Warning - do not use wolstenholmes solicitors

rodeo12

higda202 wrote: »

Very interesting following thread. Completed very recently after similar experience as posted.

Now will wait with crossed fingers to see if land gets registered and if stamp duty is paid. Any advice from those who have completed with regard to encouraging them to do this?

Spent most of my life on the phone to them prior to sale, seems to have paid off or have been lucky.

May still be stuck with a bill from inland revenue.

Will read on with interest

Hi,

Have you any info on this yet?I am a bit worried now.Completed in September.

rfsp

Google44 wrote: »

Hi again

I will fill up the claim form to SRA but wonder how much to claim for. The completion was at 28. August 2009. I've done no searches at all so AFAIK the only thing from the list WH have done is transfer the money to buyer (I hope so as exchange did happen).

They have taken the stamp duty and all other charges in total of 2754.

As I payed by check and transfer I cannot claim it back of the bank. Should I claim for the all amount? Needless to say it is going to cost much more now to hire someone else. Wonder if I can pay myself for the duty and land registry to cut the cost and keep it within the money WH has taken of me.

Thanks

Hi Google 44, rodeo12, higda202 & mjmal51

I am also same like you guys, completed purchase but havent received the deed / land registration document. I have already made a compensation claim to LCS waiting for their reply.

If WH didnt pay the stamp duty within 30 days of completion then you will receive a letter from Inland Revenue telling you to pay with a penalty. If you havent then assume they have paid and not registered the property with Land Registry which you should be doing with the help of new solicitor/convencing firm once you get your file back from DWF.

Your compensation claim should include the extra cost you will have to pay for a new solicitor to carry out remaining works.

TRACIE-X_2

Google44 wrote: »

Hi again

I will fill up the claim form to SRA but wonder how much to claim for. The completion was at 28. August 2009. I've done no searches at all so AFAIK the only thing from the list WH have done is transfer the money to buyer (I hope so as exchange did happen).

They have taken the stamp duty and all other charges in total of 2754.

As I payed by check and transfer I cannot claim it back of the bank. Should I claim for the all amount? Needless to say it is going to cost much more now to hire someone else. Wonder if I can pay myself for the duty and land registry to cut the cost and keep it within the money WH has taken of me.

Thanks

You should claim it all back including what it costs to hire someone else but with all these claims you must have supporting evidence to prove what has been paid out

Tracie

TRACIE-X_2

Simply_Me wrote: »

Librachick remind us of your position.

How frustrating I called the SRA today following submission of my claim for a grant from the compensation fund. The lady explaned that more and more claims are coming in each and every single day and could not give me a timeframe in which my application will be dealt with. Which is all good and well but my sellers aren't going to hang around forever. Isn't it amazing transferring the money took me hours trying to get it back may take a lifetime.

Tracie any news?

sorry no news as of yet, only that I do know that DWF now temporarily have my file as there was additional information that they required for my claim so told SL to allow them to have it untill they have got everything they need. SL have been trying to get a reply from the Abbey all day as to whether they are ok for them to complete the sale (other evidence that DWF needed) and have spoke to mortgage broker who has been trying to speak to abbey too but no one is getting anywhere!!! God if its not one its the other!!!!!

Will keep you informed of any other news tomorrow.

I must admit I am finally at the stage where I cant take this anymore have had to book B and B for sat and sunday so far as have to vacate the cottage weve been staying in since 1st on saturday dunno what im gonna do with my poor dog yet and I can only get a family room for 4 people so looks like Hubby is on the floor!!!!! lol you gotta laugh at something or you'll cry....

Tracie

Catwoman8950

rfsp wrote: »

Your compensation claim should include the extra cost you will have to pay for a new solicitor to carry out remaining works.

Does anyone know for sure that we will be allowed to claim compensation for additional solicitors' fees incurred as a result of Wolstenholmes' incompetence (criminal in my view) and the SRA intervention?

