Conveyancer Errors

JustinTime19

To keep it brief, my experiences with conveyancers have been rather frustrating. Years ago, I purchased a leasehold property with the assistance of Conveyancer A. Recently, I sold this property using Conveyancer B, and during the sales process, it became clear that Conveyancer A had failed to properly review the lease. Consequently, my buyer's solicitor required indemnity policies.

I eventually sold the property after obtaining the necessary indemnity policies. I reached out to Conveyancer A to ask why these issues weren't identified during the purchase process, and they agreed to cover the cost of the indemnity policies. However, they added that this reimbursement was “By way of full and final settlement of all claims, we can transfer to you £X.”

Could my buyer potentially make a future claim against me? So accepting the settlement terms isn't a good idea.

user1977

JustinTime19 said:

Could my buyer potentially make a future claim against me? So accepting the settlement terms isn't a good idea.

What claims could your buyer make? They accepted the property with the indemnity policies. Any claim against Conveyancer A would be for your own losses (e.g. having to sell at a lower price). So are you sure you've got everything you're entitled to?

In any event, surely Conveyancer B is the place to go for such advice, given they understand what the issue is?

eddddy

The buyer can only really make a future claim against you, if you've said something that is misleading or untrue (and probably only if what you said was part of the contract).

For example, if you said something in the pre-contract forms or in reply to a pre-contract enquiry like "I've never had a dispute with my neighbours" - but that's not true.

(And hopefully, your solicitor should be adding caveats to anything you say before passing it on to the buyer, to reduce the risk of future claims against you.)


It's up to your buyer (and their solicitor) to read the lease and spot anything 'nasty' in it. You don't have to highlight it to them.


Out of interest, what kind of things did Conveyancer A fail to spot in your lease?

JustinTime19

Thanks for your comments.

Conveyancer B has made their own errors and cost me a lot of money -  I don't want to engage any further for advice from them. My case is likely to progress to the legal ombudsman.

Conveyancer A failed to spot terms that wouldn't have been acceptable to a mortgage company. (Ability for freeholder to claim property in the event the ground rent wasn't paid without notifying mortgage company and also that the apartment building was on land that had a covenant to not build on it).

AskAsk

JustinTime19 said:

Thanks for your comments.

Conveyancer B has made their own errors and cost me a lot of money -  I don't want to engage any further for advice from them. My case is likely to progress to the legal ombudsman.

Conveyancer A failed to spot terms that wouldn't have been acceptable to a mortgage company. (Ability for freeholder to claim property in the event the ground rent wasn't paid without notifying mortgage company and also that the apartment building was on land that had a covenant to not build on it).

keep us updated on what results with the ombudsman.  i had experience with them recently and i found them very disappointing.  they helped the bungling solicitor rather than me and only awarded a very small compensation sum for a huge costly mistake.

i decided not to progress to civil court as with the ombudsman decision already in place, i doubt a civil court judge is going to overturn it.

i think as a minimum recompense, when a solicitor makes a bungling mistake, they should return their fees for the work as a minimum.  it is just all wrong that these solicitors are not held accountable for their mistakes.

JustinTime19

I have now raised a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman about Conveyancer B, completing the online form was enough to put me off. I don't have much confidence that I will see much success - Trustpilot reviews of the Legal Ombudsman doesn't look good.

I wonder whether I should try small claims court, based on my experience I can't imagine the other party would read the notice/turn up which could lead the outcome in my favour. 

AskAsk

JustinTime19 said:

I have now raised a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman about Conveyancer B, completing the online form was enough to put me off. I don't have much confidence that I will see much success - Trustpilot reviews of the Legal Ombudsman doesn't look good.

I wonder whether I should try small claims court, based on my experience I can't imagine the other party would read the notice/turn up which could lead the outcome in my favour. 

you can only claim for loss and in this case, the loss is the cost of indemnity policy, so if you go to the small claims court, that is all you can claim.