Documents not provided

Jordec

I bought a house, completing on 1/2/21, but my solicitors were horrendous. After a few weeks we had received no paperwork or emails to say we owned the new house. It is now over 3 months and we still have no documents, no fensa certs, planning and building regs for extensions, no electrical certs, no proof of ownership for the solar panels etc etc. Can anyone advise whether this is part of the conveyance? We have been advised to contact the vendor!!!

HampshireH

You should have received all of his as part of conveyancing. You shouldn't be contacting the seller hat is your solictors job.

What have you paid for on your itemised bill from them?

Of course that's assuming you / your solicitor asked for these documents as part of the process. 

UnderOffer

Have you contacted your solicitor to follow up? 

- no fensa certs - did your solicitor obtain these during conveyancing?
- planning and building regs for extensions - can you see these on the planning portal of local council?
- no electrical certs - do you mean you paid for the electrics to be checked? What did the vendor indicate on the selling forms and say re elec certs

- no proof of ownership for the solar panels - again did your solicitor confirm they had seen sight of these? 

Jordec

Thanks for the quick responses. I specifically asked the solicitor to check that building regs, electrical installation certs, planning, Fensa were in order. I also requested the 25 year guarantee on the solar panels fitted 9 years ago and we have no receipts, contract, guarantee etc. We didn’t even have anything to say we’d completed until I raised it with the Directors 8 weeks after completion. We have seen our solicitor’s request to the vendor’s solicitor and their response. We have since found out that none of the solicitors has ever seen any originals, just electronic copies. Now both solicitors have said they want nothing to do with it. I have raised a formal complaint for other issues relating to the handling of our file, this is just part of it. The vendor has just contacted me and said he has been advised by his solicitor to drop them to me, not to his, or my solicitor. I don’t know what to do, if he posts them through my letterbox!

[Deleted User]

Most solicitors will send you a copy of everything prior to exchange of contracts and ask for your approval to proceed.
Did you not get them at this point?  Not sure why youd exchange or complete without them as any problems are now your problems 

HampshireH

Yep we had all these sent by email in advance of exchange. So scanned copies.

You can buy copies of fensa certs on their webpage If there is one.

Surely if they put them through the letterbox you have what you want. What's the problem there?

eddddy

Jordec said:

We have since found out that none of the solicitors has ever seen any originals, just electronic copies. 

Almost all documents are electronic these days. There's not really a concept of "an original".

(Is your complaint that you only have electronic copies, or that you have no copies at all?  If you have electronic copies, that's really all you need.
TBH, you can probably download the buildings regs docs, the Fensa certificates, and Electrical certificates from online sources - if you need them.)

Jordec said:

 I don’t know what to do, if he posts them through my letterbox!

Why is that a problem?

(The solicitors won't want to get involved unless somebody pays them for their time.)

Jordec

We had some copies, (photographs) but not any Fensa certs etc. Our solicitor said these were all in order and would be provided on completion. They have not been provided and copies are not worth the paper they are printed on, as it is very easy to alter a photocopy. The ‘copies’ we have are rough photos, not electronic copies as such. Our solicitor was supposed to check everything and if not in order, flag it up prior to exchange. They didn’t do that and now, when we come to sell, we will have problems.

Jordec

We have bought several properties over the years. Documents should be checked prior to exchange, but are only provided on completion, when monies are transferred. We couldn’t have known this would happen. We paid our solicitor to do the conveyancing and specifically check certain docs. They didn’t do it and we want them to do it now. I am not a solicitor though, so don’t know what they are legally or ethically bound to do.

user1977

Jordec said:

copies are not worth the paper they are printed on, as it is very easy to alter a photocopy.

Is this a legal opinion you've been given? It's perfectly normal for transactions to proceed on the basis of copies, people don't go around being paranoid that everything might have been forged.

Jordec

This is a legal point. Copies are easily tampered with. I worked in forensics for many years and copies are not legal documents. Aside from this, I don’t think the vendor even has some of the docs. I don’t feel that I am being paranoid either, I bought the house 13 weeks ago and think I have been very patient. As the weeks go by, you start to wonder why the documents have not been provided. I chased the solicitors, who told me they had not had them yet and would chase them up. I chased again and again, they contacted the vendor’s solicitor. Meanwhile, we contacted the vendor, who assured us on more than one occasion that his solicitor had sent them to ours on completion. He now admits this was a lie, saying that his solicitor never had them, so I can’t help but worry now.