Suing my solicitor - Negligence ? Help

legalhelp

I bought my home 2 years ago. I have now sold my home and was on the point of exchange when a restrictive covenant was discovered by my sellers solicitor. It innvolves a sewer pipe being built over wothout permission by the previous owners.My buyers wouldnt accept an idemnity as United Utlities would be able to pull down the extension built over it if they need to access it. So applied for retropsective planning which was granted, however it would still involve costs if UU ever decide to access the pipes.

My solicitor didnt notice any of this when I purchased and now the sale has fallen thorugh because of this ? I also beleive each sale will now run into problems with this . Any help as to what to do next would be greatly appreciated

clutton_2

you need to get another solicitor to look at all the original purchase conveyance documents

timmyt

legalhelp wrote: »

I bought my home 2 years ago. I have now sold my home and was on the point of exchange when a restrictive covenant was discovered by my sellers solicitor. It innvolves a sewer pipe being built over wothout permission by the previous owners.My buyers wouldnt accept an idemnity as United Utlities would be able to pull down the extension built over it if they need to access it. So applied for retropsective planning which was granted, however it would still involve costs if UU ever decide to access the pipes.

My solicitor didnt notice any of this when I purchased and now the sale has fallen thorugh because of this ? I also beleive each sale will now run into problems with this . Any help as to what to do next would be greatly appreciated

did you or your surveyor suspect this when you bought - tell me you had a survey!

your lawyer won't know unless a drainage search was done and the plan to it shwed a sewer passing under part of the building...but probably even then too difficult as unless the search OS was recent and incoludde the extension 2 and 2 may not have equaled 4 in the lawyers mind.

no loss has been suffered by you at the moment, so try again with another buyer...who knows, their lawyer may not spot it.

legalhelp

no I didnt suspect anything I had a survey but the vauation kind. build over agreement will alert any new purchasers to it. I have lost £600 in build over costs plus legal fees plus 3.5 months of waiting plus my house I was desperate to buy. Should my solicitor not have noticed this as the buyers did ?

PasturesNew

As has been mentioned, so far you haven't lost money, just a buyer. Until you find another buyer who completes you can't measure how much/if you've lost out, so you can't do any suing until you know what you're suing for. e.g. if a cash buyer turns up tomorrow it could be sold for the same price just as quickly... on the other hand, if you go through 10 potential buyers over the next 4 years then you sell at £30k less, that's measurable.

Offer to pay the next buyer's solicitor fees IF they use your previous bloke

neas

So you had the cheapest survey done.... so just checked it house was worth to lend against.

It wouldn't have checked much more i guess. Also unless the extension was on the diagram showing the sewage pipe (which it probably isnt because no planning/building consent was achieved)... According to council and all public info there was no conservatory.

Unless the solicitor went out in person (which they dont) how would he have known there was a conservatory over the sewage pipe if no conversatory was shown on the plan?

tbs624

timmyt wrote: »

no loss has been suffered by you at the moment, so try again with another buyer...who knows, their lawyer may not spot it.

For someone who posts stating that he is a solicitor, you perhaps need to read the OP more thoroughly - see this bit:

legalhelp wrote: »

.My buyers wouldnt accept an idemnity as United Utlities would be able to pull down the extension built over it if they need to access it. So applied for retropsective planning which was granted, however it would still involve costs if UU ever decide to access the pipes.

My highlighting. Are you suggesting that other members of the profession would fail to pick that up, as well as missing the original covenant?

tbs624

neas wrote: »

Unless the solicitor went out in person (which they dont) how would he have known there was a conservatory over the sewage pipe if no conversatory was shown on the plan?

Erm...from the property's particulars?

tbs624

legalhelp - write to your solicitors Practice Manager or Managing Partner, enclosing full information and asking for their comments, as a first step. Keep copies of all correspondence

SmlSave

Erm...from the property's particulars?

Where have you seen particulars that show a conservatory stating 'hey, there a sewer under here' !?!

Maybe I've missed it but was there a Water Search done when the property was bought?

tbs624

SmlSave wrote: »

Where have you seen particulars that show a conservatory stating 'hey, there a sewer under here' !?!

Check your understanding of what is being said before responding with !?! Solicitors are trained to use several pieces of information to make up the jigsaw. Follow the posts properly. One piece shows drains/sewers "here", then the property partics. show a conservatory "here". Not too hard was it?