Can A Solicitor Prevent You Buying A House?

wrkactjob

G_M wrote: »

You misunderstand.

It is not your solicitor who is doing this. It is your mortgage lender's solicitor.

As it happens (I asume, since this is normal) the same solicitor is acting for both of you. As the lender's solicitor, he has a professional obligation to act in their best interests. This may conflict with your best interests, but he cannot hide the information from his client.

Ok I didn't show their letter. The solicitor wrote:

"The lender relies on us, as their solicitor, to fully investigate the title in the same way as we do for you.

Yes, I am saying that we cannot obtain mortgage funds for you until the report confirms the property is not a risk.

The current report states the property is potentially contaminated land."

Now how does that compare to Skipton stating that they do not want to see a contamination report and the mortgage is offered unconditionally?

On one hand I have spoken to Skiptons underwriter today who confirms the mortgage is ours, on the other a solicitor stating they are not going to release funds.

G_M

What about the timing?

If the solicitor came into the information after the Skipton made its offer, then he must pass the information on and advise the Skipton accordingly. They may well review their offer.

As your solicitor, he is highlighting this to you.

But I may be totally wrong, and he may simply be a perverse solicitor who is taking the law into his own hands and getting a power kick....

wrkactjob

Really though Skiptons are banging out mortgages and mortgage offers everyday.

If what you are saying is the case and I appreciate the time your taking surely Skipton would make a point of only issuing mortgages subject to satisfactory searches undertaken by their solicitor. Rather than saying, in effect, "Yep all done, you have the mortgage".

wrkactjob

I will talk to both parties tomorrow to try and clarify the situation....the site is 600 homes split Bellway/Barratts and approx' 75 homes are now inhabited on this "contaminated site".

http://www.bellway.co.uk/new-homes/wessex/kingley-gate

http://www.barratthomes.co.uk/new-homes/west-sussex/H612501-Kingley-Gate/

mustang1

Your solicitor will have to sign a certificate stating to skipton that the property has a good title and basically that there is nothing that would adversely affect the marketability of the property. Clearly any sign of contamination would so he can not sign that certificate without checking that all the remediation works have been carried out and that the local authority has no further concerns over contamination.

As you say, skipton 'bang out mortgages' by pressing buttons on computers. Every the skipton surveyor may not know about the contaminated land possibility. It wouldn't be ev.ident from a site visit.

If the land has been developed by Barrett / Bellway, then their solicitor should be providing your solicitor with correspondence from the local authority that all remediation works have been completed and should also be providing some comfort in the sale contract to ensure you do not take on any environmental liability.

Your solicitor hasn't said you can't buy this - he has just said he needs to get another report and clear off this concern before he can advise the mortgage lender all is in order.

I bet you wouldn't be happy if he ignored all of this and then you couldn't sell your property in the future when a buyer's solicitor asks exactly the same questions your solicitor is asking now and you weren't able to provide satisfactory answers.

davidmcn

wrkactjob wrote: »

surely Skipton would make a point of only issuing mortgages subject to satisfactory searches undertaken by their solicitor.

That is what every mortgage lender does. You've already seen the CML Handbook - the mortgage offer is subject to the solicitor certifying that everything contained in that is fine.

wrkactjob

davidmcn wrote: »

That is what every mortgage lender does. You've already seen the CML Handbook - the mortgage offer is subject to the solicitor certifying that everything contained in that is fine.

Where in the CML document does it say that?...could you point me to the relevant section?

Have just re-read the 10 page mortgage offer document.

Nowhere does it even begin to indicate that the mortgage offer is subject to satisfactory environmental searches.

If it is a fact that the offer will be withdrawn on the basis of lack of such there should at least be some mention of it. It represents a massive change - to totally withdraw the mortgage offer.....why hide it?

RLH33

I would do some investigation myself before commissioning a report.

The planning permission will most definitely have conditions attached to deal with contaminated land. They will require the submission of a remediation scheme to include reports to show what has been found, how it has been dealt with and confirm the status of the 'cleanliness' of your dwelling site. The condition will have needed to be discharged so:

See if there is such a condition
Check it has been discharged
Speak to the Planning officer and also the contaminated land officer
Print off the paperwork to show it has been discharged - if it doesn't relate to the whole site it should name your plot as sometimes they do it in blocks.
Also check building regs - they will not sign off on a site unless it is clean - get the building regs approval notice.
Give all this to your solicitor.

Alternatively ask Barratts if they can provide it to you.

Barratts/Bellway will have made sure the site is clean, it would be commercial suicide not to do so.

And for some small amount of price of mind - if it is found later that the site is not clean - the developer remains liable even though many years may have passed.

davidmcn

wrkactjob wrote: »

Where in the CML document does it say that?...could you point me to the relevant section?

Other way round, the mortgage offer is subject to the CML matters being signed off. I can't see your mortgage offer so I don't know exactly what it says, but presumably it mentions that you don't get the funds until the solicitors have dealt with their instructions.

wrkactjob

RLH33 wrote: »

I would do some investigation myself before commissioning a report.

The planning permission will most definitely have conditions attached to deal with contaminated land. They will require the submission of a remediation scheme to include reports to show what has been found, how it has been dealt with and confirm the status of the 'cleanliness' of your dwelling site. The condition will have needed to be discharged so:

See if there is such a condition
Check it has been discharged
Speak to the Planning officer and also the contaminated land officer
Print off the paperwork to show it has been discharged - if it doesn't relate to the whole site it should name your plot as sometimes they do it in blocks.
Also check building regs - they will not sign off on a site unless it is clean - get the building regs approval notice.
Give all this to your solicitor.

Alternatively ask Barratts if they can provide it to you.

Barratts/Bellway will have made sure the site is clean, it would be commercial suicide not to do so.

And for some small amount of price of mind - if it is found later that the site is not clean - the developer remains liable even though many years may have passed.

Thanks.

I have done all that already, Arun District Council Environmental/Pollution section and I are on first name terms!

http://www.arun.gov.uk/main.cfm?type=APPLICATIONSEARCHP

application LU/355/10

Its all there, every document from start to end...

The 30 hectare site has two historical landfull sites rented out by the farmer many years ago. They were legal and licensed. They are situated on the edge of the site.

Landmark Information Group have perhaps with a blunt clumsy instrument simply classified the whole area as contaminated.

The final phases when built in probably 2 years time will as I understand it be the point at which the old landfill sites will be either neutralized or moved after treatment. Possibly at that point the Landmark Group will de-classify the land as contaminated.