Seller failing to complete on sale of flat - Help!

rrtt

hamster2013 wrote: »

Not really - simply based on reality
Someone who is made homeless, has to give up work or falls ill due to this (depression and/or anxiety are medical conditions and not just an 'overboard reaction' - they are diagnosed and treated by professionally trained and qualified medical personnel) would logically be entitled more compensation compared to someone who kept on living normally and for whom this was merely a nice war story to tell his grandchildren one day -
I don't think there is anything stupid about that - and feel that it is totally rational and logical way to compensate someone.

Glad you got compensated pretty swiftly considering the amounts that are involved here. :beer:

Anyone experiencing what the Mi5terys have been thru are entitled to reasonable recompense for stress, adverse effects on health (which may only come to light at a later time), lack of sleep, and the time they have spent dealing with it all. Failure to compensate reasonably may lead to unnecessary medical appointments being made, exaggeration, over-egged compensation claims etc by others (obviously not by theMi5terys, I hasten to add), just to get something back. A bit like today's news story re the PC who tripped on a garage's kerb on a work call-out, and because her pay was docked whilst she was off injured as a result of that incidfent incurred in line of duty, she felt the need to make a claim for compensation. It would be better all-round if fair deals for injury were in place to start with.

mi5tery

Firstly, thanks everyone who has been following this thread and for your comments and support.

kizkiz wrote: »

There appears to be some major misunderstanding of how the police work
In this instance it's been a mere 4 weeks for a major fraud investigation. It's not quick or easy getting info from banks and quite often requires court orders. This doesn't happen overnight
It's also nowhere near as straight forward as just arresting the owner of the bank account.
What if the account was opened with false details? I regularly arrest people who have been detained at banks with fake docs trying to open an account. They do this in order to launder money and commit fraud (such as stealing money in a fake house sale). It then becomes a far more protracted investigation with little or no leads.
I could point out that at local level most CID detectives have about 30+ active investigations at any one time, and can't always spend the time they would like on each case, so things take longer.
Charging decisions for something like this will be taken by the CPS too, so lack of action against suspects is not always in the hands of the police.

I'd like to reiterate the support I have for the police. Also, I'd like to clarify that my criticism is around the process - the fact that it took four weeks to get to the police in order for them to investigate. This fact alone can make it difficult for the police to do their job most effectively. My criticism thus is regarding the system (bearing in mind, I personally had already paid up the costs and my LS had obtained a court order which provided us with bank details of where our money initially went - all within a week I might add).

Right off to work now, written this in a rush so hopefully it makes sense.

mi5tery

mi5tery

Hi all,

Was made aware of a report on 'You and Yours' on Radio 4 today. It's one of the first segments, take a look (rather a listen) here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039rwck

mi5tery

Contessa

mi5tery wrote: »

Hi all,

Was made aware of a report on 'You and Yours' on Radio 4 today. It's one of the first segments, take a look (rather a listen) here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039rwck

mi5tery

Thanks for the link-interesting but also worrying. I'm glad you've had a satisfactory settlement to your awful situation.

rrtt

mi5tery wrote: »

Hi all,

Was made aware of a report on 'You and Yours' on Radio 4 today. It's one of the first segments, take a look (rather a listen) here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039rwck

mi5tery

Really worth a listen, though it is worrying as Contessa said. Most salient point was the parting question "what can people do to protect themselves?" and answer "Find a solicitor who's a member of the Conveyancing Quality Scheme". I think if I were going thru the process of house-buying again now, I'd also a) try and keep my solicitor local and b) be going round in person to check out the physical premises of the supposed vendor's supposed solicitors, as a supposed 'mystery shopper'!

mi5tery

Hi,

I've been putting together a list of 'lessons learnt', essentially a list of things that when I hopefully go through this process again I'll use to avoid being victim to fraud again. If readers are interested I'll write a bit more detail and post in a new thread on this forum (new so comments can be focused around the points as opposed to my story here).

Would this be helpful? If so I'll try and do it this weekend.

mi5tery

rrtt

I reckon that would be massively helpful and a valuable tool in the buyer's armoury Mi5tery :T

Contessa

mi5tery wrote: »

Hi,

I've been putting together a list of 'lessons learnt', essentially a list of things that when I hopefully go through this process again I'll use to avoid being victim to fraud again. If readers are interested I'll write a bit more detail and post in a new thread on this forum (new so comments can be focused around the points as opposed to my story here).

Would this be helpful? If so I'll try and do it this weekend.

mi5tery

That would be very helpful. I'm about to start my house selling and buying journey so would value your hard-earned lessons.

mi5tery

Hi all,

Thanks rrtt and Contessa for your encouragement. I have now created a new thread with my lessons learnt.

mi5tery

Propertyfan

mi5tery, is there any way you can get due compensation? Is the scam going to lead to a court case and possible conviction for the bogus solicitor?