Solicitors gone bust...

quaium

We need some advice please. We completed on a house about three weeks ago. Yesterday we received a letter form our solicitors that they have gone bust and we either need to instruct them on a new solicitor or they will hand over our file to another solicitor firm.

We're just a bit worried about what's going to happen. We still haven't received all our documents in regards to land registry etc. Has this happened to anyone else? Should we try and find our own solicitor or is it okay to for them to pass on our file? We're totally confused as to what to do so any advice would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance.

googler

Pick a new solicitor, instruct them and get your file handed over so that you know where it is.

Don't wait for the Sols to disappear, possibly for an administrator or Law Society to take control, and allocate you to someone they choose for you.

Take control.

zzzLazyDaisy

If you do nothing, the law society will allocate your file to another local firm who will tidy up any loose ends. This can take time, but as you have already completed anything outstanding should just be administrative. Normally there would be no charge for this as you are right at the end of the transaction and (presumably?) the first solicitor has already been paid.

If you are concerned about whether the first solicitor has registered the transaction at the land registry, you should give them a ring and ask them for the date that the papers were forwarded to the LR, then phone the LR to confirm (normally you can check on-line, but three weeks is probably not long enough for the transaction to have been processed).

But if all this is going to stress you, then you might be better off just going to another local firm and asking them to take over the file. There might be a small charge but you might think it is worth it.

One other thing - provided you have paid the solicitor's bill, the file belongs to you, and you can ask for it at any time. You can then check that all steps have been concluded, and if you are not happy, you can take it to another solicitor to deal with the final steps. Again there is likely to be a charge.

WestonDave

The SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) should step in to ensure an orderly hand over of your file to another firm of solicitors that they arrange to take over the work of that firm, however rather than present this as a fait accompli where you suddenly find out you are now dealing with XYZ solicitors instead of ABC solicitors, you are given an option to say you want your file handed over to another firm of your choice. The problem with your situation is you've probably paid in full for the work, so if you choose your own firm, you will definitely have to pay for any remaining work to be done. If you go with the automatic handover there is a chance (and I really don't know what happens) that the inheriting firm has to finish the work you have already paid for without further charge.

Its worth people being aware that there are possibly about 60 firms (no there isn't a public list!) that will cease trading in the next few weeks as they will have exhausted their options on indemnity insurance (if you can't get commercial insurance because you are considered to be too high risk, you have 2 years via a pool scheme to try and get things together - if you still can't persuade a commercial insurer to take on the firm then you get closed down!)

markedward

• This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.

DVardysShadow

markedward wrote: »

• This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.

How soon till you start spamming?

edit: google on "mentioned are unanimous"