Solicitors Letters Relating to the Unofficial Website

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15/11/19 - Further Update from the Legal Ombudsman regarding the previous Solicitor

Received the following letter from the Legal Ombudsman regarding the complaint made against the previous solicitor employed by the Sycamores Residents Assoc Ltd which is self explanatory.   However this may not be the end of the matter due to the managing agent making a statement at the recent AGM that she too had reported the previous solicitor to the Ombudsman and that the director and committee had since dismissed the solicitor due to 'irregularities'. 

It would appear that the managing agent, as representative of the officials of the estate who were the actual 'clients' of the offending solicitor (the service provider), may be successful with the Legal Ombudsman as  they fit the category highlighted in their letter below.

It's worth point out at this point that the original complaint made to the Legal Ombudsman was regarding the Solicitor's lying and making false statements in relation to taking Legal Action to close down the website, (link to letter sent to the solicitor regarding this), and Solicitor's Statement at the AGM held 14/11/18. 

The managing agent should hopefully report back to the residents in due course once the Legal Ombudsman have completed their investigation on behalf of the officials of the estate, i.e. the director and secretary.  This matter will be raised at the next AGM when progress will have been made.

30 October 2019 

File Reference: F063245 

Dear Mrs S....... 

Your complaint about M.. LEGAL SERVICES LLP 

Thank you for contacting the Legal Ombudsman.  

I am writing to you to confirm why we are unable to look at your complaint. 

I have now had the opportunity to consider your complaint about M.. Legal Services LLP and have decided that it does not come within our jurisdiction, so we are unable to investigate your complaint. My reasons for this are set out below. 

The Legal Ombudsman has formal powers to investigate complaints brought by individual consumers and by small firms, trusts or charities. We can only look at your complaint if:

·         You are a client of the service provider that you wish to complain about; or

·         You are an executor or beneficiary of the estate of a person who, before he/she died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman; or

·         You are a personal representative of the complainant (or example, you hold a Lasting Power of Attorney to manage their Property and Financial affairs).

In your case, you do not fit in any of the above categories. Unfortunately, this means we are unable to help you.  

Please get back in touch with us if you think we have got the facts as shown in this letter wrong or are aware of other matters that significantly alter the circumstances surrounding your complaint.  

Thank you again for contacting us. 

Yours sincerely

General Enquiries Team, Legal Ombudsman

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Finding a Replacement Solicitor

It is interesting to note that during the AGM the managing agent mentioned that the Sycamores Residents Assoc. Ltd no longer employed the Solicitor who normally handled it's affairs.  She stated this was because of some irregularities which had shown up which resulted in the company dispensing with his services. 

Even more interesting is when the managing agent stated they were having to look outside of Hartlepool for another solicitor to handle the Sycamores affairs, this she explained was due to the fact that all of the residents on the estate would have at one time or another used the local solicitors, thus resulting in a CONFLICT OF INTEREST which seems unbelievable!!!

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Update from the Legal Ombudsman regarding the company Solicitor.

Today 4/10/19, I received the following response from the Legal Ombudsman following up on my contacting them in July when the then company solicitor was reported to the Legal Ombudsman for his disgraceful conduct.

          4/10/19

Dear Mrs S.......

File reference: F063245

 Your complaint about ... Legal Services LLP - F063245 ERef:00049100355

Thank you for contacting the Legal Ombudsman. 

We apologise for the delay in our response which is due to high demand on our service at present.  

We have reviewed the information you have sent and understand that you have not received a final response to your complaint from the service provider.  

We have therefore written to the service provider today requesting they confirm receipt of the complaint and asking them to provide a final response if applicable. 

We have requested this information within 14 days so please allow this amount of time for us to update you further.

Yours sincerely
 
General Enquiries Team
 
Legal Ombudsman

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29/7/19 - Reference to letter of 2/4/19 sent to the company solicitor.

