Seller failing to complete on sale of flat - Help!

ValHaller

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 ...

Hmm. Perhaps it goes a little deeper.

I agree, it all hinges on the Vendor's 'Solicitor'. But as I see it, it does not even need the collusion of the Vendor. If the house is tenanted, the collusion of the Agent would be helpful, but a good conman may be able to convince the tenants to take viewings and surveys without involving the Agent. It is then a matter of packaging up Land Registry documents in the appropriate bundle as the 'contract' for OP's solicitor.

The Vendor may or may not be in on it

• perhaps a desperate move because of impending bankruptcy to sell genuinely (apart form not giving vacant possession) using a fake solicitor, because a genuine one will either not touch the sale or not release the equity because of the impending bankruptcy.
• Or the Vendor could just be attempting a straightforward fraud.
• Or a fraudster could be aware of the impending bankruptcy of the owner and run the fraud, knowing that the owner would be the first person the police would pull in for questioning if they could be bothered to do anything about it - and the police would even help the fraudster by stitching up the owner if any scrap of evidence pointed away from the owner

As I see it, any Landlord could be victim of a fraud like this. A tenant could pull it off - although it might not be the case here.

I understand that the Land Registry can alert Landlords to certain activity on a Title which might indicate a fraudulent sale in progress. Perhaps the Land Registry rep will turn up on Monday and give some details?

rrtt

Hmm, thanks ValHaller. It's the point at which the Title Deeds get called into play which make me suspect the vendor must be involved, but there again I don't know enough about what happens and when at the Land Registry end to be sure. There is a Land Registry official poster on here, so as you say, it would be great if he could enlighten us

Meanwhile, I hope Mr & Mrs Mi5tery are managing to get some well deserved R and R in the sunshine this w/e!

mi5tery

Hi all,

The Mrs and I had a nice relaxing weekend. Enjoyed what was left of the warm weather and sun before it all turned wet today.

I want to clarify something regarding the land registry title which aided in pulling the wool over on my CS. As mentioned previously the vendor wanted a quick sale and in order to expedite matters the VS sent through a search pack containing all searches (environment, local authority etc). Now as part of this pack there as also a land registry title search (the other searches were recent and in my opinion there to add legitimacy and hide the fact that the land registry title copy was not recent). My CS was instructed by me when I was made aware of the search pack, to check all documents and if she was unhappy with any of them I wanted to be informed so we can have new ones done - I received no concerns from my CS. However she also did not do the land registry title search until very late in the process and as previously mentioned didn't even inform me of the monumental issue contained within (probably because she, in my opinion, didn't even read it) and proceeded to complete.

Anyway, to continue...

So we have appointed an awesome LS who is a breath of clean fresh air. Having been dealing with what I consider to be a useless and really bad solicitor (our CS) who was really hard to get hold of, it is amazing how much of a contrast our LS is. To say I am fond of him probably gives you some idea of how good he is.

Anyway, we instigated 'Norwich Pharmacal' procedures (expensive) to identify the details of the bank account our funds were transferred to by our CS, also an order to freeze the accounts of any and all funds held by the account holder upto the value the CS transferred into their account. This involved hiring a barrister and then meeting a judge in their chambers at The Royal Courts of Justice (at the Strand). By the way if you've never been to the RCoJ I strongly suggest a day trip, it's a beautiful building and free to enter and walk around (you can also sit in on a case if you so desire), I wasn't on a sightseeing trip so none of that for me I'm afraid. Thankfully the orders were granted by the judge (in fact the judge also suggested amendments to the proposed order to help us further), and it was all steam ahead.

We received word from the bank which showed that our funds left the fake VS account the day after it arrived there! When we heard that news, everything sunk in and really began to feel real. Before it was just a chance, but now it was certain: We had just had all our money stolen.

Our LS had tried to prepare us in advance that it was a long shot, that the primary reason for doing this step was just as much to halt any remaining money as much as to show to our CS that we took all reasonable steps to mitigate our loss.

Next stage was the "pre action protocol" against our CS for negligence and breach of trust. This involved crafting a strongly worded letter outlining all the ways that they failed us followed up by our intention to pursue them for our losses. It is required by law before court proceedings in the hopes that through discussions a settlement can be reached before ever having to set foot in a court room.

The other side then can drag this part out three months if they want, they don't have to respond for that amount of time. Crazy. However, as soon as we were informed who the CS's insurance had appointed as their lawyers, our LS persistently yet politely kept at them asking for updates, stressing that the longer they stretch this out, the more in legal fees they'll end up paying.

To be continued...

mi5tery

rrtt

Dear oh dear - sorry to hear that news re the bank account non-contents, but v. much appreciate the update Mi5tery, thanks.

Very much admire your calm and stoic attitude too - I think I'd be having a fit of the screaming abdabs by now! Hopefully as your own CS is legit, you'll eventually get reimbursed by their insurers.

BazzaDP

Taking too long to tell. Losing interest.

Presume it worked out for you by suing the CS. If so, glad it did.

mi5tery

I guess I should cut the story short here. The Mrs told me the other stuff isn't interesting anyway.

Our LS informed us that CS's insurers are 'rated' and that's a very good thing. Means there's little chance that their insurers would be unable to pay out / declare themselves insolvent (not sure I completely understood what rated meant, just that it was a good thing).

Anyway after much waiting we were offered a settlement which we accepted. Due to the confidentiality clause in the settlement I can't give any details except to say a settlement was accepted.

Now we're back to square one - finding somewhere to live.

Apologies for my drawn out description of what happened.

Thanks everyone for all your support.

By the way the police are investigating. Nobody has apparently been arrested, the person whose bank account the monies went into claimed ignorance and that someone had used his account without his knowledge (and ignored all the letters from his back informing him of the transfers). I should point out that it took forever for my report to be passed on to the actual police after Actonfraud did their preliminary investigations and passed it on to them (really frustrating).

mi5tery

grifferz

Thanks for writing all that up. You didn't need to cut it short - I for one would have been interested in anything and everything you had to say about what you have been through!

Yorkie1

grifferz wrote: »

Thanks for writing all that up. You didn't need to cut it short - I for one would have been interested in anything and everything you had to say about what you have been through!

I agree with this post.

Lifeforms

Gutted that your money has gone, but great that you have a suitable settlement!

It's been interesting following this, never posted as I have nothing constructive to say, but have been reading the digests. I do wonder if you could do a post to cover start to finish and appropriate steps in more detail as I kind of feel this would be a good read, but also a good example for any one else who comes across this thread in the same position.

I'm a bit lost however, in 5 days from your last post (post #163), you've gone to court, had the details, and had a suitable settlement?

dibuzz

mi5tery wrote: »

I guess I should cut the story short here. The Mrs told me the other stuff isn't interesting anyway.

Now we're back to square one - finding somewhere to live.

Apologies for my drawn out description of what happened.

I think quite a few of us found it interesting, no need to apologise at all.

Good luck finding somewhere else to live although I can't imagine you are looking forward to starting the process again.