Land did not belong to vendors

sizzlesausage_2

We were buying a property with an additional piece of land across the road but then found out that the vendors did not actually own this land. We managed to find the legitimate owner and asked him if he would be willing to sell the land to us but he said no. (He was actually very fed up with the situation as he had had to engage his own solicitor to ensure that someone else did not sell his land!) We have pulled out of the purchase because without this land the property has restricted parking. If we had known beforehand that the land was not included in the sale we would not have been interested in the property and would never have made an offer. Unfortunately, we had spent nearly £1000 in survey & sols fees before finding out about the land (I only found out because I noticed that the land was not marked on the land registry document and queried it with my solicitor).

Trading standards (TS) have investigated the EA and advise that there was a 'misrepresentation' in the property details but because it was not deliberate they will not be prosecuting. TS have advised that we have been subject to a 'common wrong' and that, in their opinion, we should be entitled to some form of redress and to engage a solicitor.

I am worried that the cost of a solicitor would exceed the amount we would be seeking to recover. The solicitors who were acting on our behalf with the purchase are conveyancing solicitors only so we cannot use them.

Any advice please?

noyk

Could you find one willing to do no win no fee? I don't know, but you certainly have a right to be annoyed and should have some form of redress. The law in this country is unbalanced for things like this. good luck!

clutton_2

for such a small claim, i would go to see a solicitor, or 2, or 3, on their free half hour deal, get advice, then do it yourself on line via the small claims court.

sizzlesausage_2

Thank you for the replies received. We shall try both options and see how we get on.

It does seem very unfair that there is no consumer protection for this sort of situation. When we find another house to buy we shall certainly check out the legal documents first and only proceed with the mortgage application & homebuyers report if everything is ok.

clutton_2

On reflection -

whether or not the EA details were right or wrong, the first thing your solicitor should have done is to buy (for £3) a Title plan from the Land Registry to ascertain that the Title to the property was clean.

Why did they not do this and advise you straightaway that the land was not a part of the purchase ?

Have you paid their bill yet ? If no, then withold some of it until this is sorted out. Even if it is paid, ask to see the senior partner who deals with customer complaints and talk to him/her, asking for a timetable of what was done when.

sizzlesausage_2

Unfortunately, the solicitors claim that they never received our initial client contact documents and cheque payment for disbursements (although I used their pre-paid envelope) and by the time we found out (nearly 2 weeks later) we had gone ahead with the mortgage application & homebuyers survey assuming (stupidly!) that everything was ok (the vendors wanted completion within 5 weeks of offer.) The only fees that have been paid to the solicitors have been for disbursements -£260 (which we have been told are non-refundable) because (luckily) our case was accepted on a no completion, no fee basis.

The solicitors never noticed the land discrepancy - it was I who pointed it out to them (we won't be using them in future).

This whole experience has been a sharp learning curve for us. There are many things that we would do differently in future.

clutton_2

disbursements will have been paid to others - such as the local authority for search fees and the landl registry for title plans etc - so i would doubt you could ever get them back, but, this no compleiton no fee, is a new one on me. i have never heard of it before, so, at least you are not paying huge fees.

""The solicitors never noticed the land discrepancy - it was I who pointed it out to them ""

whenever i have bought a house, my solicitor always sends me a letter with the land registry title plan and asks me if this is what i think i am buying - as only i know that, as only i have personally visited the site - and to let him know immediately if it is not right.

Have you checked when your disbursements cheque was cleared ?

i am afraid that sometimes this forking out money in advance is an awful part of our crazy conveyance system. i would not waste a huge amount of money and effort on it, just, use this learning for the future.