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

Irishpearce26

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...

Solicitors will carry out the due diligence they feel is necessary, not all will go that far but ultimately they were doing what they were instructed to do. Unless your buyer says no to the certificates the solicitor will request them if they feel they want the assurance.

AdrianC

user1977 said:

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.

Meanwhile, TOTALLY unrelated to that...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6279261/uk-cheapest-conveyancing/

Tokmon

BelugaWhale said:

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)

If they told you that you needed to present a certificate after you questioned it then they are incorrect and that is worthy of a complaint.

But you should have known that it wasn't actually part of the process really because you said you bought two houses before and i doubt you received electrical and gas certificates as part of those purchases.

BelugaWhale

Tokmon said:

If they told you that you needed to present a certificate after you questioned it then they are incorrect and that is worthy of a complaint.

But you should have known that it wasn't actually part of the process really because you said you bought two houses before and i doubt you received electrical and gas certificates as part of those purchases.

I did... for both. In one house the boiler failed so they put a new one in.

BelugaWhale

climbthatwallseegar said:

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! 

Glad you were able to find a solicitor who helped  

Tokmon

BelugaWhale said:

Tokmon said:

If they told you that you needed to present a certificate after you questioned it then they are incorrect and that is worthy of a complaint.

But you should have known that it wasn't actually part of the process really because you said you bought two houses before and i doubt you received electrical and gas certificates as part of those purchases.

I did... for both. In one house the boiler failed so they put a new one in.

That's unusual, I've only ever know people providing proof the boiler has been serviced and nothing more than that unless the person buying the house requested something extra.

So the house your currently buying have you been provided with electrical and gas inspection certificates for that too?

BelugaWhale

Tokmon said:

That's unusual, I've only ever know people providing proof the boiler has been serviced and nothing more than that unless the person buying the house requested something extra.

So the house your currently buying have you been provided with electrical and gas inspection certificates for that too?

In terms of time line - I had found out that certificates weren't required after I had obtained them. Because our buyer had been on holiday I didn't want to fanny about - so I told them via the estate agent not to bother with inspecting gas etc (I was asked by my solicitor to chase them via the estate agent, and then their solictor which I did). Their solicitor must have told mine no to the certs - which is fine.... The boiler ie 30+ years old and the place needs a rewire, new windows etc... I had a pal who is a structural engineer walk around the place before we placed our offer.  It needs work - we know that... but it won't fall down.

Was going to use the stamp duty money for a heat pump.

catshark88

Look Beluga, you've had a tough time and are understandably annoyed and disappointed that you didn't complete in time. You just need to accept it and move on though. You didn't do as much research/ due diligence as you might have. Your advisors and those of the other parties in the sale, were not great. You do not have a claim against anyone, sometimes sh*t just happens. You are just winding yourself up here.

BelugaWhale

catshark88 said:

You didn't do as much research/ due diligence as you might have

I hired a professional advocate... 
I knew I didn't need the PME - but was under the impression from my solicitor that I had to have a certificate so just paid to get the certificate.

I'm not winding myself up - they've wound me up. Just received an email from my solicitor apologising... they need me to sign an appendix to the contract (wasn't included and no mention of it before - I did read the contract, and googled what each point meant)

GDB2222

BelugaWhale said:

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.

How much of what you are paying is for the solicitor, rather than disbursements, VAT, etc?