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

Linnet86

These solicitors were appointed to me through Nationwide; they were completely free (apart from costs for searches).

If you're in no rush whatsoever they would be great, as i only parted with £350 odd to use them. However my purchase was extremely straight forward. i.e. desposit in the bank, mortage offer, no chain (on either side). It took O'Neills 4 months to complete on my purchase and i chased them every day.

Their main excuses were 'we're waiting for a response to some queries from the sellers'. I chased the sellers (through the Estate Agent) and no such queries had been issued at any point. Total stalling tactics, although i cannot figure out why. The seller was very keen to complete ASAP and so was i, but my solicitor managed to stall for months.

I did not get a completion date until the absolute last minute; they outright refused to give me one, even though the sellers were desperate to complete.

If you're thinking about using these solicitors, or they have recently been appointed to ask for a different one!!

andyproc

I've just dealt with them when I bought a new property and then remortgaged my own as a buy to let. With regard to buying my new property I found them good. The issue I had was when we came to exchange by concidence they had been appointed as the solicitor for my remortgage. They hadn't 'picked up' the job from the Coop to do my remortgage and so I had to wait another week while this was done, which they did do quickly. I had the help of a good mortgage advisor to give them a kick and Im still not sure exactly whose fault it was (Coop or solicitors) that the instructions to do the remortgage hadn't gone through as planned.

[Deleted User]

I've not personally dealt with O'Neill's, but the Sellers' we are currently purchasing our property from are using them.

They've been quite slow at times in providing information requested by our Solicitor, and what our Solicitor has received has been rather vague, often prompting additional questions.

Angie_B

I have just completed on my flat and used O'Neill Patient. I had no problems with them whatsoever. I had one specific solicitor who was dealing with my case. She responded promptly to emails, kept me updated on how things were going and the no-move-no-fee quoted at the start was what I paid at the end. So no complaints here. Maybe it depends on which solicitor you get within the firm...

FrostRated

chopper78 wrote: »

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

@Chopper78... Very Good ;-)

FrostRated

Maybe we are another exception but we are 6 months in and still no end in sight... Although not strictly all O'Neill's fault. Delays are now between them and Simply Law :-(

_sb

I used them last March with my house purchase and had no problems with their service. I received regular updates from them and were easy to contact when I wanted to ask something. Countrywide on the another hand..

candyk3000

After reading all the comments here, I am getting a bit nervous as I am using them through my bank Nationwide who has assigned them to be my conveyancer.
My mortgage offer has been accepted and Nationwide mentioned that I shall be getting paperwork from them soon and a copy f'or O Neill Patient.
I have called up the solicitors and they mentioned that they have not recieved the proper questionnaire yet that they have posted to the vendors solicitors. I called up the vendor's estate agent and mentioned to me that they have been giving O Neill Patient data to draft a contract. So is this the start of pointing fingers??????
It is the 4th week since my offer has been accepted and they mentioned that it can come to 6 to 8 weeks.
So another month and hopefully everything won't be in shambles.....

mileslondoner

I used them for my FTB purchase and everything went all right.

There was good communication and I liked the fact I could follow the process online. All documents were in one place on the website so it was fairly easy to know where we were and what the next steps would be.

Today - six months after my completion - I received without any prompting a cheque for 60 pounds I must have overpaid. This I think is very reassuring.

I would have no doubt recommending the solicitor who dealt with my purchase.

The only negative was: while our solicitor was away a person deputising for her was rather slow, unclear in her communication and demanded some extra payments from us which later appeared not to be necessary. Perhaps this was an intern or a junior member of staff but I was glad our dedicated solicitor got back.

HARSA

I used them through a Britannia remortgage and the guy I dealt with was really really good and his name was Mr Watt

I have almost completed an application for additional funding to purchase the full share of my share ownership property with Waterloo housing. I am using them again and in just under 2 years time I will be moving house and will be using them again.
Mr Watt kept in constant email contact with me through out the whole process. When he went on a two week holiday some one else in his team took charge.