fatscoobyfella

A friend of mine has landed in a right heap of manure,can anyone help?

Here is the situation,its a bit long winded so please keep with it..

My friend inherited a house from his mother who had died.She had bought the house from the local housing authority(new charter) 12 months previous.
On inheriting the house,my friend instructed a solicitor to look into all the legal technicalities of selling the house,including if the housing authority would be due any money from the sale of the house,due to it being within the 3yr window the house must be retained.(cost him £295)
The solicitor did all the checks and my friend received a letter stating "that NO MONEY NEEDED TO REFUNDED TO NEW CHARTER,AS THE FEE IS NEGATED UPON DEATH OF THE OCCUPIER".

At that he put £20,000 of repairs at the house,as it was in a state of disrepair,in view of selling the house at a later date when all work completed.

Ok,house then goes on the market and 1st time buyer is found.My friend instructs the same solicitor to look after the selling of the house from his side..

Time goes on and 2 days ago he goes into the solicitors to exchange contracts..His solicitor said....err..we need to start on a bad note..err you owe the local authority £8k from the sale.He said,no i dont and here is the letter YOU wrote to tell me there was no monies payable to them upon sale of the house..At this the solicitor ummed and ahhhed and said..ok i will get back to you..

The solicitor did get back to him today to say.."im sorry but we cant act for you on this sale anymore,end of conversation".

As you can imagine my friend hasnt a clue whats going on,and is looking to get a new solicitor on Monday...

What a sh**e situation..Anyone been in a similar situation?Any idea's who to complain too?
Any suggestions would be helpful..

Cheers

Jerome

This might be a good start: http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/aboutla...lombudsman.law

Harry_Boy

Hi mate - simple reason that the solicitor is no longer able to act.... He fears he has been negligent in providing your friend with bad advice.

The new solicitor will be able to advise on whether there was indeed negligence (one the face of it, it seems pretty clear cut to me!)

If your friend has expended money in reliance on the advice that solicitor number one gave (it seems so, from what you say), and has suffered loss as a result, then that solicitor will be calling his professional indemnity insurers.

I must admit, I've not heard of clawback provisions being cancelled through death before, so sol number one must have been a little dim....

Edited to add.....

The Law Society will be able to advise your friend on how to make a complaint. As will the other solicitor - they love stabbing each other in the back.

Account deleted by request

Ring said firm of solicitors and speak to one of the Directors - they will have insurance cover against **** ups like this.

In my opinion there will definately be some money owed to the local authority

HTH

chopper

Harry_Boy

Sorry mate - it's not that one. That one's for complaints about the Law Society...

It's this one http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosin...ressscheme.law

Mungo

Solicitors firms tend to have partners rather than solicitors. For a small firm, it's likely the (potential) fool who gave the (potentially) duff advice was a partner.
Deffo talk to the Law Society about this one.

Harry_Boy

Yup, they are not incorporated, and are therefore not limited companies.

The reason is that the Law Society does not allow solicitors to 'limit' their liability.

russell hayward

Sounds like a claim on their Professional Indemnity Insurance is needed ...

fatscoobyfella

Thanks for all your replies fella's...He has wrote a letter to the law society,and we will see what tommorow brings(Monday).

Thanks again...

Harry..once again..your a star...

Harry_Boy

You're welcome mate - PM me anytime.