Solicitor won’t write letter of undertaking.

chalky_white_2

Curiously, the Supreme Court ruled that many solicitors' undertakings are not enforceable at all. Many solicitors firms are now constituted as LLPs (rather than old fashioned partnerships), and undertakings from LLPs are not enforceable. 

Not quite correct, they highlighted that the High Court’s inherent jurisdiction over undertakings would not apply to an LLP.   However, the contractural and regulatory controls still apply, and the Higj Court can still enforce against an individual solicitor

rose_T

I know I sound like a broken record on this situation but like I said on this original post this is a *vent*

I don’t believe the bank is being slow discharging the charge. I believe the sellers solicitor has advised his clients that they do not need to get this removed. And have given them advice that a title indemnity policy in place for standard security is sufficient. So I don’t think anyone has approached the bank. 

user1977

rose_T said:

I don’t believe the bank is being slow discharging the charge. I believe the sellers solicitor has advised his clients that they do not need to get this removed.

Has anybody actually said that, or are you merely guessing? The indemnity policy is a potential solution if anybody wants the transaction to settle urgently, I haven't previously encountered anybody going down that route without first contacting the creditor.

steampowered

Why can't the vendor get on with  approaching the bank, and getting the charge removed?

Its very poor that nobody has approached the bank. Getting the bank to remove the charge now is by far the easiest way of dealing with this. Tell the vendors to get onto the bank immediately or the sale is off. 

All that is happening is all parties are wasting time. It is completely understandable that the sellers' solicitor does not want to take on responsibility for a debt which he or she knows nothing about, or for getting the bank to do something outside his or her control. 

Tiglet2

This really is an issue that the sellers and sellers' solicitor should be addressing.  It is not really up to you or your solicitor to sort out their title, but solicitors would be reluctant to give an undertaking (solicitor's promise) to deal with it, unless they have all the paperwork/evidence to prove that they can give the undertaking without any risk.

rose_T

We contacted the seller on Monday, we told him we can’t move forward as we genuinely can’t do anymore at this stage. 

We payed our deposit and asked our lender if they would accept the insurance which they came back and said no. 

So we said it is now up to you to tell your solicitor to get it sorted, cause it’s not us being picky this is going to be a problem to whoever he sells to even a cash buyer would be reluctant. So he said he would get in touch with his solicitor. 

I haven’t heard anything back since Monday so god knows what’s going on. But the sellers and their solicitor needs to sort it. If it wasn’t this property in the area we want I would have 100% pulled out months ago. We have been patient for over a year so they could sort out confirmation etc 

and see if their solicitor came back and said ok this is the story we have made contact with the bank and because it’s an old settled account they said it could take 4mths to track down we would say that’s absolutely fine we will wait. It’s the not knowing that’s the problem. And his attitude towards it. 

rose_T

user1977 said:

rose_T said:

I don’t believe the bank is being slow discharging the charge. I believe the sellers solicitor has advised his clients that they do not need to get this removed.

Has anybody actually said that, or are you merely guessing? The indemnity policy is a potential solution if anybody wants the transaction to settle urgently, I haven't previously encountered anybody going down that route without first contacting the creditor.

The seller told us when he called one night basically trying to push us to accept the insurance. He said his solicitor said he doesn’t want to open an investigation into the old account cause when he does this it can take up to 4mths and when they open it that will stop them providing indemnity insurance. 

He also said his solicitor has said this happens all the time and the title indemnity insurance covers everything and most high street lenders are happy to accept. 

I do have a email forwarded to myself from the seller that his solicitor sent him with the draft policy in place. 

So yeah I know they haven’t tried to contact the bank 

sheramber

If he doesn't  open that investigation into the old account it is going to take longer than 4 months. 

How  much time has been wasted already.

badger09

CAVEAT IANAL
Could the vendor submit a Subject Access Request to the charge holder? That would show details of the charge redemption, though whether that would be sufficient for your mortgage lender is another matter. 

user1977

badger09 said:

Could the vendor submit a Subject Access Request to the charge holder? That would show details of the charge redemption, though whether that would be sufficient for your mortgage lender is another matter. 

It's not going to make any difference to how easily they discover the relevant information - the bank is still going to have to search through their archives to find the account.