Negligen Solicitor?

nobby36

Hi. I wonder if you could give me some advice. I understand the limits on these forums.
I have had a house built to sell, to raise some extra money for our retirement.
The house was sold at a reduced price as I wanted to take advantage of tax relief on the investment profits.This was to complete before the new tax year.
Contracts had been exchanged and a completion date set for 31 March. On this date, I was advised (only after asking what was going on because nobody had bothered to tell me) that there was a problem.
It seems that my buyer's solicitor has discovered that there is a title problem, due to part of the garage on the buyers land actually sitting on someone else's land.
Our house is an empty new build. There are two others in the chain. On the completion, BOTH parties were ready to move and packed up. They are livid, to say the least.
Our problem is, that we have now lost our last years tax relief, and are now paying other things (council tax, gas, electric, specialist empty property insurance, and loan interest, as well.
If the facts are as above (obviously I will have to prove things) will this be a case of negligence by the solicitor and, will they be liable for compensating all our losses?
I trust you can give me some guidance, if not confirmation without liability for your advice. Best regards.

alchemist.1

Not sure which solicitor you are alleging has been negligent? If it is your own then no.
The other solicitors don't act for you so wouldn't directly be responsible for your losses.

If anything your action would be against your buyer and fed down the chain (and they would pursue their solicitors if they have been negligent).

Cakeguts

I don't really understand your question but are you saying that you built a new house with a garage that is partly on land belonging to someone else? If this is the case then this is nothing really to do with the solicitors it is down to the person who built something that isn't entirely on their land.

silvercar

If you have exchanged then failure to complete is a serious matter. If your buyer failed to complete then they can be sued for all costs you incurred caused by them not completing on the contract date.

antrobus

nobby36 wrote: »

...If the facts are as above (obviously I will have to prove things) will this be a case of negligence by the solicitor and, will they be liable for compensating all our losses?..
.

When did you instruct this solicitor? What instructions did you give them?

I'd have thought that if anyone is negligent, it would be whoever was responsible for building this property.

Caz3121

I don't think the issue is with the OPs property, but their buyer's which has delayed their sale and impacted the chain

phill99

Don't hold your breath on this one.

Cakeguts

If part of the garage is on land belonging to someone else they can't sell them that part of the garage because they don't own the land that it is on. If the garage is part of the sale this means that they can't complete the sale because they are trying to sell something that doesn't belong to them. The person who is negligent is the person who built a property that isn't all on their land and then tried to sell it as if it was. Until the problem with the land that doesn't belong to the seller is sorted out the buyer can't complete because he isn't buying what is specified in the contract.

davidmcn

If completion was meant to be over three weeks ago, surely by now you've had a chance to get advice from your solicitor about what your remedies are? It's not obvious from what you say that any of the solicitors have been negligent, and assuming you don't think your own solicitor has been negligent (can't see why they would be), then anybody else's solicitor's negligence is irrelevant to you - they don't owe you a duty of care.

If your buyer can't complete the purchase from you, then your remedies are under the contract between you and your buyer e.g. forfeiting the deposit they've paid and possibly damages on top of that. Whether or not they can recover those costs from their solicitor (or, in turn, their buyer's buyer can sue their solicitor) isn't your problem.

GDB2222

Is the contract date the date of sale for tax purposes?

G_M

GDB2222 wrote: »

Is the contract date the date of sale for tax purposes?

No. It will be Completion date.

OP. It's simple:

* you had a contract with your buyer.
* your buyer breached that contract by failing to Complete on the contractually agreed date (the reason why is irrelevant).
* you claim ALL your consequential losses off your buyer.

Whether he in turn can claim off his solicitor is not your concern.