House buying - solicitors... do I have redress?

BelugaWhale

Thrugelmir said:

BelugaWhale said:

NameUnavailable said:

What about your vendor's mortgage?

we spoke most days.

For what purpose?  Safe to assume that you were the instigator. 

Why is that a safe assumption? Remember - as far as I was concerned all was progressing nicely.

She was anxious to move ASAP due to starting a new job.... (She has been able to push back her start date).

 (you probably skipped the stuff about selling our house last year, our original  sale failing and the gazumping - so I ended up selling the house myself)

She phoned me because I was effectively the “estate agent”. She phoned mostly about the gas fire - to which I would say I have sent a gas certificate and could not understand why her solicitor was blocking it... (I also couldn’t understand why my solicitor wasn’t defending  it’s validity). We were able to share what they were telling us - and it was mostly vague and sometimes contradictory.

It was only when she asked me to send her the gas certificate that she was able to push things along with her solicitor. The solicitor replied, defending their obstruction “You appreciate we aren’t gas experts”

They don’t need to be gas experts - they just need to be able to read a gas certificate!

BelugaWhale

Weathergirl_76 said:

Sounds like a very drawn out start. I can only think that, seeing as your buyer is a FTB, they would not have to pay stamp duty, so their conveyancer would possibly prioritise other clients work who were needing completion before 30th June, over your transaction. 

I instructed a conveyancer about a month ago to deal with my sale and purchase. He is highly recommended. I was sent documents by post to complete and within the pack was a sheet of A4 which clearly stated they would try their best but could not guarantee completion by stamp duty deadline etc for any of their transactions. I am planning to complete my sale and purchase by end September. I genuinely hope it happens, but I know most of it is out of my control. 

I didn’t have that in the pack I was sent - just reams and reams of forms that I filled in that day and returned. We originally instructed our solicitor last year - but our sale fell down when our buyer was unable to get a mortgage (annoyed with estate agent as they said they had checked this out etc)

I too questioned that we’d complete in time - but was told most of the work had already been done. I also made completing in time a condition of the sale with my buyer (although I was told such an agreement isn’t legally binding).

The whole process has been a year long mess - from our estate, to the gazumping etc.. the whole house selling process is broken. It could all be driven by AI and an immutable database.

You’re right about the solicitor prioritising... they told my buyer they were too busy to complete... but told my solicitor it was impossible to complete in time as they wouldn’t get the mortgage... yet the buyers mortgage advisor said there was no issue here.

So I questioned this directly with the firm - they were a bit annoyed I had contacted them - but they admitted the delay is because they’re too busy and this sale isn’t a priority. They could have obtained the mortgage, but were too busy. They also said there is nothing I can do about it.

They made no comment on their inability to read a gas certificate.

anselld

You should have stood your ground much earlier.  There was no need to indulge the buyers with these unnecessary certificates and electrical work.
However, the bottom line is that you cannot have redress against someone else's Solicitor.

AdrianC

BelugaWhale said:

Time was short - I knew we didn't need one because I spoke with the WPD - but the electrician wouldn't budge. The advice from the solicitor was that I needed a certificate. I have now found out I didn't

You did not need one by law.
You needed one because the buyer insisted on one in order to progress the sale.
You could have said to the buyer that you were unwilling to provide one.
Instead, you chose to do the work to progress the sale.

You have no comeback against the electrician, because you have no contract with the electrician.
You have no contract with the buyer, either, because you have not yet reached exchange.

BelugaWhale

My issue is the solicitor - and now my solicitor for advising I had to provide these certificates.

Had I known it was possible NOT to supply them, I wouldn’t have done that. Our buyer wasn’t bothered about them.

The only thing I can do with the electrician is report his competence to his competence scheme. A few electricians have told me to do that... but he didn’t do anything electrically dangerous - he just doesn’t understand the law.

BelugaWhale

anselld said:

You should have stood your ground much earlier.  There was no need to indulge the buyers with these unnecessary certificates and electrical work.
However, the bottom line is that you cannot have redress against someone else's Solicitor.

I wasn’t indulging the buyer - I was indulging their solicitor... my solicitor requested I proceed with the certificates and didn’t tell me I could say No...

Live and learn. I’ve ordered a book on conveyancing.

AdrianC

BelugaWhale said:

I wasn’t indulging the buyer - I was indulging their solicitor...

Same difference. The buyer's solicitor is merely giving the buyer advice that they can choose to ignore or follow.

The one exception to that is that the solicitor is also the mortgage lender's solicitor. If the lender insist on something, the buyer has no choice if they wish to use that lender's money.

BelugaWhale

AdrianC said:

BelugaWhale said:

I wasn’t indulging the buyer - I was indulging their solicitor...

Same difference. The buyer's solicitor is merely giving the buyer advice that they can choose to ignore or follow.

The one exception to that is that the solicitor is also the mortgage lender's solicitor. If the lender insist on something, the buyer has no choice if they wish to use that lender's money.

But they were asking for a certificate which doesn’t exist... no gas safe engineer could provide one because there is no such certificate.

They had a certificate for the entire gas supply, boiler, pipes and all gas appliances - they had that at the absolute beginning but they kept asking for a certificate for the non existent gas fire...

Our gas safe engineer can’t give a certificate for that which is not there...

BelugaWhale

Plus, our buyer says she wasn’t consulted on if she wanted certificates or not..

AdrianC

BelugaWhale said:

Plus, our buyer says she wasn’t consulted on if she wanted certificates or not..

Your buyer is an idiot who is not on top of their purchasing.