Solicitor Lost Paperwork

kazire

I completed on a house before christmas and was awaiting all the paperwork to come through which initial the main bulk came through before christmas but thought the rest would follow after christmas just down to the nature of the holiday period. So I have requested from my solicitor the rest of the paperwork which includes the original certificates for building work for the house and regulation certificates. these are things i have received as original with previous house purchases. My solicitors state they have never received the originals and the vendors solicitor have stated they have sent them. Ideally I would have the originals for future selling of the property. What shall i do?

Many thanks

G_M

My solicitors state they have never received the originals and the vendors solicitor have stated they have sent them.

So one of them is lying, or incompetant.

But surely before Exchanging your solicitor would have sent copies for you to check? Thus proving he received them........

kazire

Yes we had photocopies of everything but was told these were sent only as copies by the vendors solicitor. Is this something i should be pursuing?

TBagpuss

Depending on what the documents are, you may be able to obtain duplicates. Do you (or your solicitor) have copies / scans?

Note - your solicitor sending copies to you doesn't prove they had the originals, it would prove that they had been sent copies. But check your letter from them to see what they said before about receiving or copying things.

It is perfectly possible that both solicitors are telling the truth. Things do get lost in the post or DX. However, people, being human, do also make mistakes so it is worth asking your solicitor to double check in case they have over looked them, and ask them to ask the sellers solicitor to do the same, and also to clarify exactly when the documents were sent, and if anything else was sent at the same time.

kazire

The certificates are for building work that has taken place on the house. This includes Building Reg certificates for RSJs and electrical work window certificates and guarantee for large conservatory. I have chased this up with my solicitor on a couple of occasions but just say they are looking into it but they dont appear on my part to be actively looking and I find it surprising that i was the one who had to initially tell them i had not received the paperwork i would have thought they should have approached me to say we cant pass them onto you as we dont have them. I dont want to have trouble with this in the future i.e. when we come to sell next time.

G_M

Building Regs certificates are issued by Building Control at the council, who will have a record.

davidmcn

Copies will be fine, I wouldn't worry about it.