I have to make a decision on who to instruct to handle the rest of my case, which is basically to get back the rest of the money Wolstenholmes still owe me. It would be easiest to have DWF do it as they have their finger on the pulse so to speak, but I understand their charges are high compared to a local high street solicitor.

Google44

"
Hi Google 44, higda202

I am also same like you guys, completed purchase but havent received the deed / land registration document. I have already made a compensation claim to LCS waiting for their reply.

If WH didnt pay the stamp duty within 30 days of completion then you will receive a letter from Inland Revenue telling you to pay with a penalty. If you havent then assume they have paid and not registered the property with Land Registry which you should be doing with the help of new solicitor/convencing firm once you get your file back from DWF.

Your compensation claim should include the extra cost you will have to pay for a new solicitor to carry out remaining works"
Does that mean I should wait untill I get files from DWF before submiting the compensation claim to LCS? I've received nothing from IR so hope they have at least payed for stamp duty. Is there a way to be sure/check? Should I get another solicitor on the case before files received or is this jumping in front?

Thanks for reply. At least I got a bit of a good news

Catwoman8950

I just spotted this on the Law Society website:

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/newsandevents/news/view=newsarticle.law?NEWSID=425469

picklesjsw

davidburke wrote: »

i have noticed that on numerous occasions you have brought my name into this forum. Firstly i do not know who you are or which file you are referring to. In 2008 i did indeed work for Wolstenholmes and for a short time i was the complaints officer, so you may have written to me. If you wish to talk to me about your friends file - only once i have permission from your friend - then i would be happy to talk to you. I would just like to point out that i have done nothing illegal and i am staggered as to why you want be so critical of peoples conduct when it is patantly clear that in my particular case you do not have knowledge of the full facts. Please do not hide behind an alias send a message with contact details on if you wish to discuss further.

The matter was eventually sorted. You were aware of the matter and behaved very rudely to me and my friend at the time. There is no need to talk about my friends file.

I do not claim that you were responsible for the muckups in his file, I am not sure if you were at the firm when they actually occurred; but you were aware of them, and they were clear evidence of blatant incompetence.

I am aware of the facts at the time relating to you, and those alone are sufficient to be 100% sure that you were as guilty as Illyas who was involved. End of.

Catwoman8950 wrote: »

Does anyone know for sure that we will be allowed to claim compensation for additional solicitors' fees incurred as a result of Wolstenholmes' incompetence (criminal in my view) and the SRA intervention?

I have to make a decision on who to instruct to handle the rest of my case, which is basically to get back the rest of the money Wolstenholmes still owe me. It would be easiest to have DWF do it as they have their finger on the pulse so to speak, but I understand their charges are high compared to a local high street solicitor.

DWF specialize in work for large companies and are very expensive. In my experience they aren't very efficient either, but I do know that some have had very positive experiences with them.

If you were to retain them, it would be separate to their intervention and they are not cheap. I suggest you retain a local high-street Solicitor - make sure they are checked out first.

I received a PM from Gavin Wall, which I will post up here with my response, as I think it is fair to make this public.

GWall wrote:

Dear Sir,

You seem to have been misinformed as to my role in Wolstenholmes and my involvement of the same.
If you are local to the Manchester Area, I invite you to come and meet with me to discuss fully so that you can understand EXACTLY what has gone on and what has not.

For your information, when I left Wolstenholmes (being there for around 6 months) I made 4 separate reports to the law society as I felt it was my duty as a Solicitor to do so - therefore your comment that I should be struck off is quite frankly, daft.
- can you honestly imagine that all those people who were made redundant from Wolstenholmes all deserved what they got - just for wanting to make a living?

Finally, a common misconception is that Home Solictors is in some way linked to Wolstenholmes - the reality is quite the opposite and they (Wolstenholmes) and my own firm were in the middle of a significant dispute over defamation (Wolstenholmes employees ringing potential clients and making unfounded allegations) so the idea that we have taken over their files is absurd.

