Incompetant solicitors!!!! (House chain)
17 December 2001, 06:51 PM
#1
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Well,
Where to start -
1. Accepted an offer on my house back in July 2001
2. Chain of 5 inc 1st time buyer
3. 1st time buyer chickens out at 11th hour
4. Same day, a new buyer is found (phew!!!)
5. It is now middle of December - we were all exchanging and completing today until -
6. New 1st time buyers solicitors (edited for 'apparent' liable issues)[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]) approach lender after advising ALL other parties to do same, and get removal companies involved only to be told that there is a problem with a mining report that they did not bring to anybody's attention!!!!!!! The lender have now declined to offer the mortgage, as have other lenders.....[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] fukcing b!"£$%ds!!!!!!!!!
7. As a result, everybody has been left up ****-creek with loads of extra expense due to cancellations!!!!!!
8. 1st time buyers have fukced off (good riddence to bad rubbish I say!!!)
9. The only good news is that my buyers still want our house. We still want the house we're buying. They still want us to have it too...... AND the property in my area sells like hot-cakes (quite desirable, apparently...)
Has anybody tried this complaints body that deals with solicitors? Does it work and is it worth the hassle?
HELP!!!! ARRRRGHH!!!! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
AND to top it all, (edited to say 'A certain retail outlet' were meant to be delivering my new cooker and microwave tomorrow, only for us to have a phonecall tonight saying,"Your cooker is out of stock"!!!!!!!!!!!!
They've just lost £800 worth of business......
Rant over, but there's only so much a person can take in 6 months.....
Anybody who reads this, thanks for reading it!!!!
Dan
Now where's that bottle of Vodka gone??????
(edited for spoleng mistooks!!!)
[Edited by ScoobyDoo555 - 12/17/2001 6:53:23 PM]
Edited again - Happy?
[Edited by ScoobyDoo555 - 12/17/2001 8:53:14 PM]
Where to start -
1. Accepted an offer on my house back in July 2001
2. Chain of 5 inc 1st time buyer
3. 1st time buyer chickens out at 11th hour
4. Same day, a new buyer is found (phew!!!)
5. It is now middle of December - we were all exchanging and completing today until -
6. New 1st time buyers solicitors (edited for 'apparent' liable issues)[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]) approach lender after advising ALL other parties to do same, and get removal companies involved only to be told that there is a problem with a mining report that they did not bring to anybody's attention!!!!!!! The lender have now declined to offer the mortgage, as have other lenders.....[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] fukcing b!"£$%ds!!!!!!!!!
7. As a result, everybody has been left up ****-creek with loads of extra expense due to cancellations!!!!!!
8. 1st time buyers have fukced off (good riddence to bad rubbish I say!!!)
9. The only good news is that my buyers still want our house. We still want the house we're buying. They still want us to have it too...... AND the property in my area sells like hot-cakes (quite desirable, apparently...)
Has anybody tried this complaints body that deals with solicitors? Does it work and is it worth the hassle?
HELP!!!! ARRRRGHH!!!! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
AND to top it all, (edited to say 'A certain retail outlet' were meant to be delivering my new cooker and microwave tomorrow, only for us to have a phonecall tonight saying,"Your cooker is out of stock"!!!!!!!!!!!!
They've just lost £800 worth of business......
Rant over, but there's only so much a person can take in 6 months.....
Anybody who reads this, thanks for reading it!!!!
Dan
Now where's that bottle of Vodka gone??????
(edited for spoleng mistooks!!!)
[Edited by ScoobyDoo555 - 12/17/2001 6:53:23 PM]
Edited again - Happy?
[Edited by ScoobyDoo555 - 12/17/2001 8:53:14 PM]
17 December 2001, 08:57 PM
#3
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I've edited my initial post to protect ScoobyNet, however, I only spoke the truth (all the solicitors, estate agents - sounds like a 'rogues gallery!!!! and the purchasers/sellers will agree to this)
Name and shame 'em I say!!!!
But my question still stands - has anybody tried the complaints procedure and did you get any joy?
Dan
Name and shame 'em I say!!!!
But my question still stands - has anybody tried the complaints procedure and did you get any joy?
Dan
17 December 2001, 10:39 PM
#4
Sounds a pigging nightmare 
Only can say that if 1st buyer's solicitors found something in their searches, they have a duty of care to let people (lenders/buyers)know, otherwise they would get sued by somebody 
Doesn't help you in this case, but sounds like they were doing their job.
Full sympathy for you & hope it goes better next time. Don't get me started on my last house purchase Reform the law is what I say.
