Should I complain to solicitor?

hoosen

Hi everyone

We are currently selling our leasehold flat which we bought in 2006. The flat had some work done by its previous owner - he created a mezzanine level in the attic space above the lounge.

When getting the paperwork together to give to our solicitor in preparation to sell we discovered that we did not receive any papers from our solicitor back in 2006 - we do have it in writing from him that he sent all documents to the bank (Barclays Woolwich). We have since learnt that Barclays Woolwich stopped accepting paperwork in 2005. Our solicitor should have therefore sent the paperwork to us but didn't. As it is over 8 years ago they have destroyed all of our documents.

This is further complicated as we therefore do not have the permission from the landlord for the mezzanine to be created and no copy of the indemnity insurance policy the solicitor took out on our behalf (but didn't tell us about) for the lack of building regulations for the work. This is all news to us - we heard nothing about the lack of building regulations when we bought the flat. We therefore have no idea who is underwriting the insurance policy should we ever need to make a claim!?

Our buyers are still open to buying the flat but want to negotiate on price due to the potential lack of landlord consent and lack of building regulations.

My question is - do I have grounds to go back to the solicitors we used to buy the flat and get some sort of compensation? Surely they should have told us:

1. about the lack of building regs and taking out an indemnity insurance proposal
2. sent us the paperwork when the bank said it was no longer accepting it

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks