Conveyancing error

Blue_banjo

We have recently purchased a house with a sitting tenant.
We completed on the property on 8th may 2025. The vendors solicitor when formulating the completion statement assumed that because the tenancy agreement was dated 10th of the month that the tenant paid his rent on the 10th. As such he made an allowance to us  for one days rent (9th)and wrote to the tenant on the day of completion telling him to now pay rent to us ,his new landlord.
It has transpired as we didn't receive a rent payment on the 10th, that the tenant has always paid his rent in advance, on the first of the month .
As such and presumably not knowing that completion was imminent , he paid his rent to his old landlord. I have seen evidence of his payment.
His previous landlord says he has not received this payment and is not forthcoming in providing bank statements to substantiate this.
We are getting g nowhere and intend to take the matter to small claims court but my question is
Do I have a claim against the vendors solicitor who did not check when rent payments were made and simply assumed they were made on the 10th of the month...
Does my conveyancer have responsibility also. Should he have checked when rent was paid?
Or is my claim solely against the seller who received the rent in error and didn't return it.

Hoenir

Your tenants claim is against the old LL. The monies paid should be returned to them. 

Blue_banjo

Hoenir said:

Your tenants claim is against the old LL. The monies paid should be returned to them. 

Thanks for the reply.
The vendor and old LL has said that the tenant always paid his rent regularly and on the first of the month for the rent period beginning on the 10th of that month. 
The vendor had a copy of his completion statement also. He should have checked it.
Have we a claim against the solicitor who made an assumption not based on fact, as to when the rent was paid.
Why should the tenant have to pursue the old LL when it was the solicitors error that caused this

Alderbank

When a landlord sells a property, a tenant's existing tenancy agreement generally remains valid and enforceable with the new owner. The new owner becomes the landlord and inherits the existing tenancy terms, payment in this case in advance on 1st of the month. 
Is that what happened here or did you agree with the tenant to terminate the previous agreement and sign a new one?

Were payments made directly to the old landlord or to an agent?

Blue_banjo

We inherited the existing tenancy terms, payment on the 10th with the tenant choosing to pay on the first.
Payment was made direct to the old landlord

Alderbank

Thanks.
So the tenant was told on 8th May to make his next rent payment due on 10th May to his new landlord. He replied to your solicitor saying, 'No, I have chosen to give that payment to my former landlord instead'.

In that case, unless you have a formal agreement about rent with the seller, I agree with @Hoenir.

Blue_banjo

No... he had already paid his rent on the first for the period 10th May to 9th June.
He has been a tenant since 2017 and always paid his rent on the first.

he was told by email on the 8th to "make his next payment"  (date not specified) to his new landlord.
My issue is that neither his solicitor or our conveyancer actually checked the rent situation and just assumed that he paid his rent on the 10th. when in fact it had already been paid on the first.
The tenant didn't know that completion was imminent.. why would he? He followed instructions. As far as he was concerned his next payment was the June payment.

The completion statement was wrong. Because the rent situation was not checked.
The old landlord would have received the rent on the first but the incorrect  completion statement took no account of this.
He has kept money which is not his.
He knew we completed on the 8th.
He knew he had received may's rent on the first.
He knew that the completion statement made no account of Mays rent, yet proceeded anyway.