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

macman

All you had to do was tell your conveyancer/the buyer that gas and electrical certs were not available and not your responsibility: they were welcome to do their own inspections, at their own expense. As a non-first time buyer, you must have known this?
Classic case of the problems of dealing with an FTB unfortunately.

BelugaWhale

I didn't know this. I've only bought two houses, and sold one. On each occasion certificates have been requested. My conveyancer didn't say I could argue this, that I didn't need to provide them... or that I could push back. My buyers conveyancer wouldn't accept the certificate until my buyer had the certificate checked and told the her solicitor to crack on.

We pay them for their expertise do we not? Otherwise I would have read a book on it, watched some YouTube videos and done the whole thing myself...

BelugaWhale

AdrianC said:

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.

Why is she an idiot? She paid a professional?

Tokmon

NameUnavailable said:

Conveyancing for them is sausage factory stuff, zero customer service and that seems to be whether you choose an online firm or local one on the high street.

Not all solicitors firms are like this. The local one that i use has some of the best customer service i have ever experienced. The conveyancer dealing with the case or their assistant will email back within an hour during business hours (sometimes as quick as 5 minutes). All paperwork sent to them is dealt with very efficiently and usually within 1 business day and when they go on holiday someone is automatically assigned in their place so it doesn't hold up anything.

They are very organised and very experienced and will happily push back if any unreasonable requests are made by other parties.

Tokmon

BelugaWhale said:

I didn't know this. I've only bought two houses, and sold one. On each occasion certificates have been requested. My conveyancer didn't say I could argue this, that I didn't need to provide them... or that I could push back. My buyers conveyancer wouldn't accept the certificate until my buyer had the certificate checked and told the her solicitor to crack on.

We pay them for their expertise do we not? Otherwise I would have read a book on it, watched some YouTube videos and done the whole thing myself...

Your paying them for their expertise on the legal work involved in conveyancing which is drafting legally binding contracts, registering with the land registry, doing checks to make the sure the property can legally be sold, that everyone involved is legally allowed to proceed, all the required money laundering checks are complete etc. They also carry out the legal work involving the mortgage provider and charges on the property.

They aren't experts in the ins and outs of gas safety certificates so they can't advise you what's correct and what isn't, all they can tell you is what has been requested in that regard by the other solicitor.

You don't need to go as far as learn the whole process yourself but it's a good idea to do some research and understand what the conveyancer's job is and what is within their cope and what is outside their scope. That way you will know what matters to let them deal with and what matters you need to instruct them on how to proceed.

BelugaWhale

Our vendors solicitor pushed back when asked - I didn’t even know we had asked the for certificates.

BelugaWhale

Tokmon said:

BelugaWhale said:

I didn't know this. I've only bought two houses, and sold one. On each occasion certificates have been requested. My conveyancer didn't say I could argue this, that I didn't need to provide them... or that I could push back. My buyers conveyancer wouldn't accept the certificate until my buyer had the certificate checked and told the her solicitor to crack on.

We pay them for their expertise do we not? Otherwise I would have read a book on it, watched some YouTube videos and done the whole thing myself...

They aren't experts in the ins and outs of gas safety certificates so they can't advise you what's correct and what isn't, all they can tell you is what has been requested in that regard by the other solicitor.

So if they're not experts - and admit to that - why did they incorrectly claim what was provided was wrong?

Weathergirl_76

macman said:

All you had to do was tell your conveyancer/the buyer that gas and electrical certs were not available and not your responsibility: they were welcome to do their own inspections, at their own expense. As a non-first time buyer, you must have known this?
Classic case of the problems of dealing with an FTB unfortunately.

I’m a non-first time buyer, and I wouldn’t have know this. I moved 17 years ago, and I don’t remember having to provide anything of this nature.  It’s only through this forum that I’m seeing what to expect and how to deal with what comes up.
I have heard that in some cases it’s the solicitors that demand servicing of boilers etc, when the buyer wasn’t even aware this was requested. I serviced my boiler and had the chimney swept just as I put my house on the market, only to be told it wasn’t really needed unless the buyer requested it, but it was an ‘advantage’ to have it. 

Tokmon

BelugaWhale said:

Tokmon said:

BelugaWhale said:

I didn't know this. I've only bought two houses, and sold one. On each occasion certificates have been requested. My conveyancer didn't say I could argue this, that I didn't need to provide them... or that I could push back. My buyers conveyancer wouldn't accept the certificate until my buyer had the certificate checked and told the her solicitor to crack on.

We pay them for their expertise do we not? Otherwise I would have read a book on it, watched some YouTube videos and done the whole thing myself...

They aren't experts in the ins and outs of gas safety certificates so they can't advise you what's correct and what isn't, all they can tell you is what has been requested in that regard by the other solicitor.

So if they're not experts - and admit to that - why did they incorrectly claim what was provided was wrong?

No idea, you even said in the OP that their solicitors said "If you're sure. You appreciate we are not gas experts" after being told to accept it, so I'm not sure why they even questioned it in the first place when reviewing the contents of the certificate is outside their scope.

That's why it's a good idea to know exactly what everyone's job is who's involved in the process so you can push back if any party starts overreaching.

BelugaWhale

Tokmon said:

That's why it's a good idea to know exactly what everyone's job is who's involved in the process so you can push back if any party starts overreaching.

But isn't that the job of my solicitor to push back on any overreach? A solicitor is employed as your advocate after all?