Pretty annoyed with my solicitor in retrospect - cost me £500

gcpbuyer

Hi there - my solicitor cost me £500 by being unclear. Here's the scenario 

I bought a property in July. 

My solicitor had informed me that the seller would pay all the service fees for the previous year 2020/21. 

They then told me that I will be liable for paying anything that was above the service charge estimate for "this financial year". (Note: you get an estimate for the service charge, then you get the actual amount when it's time to pay - sometimes it's less...but it's usually more). 

I repeatedly asked them to confirm that this was for 2021/2022 but they just respond that it was for "this financial year".

As I thought it was for 2021/2022 - I thought "fine...seems fair"...but it was actually for the financial year 2020/21 when I didn't own the property. If I had have known, I would have pushed the seller to put some money by to cover anything above the estimate for 2020/21. 

Is there an official way I can go about complaining about this? Many thanks

Thrugelmir

Your solicitor will have relayed on the information provided to them. They've no direct contact with the vendor. 

gozaimasu

If you want to complain, do so directly to the solicitor concerned. If you're not happy with that, then complain to the Law Society/Solicitors Regulation Authority. Nothing to lose by complaining except a bit of time and even if you get zero cash from it, you'll have helped them look at their "unclear" terms in dealing future purchases.

[Deleted User]

There are very few in the legal profession that walk around with their !!!!!! hanging out of their trousers

NameUnavailable

Financial year 2021/2 isn't over yet so how could they confirm the spend for this year (and you will own the flat for part of it).

pinkteapot

Do you have something in writing that very clearly says "You will not be liable for any costs for the financial year 2020/21"? 

If so, you might have a case, but it's more likely to be against the vendor as your solicitor will have been passing on what the vendor told their solicitor. 

eddddy

You need to provide a bit more background.

So, you've had to pay a service charge adjustment for 2020/2021 of £500.

Normally, your purchase contract would have a clause saying that you could reclaim this service charge adjustment from the seller. So, for example, 

• 1. Was your solicitor saying that the seller was refusing to have that clause in the contract? And you only agreed to that because of confusion over dates?

• 2. Or was your solicitor asking you if you wanted a 'retention' to make reclaiming the money easier? But you said 'no' due to confusion over dates?

My guess would be it's option 2.

If it's option 2 - the seller still owes you that £500. But it might be more difficult to get the money from them.

So if it's option 2, your solicitor will probably tell you that your first step is to try to get the £500 from the seller.


Apart from that, the starting point would be to make a complaint to your solicitor. It would then be an argument about whether or not the solicitor caused the confusion or not.

gcpbuyer

eddddy said:

You need to provide a bit more background.

So, you've had to pay a service charge adjustment for 2020/2021 of £500.

Normally, your purchase contract would have a clause saying that you could reclaim this service charge adjustment from the seller. So, for example, 

• 1. Was your solicitor saying that the seller was refusing to have that clause in the contract? And you only agreed to that because of confusion over dates?

• 2. Or was your solicitor asking you if you wanted a 'retention' to make reclaiming the money easier? But you said 'no' due to confusion over dates?

My guess would be it's option 2.

If it's option 2 - the seller still owes you that £500. But it might be more difficult to get the money from them.

So if it's option 2, your solicitor will probably tell you that your first step is to try to get the £500 from the seller.


Apart from that, the starting point would be to make a complaint to your solicitor. It would then be an argument about whether or not the solicitor caused the confusion or not.

It's actually option 1 - the vendor wouldn't commit a reserve of £500 to cover overspend on the service charge. 

Two points for context:

• The vendor also agreed to pay for the first 3 months of 2021/22 (this financial year) up until I took ownership.  

• The building agency release an estimate for year ending 2022 very early on, more than a year before it's finalised (so in February 2021). 

So I asked which financial year does the £500 reserve apply to (year ending 2021 or year ending 2022), the solicitor said "this financial year". 

The response is below (and this was the 3rd time I asked after not getting a clear answer).


So in June 2021, when they told  me "this financial year", that implies year ending  April 2022. I thought that this was perfectly reasonable as I'll have lived in the property for most of the year. However, it actually applied to year end April 2021, when I didn't own the property. 

For a bit more context it wasn't my main solicitor - it was a stand in while they were on holiday. 

eddddy

gcpbuyer said:

It's actually option 1 - the vendor wouldn't commit a reserve of £500 to cover overspend on the service charge. 

Are you really sure it's option 1?


Normally, the solicitors would use the Standard Conditions of Sale (5th Edition) for your purchase. And that says:

6.3.5 When a sum to be apportioned is not known or easily ascertainable at completion, a provisional apportionment is to be made according to the best estimate available. As soon as the amount is known, a final apportionment is to be made and notified to the other party. Any resulting balance is to be paid no more than ten working days later, and if not then paid the balance is to bear interest at the contract rate from then until payment.

So based on that clause: It was an estimate that was apportioned on completion. You now know that the estimate was £500 under, so you notify the seller and they have 10 days to pay you £500.

Except that you believe that maybe a 'Special Condition of Sale' was added to the contract, which cancels clause 6.3.5 above. Maybe re-read the contract documents to check that.

I still wonder whether it's more like option 2. i.e. The seller owes you £500 (because of clause 6.3.5) - but there is no retention fund, so you have to chase the seller personally to get the money.

But I guess there may be another apportionment adjustment to come at the end of 2021/2022.

gcpbuyer

Yeah it's option 1 - I didn't see anything related to 6.3.5

My conveyancer said I'd be liable for any difference in the estimate and were really vague about what year it was referring to.