Seller failing to complete on sale of flat - Help!

mrs_mi5tery

rrtt wrote: »

Hi Mi5tery

I do get the point that the vendor's solicitor is a fake/scammer - but don't see how they could be running the scam without the collusion of the vendor ...

Hi rrtt,

We're entirely inclined to agree with you, but up 'til now, we still don't have any proof of this. Investigations are still underway.

mi5tery

Okay only one update this evening, lets see how far I get...

Following our report to the police and no progress from our CS including zero communication with vendor and his solicitor, mrs mi5tery did some major research. This research uncovered a three year old article of a family who suffered a considerably larger loss than ours but in similar circumstances (yes, seriously). The article set the basis for mrs mi5tery contacting a City of London based litigation solicitor after having spoken to a number of other solicitors, all of whom immediately agreed that we had a strong case for negligence against our CS.

The litigation solicitor (LS) was eager to take our case as he very much felt that this type of crime is unfortunately on the rise and the SRA, despite one of their remits being tracking down and pursuing fraudulent solicitors, tend to bury their head in the sand and sweep a lot of this under the rug. LS felt that we had an extremely strong case against CS and he took us on.

We spent a very long night writing a 200 page opus, complete with referenced appendices, detailing our journey from finding the property on Zoopla to the moment he took on our case. This spanned a period of approximately 7 months, included a million emails and random yet useful details stored in mrs mi5tery's head (where does she keep all of that?!). Took us all night - started around 8pm, got done at 5am.

Next morning, I sent it off to LS and later that day met up with him to go through the detail further. I sat with him for two hours, and in those two hours I felt he was more productive than my CS ever was!!

- Amongst other things, during this time, LS managed to get a hold of the actual solicitor the VS was posing as and discovered he is based as an in-house solicitor at the pawn brokers, but does not deal with the public or with conveyancing. He had no knowledge of our case, as he had been away for an extended time due to a family bereavement. (In case you're wondering our CS only ever dealt with the VS by email or when the VS called our CS - she never successfully managed to get through to the VS when she called!)

Twenty four hours later and LS had completely gotten his teeth into our case and had produced affadavits for him, myself and mrs mi5ery and retained a barrister to go in front of the judge and issue proceedings against the receiving bank in order to a) freeze the account into which our money was transferred to in the hopes that there may be some money left and b) get information about the account holder and the accounts into which the funds may have been further transferred to.

Meanwhile, we were having to jump through all kinds of circus hoops in order to get our client file released by CS to LS. They ignored us for a few days and then made us write signed statements saying we give our permission yada yada. All delaying tactics. Took over a week, but eventually they ran out of time and released our file... which revealed further and LARGER occasions of incompetence that we hadn't even been aware of! LS said, in all of his (considerable) years on the job, he'd never seen such incompetence.

And like every story... there's a twist.. well sort of. LS discovered having read through the file that the vendor was in the process of being declared bankrupt! Yes, that's right! In the land registry search which arrived with our CS the day before completion (the day before she transferred all our sums to the VS, as oppose to prior to exchange), it stated the vendor was in the process of being declared bankrupt. LS explained to us that as the vendor hadn't actually been declared bankrupt, he could still sell the flat however the fact that it had been noted on the land registry search meant that the trustee of the bankruptcy could take back the flat if we proceeded with the sale if they so wished. This is definitely something the CS should have informed us of, in fact they should have advised us to pull out having learnt that!

Now I should point out that this last bit of news doesn't put the vendor in a good light... but no actual evidence to make him look anything other than very suspicious.

We also learnt about lawyerchecker (http://www.lawyerchecker.co.uk/) at this stage and were aghast to learn that this entire situation could have been avoided for a sum of only £10 + VAT - unbelievable!

To be continued...

mi5tery:mad:

mi5tery

mrs_mi5tery wrote: »

Hi rrtt,

We're entirely inclined to agree with you, but up 'til now, we still don't have any proof of this. Investigations are still underway.

There are lots of unanswered questions such as how did the vendor get hold of VS in the first place if he is indeed entirely innocent in all this? I say unanswered, vendor's answer to this question form the EA was "from a friend, who used him and I did because he was cheap".

Seriously?

rrtt

Bluddyell - shocking, just shocking ...but it sounds as tho (at last ) you and Mrs M are in a position where you actually have a *competent* legal head working on your behalf, and seem to stand a decent chance of recovering your dosh - in that respect, am so pleased for you. In a way, perhaps it even helps that the scenario is so extreme - makes the errors more glaringly obvious, and your LS keen to take the case on.

Fingers crossed for you - but one thing I must say - all this staying up thru the night, stress, upset etc. Please take good care of yourselves and get proper rest and food - health is the ultimate wealth, you don't want this temporary nightmare making you ill!

pops5588

Oh my god, how on earth has your CS got you into this PALAVA.

Serious kudos to you and mrs_mi5tery for sticking with it, at this point I would be looking for someone who does in kneecaps on the cheap.

Just kidding! Sort of...

DaftyDuck

Can I bagsy writing the theme music for this epic saga?

Oh, I'll need funding for hiring the LSO and the O2 arena.... can someone forward me a deposit for the costs?

Since it's Friday night tonight, can we expect a post, or will the pair of you be out drowning your sorrows/celebrating your victory?

kmmr

I've just re-read this, and I can see that over and over again you have asked to confirm that the solicitor was real.

Shocking to discover at this late stage he wasn't legit. I hope it went well, and looking forward to hearing the end (hopefully!)

mi5tery

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Can I bagsy writing the theme music for this epic saga?

Oh, I'll need funding for hiring the LSO and the O2 arena.... can someone forward me a deposit for the costs?

Since it's Friday night tonight, can we expect a post, or will the pair of you be out drowning your sorrows/celebrating your victory?

You sure can! Assuming of course you can write theme tunes...

I was intending on writing another update today but we only just got home having done our late night Tesco run. Feeling quite sleepy now. Speaking of Tesco, both the Mrs and I read the entire 'buyer wants to bury a dead dog in my garden' thread (thanks to WiFi on the underground).

Sorry all.

mi5tery

SternMusik

Oh no, the suspense....! At least this means I can now finish the glass of wine I have been sipping veeeeeeerrryyyy slowly for the past hour

mi5tery wrote: »

Speaking of Tesco, both the Mrs and I read the entire 'buyer wants to bury a dead dog in my garden' thread (thanks to WiFi on the underground).

I hope you weren't eating or drinking at the time....? :rotfl: Been there, done that

If you are short of things to read, I recommend the thread about the buyers who parked their caravan on the vendors' driveway over Christmas. Not sure any bags for life were involved, but nonetheless well worth a read

chickaroonee

What a tale. I really feel for you guys and am so glad you have a decent lawyer now. Please let us know how you get on.