O'Neill Patient Solicitors - Anyone had to deal with them?

chopper78

Hmmn, I'd be worried instructing anybody called One Ill Patient...

Oxid8uk

timmyt wrote: »

But picking up on the earlier posters, remember if the lawyer has done their bit but the client is not ready, the lawyer has to tread water and stall. Often we are ready but our clients haven't got their mortgage sorted, or as is so typical with FTB, they think they are the most important people in the chain so will go at their own pace and negotiate over everything, and then refuse to pay duplicate rent and mortgage if they are renting.

Our buyers are not stalling and have the mortgage sorted. Appears that they haven't received any paperwork from O'Neills yet and they were not aware that they had lost the paperwork the first time around! O'Neills contacted our EA yesterday - apparently they 'thought' they may have lost the paperwork AGAIN!!!!!! :wall:

The buyers are coming to the property tomorrow to measure up so we may make a few little comments to try and get them to hurry up their solicitors!

G_M

Oxid8uk wrote: »

Our EA, like us, isn't happy about it and have said that if in a few weeks there are more and more problems with O'Neills, that they will recommend the buyers to change solicitors.

Crazy!

1) if this is a concern, wasting "a few weeks" and then doing something which will set you all back to the beginning is mad. Either do something now, or resign yourself and sit it out.
2) sure - the EA can "recommend" the buyers change, but the buyer doesn't have to listen - and probobly won't. Esp if he's getting free conveyancing as part of the mortgage deal or has a cheap price
3) You could insist the buyer change - but only by refusing to sell unless he does. Would you be willing to follow through on this bluff?

Oxid8uk

G_M wrote: »

Crazy!

1) if this is a concern, wasting "a few weeks" and then doing something which will set you all back to the beginning is mad. Either do something now, or resign yourself and sit it out.
2) sure - the EA can "recommend" the buyers change, but the buyer doesn't have to listen - and probobly won't. Esp if he's getting free conveyancing as part of the mortgage deal or has a cheap price
3) You could insist the buyer change - but only by refusing to sell unless he does. Would you be willing to follow through on this bluff?

I think we have resigned ourselves to it and will sit it out. Even if we did insist them to change solicitors, any paperwork that has to be transferred from O'Neills to their new solicitor would probably hold up things even more while O'Neills try to find it!

As for bluffing - it took 3 months to get the offer and we dropped the price significantly to shift it. We are paying mortgages on two places at the moment with one sat empty so it is best gone as it is just dead money, so we have no intentions of pulling out. It is just very frustrating as the buyers knew we wanted a quick sale (they did too) and if they had used a smaller more organised solicitor practice then we would probably be looking at exchanging contracts before Christmas, which I think we all know is not going to happen now!!

Lime_Kiln

I am the Managing Partner at O'Neill Patient where we pride ourselves on getting it right and giving a great service, most of the time.
Occasionally we may get it wrong. If we do, we try to sort it ASAP.

Your experience is the exception, not the rule.

I hope the issues you report on in your forum exchange have now been resolved, but if they haven't, please contact me.

We currently process over 3,500 residential sales and purchases and remortgages every month, so that makes us a large conveyancing business.

If you look up our website, the testimonials are genuine.

In this case, if you go to our website you will find my name (Robin Higham) and contact details.

We genuinely care.

DVardysShadow

Lime_Kiln wrote: »

I am the Managing Partner at O'Neill Patient where we pride ourselves on getting it right and giving a great service, most of the time.
Occasionally we may get it wrong. If we do, we try to sort it ASAP.

Respect to you for coming here and posting rather than trying to slap a law suit. Of course there is little that you can do to resolve it from here, because the poster with the problem is not themselves actually your client.

Oxid8uk

Lime_Kiln wrote: »

I am the Managing Partner at O'Neill Patient where we pride ourselves on getting it right and giving a great service, most of the time.
Occasionally we may get it wrong. If we do, we try to sort it ASAP.

Lime Kiln, thank you for your comment and I concur with DVardysShadow last post.

LK - I have sent you a PM with a more detailed response.

DaveW007

Lime_Kiln wrote: »

I am the Managing Partner at O'Neill Patient where we pride ourselves on getting it right and giving a great service, most of the time.
Occasionally we may get it wrong. If we do, we try to sort it ASAP.

Your experience is the exception, not the rule.

I hope the issues you report on in your forum exchange have now been resolved, but if they haven't, please contact me.

We currently process over 3,500 residential sales and purchases and remortgages every month, so that makes us a large conveyancing business.

If you look up our website, the testimonials are genuine.

In this case, if you go to our website you will find my name (Robin Higham) and contact details.

We genuinely care.

I had terrible problems with you too! In fact one of your employees stated in an email that the transaction was less than perfect.

I had paperwork lost despite being assured that all your post is logged. I had to pay a second time to have paperwork official verified. Strange thing is that you received my cheque which was in the same envelope!

The list of errors is endless though.

I have complained to the Legal Ombudsman and they also stated that errors have been made. Ultimately the Legal Ombudsman reached a final decision and are not going to take my complaint any further.

It's nice to know that the Legal Ombudsman receive their funding through solicitors so there is no way they will ever find complaints in the favour of the customer as the solicitors will simply withdraw their funding!!

All in all, I am not at all impressed with O'Neill Patient and will definitely not be using you again or recommending you.

carriestimp

Hi,

I used this company two years ago with my 1st house and everything was fine and went smoothly.
I'm currently in the early stages of using them again to purchase my second property. So far so good, a little slower than expected (probably down to the bank holiday back-log), but fingers crossed their service hasn't slipped.
If I find that it has and they're not pushing quickly of effectively then I will certainly be complaining.
I like the fact I can monitor the progress on line and see exactly what's going on.
We'll soon see . . . .

This_is_not_my_name

When we got our completion statement from these we noticed that charges were applied for:

...fees for dealing with the leasehold = £95 + vat (the property is a freehold!)
...fees for dealing with the restriction registered on the property = £90 + vat (there are no restrictions)
...fees for providing a copy of the updated register = £20 + vat (I had already asked them, as requested in writing, not to provide this as I can get one for £4 direct from Land Registry)

In fairness when I raised this they removed the fees immediately but what if I had not noticed?

Also I "probably" wrongly assumed the £20 + vat for electronic transfer of funds was to cover the cost of payment by CHAPS (instant payment). It wasn't, they processed it by BACS. Which can take "up to 3 working days to clear" and as far as I am aware is free.

The day after our completion date and we have still not received the balance.

Good job it was just a switch of mortgage provider and we didn't need those funds to pay for a new house. It is very cold out there at the moment!