. The vast majority of solicitors are honest and professional individuals who will do their best for their clients. There will always be a few rotten apples and, inevitably, it is those who attract most attention.

I hope everyone caught up in this gets things sorted with the minimum of further fuss and delay. FWIW, DWF are an EXTREMELY well-thought of and professional commercial law firm and so you can have confidence that they will do their best to sort things out for you.

JellyBeans_3

Hello

I've been keeping up to date with what's going on with these so-called solicitors and I would be lost without this site, so thank you all. Only just got a chance to actually contribute. I'm a first time buyer, stupidly used WH, was told I was ready to exchange the day before the Birmingham office closed, then the usual story, my file went missing couldnt contact anyone so i instructed new solicitors and wrote to the SRA and LCS complaining and demanding my money and my file. The chain collapsed as someone higher up pulled out but luckily it has now rebuilt and we have got new LOCAL solicitors starting again. Luckily I had only given them £300, not my whole depost like so many people here, I cant even imagine what you're going through!

Anyway, I've just had a call from the legal complaints service, who have said i will get my money back and they are sending out claim forms to everybody. As for my file they gave me DWF's details and advise i rang them. The lady i spoke to was really helpful and couldnt apologise enough for the situation.

DWF said that most of the files are with them and told me that it would take around 3 weeks to get it back, they need me to send authorisation to forward the file, certified ID and authorisation from my lender and from my new solicitor. They asked me if I'd had any calls from other solicitors, i hadnt, but they mentioned Sterling Law and said that they are finding it difficult to retrieve the files they have. So the files were indeed passed to Sterling before the SRA intervention. Again, they were really helpful, but i got the feeling that this was going to take a long time to sort out, they have over 4000 files to deal with so understandable really.

So i guess we can all expect letters in the next week or so. Onwards and upwards ...

Thanks again to everyone on here for all the info and advice. I'd be lost without it!!

rfsp

About 4,000 customers stand to be affected by the sudden and forced closure of a Stockport law firm, a watchdog has said.

Full article:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8448648.stm

rfsp

Full article:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8439377.stm

Has anyone received this letter?


Notable points.......

"Anyone who has been affected by the investigation could be entitled to compensation, the SRA said".

"It asks clients to come forward if they feel they had money with the practice because they may be eligible for compensation, an SRA spokeswoman said".

Simply_Me_2

rfsp wrote: »

Full article:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8439377.stm

Has anyone received this letter?


Notable points.......

"Anyone who has been affected by the investigation could be entitled to compensation, the SRA said".

"It asks clients to come forward if they feel they had money with the practice because they may be eligible for compensation, an SRA spokeswoman said".

I have yet to receive my letter and don't hold out much hope of getting one as DWF cannot locate my file.

I have today made an urgent claim to the compensation fund for the grant of what would be my deposit fund as I may still be able to save my chain if I can move quickly.

However after being given the run around for weeks by Abbey I have finally received word today that the reason why my mortgage offer was withdrawn was due to Wolstenholmes conduct and that it was nothing to do with me. Interestingly although it was nothing to do with me I am having to make a completley new application and pay out more money again. What did I do to deserve all this, aye?