Nontheless, I will ensure that if you want to discuss this matter properly, I will take the time to go into full detail and answer any questions you have.

Alternatively, please ring me on 0161-xxx-xxxx....

Many thanks

Gavin Wall

(I have edited part of the PM as it contained a telephone number and as that is personal information and I don't have Mr. Wall's permission to disclose it, I won't.)

My response:
Dear Mr. Wall,

I do not believe I have been mis-informed regarding Home Solicitors. My information has come from reliable sources.

I doubt you made complaints to the Law Society, as if you did you would know that complaints about Solicitors conduct made by fellow Solicitors is made to the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority).

I do not claim that all who were made redundant from Wolstenholmes deserved what they got - because I don't have enough information about all of them, and I know of at least one who didn't deserve what was received.

What I can say is that those Solicitors involved in Wolstenholmes at the time when - at minimum incompetence, but most likely fraud - was increasing; are jointly and severally liable with those acting incompetently or conducting fraud - as they did not make sure that the SRA shut down Wolstenholmes.

The SRA can intervene in a firm at less than a days notice. If competently written reports were made to the SRA then I am confident the SRA would have intervened earlier - knowing of their intervention in many less serious cases where ONE Solicitor made a report.

As with regards to your disputes regarding defamation and suchlike, I doubt them to be true based on what I do know, but have no interest in finding out if they are not. I am very sure that if you really wish to pursue a libel case against Illyas and Wolstenholmes (even though it has been intervened in, the case can still proceed - complex but possible, though financial reward from a case against the firm is likely to be non-existent, and a case can be pursued against Illyas as an individual - or any other individuals who allegedly acted libellously - despite the firm being a LLP) you will do so, and make that judgment - or any admission and/or apology, public if it really happens. Till then I am not going to believe this.

Sincerely,
picklesjsw

mjmal51

rfsp wrote: »

Hi Google 44, rodeo12, higda202 & mjmal51

I am also same like you guys, completed purchase but havent received the deed / land registration document. I have already made a compensation claim to LCS waiting for their reply.

If WH didnt pay the stamp duty within 30 days of completion then you will receive a letter from Inland Revenue telling you to pay with a penalty. If you havent then assume they have paid and not registered the property with Land Registry which you should be doing with the help of new solicitor/convencing firm once you get your file back from DWF.

Your compensation claim should include the extra cost you will have to pay for a new solicitor to carry out remaining works.

Unfortunately I started reading this thread on 15th Dec and people have received demands from the IR well after the 30 days quoted. I think the only way to be completely sure is to entrust all the post completion checks to be done by your new solicitor when the files are finally returned. Can't assume anything in this mess!
Also it is not possible for us to know how much to claim for yet, that again will be at the end, for now just lodge a complaint with the LCS.
I spoke to LCS explaining that I do not know how much money WH did not pay out from my funds (apart from not registering with LR) but they did not really offer any extra advice, just that they are overwhelmed. Would not have been such a problem if the SRA had done its job and intervened much earlier.
It will also be possible to claim for compensation, as opposed to recompense of funds, for all the extras incurred plus stress, etc, but again the amount unknown and at the moment less important than getting all the the legal work done.


Called my new solicitor, apparently the IR will not know about the purchase if the property has not been registered. So we will not get an IR demand yet. Was this part of the cunning WH plan?

TRACIE-X_2

it never rains but it pours just to top it off estate agents went round to check the house were selling as im 2 hours away and the pipes have burst!!!!!!! i must be a really evil person dunno what ive done to be handed soooooo much bad luck. They are calling our purchasers solicitors now to tell them, but who's insurance will cover it mine or the risk insurance taken out by our buyers oh welll just another installment into the buying selling sage of Tracie ..........

but have spoke to DWF and they say everything in order from file just waiting for the confirmation from abbey for SL to deal with purchase and then they can speak to SRA and find out when funds can be released ........

will let you know

A very depressed Tracie