Only can say that if 1st buyer's solicitors found something in their searches, they have a duty of care to let people (lenders/buyers)know, otherwise they would get sued by somebody
Doesn't help you in this case, but sounds like they were doing their job.
Full sympathy for you & hope it goes better next time. Don't get me started on my last house purchase
Reform the law is what I say.
17 December 2001, 11:05 PM
#5
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Dan,
Know what you mean. Had the same problem and it took 4 months to get in. One solicitor in the chain was fecking crap and kept giving dates without knowing the facts. The estate agents were as useful as a chocolate fireguard. I ended up chasing (and arranging 2 weeks quicker) a mining report on a compensation claim for a house 3 down the chain !!!.
The only thing I found was to keep on top with regular phone calls and requesting the solicitors and estate agents provided a weekly update of the state of the chain. Next time I would be more demanding with getting this in writting so I could go back and prove just how crap they where. They forget they are dealing with peoples lifes.
I was given three defo move dates without one couple having a mortage and at one stage the exchange process started from the middle of the chain and one couple were liable for two houses 8)
BUT been in a nearly 2 months and its easier to laugh about now and next time I will not bother with Estate agents at all and only use a solictor for the financial side.
Good Luck and dont let the barstewards get you down.
Dave
Know what you mean. Had the same problem and it took 4 months to get in. One solicitor in the chain was fecking crap and kept giving dates without knowing the facts. The estate agents were as useful as a chocolate fireguard. I ended up chasing (and arranging 2 weeks quicker) a mining report on a compensation claim for a house 3 down the chain !!!.
The only thing I found was to keep on top with regular phone calls and requesting the solicitors and estate agents provided a weekly update of the state of the chain. Next time I would be more demanding with getting this in writting so I could go back and prove just how crap they where. They forget they are dealing with peoples lifes.
I was given three defo move dates without one couple having a mortage and at one stage the exchange process started from the middle of the chain and one couple were liable for two houses 8)
BUT been in a nearly 2 months and its easier to laugh about now
and next time I will not bother with Estate agents at all and only use a solictor for the financial side.Good Luck and dont let the barstewards get you down.
Dave
18 December 2001, 08:42 AM
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I too have a tale of woe, but the people in the chain were as bad as the solicitors and estate agents.
In July, we put an offer in on a house and launched into the process. The people we were buying off found a buyer, who in turn found a buyer who was buying a new house. All of us were looking for a completion in early to mid September, and only a couple of days before we were all hoping to exchange, the people at the top of the chain got greedy and took someone elses higher offer.
The people below them found another house and informed the people that they were looking for everything to go through quickly and they agreed, even though that meant they would have to go into rented accommodation until their house was ready.
Again it got to the point where we were about ready to exchange and the people at the top of the chain started deliberating over whether or not they did want to go into rented. Then they decided they would if everyone else in the chain made a contribution towards their rent etc. Cheeky b@stard - if he wasn't happy going into rented he should have said in the first place, instead of waiting til he'd got the rest of the chain by the short and curlies.
Anyway, the chain made a contribution and we completed in November, 4 months since putting the offer in and 2 months after we wanted to move.
Hope the so and so at the top's house building slips really badly - that'd show him
Anyway, enough ranting
In July, we put an offer in on a house and launched into the process. The people we were buying off found a buyer, who in turn found a buyer who was buying a new house. All of us were looking for a completion in early to mid September, and only a couple of days before we were all hoping to exchange, the people at the top of the chain got greedy and took someone elses higher offer.
The people below them found another house and informed the people that they were looking for everything to go through quickly and they agreed, even though that meant they would have to go into rented accommodation until their house was ready.
Again it got to the point where we were about ready to exchange and the people at the top of the chain started deliberating over whether or not they did want to go into rented. Then they decided they would if everyone else in the chain made a contribution towards their rent etc. Cheeky b@stard - if he wasn't happy going into rented he should have said in the first place, instead of waiting til he'd got the rest of the chain by the short and curlies.
Anyway, the chain made a contribution and we completed in November, 4 months since putting the offer in and 2 months after we wanted to move.
Hope the so and so at the top's house building slips really badly - that'd show him
Anyway, enough ranting
18 December 2001, 08:45 AM
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By the way, I should add that my solicitor was the most competent of the lot - it was Miss SWRTWannabe!
