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

Tokmon

BelugaWhale said:

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?

Yes they are, but you also need to have an understanding of the entire process so you can instruct them accordingly.

They received a request from the buyers solicitor for an electrical certificate and a gas certificate and they passed that request onto you. So if you had done some research you could have told them to reply with "the buyer is free to arrange any electrical and gas inspection they feel is needed". This would have saved you a lot of wasted time and money. But you chose to comply with the request and send the certificates and when the buyers solicitor didn't accept them your OP says they did tell them:

"Our solicitor repeated this to our buyers solicitor... but they wouldn't have it."

So that was silly that the buyers solicitor wouldn't accept them and obviously they are at fault there if they weren't acting on the instruction of their client. But personally i wouldn't have arranged to get the checks done in the first place.

BelugaWhale

Tokmon said:

"Our solicitor repeated this to our buyers solicitor... but they wouldn't have it."

So that was silly that the buyers solicitor wouldn't accept them and obviously they are at fault there if they weren't acting on the instruction of their client. But personally i wouldn't have arranged to get the checks done in the first place.

Well, this is where we disagree - when I'm hired for my expertise, I give it... The solicitor should have told me I didn't have to do this. I shall take this up with them.

climbthatwallseegar

OP you are getting a hard time but I sympathise. I recently sold my property and it was relatively straightforward but there were a few instances when my buyer made what I felt were unnecessary requests and I was hoping my solicitor would provide some guidance. Instead she (solicitor) remained very much on the fence and didn’t express an opinion either way. These were legal matters pertaining to the sale and I thought her fee included offering up some of her expertise. I don’t know if I was unreasonable to expect this tbh. 

I ended up seeking and getting excellent advice from a solicitor on another forum who is on mat leave and is giving advice free of charge. Armed with her input I went back to my buyer and ended up saving thousands of pounds (buyer was making an outrageous demand for a large last minute reduction). That anonymous solicitor really saved the day and I feel as if I should have been paying her! 

Tokmon

BelugaWhale said:

Tokmon said:

"Our solicitor repeated this to our buyers solicitor... but they wouldn't have it."

So that was silly that the buyers solicitor wouldn't accept them and obviously they are at fault there if they weren't acting on the instruction of their client. But personally i wouldn't have arranged to get the checks done in the first place.

Well, this is where we disagree - when I'm hired for my expertise, I give it... The solicitor should have told me I didn't have to do this. I shall take this up with them.

Did you ask them if you had to do it?

It will be interesting to see what their response is when you ask why they didn't tell you.


But i wouldn't be surprised if they just say they simply presented you with the enquiries and you chose to respond to that specific one by providing the certificates. As it's a matter that is outside their scope they probably wouldn't tell you that you didn't have to do the checks because that's basically them advising you not to do them if you didn't specifically ask.

But just take this as a lesson learned to do your own research when making large financial decisions and don't just trust that everyone is doing their job to the best of their ability and never make assumptions!

GDB2222

BelugaWhale said:

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?

I think you are expecting too much. They are paid to advise you about things within their expertise. It's your job to negotiate the price and other terms of the sale.  

GDB2222

Also, bear in mind that a solicitor charges a couple of hundred pounds an hour. If you have bought fixed price conveyancing for say £800, that allows for say 4 hours. How much of that time do you expect to be devoted to checking important documents, and how much to holding your hand over trivia?

BelugaWhale

GDB2222 said:

Also, bear in mind that a solicitor charges a couple of hundred pounds an hour. If you have bought fixed price conveyancing for say £800, that allows for say 4 hours. How much of that time do you expect to be devoted to checking important documents, and how much to holding your hand over trivia?

I don’t think that was trivia. We paid considerably more than £800.. good service costs money.

BelugaWhale

GDB2222 said:

Also, bear in mind that a solicitor charges a couple of hundred pounds an hour. If you have bought fixed price conveyancing for say £800, that allows for say 4 hours. How much of that time do you expect to be devoted to checking important documents, and how much to holding your hand over trivia?

And my issue isn’t checking the gas certificate - but the need for one in the first place.

BelugaWhale

Tokmon said:

BelugaWhale said:

Tokmon said:

"Our solicitor repeated this to our buyers solicitor... but they wouldn't have it."

So that was silly that the buyers solicitor wouldn't accept them and obviously they are at fault there if they weren't acting on the instruction of their client. But personally i wouldn't have arranged to get the checks done in the first place.

Well, this is where we disagree - when I'm hired for my expertise, I give it... The solicitor should have told me I didn't have to do this. I shall take this up with them.

Did you ask them if you had to do it?

It will be interesting to see what their response is when you ask why they didn't tell you.


But i wouldn't be surprised if they just say they simply presented you with the enquiries and you chose to respond to that specific one by providing the certificates. As it's a matter that is outside their scope they probably wouldn't tell you that you didn't have to do the checks because that's basically them advising you not to do them if you didn't specifically ask.

But just take this as a lesson learned to do your own research when making large financial decisions and don't just trust that everyone is doing their job to the best of their ability and never make assumptions!

I did question it. The electrician and the PME - I knew this was rubbish, and relayed this information to my solicitor. I was told I needed to present a certificate - which is why I went ahead and paid for the unnecessary PME.

why would my solicitor tell me I needed to get a certificate if one wasn’t really needed?

(this is separate to the gas certificate  issue - that was the buyers solicitor)

user1977

GDB2222 said:

BelugaWhale said:

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?

I think you are expecting too much. They are paid to advise you about things within their expertise. It's your job to negotiate the price and other terms of the sale.  

The details of gas and electricity regulations aren't within their expertise, but whether it's the norm for a vendor to provide/pay for certificates certainly is within their expertise. There seem to be lots of threads here about solicitors just acting as postboxes and not actually offering the advice they're being paid for.