OWEN & O'SULLIVAN

Where do I begin..if I could less than 1 star I would : similar to above, we didn’t actually use Owen & Sullivan but Catrin Owen was representing a vendor at the top of our chain.
Our chain consisted of us, the house we were buying and the house Catrin was representing ( so nice and simple).
We made an offer back in may 2023 , sold both our houses and we’re waiting to get in to our new one (the middle in the chain) the occupants found and house and changed their mind to Catrina clients in early jul. By this point all searches were completed and it was just the back and forth with queries. By this point we had to break our chain leaving us homeless, at the time we were told this would be a quick process and wouldn’t be long. This period lasted just shy of 8 weeks and cost us £7200. At the time we didn’t quite understand what the delay was, as the agent wasn’t getting a lot of information. But as time went on it was clear that Catrin was the main protagonist.

Not responding to emails, not picking the phone up for days, lying about dates, being AWO, not doing what she said she would do and the list goes on.
It got to a point where me and partners mortgage was running out , Catrin was aware of this, the agent had put pressure on all parties to get this moving, but Catrin decided she wasn’t going to help. During this period there was an instance it Catrin took an additional 6 days to submit a vital request to land reg past the day we’d agreed her to do it. She only submitted it on the 6th day as we had been ringing our agent daily for an update. She even had the cheek to tell us “we wouldn’t expect a response quickly” well of course we won’t… because you didn’t submit it !!!
This was an original point that she had missed and was going back and forth for months saying it was correct. It took an intervention call for her to realise that it wasn’t correct , this query had been raised very very early on. The error ended up taking over 3 months to rectify.
We ended up calling the land reg our selves to get this moving as Catrin wasn’t interested.
We were being told dates that didn’t match what land reg were telling us, it was as if Catrin was just giving timescales to get us and the agents off her back. And it became clear to us that Catrin was either not ringing up or not explaining our situation, as the guy we spoke to in land reg sorted the issue out in 1 day.

In short, it is quite clear that she is winding down, I do not know her personally. But the pain and hurt she unnecessarily caused me and partner by her incompetence to do her job is immeasurable. If I could report her practise further .. I would be; but given the leniency conveyancing solicitors have I’m unable to. The process from start to finish took over 23 weeks, of which a large proportion was down to Catrins incompetency.
If you are reading these and thinking of using her DONT, if you are aware Owen & Sullivan are representing a vendor up the chain,GOOD luck, I would personally have A conversation with your agent at the earliest point to discuss your options.

(I do not have any experience with mr Sullivan , my gripe is with Catrin Owen only )

Catrin you need to do better, if your heart isn’t in it and you are quite clearly causing unnecessary pain and hurt ( the other reviews ) then it might be time for a change. I mean all of the above constructively.

As much as I'd not like to write a bad review, I must make an exception here. The seller of the property I purchased used Owen & O'Sullivan for their sale and the process was awful. An absolute nightmare to get hold of for all involved in the sale. Emails and letters weren't replied to for 4 weeks at one point, despite the seller informing us the solicitor had the requested information. The telephone just would just ring and ring, and the office is empty. I understand people have lives and that things happen; however, I feel strongly there was a lack of duty of care and services weren't provided in a timely manner. Not to mention our exchange and completion was delayed on the day, therefore losing holidays in work, due to something not being completed which was first raised as an issue by my solicitor 2 months prior.