deed of variation? 30 October 2015 at 10:59PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Deaths, Funerals & Probate 135 replies 21.5K views

Yorkshireman99

orwen wrote: »

Thanks Securityguy,

Yes I agree with everything you say - the situation is ridiculous. I am working on another approach now and will update. Paper tigers all well and good but these people also hold the deeds to my only home and that is something much more substantial, at the moment I feel the deeds are being used as a carrot (or a goad?) to induce me to play along with the costly solicitor response & reply game. The solicitor has shown every intention of holding onto my deeds as long as possible, as opposed to processing them and conveying them to the Land Registry as I asked. I can be and am being blinded with science here because I do not understand why my deeds are being withheld from LR, not do I understand why I cannot simply forward the deeds to LR myself?

Many thanks.

Time to play hardball. Lodge a formal complaint with your solicitor under the firms complaints procedure. You have been messed about for far to long.

orwen

Thanks, I was hoping it wouldn't come to that and will be bitterly disappointed if it does. I am giving this firm one last chance to do as the client instructs. If not I will have to throw the whole lot at their senior partner: the fact that they have done exactly nothing in six months to bring this dispute to a resolution, and then the blessed cheek to tell me in writing that they are 'too busy' to process my deeds, leaving them open-ended for as long as suits them, is virtually the last straw. I will look for the complaints procedure now, just in case I need to resort to it. As if I hadn't had enough to cope with these past 9 months, and now a solicitor playing ducks & drakes to add insult to injury :-|

Savvy_Sue

Personally, I think I'd phone a couple of other solicitors and get a quote at least for sorting out the deeds, AND a timeframe. If anyone else can do it when it suits you rather than when it suits them, I'd simply ask for the deeds to be returned.

orwen

Thanks Sue,

Am due to visit IFA next week, do you think they'd be a good source for local and decent solicitor recommendations please? These people I landed with are too far away for me to speak with face-to-face which puts me at a severe disadvantage to begin with. They were recommended to me as local because they do have a local office, but all the people working on my case are based in other regional offices many, many miles away. If I'd known that I would not have gone with this firm in the first place, it is all rather unfortunate.

I'd feel a lot happier if I had the names of a couple of alternative solicitors, I now have very little faith left in the current company

Savvy_Sue

I'm sure an IFA would make a recommendation. Whether you could rely on it as being impartial is another matter: my experience is that they pass business between each other.

I'd hit the yellow pages and make a few calls. Ask, specifically, who in the office would deal with registering deeds and see if you can speak to them. You don't have to name names, just say that the company you instructed does not seem able to register your deeds before the end of the financial year and you are keen to have the job done, is it possible?

getmore4less

Is there a (senior)partner in your local office?

IT may help to go into the local office and explain utimately your business is going elsewhere if they dont buck up their service level.

Thing is with the deadline for SDLT your case drops down the priority list a very long way.

IME solicitors are the masters of inaction, never do today what you can do tomorow in case there is a fee paying thing that crops up that needs doing today.

Probate work is the filler for when things get quiet.

orwen

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I'm sure an IFA would make a recommendation. Whether you could rely on it as being impartial is another matter: my experience is that they pass business between each other.

I'd hit the yellow pages and make a few calls. Ask, specifically, who in the office would deal with registering deeds and see if you can speak to them. You don't have to name names, just say that the company you instructed does not seem able to register your deeds before the end of the financial year and you are keen to have the job done, is it possible?

Thanks Sue,

I'll start looking after the IFA appointment.

orwen

getmore4less wrote: »

Is there a (senior)partner in your local office?

IT may help to go into the local office and explain utimately your business is going elsewhere if they dont buck up their service level.

Thing is with the deadline for SDLT your case drops down the priority list a very long way.

IME solicitors are the masters of inaction, never do today what you can do tomorow in case there is a fee paying thing that crops up that needs doing today.

Probate work is the filler for when things get quiet.

Thanks, I did a bit of research and came up with several 'senior' names pertinent to the several people I am in contact with. I have a letter of complaint already drafted. Given the time I have been made to wait - for no legal reason - I have already expressed my dissatisfaction. I will follow this up with the suggestion of a formal complaint if things don't start moving. I accept that any office can become busy at times but that is not why I contracted these people to help me. If they need staff at this time of year then they need to find some temporary accountants for several weeks. It is they who have dawdled over the deeds until March-April, not I. And so the ball will be entirely in their court, all they have to do is convey the deeds to the Land Registry, that is not asking a great deal from them, and they have been to-ing and fro-ing over this for months now, it should have all be done back in 2015.

orwen

getmore4less wrote: »

Is there a (senior)partner in your local office?

There is a 'partner & solicitor' listed at the local office who has been with the firm for at least 30 years, but his area specialism is not dispute or probate, so I don't know if speaking to this person would be helpful?

However, both probate and conveyancing are mentioned in connection with the local office, but none of the senior names I found come up under this address, they are all based many miles away. If I visit the local office to complain the people at the front desk may just ask me who is dealing with my case, then tell me they can't help because those people are based elsewhere?

Yorkshireman99

orwen wrote: »

There is a 'partner & solicitor' listed at the local office who has been with the firm for at least 30 years, but his area specialism is not dispute or probate, so I don't know if speaking to this person would be helpful?

However, both probate and conveyancing are mentioned in connection with the local office, but none of the senior names I found come up under this address, they are all based many miles away. If I visit the local office to complain the people at the front desk may just ask me who is dealing with my case, then tell me they can't help because those people are based elsewhere?

Every firm of solicitors has to have a formal complaints procedure and you can access that at any of their offices. Just go in there and do it rather than delaying that will achieve nothing. The solution is in your hands.