Solicitor error - after Legal Completion

Jill_Jones

Solicitor acting for us in Feb 2018 Completion of sale of property now says he ommitted to withold funds of £1500 from us in the event a Radon bond was required by the buyer. 3 months later, and after a Radon search has been done by buyer and not high enough to warrant action, solicitor is asking me to send their client account £1500 "in case".. Is this just plain negligence - and what protections do I have. I thought it wasn't included in completion cert because buyer had decided not to bother?

Thrugelmir

Jill_Jones wrote: »

I thought it wasn't included in completion cert because buyer had decided not to bother

Never assume. Always confirm if unsure.

eddddy

It sounds like you agreed to a retention - but then the solicitor made an error and forgot to hold on to the retention (and so paid you too much).

If that's right, you agreed to the retention, so you should pay it back to the solicitor - presumably until the retention date expires.


(As others on this forum often say, if the solicitor had made an error and paid you £1500 too little, you would have had the right to persue the solicitor to get your money. It works the same the other way around.)

kinger101

I'm confused. You state the radon tests suggested no further action required. Presumably therefore, they're not entitled to the bond.

G_M

Well look at the contract and related documents.


Did you or did you not agree to this? If you did, and the solicitor made an error - then he is simply now correcting that error. Even solicitors are human!


If you did not, and it is NOW that the solicittor is making the mistake, then you should correct the current error.

davidmcn

Jill_Jones wrote: »

I thought it wasn't included in completion cert because buyer had decided not to bother?

Presumably you agreed to it in the contract between you and the buyer though? In which case you would still (potentially) owe the money, whether or not your solicitor was keeping it on your behalf.

eddddy

kinger101 wrote: »

I'm confused. You state the radon tests suggested no further action required. Presumably therefore, they're not entitled to the bond.

I assume that...

The solicitor doesn't want to give the money to the buyer at this stage - the solicitor just wants to have the money safely in the solicitor's account.

The original agreement might have been something like "The seller's solicitor will hold on to £1500 for 6 months, in case a Radon search shows up a problem".

The OP believes that the Radon search has now been done and hasn't shown up any problems, but the solicitor wants to hang on to the money for the full 6 months just in case (as that's what the contract says).

So there's a good chance that the OP will get the £1500 back again at the end of the 6 months.