Please help - mis-sold property?

Deborah_A_2

Hello

I am desperate for some advice regarding a property I bought as a first-time buyer in September 2005. I will outline the basics of my problem and if anyone thinks they can help I can give more information and be eternally grateful!

After trying to sell the property in December 2006 we were told that we had not bought a 2-bedroomed maisonette, as advertised by the estate agent, but instead a 1-bed flat with a loft conversion that did not conform to current building regulations.

This meant that the buyer we had found for our property could only get a mortgage to the value of a 1-bed property, £25,000 less than the agreed sale, meaning we would be in negative equity and could not afford to sell the property.

We sought legal advice with another local solicitor and they agreed to take on the case as they believed my solicitor was negligent.

However, 4 long years later, the solicitor has now decided that there is no case after all and we should accept a £195 settlement from our initial solicitor to purchase 2 indemnity insurance policies.

I feel really devastated about this as am currently having to rent the property out as I'm unable to sell it and cannot afford to live in it.

After 4 years I feel so cheated and really want a second opinion, but after paying almost £1000 in legal fees already I can't afford to pay much more.

Please help as I really don't know what to do!

BitterAndTwisted

Do you understand what the indemnity policies signify?

Why can't you afford to live in it?

Deborah_A_2

Well, my solicitor has written that it means 'I can now sell the property'. I always thought I could though as a one bedroom flat, though would still be in negative equity.

I can't afford to live in it as I cannot afford the mortgage, even if I lived in the loft room and rented the other room out. I have had to move back with my parents, which is also almost 400 miles away.

kingstreet

What did you pay for it in 2005 and what's it worth today?

How much mortgage have you got left on it?

ruggedtoast

Why did the solicitor you appointed give up on the case?

G_M

we had not bought a 2-bedroomed maisonette, as advertised by the estate agent, but instead a 1-bed flat with a loft conversion that did not conform to current building regulations.

1st, estate agents are not experts - they will describe properties to the best of their abilities, and as their clients instruct them, but all EA's particulars of sale have disclaimers on the bottom advising buyers to rely on their own investigations (or similar).

2nd, solicitors don't inspect properties. If the solicitor was told there was an attic conversion, he should have either checked with the seller, or the council, or via you, that the conversion was 'legal' (had planning permission/Building Regs. But if no one told him there was a conversion, he could not check it was legal could he?

It's unclear from your post on what grounds your subsequent solicitor initially "believed my solicitor was negligent", not why they later concluded this was not so, but I suspect the answer lies in my points above.

If so, all you can do is take out an indemnity policy which will protect any future buyer from enforcement by the council (ie to remove/rebuild the attic conversion.) However this will be little help I fear as
1) after this long the council is highly unlikely to take enforcement action anyway and
2) it will not alter the fact that mortgage lenders may continue to describe it as a one bedroom.

You say:

we were told that we had not bought a 2-bedroomed maisonette, as advertised by the estate agent, but instead a 1-bed flat with a loft conversion

told by who?
What one mortgage lender says will be dependant on the Surveyor they use to value it. Another surveyor may descibe it differently.

edit: of course the other option is to get a Buildings Regs certificate yourself to regularise the conversion. The certificate is not expensive, but you may well have to pay for builders either to bring the conversion up to the required standard, or simply to expose joists/insulation etc so that the inspector can examine them.

Deborah_A_2

G_M wrote: »

2nd, solicitors don't inspect properties. If the solicitor was told there was an attic conversion, he should have either checked with the seller, or the council, or via you, that the conversion was 'legal' (had planning permission/Building Regs. But if no one told him there was a conversion, he could not check it was legal could he?

But surely part of the reason you pay a solicitor so much money when buying a property is that they will ensure you are in fact buying what you are paying for? Do I just have to accept I am £25,000 out of pocket as I should have known?

As a first-time buyer I trusted the solicitor and now am left in a big old mess.

Grimbal

but, as GM said, did anyone at anytime mention to the solicitor that it was a conversion? On the initial paperwork I was given by my solicitor, it specifically asked if the house had had any conversions. What did it say on your initial paperwork?

If no-one told your solicitor that it had a converted attic, how would he know to check?

Deborah_A_2

To be honest I don't know, I gave all the paperwork relating to the sale to my solicitor. The house was a converted victorian terrace that had been made into 2 flats. I believe there was reference to 2 bedrooms but not the location of those within the upper flat.

Grimbal

hmmm, I think that could be key - any way you would have copied the documents before sending them back? If the paperwork does mention that there was a conversion then could could press the case based on the fact that he didn't act on provided information. If there is no mention of the conversion on the documents that were sent off OR you can't find them, then I think that it's going to be unlikely that you're going to get much further

JQ.

Solicitors don't inspect properties. What did it say on your survey? I'd have thought it was the surveyor's responsibility to highlight a loft conversion in his/her survey, which would then highlight the issue to the solicitor. If they didn't highlight this issue then surely it's the surveyor at fault. If they did highlight it, then surely the solicitor is at fault.

On the basis that you've been told that the solicitor does not have a case to answer, then I'd be looking at the survey to see if the Surveyor missed it.