Help! House Purchase About to Fall Through!

steampowered

The vendor's solicitor is completely in the right here, and your conveyancer is completely in the wrong.

All a solicitor can do is confirm that they have carried out the customary checks and that no adverse findings have been made. That is absolutely standard practice.

No solicitor, or anybody else for that matter, could ever confirm there is 'no risk' of fraud on any transaction. That is a ridiculous request for your conveyancer to make.

AdamK

Thanks for the replies here all.

I'm going to tussle with my Solicitor tomorrow to see if we can get things moving here.

I am hoping they are reasonable enough to see that nobody can guarantee 100% no risk of fraud.

Thrugelmir wrote: »

What's the underlying issue? There must be something that has triggered the concerns.

Solicitor is acting to protect the lender not you.

Autumnella wrote: »

Do your solicitors have reason to believe they may be committing fraud?

Can I escalate this to the Lender - no doubt they'll probably revert back to the Conveyancer.

To your original point, I am unaware of any adverse information that the Solicitor has come across to spook them. The partner at the firm cited recent 'case law' that has them on edge about things like this...

davidmcn wrote: »

It's very similar to the response I would have given them! It's not for the solicitor to guarantee that there isn't any fraud going on, all they can do is confirm that they've done the usual checks and aren't aware of anything to cause concern.

I am hoping that the response that I have posted in my original reply is good enough for my Solicitors to proceed. It's common sense!

Cakeguts wrote: »

Why can't they confirm that they are the owners of the property?

I am sure the other sides Solicitor has already done so.

steampowered wrote: »

The vendor's solicitor is completely in the right here, and your conveyancer is completely in the wrong.

All a solicitor can do is confirm that they have carried out the customary checks and that no adverse findings have been made. That is absolutely standard practice.

No solicitor, or anybody else for that matter, could ever confirm there is 'no risk' of fraud on any transaction. That is a ridiculous request for your conveyancer to make.

If we lose this property - we will most certainly raise a complaint both to the Managing Partner and then onwards to the Law Society and/or Legal Ombudsman.

Thrugelmir

AdamK wrote: »

Can I escalate this to the Lender - no doubt they'll probably revert back to the Conveyancer.

That's who the conveyancer is working for. Not just you. Just happens you are footing the bill.

Smodlet

Common sense - <vast, bottomless cavern you cannot see across> -
the law. We live in an age of @$$ covering and ambulance chasing; we caught it from America.

Good luck, OP, I am sure it will work itself out. It is probably some work experience brat who does not have a clue trying to look clever.

Please let us know how you get on.

cloo

I've never heard of solicitors throwing a sale because of this and that probably isn't what is intended by either side, so hopefully they will clear that up today.

m0bov

Op needs to switch sol as this early on it looks like nothing but grief. The sol would check ID its all standard stuff, nobody can say 100% no liability.

ProDave

Why is your solicitor not doing the conveyancing?

ReadingTim

The vendors' solicitors should simply respond as follows:

[STRIKE]In relation to identity I cannot tell you that there is no fraud. I can say that[/STRIKE] we have carried out our AML checks [STRIKE]and we have no reason to believe that[/STRIKE] our clients are [STRIKE]not [/STRIKE]the people who they purport to be and are the registered proprietors of the property. [STRIKE]We have met Mr [redacted] (the Vendor) in person at our office. We cannot give you a 100% assurance there is no fraud no one could. All we can say is on the information we have which is the information a prudent solicitor would obtain we have no concerns.[/STRIKE]

Margot123

Checking ID is a basic 'tick box' exercise.
So long as the boxes have been ticked, what is the solicitor's issue?

Maybe they are inexperienced or looking for extra work, and don't mind causing everyone in the transaction a shed load of grief.

cloo

Yes, all the OPs solicitors needed to say is 'yes, we have carried out the AML checks', which I think is what is being asked. Hopefully the other solicitors will read their reply as such.