Please help: Mis-sold house, who’s at fault?

Rob-123

Reading Tim- I appreciate what your saying, but my concern is that there is no proof it’s 12 years old..? So how can the council have no comeback, as for all they know it could have been completed this year?

Thrugelmir

Rob-123 wrote: »

we figured with most things done by email and post now not being able to get to the solicitors shouldn’t be a problem.

Personally I have always paid for the services of a solicitor I can visit. As the 30 minutes spent discussing all the paperwork prior to exchange is invaluable. There's no room for misunderstanding or miscommunication.

As it is now cold, the room doesn’t retain heat so had someone round to check insulation - which they don’t think is up to scratch.

Now or when the conversion was built? You may regret a well insulated room come summer.

parkrunner

Rob-123 wrote: »

I guess my question now is, where do I go from here?

You find out if the conversion is up to spec, as yet you don't know so there might not be any cost involved. If you are not out of pocket I don't think you can do much apart from complain to whoever complaints about solicitors are made.

AdrianC

Thrugelmir wrote: »

You may regret a well insulated room come summer.

Good insulation means cooler in summer, as well as warmer in winter.

Rob-123

Thrugelmir it seems as though that would be better. I’ve not had much experience with solicitors and buying/selling houses so I didn’t think it would be a problem :undecided:

As I say I will be posting my formal complaint tomorrow recorded delivery, and the surveyor will be out on Tuesday

I really don’t know though, how the council can’t just come along and say... there’s no proof it was built 12 years ago :huh:

Rob-123

In the summer the heat in the loft conversion (when we moved in to about August) was unbelievable, we invested in a portable air conditioning unit, so if better insulation is cooling in the summer, I am guessing the insulation is very bad

[Deleted User]

The thing is the nieve and unknowing buyer tends to assume solicitors check everything and are there to watch the client's back. Its only when something goes wrong, that you realise solicitors offer differing levels of capability and hard work/thoroughness. Then you realise that, as with everything, the buck ultimately lies with you.., the client.

I only realised this when 1) I was involved in buying a house where the solicitor sent documents in legal mumbo jumbo (that I couldn't understand although I did read them) setting too high a deposit, in spite of us being very clear that we were providing 5% deposit rather than 10%. Up until that point I assumed solicitors followed your instructions. Not that their secretary typed everything out and in amongst the 10 other documents she was typing out that day, she didn't have a clue what your prior agreement said. So she just typed the 'norm'.

Then in another case, I went for an initial appointment, and discovered the 'solicitor' (I asked for a solicitor) wasn't a solicitor but was only some young lad that clearly had no idea of the law. But I might not have picked this up if I hadn't been in a face to face meeting. He was quite glib. It was only when I directly asked him I discovered he had no qualifications whatsoever and would be handling my case.

So yes, MOST people are nieve and too trusting until they learn otherwise. In my case, I discovered I had to know as much as solicitors to enable me to check their work, which kind of negates the reason you pay for help from a solicitor.

But sometimes the 'learning journey' can be an expensive one.

Rob-123

Now I am home from work I have searched through all my paperwork my solicitor sent me. I have been through all the local searches etc and all enquiries that were raised with the sellers solicitors, one enquiry that was raised was:

‘We note from our valuation report that there has been a loft conversion and we would be grateful if you could please forward us the relevant planning permission, building regulation consent and completion certificate for the same’.

Then i have nothing until the report on title which says amongst a lot of other stuff:

‘Our search has revealed a building regulation for a loft conversion, however due to the age of this, the sellers solicitors have not provided a copy.’

This is literally all the information I was given now that I have double and triple checked, the solicitor has not mentioned the loft conversion again, any risks or precautions for this. I do believe it sounds as though they have a copy but haven’t provided it .

Doozergirl

Rob-123 wrote: »

In the summer the heat in the loft conversion (when we moved in to about August) was unbelievable, we invested in a portable air conditioning unit, so if better insulation is cooling in the summer, I am guessing the insulation is very bad

In theory, insulation in the loft should be good in summer, but in reality warm air rises from the rest of the house. And then it gets trapped! So summer isn’t necessarily the best time to guess.

We had a 2005 new build with a third storey. It was HOT.

Doozergirl

You just said you’d been through the local searches? But you also said you didn’t have any?

We’re looking for the CON29(R) which might be with LLC1?