any advice

valtino

i bought a house five years ago it was a reposseision i am now in the final stages of selling it or i thought i was, until i was informed that the solicitor who acted for me did not wait on search results and there now seems to be some sort of land charges against the previous owner that is causing all sorts of problems and is preventing my new buyer signing a contract until all is sorted has anyone else been caught like this. can anyone offer any advice as to what i should do.

silvercar

Friends bought a new build on a development where the builder had bought a few houses and knocked them down to build the development. The deeds had not been sorted properly by the time their house was finished and the land was still owned by the owners of the original houses.

Your solicitor should be able to sort out an indemnity policy for the new owners, to protect them against any problems from the land charges.

You could try contacting the solicitor who acted on your purchase. You may even have a claim against him. Current solicitor should be able to advise.

valtino

thanks for reply.
current solicitor has said dosnt know how big problem is has refered matter to solicitor who acted for me before and has advised i dont contact him. im at my wits end as i should have completed by now.buyers at bottom of chain have said if not sorted by 24th they are pulling out.

silvercar

buyers at bottom of chain have said if not sorted by 24th they are pulling out.

They may be getting impatient but they may not pull out straight away. If they did they would have to start again and be another 4 weeks + away from exchanging.

I don't see why you can't contact your previous solicitor.

Doozergirl

silvercar wrote:

I don't see why you can't contact your previous solicitor.

It might be one of those 'secret squirrel' indemnity policies. If people that might be involved know something, the insurance is invalid. New to my list of secret indemnity policies is one for Chancel Repair Liability, but we can't actually carry out the search to see if we're definately liable, otherwise the insurance isn't valid.

Its all a bit weird, but I would do as you're told and not talk to the previous solicitor for fear of not getting the policy.

valtino

Thanks for all replies.
I have contacted original solicitor and he has said the problem is there are 3 orders charging land due to the fact that the previous owners of my house had financial problems, he has said he feels he carried his job out properly as he did a legal undertaking that the banks solicitors (who we bought from) would furnish his clients (me) with clear title this obviously has not been done so i dont know who will be liable for the outstanding debts which were registered from 1997-2000 or how to have them discharged i didnt buy the house until 2001.some one has messed up but no one will admit liability im still trying to sort.any advice is greatly apreciated

silvercar

Someone (your previous solicitor?) needs to enforce that legal undertaking to give you clear title. whoever needs to go back to the bank's solicitors and get the legal title.

I would have thought the solcitor acting for you has not finished his work until you are registered as having clear title for the property.