Request for Advice regarding Complaint about our Solictor.

Blackintosh

Hi everyone. Firstly let me apologise in case this post is in the wrong place, I'm new to these forums


If you don't want to read the whole thing, my summarised questions will be at the bottom of this post.



We are first time buyers, and we are close to completing on our first house.

We have made a complaint to our Solicitors as we feel they have made some serious mistakes in handling our case. I will give a brief explanation as to why we made the complaint:


Firstly, during the property searches, it was discovered that a public sewer runs under part of the property (not under the actual house though). We were rightly concerned about this, and asked our solicitor for advice on how to proceed, and about if there is indemnity insurance to protect us against any future problems. Our solicitor's first piece of advice was to contact the local water authority (united utilities) to find more information about the property. We followed this advice, and applied for a drainage report from UU. After we received this and sent it to our Solicitor, she responded saying that contacting UU may void any indemnity policy. So following this we had to ask the sellers to apply for a retrospective build-over agreement as the indemnity policy they purchased might be invalid.
This has set the sellers back by hundreds of pounds, despite it only being necessary due to the bad advice of our solicitor.



Our complaint centered around this problem (there were several other issues but they are straight forward). We sent the complaint to the Director of the company. His first response was a long, barely relevant explanation of indemnity insurance and build over agreements. He also stated that he could not find evidence of the email in which we were advised to contact UU. He went as far as saying that contacting UU would be the exact opposite of what they would advise in this situation.
Thankfully, he must have missed (or worse, she deleted) the email which contained this advice. So we forwarded it to him to prove she had said this, and asked him to clarify if he still thinks the correct advice would be the opposite of what she had advised.


This is where it gets bad. Now he has seen we have proof of her bad advice, he is refusing to acknowledge the issue via email at all now. All he will do is offer us to come and speak to him or his colleagues in person. Our fear is that he wants to avoid admitting in writing that his company has made a genuine mistake. Surely if our complaint was unfounded he would just set us straight in his email?


We don't know if he is going to attempt to talk circles around us in person, to confuse us into thinking we have nothing to complain about, or what.


Basically, our solicitor will now only offer to discuss our complaint in person and we could use some advice on what to do and say, how to say it, and what to avoid saying if we go in person.

Is it common for solicitors to avoid admitting to mistakes in writing?


Thank you kindly for any and all advice.

tacpot12

I think that solicitors will generally be very alert to the risk of going on record regarding any admission of wrongdoing.

You are going to be going into an evidence gathering and negotiating environment, so you need to take a notepad and pen, and have a think about what outcomes you will be happy with and what you would not be happy with. Make notes of what the Director says. Be ready to reach a reasonable compromise, but don't give in an accept a situation that you are not going to be happy with.

You don't need to get upset if the solicitor doesn't agree with you or won't compensate you to the degree you think is appropriate; just be firm and polite if they are not prepared to meet your terms. You can always leave, but it will be useful if you can get a summary of the meeting written up and agreed there and then. Document any offer they make, and ask if you can come back to them at a later date to accept the offer (record this as well). If you want to complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, ideally they like to see that you have reached an impasse with the solicitor first, so you need to get something from the solicitor to confirm whether they accept your claim or not, or that you cannot agree on the compensation.

There is some risk he will attempt to bamboozle you, so take in some short notes that sumarise your understanding of the issue, and ask him for evidence of why he is right. But it is also possible that he wants to apologise and have a reasonable discussion about how to compensate you. If you go in with an open mind, you might be suprised at what happens.

Thrugelmir

Blackintosh wrote: »

This has set the sellers back by hundreds of pounds, despite it only being necessary due to the bad advice of our solicitor.

The sellers policy wouldn't indemnify you. Presumably this policy was purchased at the time they acquired the property.

pphillips

I think it's quiet normal for solicitors not to admit to making mistakes.

If they want to discuss the matter in person, what harm could that do?

Surely, if you decide you're not happy with how they have handled your complaint then you can just refer it on to the Legal Ombudsman.

G_M

I agree with you. I would not discuss this face to face.

You have submitted a formal complaint, in writing, presumably (??) in accordance with the firm's published complaints procedure.

You should expect a formal response in writing.

If the firm refuses to provide this, or responds in writing inadequately or, in your view, in an insatisfactory manner, then you escalate the matter to the legal ombudsman.

I would write to the firm again, very briefly, requesting a written response as you have no wish to escalate the matter to the legal ombudsman.

the firm will not want you to either........