wrongful exchange of contracts

livrules

klolav wrote: »

Well i'm glad that you like the house and wish you all the best with it. So when is completion?
I hope all the legal side of things work out for you!

Completion is late Feb. I know - thank god we actually hadn't changed our mind about the house....imagine :eek:

Richard_Webster

I would guess you can claim for the amount by which you would reasonably had the price reduced because of the works needed.

Yorkie1

I haven't quite followed all the points in this thread but would observe as follows:

1. Make a detailed note NOW of all the conversations you have had with your solicitor. Date, specifics etc. Whilst you have the best possible chance of remembering it accurately.

2. Make sure you retain all email exchanges and any paper correspondence with your solicitor.

3. If the property was actually reduced in value from the purchase price by £18K then it seems to me that that is a reasonable amount to claim for. The solicitor will not be paying this personally and the sellers aren't affected either. I'm not suggesting that you over-claim or inflate your claim wrongly, but that you are assertive in what your loss actually is (as opposed to how you might have compromised your position in order to be nice to the sellers).

gunge

Yorkie1 wrote: »

I'm suggesting that you over-claim or inflate your claim wrongly

I think you missed a 'not'...

RabbitMad

livrules wrote: »

The under-valuing alone (which we only found out about 3 hrs before our solicitor exchanged) was 18k. We certainly weren't going to ask them to accept 18k off our initial offer

I think that you should say you were.

Your position should be you would not have purchased unless the vendor came down at least £18K as that is what your report stated the value of the property was.

I would hold out for that if I were you.

societys_child

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I get that feeling ....

It's Rambo talk :eek:

Yorkie1

gunge wrote: »

I think you missed a 'not'...

Oops, well spotted! :eek: A slightly vital three letters there! :rotfl:

Have gone back and edited my post!

dawyldthing

i'd have said you should have got it reduced by the 18k regardless as that is what it is now valued at, so potentially you have paid 18k too much on a property in a declining market

EscapetoSnowdon

livrules wrote: »

Hi G M

Thanks for your swift reply.

I know. I know. I know. *shaking and crying on the floor*.

In previous purchases (different solicitor), my solicitor has always authorized how much money I would like to put down as a deposit. I can't believe that our solicitor has taken every penny of the deposit we received from our buyer and made the decision to use it as a deposit on the house. How can he get away with that?

The truth is, we love the house and are slowly coming round to the fact that we now accidentally own it but what the solicitor did was extremely bad practice. I have no doubt that he did it because the sale/purchase was complicated and he just wanted it over and done with. We couldn't have been more explicit about our instructions.

Actually, last week when we received the preliminary results from the survey, we emailed our solicitor to put forward further enquiries and stated in the email that we needed to get some things checked before proceeding. Could this count as evidence do you think?

Sorry to hear of your predicament. Personally, I wish you could name and shame to avoid others using this solicitor if he is so clearly incompetent that he overlooked forwarding missed documentation of such high importance that could jeopardise your mortgage agreement.

Before consulting the Legal Ombudsman, I would urge you consider making a complaint about the solicitor concerned to the Solicitors Regulation Authority should you not receive a satisfactory response to an internal complaint about the solicitor's conduct in acting outside your instructions.

Unfortunately as a new user I am unable to post a link, but you will be able to find the link if you google 'Solicitors Regulation Authority'.

Yorkie1

EscapetoSnowdon wrote: »

Both myself and husband are both BVC Barrister post-graduates and would urge you consider making a complaint about the solicitor concerned to the Solicitors Regulation Authority should you not receive a satisfactory response to an internal complaint about the solicitor's conduct in acting outside your instructions.

Unfortunately as a new user I am unable to post a link, but you will be able to find the link if you google 'Solicitors Regulation Authority'.

Both you and your husband should know, therefore, that you should a) read all the information before offering advice, and b) make sure you know what you're talking about before offering advice - particularly if you seek to bolster the credibility of your advice by citing your vocational training.

The SRA does not deal with complaints against solicitors. The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints against solicitors and has done for well over a year now. OP has already been advised of this in this thread, and has already had preliminary conversations with the LEO. If you had done your research and read the thread you would have spotted this.