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

MissMoneypenny

vivatifosi wrote: »

Have you tried the Law Society's redress scheme? <snip> Contact details are at:

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

I too have used The Law Society against a firm of solicitors and agree with vivatifosi, they were very good. I won my case with them (and the appeal) against a firm of solicitors. The Law Society made the solicitors pay me just over £3,000. However, The Law Society wanted me to contact the person at the solicitors, who dealt with complaints first, to see if it could be resolved. Have you tried this route first?

wellfedup

Hi, Oh O only wished it was that sinmple,
When the ex solicitors error was first discovered they assured us that no way would this come back on us !
We then tried to get them to talk to the buyer but their response was - "when you sort your problem contact us then!" they have contacted their insurers and are now waiting for me to battle out any losses costing even more money - but I have to recind the sale to be able to do his.

poppy10_2

I think you're screwed, to be honest. You sent the tenant a contract for a fully repaired lease, they signed that contract and your solicitor accepted it. Therefore that is the valid contract, it doesn't matter if you now say you made a mistake, it's still valid as both sides signed and accepted it.

You stated at auction that it wasn't a fully repairing lease and therefore you misrepresented the property.

You are therefore liable to the buyer and indeed to the tenant for any costs incurred in putting this right.

I feel sorry for you, but you don't have a leg to stand on, you need to pay up. A very expensive mistake.

kunekune

But who is "you"? OP did not do the paperwork themselves. They did not prepare the auction details. So why should they be the ones who take the loss?

silvercar

poppy10 wrote: »

I think you're screwed, to be honest. You sent the tenant a contract for a fully repaired lease, they signed that contract and your solicitor accepted it. Therefore that is the valid contract, it doesn't matter if you now say you made a mistake, it's still valid as both sides signed and accepted it.

You stated at auction that it wasn't a fully repairing lease and therefore you misrepresented the property.

You are therefore liable to the buyer and indeed to the tenant for any costs incurred in putting this right.

I feel sorry for you, but you don't have a leg to stand on, you need to pay up. A very expensive mistake.

I think it was the other way round. From OPs post:

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,

The tenant signed a fully repairing lease in error and this was included in the auction particulars. As this was an error on both sides (and I would say both sides solicitors rather than individuals - what do we pay them for?) it was in the process of being corrected. Corrections can be made when it is known that an error was made.

The problem is the buyer is not happy that he has bought with a lease where the tenant isn't responsible for all repairs. Still reckon it is the solicitors job to sort this out.

I would also have thought that any court awarding compensation would decide on an amount that represented the cost of an likely external repairs, rather than undoing the contract.

I think the Law Society should help you sort this out, it is their members that have messed up.

wellfedup

poppy10 wrote: »

I think you're screwed, to be honest. You sent the tenant a contract for a fully repaired lease, they signed that contract and your solicitor accepted it. Therefore that is the valid contract, it doesn't matter if you now say you made a mistake, it's still valid as both sides signed and accepted it.

You stated at auction that it wasn't a fully repairing lease and therefore you misrepresented the property.

You are therefore liable to the buyer and indeed to the tenant for any costs incurred in putting this right.

I feel sorry for you, but you don't have a leg to stand on, you need to pay up. A very expensive mistake.

But it was my solicitor who made the expensive mistake poppy, I never had any of the paperwork in my hand!

MissMoneypenny

Has your new solicitor mentioned about claiming his fees back from your ex solicitor's insurance?

Have you put anything about this/got anything about this, in writing to/from your ex solicitor? Why is their complaints solicitor not dealing with this for you?

Why not contact The Law Society and ask them for advice? They were very good with me and even spotted things that I had missed.

C32AMG

This really is a matter that you need to take up with your old solicitor, as he has acted negligently and you can claim from his PI insurance for not checking the returned FRI lease.

Have you exhausted the complaints procedure for the solicitor concerned? If he is a member of a practice or partner they (should) have an official complaints procedure, usually dealt with by the senior partner of the firm.

wellfedup

Thanks for the interest so far -
It,s nice to communicate with unbias people who are not taking vast sums of money from me for a change.
I contacted the complaints manager at the ex solicitors when the error was found,andI gave them notice of reporting them to the law society,he contacted me by phone but he just told me to let him know the outcome, my new solicitor contacted them to try and get them around a table to discuss the problem but they would not get involved at this stage!
The old solicitor was told to inform his insurers about the problem, we received a letter from the insurers but they will not get involved untill I can show them all my losses,my new specialist solicitor said they expected that as an answer,that might even be when I have bought and then re-sold the shop perhaps?
I did contact the law society and chatted for around 30 minutes but they were cautious about advising me to do one thing or the other and gave me a list of specialist solicitor nearby who would help but we went with some specialists in Sheffield as they are all possibly in each other pockets so to speak.

wellfedup

Please look below !