Correos or Royal Mail have lost our keys and deeds.

ChairmanDavey_2

Hello, I'm looking for some advice from you knowledgeable folk.

We own an apartment in Spain, and we found out that our letting agent was getting out of the business. We requested our deeds and keys be sent back to us, and on the 26th June they were posted through Correos to us. The Correos tracking number says that on the 28th they reached Heathrow international sorting office. We haven't received them yet.

I have spoken to Royal Mail, who say that the sender (our unhelpful letting agent) needs to launch an official investigation. When/If it turns out lost, how would we claim compensation for the fact that our keys and deeds have been lost, and the cost it would take to fix this - e.g. replacement deeds and changing the lock?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I_have_spoken

how would we claim compensation for the fact that our keys and deeds have been lost

I don't think you can, the contract is between the Agent and the postal service so the Agent would need to make the claim.

How much they could claim would depend on the insured value - assuming that the service they used would cover legal documents anyway.

custardy

ChairmanDavey wrote: »

Hello, I'm looking for some advice from you knowledgeable folk.

We own an apartment in Spain, and we found out that our letting agent was getting out of the business. We requested our deeds and keys be sent back to us, and on the 26th June they were posted through Correos to us. The Correos tracking number says that on the 28th they reached Heathrow international sorting office. We haven't received them yet.

I have spoken to Royal Mail, who say that the sender (our unhelpful letting agent) needs to launch an official investigation. When/If it turns out lost, how would we claim compensation for the fact that our keys and deeds have been lost, and the cost it would take to fix this - e.g. replacement deeds and changing the lock?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Yu are talking a big claim with consequential losses.
pretty unlikely the postal method covers that.
However thats not your issue,its down to the agent who sent it
Im thinking you may end up having a fight with them getting a payout

Werdnal

Do you know what level of service the agents used? When mailing anything, there are different "packages" available, and high value/difficult to replace items should be sent on a guaranteed value service, so there is some recourse to compensation when/if items get lost.

The "contract" for this is between the agent and the courier/mail agent used, ie letting agent works for you, courier/mail agent works for letting agent. I think you can sue the former - your letting agent, for whatever you feel you are entitled to for the loss and hassle, and they then countersue whoever they have "employed" to deliver the items.

Hopefully (for them) they used a "guaranteed" service where compensation would apply, but knowing how lax and cheapskate letting agents can be, my guess is they chucked it in an envelope and used the cheapest route possible to post them!

propertyman

First of all change the locks.

Second contact a local Spanish solcitor to find out what to do if deeds are lost for Spanish title and if, like here, a restriction can be
placed on the title to prevent mortgage fraud or fradualent sales.

pimento

I reckon I'd have put myself on a plane and gone to collect the deeds changing the locks while I was there.

You can't trust anyone these days.

G_M

If the letting agent is "getting out of the business" he is unlikely to help much, unlikely to compensate you, and unlikely to be worth suing.

Sorry.

Why on earth did the agent hold the Deeds at all!!!!!

Get over there and change the locks. You'll presumably have to visit anyway to find a new agent and/or sort things out yourself for the future.

Only a Spanish solicitor (or forum like this?) will be able to tell you the implications of lost Deeds and what to do.