Referring to my letter of 2/4/19 to the company solicitor Mr. J...., to date he has not responded and it is now past time to contact the Legal Ombudsman and make a complaint against him and his company.  I have today sent full details of my complaint and enquiry via email and received the following acknowledgement and now await a response.

Legal Ombudsman Thank you for your email

Thank you for your enquiry. It has been successfully received. We are currently dealing with a high volume of enquiries. Due to the significant volume of enquiries we are dealing with, it is currently taking longer than expected to respond to emails. Please be aware that it could be approximately 6 weeks before you hear from us. We thank you for your patience and would like to reassure you that our teams are working very hard to resolve your queries fairly and as quickly as possible. If we’ve already told you that your case has been accepted for investigation, your investigator will contact you when they start working on your case. Please note that, due to current high demand, it can take several months for your case to be assigned to an investigator. If you need to write to us, our address is: Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ Telephone number 0300 555 0333.

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Letter sent via email to the Company Solicitior 2/4/19

Dear Mr. J....

Referring to the Sycamores Residents Association Ltd AGM which was held in October 2018, and when the matter of the Unofficial Website was brought up for discussion.  You informed the Residents during the meeting that you couldn't really go into much detail in relation to this matter as it was subject to ongoing Court Proceedings.  When I asked you a number of questions relating to the 'alledged court proceedings' you responded to all of them by stating you were not prepared to discuss the matter.

I have been waiting patiently and nothing has happened, I eventually contacted Teeside Court and enquired about the alledged' ongoing Court Proceedings' against me, and was informed that there was no such case scheduled, my conclusion is that you actually lied not only to me but to all of the Residents on the estate.

By your actions you have damaged my good name on the estate by announcing the above on an open forum where all of the Residents were present, and am now informing you that I require you to write to all the residents apologising for lying and besmirching my good name.

In the event that you do not follow through on the above within a reasonable time - say 2 weeks, I intend to report you to the Legal Ombusman as your lying behaviour is reprehensible given your profession and was an attempt to intimidate at the time which is unacceptable.

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26th June, 2018 - Yet another Solicitors Letter received.

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Solicitor's letter received dated 12th June, 2018

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Original communication from the company solicitor 15/8/17

Response sent back to the the company solicitor on 15/8/17 Dear Mr. J.... Thank you for your letter which I have noted and acted upon where I felt it necessary. 1)  With respect - this is an 'Unofficial' website, therefore it was not neccessary to seek out the permission of either the committee or Mr. ..............., had it been 'official' then that would have been a totally different situation.  I did broach the subject of creating a website with Mrs. .......... last year, at the time she said there would be no interest in it, however after taking soundings from some of the residents I found there was, consequently there is now an unofficial website.  2) For the moment I have taken down the personal email addresses and telephone numbers of the committee members, the managing agent and his personal assistant until such time as the situation is clarified.    Sincerely, Original Message received from the company solicitor on 15/8/17 Subject: The Sycamores Community Website  Dear Ms.Sherwood  I have recently been contacted by Mr.E............... on behalf of the Residents' Association and in particular in connection with the recent website entitled, "The Sycamores Hartlepool - an unofficial community website for all residents".  At the present time, this website is displaying personal information within the public domain and specifically the names, contact telephone numbers and email addresses of Committee members. To the best of my knowledge, none of the individuals named on the website have provided their consent to information being displayed in this manner and more specifically the publication of contact details to include telephone numbers and email addresses. At the present time, this is a clear breach of data protection legislation and I am instructed to request that such information is removed immediately.  In addition, I am unaware of any formal consultation process that has been undertaken with residents and/or the Committee and I would strongly suggest that in the circumstances the site is taken down until such time as a formal consultation has taken place.  I do sincerely hope that this matter can be resolved expeditiously and without the necessity for further legal intervention.  I would be grateful for your confirmation with in the next 48hours that this request has been actioned.  Yours sincerely Back to the top of page