She did our conveyancing in her spare time and still did a better job than the solicitors who were doing it for her job. Mind you, she is a commercial property lawyer and does commercial conveyancing on deals worth millions every day, so I guess residential conveyancing was a synch compared to that
She did our conveyancing in her spare time and still did a better job than the solicitors who were doing it for her job. Mind you, she is a commercial property lawyer and does commercial conveyancing on deals worth millions every day, so I guess residential conveyancing was a synch compared to that
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18 December 2001, 09:01 AM
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Good grief, this makes our move sound easy. We exchanged and completed on the same day and, thankfully, everything went smoothly on that day. We'd been trying to exchange for five weeks - I think it takes an immovable deadline to focus a solicitor's mind.
To me, it sounds like these solicitors have cost you money through their negligence. Hmm.
Good luck.
To me, it sounds like these solicitors have cost you money through their negligence. Hmm.
Good luck.
18 December 2001, 09:16 AM
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Be careful with a word like negligence. That is a considerable slur on a professional's reputation, and it means that you knowingly do something wrong. To put it another way, it is more than incompetence where you make a mistake, because you know that you are doing it, but don't care.
From what is written here, it is far from clear that anyone has been negligent, as has already been pointed out.
From what is written here, it is far from clear that anyone has been negligent, as has already been pointed out.
18 December 2001, 09:24 AM
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Thanks for editing the post.
It sounds as though you were posting factual experience, so no real libel issue with the basic complaint, just be careful, though.
Anyways, if you have a valid complaint with the solicitor, report them to the Law Society of England and Wales. They have a specific department for complaints against their members.
Just type "Law Society of England and Wales" without the "" in the address bar if you have IE - it acts as a keyword.
Office of fair trading (or whatever its called now) will advise you on the Estate agent issue.
Hope this helps
D
It sounds as though you were posting factual experience, so no real libel issue with the basic complaint, just be careful, though.
Anyways, if you have a valid complaint with the solicitor, report them to the Law Society of England and Wales. They have a specific department for complaints against their members.
Just type "Law Society of England and Wales" without the "" in the address bar if you have IE - it acts as a keyword.
Office of fair trading (or whatever its called now) will advise you on the Estate agent issue.
Hope this helps
D
18 December 2001, 09:28 AM
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eeeeeeeeeek dont wana hear that :/ I should be completing tommorow
I've had loads a problems and I'm buying from someone whos moving into rented accomadation and I've got a cash buyer on my place Its the cash buyer thats slowing us all down atm ?!?! sigh...
I've had loads a problems and I'm buying from someone whos moving into rented accomadation and I've got a cash buyer on my place
Its the cash buyer thats slowing us all down atm ?!?! sigh...
18 December 2001, 10:01 AM
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Regarding the first post, your story seems like standard fare in todays house buying marketplace. Why do you think it is the second most stressful thing you do (after death of a spouse).
Years ago, I was a first time cash buyer, buying a vacant possession (bought by a bank as part of a staff relocation package) at an accepted price. It took my solicitor 5 months to shuffle a few bits of paper around. Not only was the wait annoying, but it meant I missed out on the cheap Halifax mortgage rate and the Halifax windfall jobby deadline by 3 working days. Could I sue the solicitor for negligience? No! Because that was deemed to be an acceptable level of service. Things obviously have not changed for the better in the last 7 years...
Castration is too good for these parasites [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
Years ago, I was a first time cash buyer, buying a vacant possession (bought by a bank as part of a staff relocation package) at an accepted price. It took my solicitor 5 months to shuffle a few bits of paper around. Not only was the wait annoying, but it meant I missed out on the cheap Halifax mortgage rate and the Halifax windfall jobby deadline by 3 working days. Could I sue the solicitor for negligience? No! Because that was deemed to be an acceptable level of service. Things obviously have not changed for the better in the last 7 years...
Castration is too good for these parasites [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
18 December 2001, 10:12 AM
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Sounds like a complete nightmare.
I was in a similar situation when I came to move, the 1st time buyers I had suddenly couldn't get the money, but I didn't want the new one to fall through, so I ended up having to take out a bridging loan to cover the cost and then sell mine afterwards. Not a very cost effective way of doing it at all.
I was in a similar situation when I came to move, the 1st time buyers I had suddenly couldn't get the money, but I didn't want the new one to fall through, so I ended up having to take out a bridging loan to cover the cost and then sell mine afterwards. Not a very cost effective way of doing it at all.
18 December 2001, 10:12 AM
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OK, probably not negligent then. Just as a reference, here's a definition of negligence according to Websters:
The omission of the care usual under the circumstances, being convertible with the Roman culpa. A specialist is bound to higher skill and diligence in his specialty than one who is not a specialist, and liability for negligence varies acordingly.
Anyway, good luck with the move. I'd probably be fuming, and then put it down as "one of those really annoying things about moving house" and carry on...
