PLEASE HELP! Awful solicitor service!!

lucylu1011

Brought a leasehold flat last august2019 solicitor was awful all the way through, completed and found out the vendor solicitor didn’t pay maintenance charge money he should of. This caused me an 11 month delay with getting my Flat assigned to my name. I had chased constantly to get this sorted and was just told the vendor solicitor wouldn’t rely. 

Now money has been paid I have put in a complaint as I feel the service was disgusting & my solicitor is basically telling me he didn’t do any thing wrong & im lucky he isn’t charging me. 

Need desperate help I don’t k ow what to do as I really am not happy & tried everything 

anselld

Difficult to know without the detail which solicitor is at fault. 

If you have followed and exhausted your solicitor's complaints procedure you can complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.  However it the fault lies with the other Solicitor there is nothing you can do.

It sounds like the matter is resolved now anyway so a complaint is just going to cause further stress and frustration.  It doesn't sound like you are out of pocket so why not just move on?

lucylu1011

Well the completion of the property shouldn’t of been completed by my solicitor if the money wasn’t through. Because I have now been without an intercom that no one would repair because I weren’t assigned to the property because all of this but im
expected to pay the money?! So yes I am out of pocket and also why did it take 11 months for anyone to do anything about this?! Isn’t that what a solicitor is there for?

NameUnavailable

Not sure what the problem is. You aren't liable for service charges when you didn't own the property. The freeholder shouldn't have agreed to the sale without the charges being paid up to date, also the vendors solicitors should have seen to this, not your solicitor. I don't understand the 11 month delay.

The intercom should have been repaired and presumably covered by your contribution to the charges. Did other flats do without an intercom? I think you need to get onto the management company.

lucylu1011

I couldn’t pay my maintenance fees because the property wasn’t assigned to me because the solicitor completed on the sale of the flat before making sure the money was paid. 

It then took him 6months to even reply to me trying to get things sorted & then another 5 months to contact the vendor solicitor.
the maintenance company wouldn’t fix the intercom because I wasn’t assigned. & when I asked why I couldn’t be assigned they told me there were outstanding charged from the old owner & they legally weren’t allowed to pursue it because that’s my solicitors fault. The other flats intercom works it’s just mine that doesn’t. Which I’ve already contacted them and they said they will do it once it’s assigned! But 11 months later I was the only person trying to get anything sorted. Which all boils down to the solicitor not doing their job. 

AskAsk

you can complain to the legal ombudsman but having made a recent complaint to them, i don't have much faith in them and think they are on the side of the solicitors.  they state that their compensation tends to be quite small, so don't expect much.  you may get £50 to £100 compensation at most of them, if any.

Tiglet2

Did you pay your solicitor any notice fees?  The notice fees are the fees which management companies charge when there is a new owner and/or new mortgage.  The buyer has to pay for them.  Following completion, the solicitor would send the notices to the management company, so that the records can be updated.  Then once you are noted as the new owner, they can fix your intercom.

Does the seller's solicitor hold a retention of a suitable amount, to be used if there were outstanding bills from the seller's period of ownership?  If they did and you have invoices for monies owed, send the invoices to your solicitor to claim back out of the retention.  Sometimes though, the seller's solicitors don't settle until the final accounts are produced which can be 18 months or so after completion, so you would need to pay the bills in the meantime.  A copy of the finalised accounts should be sent to your solicitor when they are produced, but if you are not noted as the owner, then the accounts would be addressed to the previous owner at the address.

lucylu1011

Yeah I paid a proportion and the sellers solicitor agreed to pay a proportion too, I paid all of mine and then the sellers solicitor failed too do his part. 

I just feel no one has really suffered but me, I have been without an intercom and my solicitor and maintenance company aren’t really that bothered both saying there isn’t much they can do if he isn’t paying they can just wait until he does?! Surely someone should be able to force the matter as he’s gone against a contract?