Changing Solicitors - advice please

GTG

Some years ago my neighbour and I considered extending the leases on our maisonettes, the leases were running very low. We ended up buying the freehold between us of the purpose built block of four in which they are contained. The other two lessees were not interested joining us in the purchase and it did not cost us a great deal more than the premium for a 99 year lease extension. A deed of trust was drawn up between us to cover our joint ownership of the freehold.

Shortly after obtaining the freehold we had new leases drawn up to ourselves to bring them back to a 99 year term. Obviously the only cost to us was the solicitors fee for doing the necessary legal work for the leases and registration there of. The idea was that if we wanted to sell some time in the future we had the option to sell our leasehold interest whilst keeping the freehold.

When we first set the purchase of the freehold in motion my neighbour was retired from work and I was working long hours in my business. Owing to our circumstances I agreed to let my neighbour be the person to contact and to do the admin and so naturally we appointed his solicitor to do the legal work. Since then we have granted one of the other lessees a lease extension and received and split the premium between us. During these transactions we have had to frequently chase the solicitor up to see what was happening.

In one instance, on another issue not related to the freehold I wrote a letter and had to chase it up for a reply after three weeks. Similarly one went for a week with out a reply. I also had a poor experience with a consultation with one of their members of staff over another issue personal to me in which in my opinion this member of staff was rude and deliberately tried to blind me with legal jargon. I got no further forward with the matter and give up with it.

Despite our joint poor experiences and me telling my neighbour about my experience with the member of staff with the attitude problem he continued to use the same firm for his will. Obviously I did not want to deal with this firm any more but did not want to tell my neighbour and co-owner outright for fear of falling out with him.

Unfortunately my neighbour passed away recently and left his estate to be split equally between his daughters. The two daughters came to me the other day and said that they had been to collect their fathers will and to ask about the situation with the freehold. They were totally disgusted with the attitude of the member of staff they had seen, they had the same "blinded by legal jargon" experience that I had encountered earlier despite them first having been told that they could not tell them anything unless I was there. This was with a different member of staff than the one I'd seen. Another thing they were told is that they would have to come back to them because they had all the legal documents they needed there.

After a discussion with the two daughters they have decided to appoint another solicitor to do the necessary legal work with what ever they decide to do with their inheritance. I have recommended the solicitor that I used to originally purchase the lease of my maisonette and they have agreed that they will engage them to deal with what ever they intend to do with their inheritance with a view to appointing them to do any future legal work on our behalf should they wish to retain their freehold interest.

If you have got this far thanks for reading, the request for advice is coming soon. The first firm of solicitors referred too hold the counter party leases in their storage room.

1) Can someone tell me what the process will be when we appoint the new solicitor? My understanding is that deeds and leases held at solicitors are I thing of the past and that everything now is stored at and can be requested from the land registry.

If not:
2) Will I and the two daughters have to sign and lodge some sort of letter of consent so the new solicitor can request the counter party leases from the old solicitors?
3) Can they make things difficult for us by dragging their feet and if so what can we do to nip this in the bud?
4) Also, will there be any other fees or costs incurred at the old solicitors e.g. for handling and moving the documentation over to the new solicitors?

Many thanks for reading this post, any relevant advice will be much appreciated.

cattie

I can't help with your query, but while you wait to see if somebody knowledgeable comes along, perhaps you can get some advice from these people. http://lease-advice.org/

It's a government funded agency.

loubel

GTG wrote: »

2) Will I and the two daughters have to sign and lodge some sort of letter of consent so the new solicitor can request the counter party leases from the old solicitors?
3) Can they make things difficult for us by dragging their feet and if so what can we do to nip this in the bud?
4) Also, will there be any other fees or costs incurred at the old solicitors e.g. for handling and moving the documentation over to the new solicitors?

2. Yes, you will need to authorise them to release the documents they are storing. The daughters will need to prove that their father has passed away and that they are entitled to the paperwork by providing death certificate and grant of probate.

3. They will likely need to obtain the file from storage, check what they hold, check the authority and send these out. You will need to allow them a reasonable amount of time to do this. If they do not deal with it in a reasonable amount of time you can follow their complaint procedure to complain - usually start by raising the issue with the acting solicitor and if that fails go to the complaints officer and if that still fails then go to the legal ombudsman.

4.Depends on what their terms of business say.

GTG

Thanks for both the replies and especially yours Loubel, that is extremely helpful, thank you.