Shared ownership final staircasing - transfer of freehold

boundy

Evening all, 
In January last year, me and my wife purchased 100% shares in our shared ownership house. As per the lease, we were also entitled to the a transfer of the freehold.
My solicitor informed me that there would be a part amendment to the original freehold title, as this covered ours and our next door neighbour, my lease would then be merged with this new title, leaving us with a freehold in our names. So far so good.

After 6 months I had not received any paperwork or even a final invoice from the solicitor, he informed us there were long delays at the land registry for creating new titles, it would take upto 9 months in total, so I left it. 

Last Friday, 13 months after we had completed the purchase, I checked the land registry and could only still see the housing associations free hold and my shared ownership lease, so I gave the LR a ring. The informed me that the original application was made in early February 2020, and rejected a week later as the paperwork had the wrong title number on it, a new application was made on the 12th February 2020, LR sent in back end of March 2020 as there was a discrepancy in the boundary plan, my solicitor did not respond, LR sent a further reminder in December 2020 that also went unanswered and in January 2021 the LR cancelled the application. 

I got straight on the phone to my solicitor and was informed that he had recently lest the practice and I should had a letter or a call telling me my case had been passed to another solicitor in the firm, I didn't. 

I then got a call from the new solicitor saying she is sorry and they will have to start the application process again and will take upto 9 months to get the title registered.

Will there be any adverse a effect on not having the title sorted out in a timely manner? The solicitor did say that if I'm looking to sell the property, the LR can expedite the case, but seemed to completely miss the point this wouldn't of been necessary if her firm had done its job properly in the first place.

Am I right in thinking that this is falling below the standard I should expect from a solicitors firm? It not like some Internet conveyancing warehouse. It's a large local to me firm with 3 offices. 

eddddy

boundy said:

Am I right in thinking that this is falling below the standard I should expect from a solicitors firm? 

Yes, probably. Sounds like they've been incompetent.

Apart from the hassle of having to make the chasing-up phone calls, has it caused any problems or losses for you?

It sounds like they've apologised, is there anything else you want them to do?  Hopefully, they'll learn from their mistake.

boundy

eddddy said:

boundy said:

Am I right in thinking that this is falling below the standard I should expect from a solicitors firm? 

Yes, probably. Sounds like they've been incompetent.

Apart from the hassle of having to make the chasing-up phone calls, has it caused any problems or losses for you?

It sounds like they've apologised, is there anything else you want them to do?  Hopefully, they'll learn from their mistake.

If it's not going to cause me problems, then there is no problem, but we are considering putting our house on the market to look for somewhere bigger. I wouldn't want thier incompetence to hold up any potential sale.