Well my id says it all really plus well and truly shafted!

wellfedup

Could some of you money/legal experts give me your views on this please.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]10 months ago I instructed my long term family solicitor who has offices in two NW Leicestershire towns that I was going to sell my shop in the same town at auction, the shop has a sitting tennant of 3 years with an internal repairing 6 year lease - my solicitor tells me - no problem and that he will make up the usual sellers pack to send to the auctioneers of the property.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The shop is an hairdressers and rented at £12,000 per anum.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The shop sold for £143,000 in the auction,that was fine although I did expect it to make a bit more as the shop had a £140,000 reserve, It was valued prior to auction at between £140-160 by local commercial estate agents.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]So I pay off Mortgage and loans etc as we were loking to re-locate.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Life gets easier from now on - or does it?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The new owner of the shop then goes to see my previous tennant to say hello, the tennant states that a small amount of damp is present, (we knew this and stated it in the auction pack details that we had to fill in - it would only cost around £300 to sort out and she only told us about it when we told her we were going to sell it or it would have been sorted earlier)[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Another moan - The reason that we did not injection damp proof when the building was fully restored 4 years ago was because NW Leicestershire council would not let us drill and plug for damproofing as they stated "the little brown plastic plugs would not be in keeping with the surroundings" -[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]And they also stated that the green paint that we proposed to paint the windows and doors with and is the same colour as the houses owned by Chatsworth house estate in Derbyshire, was not in keeping either ?????? so it was painted cream no doubt to make them look like double glazed units - I tell you monkeys would make better decisions![/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Anyway to cut the story short - The owner and the Tennant who apparently only buys propertys will fully repairing leases (well you can say anything afterwards) own two completely different leases -Why?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Well I will tell you -[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Originally my now ex solicitor wrote up a fully repairing lease but the tennant and the tennants solicitor was not happy about this so we mutually agreed for the tennant to make any interior repairs and the owner (me) to make external repairs, I had no problem with this as the building had just been fully renovated for 36k so a NEW revised lease was drawn up by my ex solicitor.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The problem then arrises -[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The Tennant's solicitor who is based in a nearby small Derbyshire town, then Ssomehow lets the tennant sign the old WRONG fully repairing lease that should have been destroyed,this is then sent to my solicitor who does not check it before he files it away, this incorrect fully repairing lease is then sent the auctioneer's for prospective biders to view,[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]I informed my old family solicitor of the problem when it came to my attention (after threats from my previous tennant tha I was commiting a fraud and that she was going to report me to the police! my old solicitor then told me that he can no longer act in my interest and has sent all my documents back to me.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]We have now had to go to a specialist solicitor in Sheffield who is a friend of my sister in law's and they have informed us that if it goes to court with barristers and other fees etc - it will cost me between £23,000-35,000 (I have this written in black and white) plus I will most likely loose the case and will then have to buy the shop back to recind the contract.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]So - the stress through the last 8 months on my family has been terrible, we have 2 members of the family who are terminally ill and my mother in law has also just passed away and all this problem is ours alone,whoever we turn to gives us a hefty bill that we have to borrow more money to pay.[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]I have just sent my new solicitor a cheque for £4000 and will have now have to re-borrow the money to recind the contract plus I will have to pay the other partys fees and stamp duty on the property - [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]If we were not in the lucky position to be able to borrow the money from the security of a property we own I think I would be swinging from a rope right now, how someone with no material assets would cope with this situation I honestly do not know,all this constant upset from a solicitors error and no guarantee of getting any fees back without even more court proceedings later,plus I have to buy a shop that I do not want.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]So can anyone give me details of a good buy-to-let borrowing source,we will also possibly have to pay stamp duty as I said earlier we do have security in other property or we would really be in the s**t, I suppose it would be best to sell the shop in 3 years when the current lease expires?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica](Regards the damp problem mentioned above - we now have it written in a recent £850 comprehensive survey that no damp problem is actually present, the surveyor states that the problem is the tennants badly vented tumble dryer and the use of other dryers being used, the 100 year old property has no rising damp to be concerned about!)[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]So what would you do in my position - mine involves a solicitor the local "Times" and Leicester Mercury news papers and possibly a prison sentance at the end of it![/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Honestly -you can not imagine the family upset that this is caused us so far.[/FONT]

silvercar

Either the tenant (or the tenant's solicitor) is at fault for not reading what they are signing or the buyer at auction is at fault for not doing thorough due diligence prior to bidding and purchasing your property.

If its the tenants fault then there should be no comeback on you - let the tenant sue their solicitor if necessary.

If you did lose a court case due to your previous solicitor's negligence you would put a claim in against this solicitor and he would claim on his solicitors professional indemnity insurance and that should pay out.

If the buyer at auction has bought something he is not happy with then he should have checked things out first and has no comeback on the seller.

wellfedup

After the £500 advice of a Barrister for his 2 hours work looking over the case, if it goes to court the court will look on the buyer as the scalded party, I have to show my losses before I can claim, we have tried getting my old solicitor around a table to talk it out but no one will do anything so the pressue is on me to resolve the matter then I go after my old solicitor if im not bankrupt by then.

vivatifosi

Have you tried the Law Society's redress scheme? I have spoken to them on a matter that wasn't as serious as yours and found them to be tremendously helpful. They may be able to mediate for you if you're getting nowhere with the original firm. Contact details are at:

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/redressscheme.law

dolce_vita

Fvck.

I haven't got a clue about this.

Not because I don't understand. I just can't be bothered to read it all.

BallandChain

It's ok to admit that you don't understand.

dolce_vita

BallandChain wrote: »

It's ok to admit that you don't understand.

And it's ok to admit you read it all.

BallandChain

I did indeedy.

dolce_vita

And have you got an answer to the OP's question?

If there is a question that is.

As I say, I haven't read it.

BallandChain

'Could some of you money/legal experts give me your views on this please.'

The OP wants people who have knowledge in this particular field. I do not but I found it interesting reading all the same.

*Gives a wry smile as my latest law book sits staring at me....

benood

I haven't read it all but surely since your tenant signed the full repairing lease then you're laughing?

Otherwise it's an open and shut case of negligence by your original solicitor.

Unless there's some fact you've missed out in your explanation of course...