Solicitor did not pass on stamp duty to HM Revenue & Customs

A_Customer_2

Hi everyone,

I need some advise and would be grateful for some responses.
We recently purchased a house and ask a Solicitor to deal with all the paperwork, stamp duty, etc.
Unfortunately we made a very bad choice and the solicitor turns out to be a nightmare. Not only did they make some mistakes when registering our new property, more importantly they have not forwarded the stamp duty to H&M Revenue.

We paid the full stamp duty fee to the solicitor in January and received a letter from H&M a few weeks back asking for payment.
We contacted the solicitor and they are vague and keep promising for the last 3-4 weeks that they will pay the fee. Meanwhile we received another correspondence from HM asking for fees, penalty charges and interest.

As I don't get anywhere with the solicitors, I wonder what my options are?

I contacted the legal ombudsman, but that process will take another 8 weeks before I can register a formal complaint.

Any ideas? What is my legal situation if they continue not to pay?


Best

RAS

Have you any evidence that you passed the stamp duty cost to the solicitor - receipt etc?

Also have you spoken to the Law Society?

A_Customer_2

We do have bank statement, completion statement and email correspondence highlighting that we paid the fee.

I will look up the Law Society, are they a regulating body?

RAS

They are the regulatory body for solicitors. They can tell you who is the senior partner handling complaints as you need to put in a formal complaint to that person.

And if they are getting several queries about a firm who may not be passing on client funds they might take action.

Better_Days

And don't forget to contact HMRC asap telling them what has happened, what you are doing and also enclosing copies of your documentary evidence. At the very least get a cert of posting, or signed for, for your letter.

You could perhaps also suggest that HMRC take a look at the business accounts of this solicitor too!

Hope you manage to get it all sorted out. Bad enough having to pay SDLT once without being asked for it again + interest and penalties.

agrinnall

The part of the Law Society that actually regulates solicitors is the Solicitors Regulation Authority. They are independent of the rest of the Law Society, which in fact represents solicitors.

http://www.sra.org.uk/home/home.page

googler

A_Customer wrote: »

We do have bank statement, completion statement and email correspondence highlighting that we paid the fee.

Have you sent copies of these to HMRC?

A_Customer_2

Thanks for all your advise, very helpful.
I contacted HMRC and will look into the Solicitors Regulation Authority at the Law Society. I sent a formal complain to the directors to get the process for the legal ombudsman started. I spoke to them and they will send a formal letter mentioning my complaint, but I have to wait 8 weeks before I can start an official complain.

harrys_dad

Until this is resolved I would advise the OP to remove the name of the company from the original post.

wannahouse

harrys_dad wrote: »

Until this is resolved I would advise the OP to remove the name of the company from the original post.

yes, i wouldn't mention the solicitor's name either!!!
too risky!!!

WestonDave

Having had a quick nose at their website you may be barking up the wrong tree going for the SRA - there is no mention of them being or employing solicitors. Beware "Lawyers" is a generic and unregulated term which can be used to describe anyone - "Solicitor" is a prescribed term and it is an offence to pretend to be a solicitor if you are not.

If there are no solicitors within the business the SRA can do very little. They do mention the Council for Licensed Conveyancers so you'd be better off going that route now. You should still be able to use the Legal Ombudsman in due course as I think that scheme covers both Solicitors and other legal professionals.

The company figures for September 2012 look rather sick - best part of £1m debt versus £18k assets (plus some intangibles which have book value but are practically worthless).