Solicitor mistake - should we ask for refund of fees?

MascaraMinx

Here's the situation; the title deeds to our house should be in my husbands name. He bought the property several years ago with his ex. They split up soon after movig in, and he bought her out of the mortgage. We got our draft contract through the other day for the sale of the house and it shows his ex as still on the title deeds. My OH phoned up our solicitor who confirmed that the land registry was never updated. He then contacted his old solicitors, and they said they would amend this straight away but it will take 7 - 10 days for the update to take place, which adds at least a 2 week delay until our solicitor can draw up the contracts in just his name.

I feel that as my OH paid the solicitors good money for their services, and that this has theoretically added a delay to our current transaction, we should have some sort of recourse against the original solicitor such as a reimbursement of the fees he paid? What do you think?

Alan_M_2

They made a mistake, they are rectifying it, you would be within your rights to claim any costs directly incurred by the mistake but would have to prove they are wholly and soley a result of the mistake.

Personally what I think, it's a mistake, it's being put right, no harm is done so just live with it.

People seem to be in such a hurry to blame and litigate nowadays, what's 14 days in the grand scheme of things?

MascaraMinx

Alan_M wrote:

People seem to be in such a hurry to blame and litigate nowadays, what's 14 days in the grand scheme of things?

I knew someone was going to suggest I am being greedy.

fact is, solicitors charge a lot in fees for a professional service. Something like this is adding a delay at the point where we would like to have been exchanging. It is adding to a fraught and stressful process and we are both scared of letting the other parties know there is to be a further delay as it just seems to be one thing after another. I think it's shocking that her name is still on there

Market_Oracle

Send a letter to their complaints department, and they might offer you something for your troubles.

MascaraMinx

Perhaps it's not worth it Market Oracle. Perhaps I am just over reacting because I am stressed out. I thought it seemes quite a big deal but maybe I am distorting things!

Alan_M_2

MascaraMinx wrote:

I knew someone was going to suggest I am being greedy.

fact is, solicitors charge a lot in fees for a professional service. Something like this is adding a delay at the point where we would like to have been exchanging. It is adding to a fraught and stressful process and we are both scared of letting the other parties know there is to be a further delay as it just seems to be one thing after another. I think it's shocking that her name is still on there

Please highlight where I suggested you were greedy.

MascaraMinx

Apologies Alan, I wasn't wishing to start an argument, I just wanted a few views on my dilemma. Perhaps a tad over sensitive on my part.

dunstonh

I can understand Alan's response. This claims culture is getting out of hand. A mistake has been made. It hasnt cost you financially and they are putting it right at no cost to you. Mistakes happen but nowadays there is a growing culture to try and profit from mistakes. Threads on the compensation culture tend to end up quite emotive and do generate strong opinions.

Imelda

Hello,

(sorry mascaraminx, nothing to add just interested)
I was just wondering if the ex could have had some claim to the property? ie if they had lived out their days in that house, paid off all the mortgage etc? or if the ex went bankrupt? Does the solicitor have to get the ex's permission to take them off the deeds?
Sorry, just curious.....

MascaraMinx

It hasn't cost us anything yet, but a 7 - 10 day delay at this stage is quite a set back for our chain who all want to exchange asap (offers were made an accepted in August and we've had a couple of problems recently which have made people a bit jumpy). I am not a fan of the compensation culture either, but I do feel little aggrieved here. As I say, I am totally stressed and this has just added to it. I felt that solicitors shouldn't really make mistakes like this when youhave paid good money to have it all sorted.

Imelda - I don't know, they obviously had the paperwork as they said they would send it off to the land registry straight away, so no need to contact his ex. But when the contracts arrived they were in her name too so presumably at that stage she still had rights to the property?

Rachman_2

MascaraMinx wrote:

I knew someone was going to suggest I am being greedy.

fact is, solicitors charge a lot in fees for a professional service.

What on earth - do you have any idea of the paper thin margins in residential conveyancing ? It's work I should not touch with a bargepole - it's high volume low margin difficult client work - absolutely terrible legal work to be doing.