Lawyer has made error in our offer

Tiddleshalifax

I get what you’re saying - and I’m unfamiliar with the process in Scotland however do you not get sent a fixtures and fittings form? 

We do in England and we’ve to check carefully agajnst anything we may have discussed with the agent/vendor. 

deannagone

I'm afraid ultimately, you had the offer documents, you needed to make sure all the additional items were listed. If you didn't check them, and the items are missing, you are at least partly responsible for that and may have to take some loss on the chin for that oversight. Hopefully the seller won't have removed all the items you wanted.  If its a hassle for you to put new ones in, it will be a hassle to remove them.

Perhaps ask for another viewing?  I think if considerable damage was made to the property to remove the items you wanted, you might be able to claim for that from the vendors.., discuss this with your solicitor.  Have you given a written list (rather than a phone conversation) of the items you want to stay?  If not, give the solicitor a list now so they know what to negotiate.

First point of discussion is to finalise what items that you want that the vendors are leaving.  Second point of discussion is what damage, if any, has been caused by their removal and if there should be monies paid to cover that.

Then discussions on who pays what need to happen.  But bear in mind you have some responsibility for the omission.  You must have signed the documents at some point, and agreed to what was/wasn't in them.

user1977

You still haven't answered the question of whether you have a concluded contract. If you don't then this is all in theory still up for negotiation.

And in many cases the sellers are quite happy to leave stuff as it saves them the hassle of removing items which they might not have any future use for at their new place.

And as above, didn't you get a copy of the qualified acceptance at the time? If so, what happened after that?

jjgdoc

user1977 said:

You still haven't answered the question of whether you have a concluded contract. If you don't then this is all in theory still up for negotiation.

And in many cases the sellers are quite happy to leave stuff as it saves them the hassle of removing items which they might not have any future use for at their new place.

And as above, didn't you get a copy of the qualified acceptance at the time? If so, what happened after that?

As far as I’m aware we have not concluded the contract. 

We have never received a copy of the acceptance from the lawyer. 

Thanks 

user1977

jjgdoc said:

user1977 said:

You still haven't answered the question of whether you have a concluded contract. If you don't then this is all in theory still up for negotiation.

And in many cases the sellers are quite happy to leave stuff as it saves them the hassle of removing items which they might not have any future use for at their new place.

And as above, didn't you get a copy of the qualified acceptance at the time? If so, what happened after that?

As far as I’m aware we have not concluded the contract. 

Right, so at the moment absolutely nothing is binding, and you can still negotiate what's to be included. Which presumably is what your solicitor is doing.

AdrianC

jjgdoc said:

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.

Have you come across the concept of betterment?

You are saying "I haven't got this second-hand item, so I buy new, therefore my loss is the cost of the new one." No, that's betterment. It doesn't work like that.

You might or might not be due the value of the second-hand item.

What if the second-hand TV failed shortly after you moved in?

[Deleted User]

jjgdoc said:

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.

Your solicitor is attempting to rectify the issue, what else is she advising?  

If you are unhappy with your solicitor you need to make a complaint directly to your solicitor or if she is part of a firm complain to the firm whose client relations manager should listen to you and try to resolve the issue.  If you are unsatisfied with the response from your solicitor/her firm then you can complain to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. 

weeg

I don't think there is anything you can do at this stage. If she doesn't manage to negotiate to your satisfaction, then you might be able to get redress through the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

If it's pretty bespoke stuff, you may be in luck with the sellers wanting to leave items. 

jjgdoc

AdrianC said:

jjgdoc said:

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.

Have you come across the concept of betterment?

You are saying "I haven't got this second-hand item, so I buy new, therefore my loss is the cost of the new one." No, that's betterment. It doesn't work like that.

You might or might not be due the value of the second-hand item.

What if the second-hand TV failed shortly after you moved in?

What about the coast of delivery? The inconvenience? Moving into the property late when I’ve taken annual leave and rearranged work. As I said the 2nd hand stuff may not be worth 4 now, but I made an offer based on these items which will now not be there. 

As I said in my own line of work I would be expected to cover any loss to my customer fully. Like if I burst a pipe and destroy a floor I don’t replace it with some random 2nd hand floor, I pay a joiner to fit the exact same floor or as close as possible.

If there is no protection in place for this then that’s fine the sell will fall through but that doesn’t sit right with me. 

Thanks 

jjgdoc

deannagone said:

I'm afraid ultimately, you had the offer documents, you needed to make sure all the additional items were listed. If you didn't check them, and the items are missing, you are at least partly responsible for that and may have to take some loss on the chin for that oversight. Hopefully the seller won't have removed all the items you wanted.  If its a hassle for you to put new ones in, it will be a hassle to remove them.

Perhaps ask for another viewing?  I think if considerable damage was made to the property to remove the items you wanted, you might be able to claim for that from the vendors.., discuss this with your solicitor.  Have you given a written list (rather than a phone conversation) of the items you want to stay?  If not, give the solicitor a list now so they know what to negotiate.

First point of discussion is to finalise what items that you want that the vendors are leaving.  Second point of discussion is what damage, if any, has been caused by their removal and if there should be monies paid to cover that.

Then discussions on who pays what need to happen.  But bear in mind you have some responsibility for the omission.  You must have signed the documents at some point, and agreed to what was/wasn't in them.

May be worth a try on the 2nd viewing.

as I said in the original post our lawyer only showed us the written acceptance 2 days ago, we have signed nothing in regard to that.

Our lawyer is flapping too, she offered us her couch last night !!!!!! 😂

Thanks