Solicitors still not registered sale with land registry

5lilpigs

A friend of mine has just discovered that 6 months after she bought her new house the solicitors that were acting for her have still not registered her as the owner of it with the land registery. They say that they have not done it because she has not paid them for an indemnity insurance that they took out ( that she did not ask for or want) and a late fee from the land registry for 100 because they did not register the sale within 28 days. The total they want off her is nearly 400. She has paid all the fees for the house that they have asked for,but she doesn't think the late fees were her responsibility because it was down to the solicitors to register her purchase. She is also now being threatened with court over the late fee and the price of the unrequested indemnity insurance and in the meanwhile the proprty has still not been registered. Can a solicitor not register your property without telling you? The only way she found this out was because she went for a remortgage and was told by the solicitors of her hopefully new mortgage company

ethank

Solicitors act upon instructions from clients, and one would think that they should gain agreement prior to incurring any costs. If you think that they have misrepresented themselves, or not acted as they should have done, then contact the Law Society who will investigate. The complaints hotline is on 0845 608 6565.

Info - See http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/documents/downloads/CCS_ServiceStandards.pdf

5lilpigs

I will look these up! Has anybody ever heard of a property not being registered before. Say that the previous owner was to die, would the house be passed on as part of her estate as she is still the registered owner do you think?

robwend

sounds bloody iffy to me

5lilpigs

Exactely, I think it is a case of the solicitors trying to squeeze all they can out of her. Really they are blackmailing her into paying for their errors. Surely this isn't normal. Makes you wonder how many others have sold us things and passed on fees unesciseraly. ( please excuse spelling)

5lilpigs

Good idea it will sound alot more serious when the mortgage company are asking these questions rather than a house wife