Referring conveyancer to legal service ombudsman

Liam21

When I bought my flat earlier this year the property information form provided by the seller to my conveyancer specifically said the flat had access to the block car park. This was on a formal form that was included in my pack and starts with a disclaimer saying the buyer may rely on the info included + seller could be liable for misleading statements.

Once i moved in it turned out my flat comes with no rights to use the car park and the managing agency will not give me a key under any circumstances. Obviously this is less than ideal because of the inconvenience and the impact on flat price...it is central London so parking is worth quite a lot.

The lease does specify that parking is only available if a parking space is included in a particular section of the lease....which in my case it is not. I'm really frustrated that my conveyancer did not pick up or point out the discrepancy between the property information form and the lease - both of which were included in my pack.

I've been following this up with the conveyancer for two months to see if there is anything that can be done - they keep saying they'll call me back but never do,

So good folks the question is- wouls this be worth referring to the legal service ombudsman? And if so should I tell my conveyancer that is what I'm doing?

alchemist.1

Access to the car park does not mean you have a parking space.

Thrugelmir

Your seller mislead you. There's your remedy.

davidmcn

The ombudsman only deals with complaints after you've exhausted your own conveyancer's complaints procedure - so you need to do that first i.e. do it in writing and make sure they're aware it's a complaint. Did you get information about complaints contact name / procedure at the start of your transaction?

As for whether you have a case - I would say probably, as I would regard it as standard for a conveyancer dealing with a property of that type to clarify with the purchaser whether or not you get a parking space included. You sure they didn't send you a report on the lease?

ETA - as above, you may also have case against the seller, though not sure about that if it's obvious from the titles that you don't actually get a space.

Liam21

alchemist.1 wrote: »

Access to the car park does not mean you have a parking space.

Yeah sorry if I wasn't clear on that - I don't have access to the carpark at all.

Liam21

davidmcn wrote: »

The ombudsman only deals with complaints after you've exhausted your own conveyancer's complaints procedure - so you need to do that first i.e. do it in writing and make sure they're aware it's a complaint. Did you get information about complaints contact name / procedure at the start of your transaction?

As for whether you have a case - I would say probably, as I would regard it as standard for a conveyancer dealing with a property of that type to clarify with the purchaser whether or not you get a parking space included. You sure they didn't send you a report on the lease?

ETA - as above, you may also have case against the seller, though not sure about that if it's obvious from the titles that you don't actually get a space.

I'm not sure about the complaints procedure but will put something in writing to them.

They did send a report on the lease but it didn't mention parking either way. I might have been naive but presumed that because the property info form that came in the same pack as the lease + report explicitly said access to the carpark then there wouldn't be a problem.

agrinnall

Liam21 wrote: »

The lease does specify that parking is only available if a parking space is included in a particular section of the lease....which in my case it is not. I'm really frustrated that my conveyancer did not pick up or point out the discrepancy between the property information form and the lease - both of which were included in my pack.

The conveyancer may not have seen it as a disecrepancy, you had no parking space but that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't have access to the car park, for instance for unloading. Did you tell the conveyancer that you expected the property to have a parking space? You probably do have a case against the seller but that still won't get you a space that was never there in the first place.

davidmcn

Liam21 wrote: »

They did send a report on the lease but it didn't mention parking either way.

A report which (presumably) told you exactly what the property and associated rights were under the lease? They'd probably argue that that was the point where you ought to have pointed out to them that you had been expecting a parking space

"Access to the car park" is a rather odd way of describing an allocated parking space (though I can see that someone might interpret it as meaning "with the right to use the car park for parking a car"). Did the estate agents' details say anything about a parking space?

The solicitors should at least be replying to your query though.

Cakeguts

You don't have access to the car park do you? If not then the seller mislead you and you may have a claim against them for lying on the formal form.