Lawyer has made error in our offer

jjgdoc

Hi,

Me and my partner are moving into our new home 1 week today. In our offer we included some furniture and items to be left (which to buy new would cost around 4k). This offer was made 2 months ago.

2 days ago our lawyer informed us that these items were not listed on the written acceptance from the sellers lawyers. Originally our Lawyer placed the blame on the sellers but she has now admitted it was her error and she did not include the items listed on our 2nd offer (1k more).

The Lawyer is now attempting to resolve with the sellers but with not much time left there is a chance these items could already be gone.

if our lawyer is unsuccessful in negotiations what rights do we have? As we have now potentially lost 4K or worse case scenario our dream home and it’s all due to negligence.

Thanks.

SpiderLegs

Firstly, you haven’t lost 4K.
secondly, have you exchanged contracts?

swingaloo2

Firstly you have not potentially lost 4K or your dream home. You have lost some items of 2nd hand furniture which may have been 4k new but worth nowhere near that 2nd hand. Your potential loss is the £1000 you offered.

Did you not notice that the items were not listed when you checked the forms? 
Yes it's really annoying but if this really is your dream home are you going to really fret about £1000. If you are moving next week then you must have alreday exchanged and so you are comitted now. 
Perhaps if your solicitor has admitted a mistake you may be able to blag a small discount on your bill.

TBG01

What do you mean by offer? Offers don't go through the solicitor. It should be done via the estate agent

saajan_12

Are you in scotland?

jjgdoc

Yes I’m in Scotland.

jjgdoc

TBG01 said:

What do you mean by offer? Offers don't go through the solicitor. It should be done via the estate agent

Im not sure down south but in Scotland we instruct our lawyer to make the offer on our behalf.

Thanks

purplebutterfly

Were these items not listed on the TA10 form or whatever the Scottish equivalent is? 

 You surely would have had to check that and agree to it before proceeding to completion?

Tiddleshalifax

I would chalk it off to experience tbh. As has pointed out, you haven’t lost anything other than the 1k you offered extra. The furniture would not have been worth the original price unless air loom in which case it would be taken surely

jjgdoc

swingaloo2 said:

Firstly you have not potentially lost 4K or your dream home. You have lost some items of 2nd hand furniture which may have been 4k new but worth nowhere near that 2nd hand. Your potential loss is the £1000 you offered.

Did you not notice that the items were not listed when you checked the forms? 
Yes it's really annoying but if this really is your dream home are you going to really fret about £1000. If you are moving next week then you must have alreday exchanged and so you are comitted now. 
Perhaps if your solicitor has admitted a mistake you may be able to blag a small discount on your bill.

I think you may have misunderstood the situation. We meant to offer an extra 1k that is in no way the issue. The issue is we offered 11k over the asking price to include these items and our lawyer just completely left them out. 

The property is quite bespoke with TV’s in false walls etc. The price could sore beyond the 4K if I have to get joiners in.

I used to run my own electrical contractors. If I made a mistake I had to cover that and I had insurances in place if I was unable to. Surely there is something similar in place for law firms?

thanks

jjgdoc

Tiddleshalifax said:

I would chalk it off to experience tbh. As has pointed out, you haven’t lost anything other than the 1k you offered extra. The furniture would not have been worth the original price unless air loom in which case it would be taken surely

Again it has nothing to do with the 1k we instructed the lawyer to offer an extra 1k when the sellers came back after the first offer. 

As I said we instructed the lawyer to include these items, she has only told us 2 months later that these items are not on the written acceptance. Surely we should’ve been told this days later not months? 

The furniture may not be 4K now but if I now have to buy it due to my lawyers negligence I’ll be at a 4K loss. So I will be 4K out of pocket and sleeping on the floor.

thanks