Deed of Variation for Lease

hongsit

Hi, not sure whether I have the correct terminology, but here's my
situation.
I am currently part exchanging my flat with George Wimpey and buying
one of their houses. I have been informed by my solicitor
(Recommended by them) that my lease is incorrect, so a Deed of
variation is required. The management company wants £495 for their
approval which to me is a lot of money. This issue has already
delayed the completion. The flat was purchased brand new from Bellway
5 years ago, again I used their recommended solicitor who obviously
has made the mistake and did not pick up on the error. I have chased
Bellway and they are refusing to look into anything. It seems I have
to pay this just so I can complete this month, if I don't complete
this month, George Wimpey could re-market their house.
The question is, is there anybody liable for this mistake? Should
Bellway or the solicitors acting for me 5 years ago pay for it?
Can I take this sort of thing to the Small Claims Court? Or should I
just pay and just live with it which I reluctant to do. There must be some
law that protects sellers in this situation, this mistake is of no fault of mine,
surely this is the reason we pay solicitors for.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

clutton_2

it all depends on what variation is which needs to be put into the lease - until you know this, you cannot gauge whether it was an error/omission that the earlier solicitors forgot to include, - or whether it is a new clause that your new solicitor wishes to include - as an example in relation to new legislation - which may be in your best interest.

ask what the variation is and come back to us

for example i bought an ex local authority flat from the previous Right to Buy owner - his solicitor had not picked up on my flats' fair share of the costs towards the maintanance bills for the whole block - and if my solicitor had not changed it - via a Deed of Variation - i may have been legally responsible for the whole block !!!

hongsit

Apparently the boundaries are wrong and my solicitor said my previous solicitors should of picked up on it, but she says that I can't do much but just pay for it.

However, there must be something I can do, e.g. small claims court. I probably will pay it for now, as I want to move and don't want this dragging on and on, but would like to pursue it further afterwards.

clutton_2

to get money out of a solicitor in the small claims court means that you will have to prove they were negligent - i think you will find this extra ordinarily difficult.

it will cost you £150 to take this to court ......

if you lose - you may be asked to pay their costs .........

it is a fair chunk of money - but can you afford to lose it AND pay costs and court fees ?

hongsit

No, I can't afford to pay the cost if I loose. I certainly can do without loosing £500, but if I don't have a choice, then I just have to take it as it is. This really sucks, surely, I pay the solicitors top dollar to do the work and at least they could spot an error in a what I consider to be a fairly important legal document.

Richard_Webster

You might have a claim against your previous solicitor but he would not have visited the property to check that the physical boundaries were the same as those in the documents. He may well have sent you a copy of the plan to check, and if he did, and you did not spot the discrepancy it is hardly his fault.

hongsit

The flat was bought off plan. The solicitors were "recommended" by the sellers, i.e. Bellway. Surely, that means the solicitors have/had a partnership with Bellway, would be familiar with the site and the development, have dealt with many similar properties on the same site/development. To me the mistake was just negligence on their behalf. At no point was I asked to double check their work, I was asked to sign the lease as soon as possible and send it back. Something obvious to solicitors may not be obvious to me, so even if I looked at a legal document, it may not be clear to me what is going on. If I knew what I was doing and knew what was needed in buying selling a property, I can save myself a few bob and do the conveyancing myself...

Anyway, good news is I don't need to pay the fee as someone else will be picking up the tab.

Richard_Webster

Solicitors should have told you to check that the flat shown on the plan was the one you were buying.

They would not know that the plans were wrong and whatever their association with Bellway or that they had done other flats on the site, they would not necessarily know about the fine details of boundaries etc. for this particualr flat.

Labentley

Hi, my situation is this: I purchased my property from the council in 2004 on a right to buy scheme. The property is a house that was converted into two flats and mine is the ground floor garden flat(the only access to the garden is through my property). Ive just sold the flat and I had to pay for a leaseholders info pack from the council. When the information arrived, my worst nightmare unfolded: I was alerted by my new solicitors that the title plans only showed the flat(the garden had been omitted from the plans) thus reducing the property's value by about £25-30k...

I contacted the council and to my delight they confirmed the garden was indeed sold with the property and I wouldn't have to pay for it. My solicitors have written to the council's legal team for a deed of variation to include the garden. I have no idea how much this will cost and my problem now is that I feel the solicitors who acted for me then should be responsible as I wouldn't have know what to check on the plans.. I paid them a fair amount of money and they should have spotted the error then and rectified it. Now I'm left with the potential cost and I need advice on what to do?? Can I sue the solicitors and get compensation? How do i go about it because I don't want to incur any more solicitors fees, Im afraid that this mess could cost me my buyer. HELP!!!!

Richard_Webster

Hi, my situation is this: I purchased my property from the council in 2004 on a right to buy scheme. The property is a house that was converted into two flats and mine is the ground floor garden flat(the only access to the garden is through my property). Ive just sold the flat and I had to pay for a leaseholders info pack from the council. When the information arrived, my worst nightmare unfolded: I was alerted by my new solicitors that the title plans only showed the flat(the garden had been omitted from the plans) thus reducing the property's value by about £25-30k...

I contacted the council and to my delight they confirmed the garden was indeed sold with the property and I wouldn't have to pay for it. My solicitors have written to the council's legal team for a deed of variation to include the garden. I have no idea how much this will cost and my problem now is that I feel the solicitors who acted for me then should be responsible as I wouldn't have know what to check on the plans.. I paid them a fair amount of money and they should have spotted the error then and rectified it. Now I'm left with the potential cost and I need advice on what to do?? Can I sue the solicitors and get compensation? How do i go about it because I don't want to incur any more solicitors fees, Im afraid that this mess could cost me my buyer. HELP!!!!

The question is whether the solicitor who acted when you bought asked you to check that the plans on the documents were accurate. If they did and you didn't check, tough. If they didn't, then you may have a case. Write to them with your claim and see what happens. There could a be a bit of a delay because they will probably have to claim on their professional negligence policy and then wait for guidance as to whether or not to make you an offer from their insurers.

Whether you will get all your extra costs is another matter. They would have sent you the lease to sign at some point and there should have been a plan in it, which you also would have had to have signed. Although you can claim you didn't understand the significance and importance of the document, they may well say that they find it difficult to understand why you didn't comment on the plan being wrong. They may then argue that if the matter were to go to court any claim you might have should be reduced on account of what is called "contributory negligence" on your part.

G_M

hongsit wrote: »

... The solicitors were "recommended" by the sellers, i.e. Bellway. Surely, that means the solicitors have/had a partnership with Bellway, would be familiar with the site and the development, ...... I was asked to sign the lease as soon as possible and send it back. .....so even if I looked at a legal document, it may not be clear to me what is going on. Anyway, good news is I don't need to pay the fee as someone else will be picking up the tab.

Always a mistake to use the sellers'recommended' solicitors. Use your own next time!

Putting that aside, the solicitors do not go round the building site, they sit in an office. They are given plans of each property by the seller (in this case the builder) and have no way of verifying them other than sending to the buyer and saying effectively "is this the plot you are buying - yes or no?" Buyer signs to say yes, or queries it if the boundary is wrong.

You were asked to sign the lease (which would have had the plan attached). Why? To show you agreed with both the terms therein and the boundaries described in the Plan.

Glad to hear the good news though - so who's picking up the tab?