Solicitor Mistakes

tidds

Morning,

For our conveyancing we decided to go with a solicitors firm that my parents have used many times in the past and I used to purchase my previous house. They weren't the cheapest, they weren't the most expensive - but because I had a good experience last time and we had a senior associate dealing with our case I felt that it was the best option to avoid any issues and delays etc.

We complete in a couple of weeks (after which I can then pick up my new car that you might have noticed my other thread on, not sure which I am more excited about!) and so we are pretty much done, hopefully.

Everything has been done as expected and we haven't had too many issues, but there have been some what the solicitors think of as minor but actually are quite serious mistakes:

1. My surname was spelt incorrectly, addition of a few letters, on documentation sent to me
2. My partners name was spelt incorrectly - her christian name this was copied across to various legal documents solicitor side
3. My current property roadname is NAME, not NAME road, on completion documentation they had it as NAME road
4. We have just received the completion statement and the figures are incorrect by £1

Whilst these issues are all rectifiable fairly easily, considering the money involved this is actually fairly atrocious. I don't want to cause any issues and I want to complete, any ideas what we can do about this? In an ideal world we would get a form of discount, but I know that's unlikely.

marksoton

If they rectify without complaint where's the problem?

Guest101

Ask them to rectify the mistakes, hope they don't charge you for doing so, as you've failed to mention this at the time

kinger101

Check names are correct on any documents held by the land registry. Other than that, don't lose any sleep over it. I wouldn't use them again based on their lack of attention to detail.

tidds

Of course every single mistake has immediately been pointed out to the solicitor and has been rectified. The problem is, i'm paying a lot of money for an excellent service that we're not receiving. Or should I just accept that this is the way the cookie crumbles?

tidds

kinger101 wrote: »

Check names are correct on any documents held by the land registry. Other than that, don't lose any sleep over it. I wouldn't use them again based on their lack of attention to detail.

Have confirmed that Land Reg documentation is all fine. Agree won't be using them again. I just feel like it should be escalated somehow as this is atrocious.

dc197

Once all is sorted, make a formal complaint directly to them, following their defined complaints procedure. If you are still not satisfied after that, complain via the governing body: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.page

Cakeguts

As far as I can make out from dealing with my mother's estate this kind of problem is now normal. I blame the introduction of GCSEs where you can do everything at least twice with someone (a teacher) or in your case the customer pointing out the mistakes so that they can have another go.

tidds

dc197 wrote: »

Once all is sorted, make a formal complaint directly to them, following their defined complaints procedure. If you are still not satisfied after that, complain via the governing body: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.page

Thank you - this was what we were thinking. Once we have completed and have the keys i'll bring it up with them directly as a first port of call and see what they come back with. I just don't want to risk the house being delayed.

ThePants999

When my nan died, the solicitors acting as her executors sent me letters referring to the estate of Mr Lilian Doris XYZ, and using "he" in a couple of places. It's hard enough to believe that neither the female forenames, nor a will that talked about "my husband", nor their own records, sufficed for them to twig that their client was a woman - but after I highlighted their mistake and received profuse apologies, and then they promptly did the same thing in their next letter, I was pretty gobsmacked. I guess attention to detail isn't a prized trait in solicitors any more?

tidds

That's horrendous! I guess not. So perhaps I should just accept it's the norm now..