Legal Ombusdman - take a settlement?

ikanoi

As the title suggests, I have recently gone through the house buying process and had some issues with my conveyancer which led to me to submit a complaint to the ombudsman. My conveyancer has recently contacted me and offered a sum of cash a little more than their poor handling originally cost me to resolve the complaint.

What's the benefit for them to do this and make it go away? What are they trying to avoid by stopping the investigation?

steampowered

The benefit to the them is that they save all of the hassle and time involved with investigating your file and dealing with an Ombudsman investigation.

Even if the Legal Ombudsman finds in the firm's favour, the firm will still need to have spent a lot of time going through your file and dealing with the Ombudsman. Perhaps they think that offering you a small amount of money to go away is worth saving the hassle.

It is now up to you to decide whether you feel that the compensation offered is a fair recognition of the issues you faced.

GDB2222

Their most likely reason for offering to settle is that they reckon the ombudsman will find against them, and this saves them dealing with all the paperwork.  

Also, you have not said how much money is involved, but for a small amount it just isn't worth their while contesting it. 

Conveyancers are particularly busy right now, and they maybe don't have the time to contest the matter, even if they think they have a wonderful case.

The ombudsman is used to seeing mess-ups, and they deal with them all the time. They may report the conveyancer to their regulator, but I don't get the impression that this happens very often. They have agreements with the regulators that you can see here:
https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/information-centre/corporate-publications/governance/governance-agreements/

ikanoi

Thanks both. The amount is ~£1k so it's a lot to me but I suppose you are right that it will cost them more in time to deal with the paperwork involved.

Thrugelmir

ikanoi said:

 My conveyancer has recently contacted me and offered a sum of cash a little more than their poor handling originally cost me to resolve the complaint.

What outcome are you hoping to achieve?  What are expecting the  the ombudsman to do. The matter has been resolved and your costs have been covered. No one is going to waste any amount of time on the matter. 

ikanoi

Thrugelmir said:

ikanoi said:

 My conveyancer has recently contacted me and offered a sum of cash a little more than their poor handling originally cost me to resolve the complaint.

What outcome are you hoping to achieve?  What are expecting the  the ombudsman to do. The matter has been resolved and your costs have been covered. No one is going to waste any amount of time on the matter. 

I'm happy to walk away with compensation that covers my losses, I just wanted to know if they were trying to avoid something that could be more detrimental to their reputation as this would play into my decision as to whether it's worth settling the dispute with them now or waiting on the ombudsman's decision.

The hassles they caused us and knowing they will just be doing the same to many of their clients would make it worth the risk in my mind.

user1977

I doubt anything with a value of under £1k is going to affect their reputation.

TBG01

ikanoi said:

Thrugelmir said:

ikanoi said:

 My conveyancer has recently contacted me and offered a sum of cash a little more than their poor handling originally cost me to resolve the complaint.

What outcome are you hoping to achieve?  What are expecting the  the ombudsman to do. The matter has been resolved and your costs have been covered. No one is going to waste any amount of time on the matter. 

The hassles they caused us and knowing they will just be doing the same to many of their clients would make it worth the risk in my mind.

Were you not aware of their reputation before using them? I imagine you read reviews or had them recommended to you, which you were then happy to proceed on, so why do you think their behavior is now the norm? 

GDB2222

ikanoi said:

Thrugelmir said:

ikanoi said:

 My conveyancer has recently contacted me and offered a sum of cash a little more than their poor handling originally cost me to resolve the complaint.

What outcome are you hoping to achieve?  What are expecting the  the ombudsman to do. The matter has been resolved and your costs have been covered. No one is going to waste any amount of time on the matter. 

I'm happy to walk away with compensation that covers my losses, I just wanted to know if they were trying to avoid something that could be more detrimental to their reputation as this would play into my decision as to whether it's worth settling the dispute with them now or waiting on the ombudsman's decision.

The hassles they caused us and knowing they will just be doing the same to many of their clients would make it worth the risk in my mind.

You don't have to accept their offer. You can say that the amount they are offering for distress is too low, and you want £XXXX for that. It depends whether you want a resolution or a dispute, really.