The omission of the care usual under the circumstances, being convertible with the Roman culpa. A specialist is bound to higher skill and diligence in his specialty than one who is not a specialist, and liability for negligence varies acordingly.
Anyway, good luck with the move. I'd probably be fuming, and then put it down as "one of those really annoying things about moving house" and carry on...
18 December 2001, 11:24 AM
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Nice one guys!!!
Just needed to get it off my chest!!! <Rant mode OFF>
What really wound me up (and the rest of the chain) was that either the solicitor or surveyer MUST have known of this problem as they both had the mining survey when it was issued. I guess that when the solicitor came to request the funds, the lender must have been looking through the file and found this error.
Granted, an error would have been to overlook ONE mining entrance, but not THREE!!!!! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
This to me is gross incompetance. Sorry.
I thought that this complaints board was set up by solicitors - therefore, in my experience, they do not 'rat out' their own kind. So what is the point??
Oh well....
" Tis the season to be jolly"
Dan
Just needed to get it off my chest!!! <Rant mode OFF>
What really wound me up (and the rest of the chain) was that either the solicitor or surveyer MUST have known of this problem as they both had the mining survey when it was issued. I guess that when the solicitor came to request the funds, the lender must have been looking through the file and found this error.
Granted, an error would have been to overlook ONE mining entrance, but not THREE!!!!! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
This to me is gross incompetance. Sorry.
I thought that this complaints board was set up by solicitors - therefore, in my experience, they do not 'rat out' their own kind. So what is the point??
Oh well....
" Tis the season to be jolly"
Dan
18 December 2001, 04:03 PM
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Hi All,
I'm sure everyone who has ever moved has stories to tell.. here's mine.
I owned (and still do) a two bedroom victorian terraced house in SW London. As my wife was pregnant we worked out our schedule (deadlines for moving etc) put our own house on the market and started looking. We found something we liked at an attractive price pretty quickly and put in an offer, which was accepted.
Meanwhile, our estate agent had managed to find a grand total of six prospective buyers in eight weeks, and so were given the boot. This wasn't because there was anything wrong with the house or the selling price - they were simply carrying too much similar stock and were very lazy.
As time progressed, we decided to scrape together a deposit and buy the new house while waiting to find a buyer. This stacked up economically (and still does), as well as allowing us to move in in plenty of time before the birth and get settled in.
Since then (April / May) our sale has fallen through four times (most recently today), taking on average between 6-9 weeks on each occasion. It is perhaps only when you are in a situation where time is money that you realise how ridiculous the the whole process is. Having been through the process four times, and having to repeat the same searches and surveys is clearly absurd. The level of service offered by Mortgage lenders, solicitors (mine excepted), surveyors etc is absolutely atrocious (six weeks to process a mortgage application, not having carried out searches after NINE weeks etc). Most individuals involved seem to feel as though they are doing you some sort of favour by taking your business, and feel absolutely no shame or embarassment at sitting on paperworks for weeks at a time without progressing matters.
The system is clearly long overdue for an review, and I would suggest that this time customers needs are made paramount, rather than those of the self-serving 'professions'.
Cheers,
Alex
P.S. I would like to recommend my solicitor Simon Langford at Sayers in Harrow. He has been utterly punctilious my dealings with him, has turned around all paperwork 'same day', and best of all has worked for a flat £400 fee. Thanks for trying Simon!
P.P.S. I should have rented the empty house as soon as I moved out. If you can raise the deposit for your new place, this breaks the chain and allows you to benefit from upward moves in the property market (which you couldn't do if you decided to rent).
I'm sure everyone who has ever moved has stories to tell.. here's mine.
I owned (and still do
) a two bedroom victorian terraced house in SW London. As my wife was pregnant we worked out our schedule (deadlines for moving etc) put our own house on the market and started looking. We found something we liked at an attractive price pretty quickly and put in an offer, which was accepted.Meanwhile, our estate agent had managed to find a grand total of six prospective buyers in eight weeks, and so were given the boot. This wasn't because there was anything wrong with the house or the selling price - they were simply carrying too much similar stock and were very lazy.
As time progressed, we decided to scrape together a deposit and buy the new house while waiting to find a buyer. This stacked up economically (and still does), as well as allowing us to move in in plenty of time before the birth and get settled in.
Since then (April / May) our sale has fallen through four times (most recently today
), taking on average between 6-9 weeks on each occasion. It is perhaps only when you are in a situation where time is money that you realise how ridiculous the the whole process is. Having been through the process four times, and having to repeat the same searches and surveys is clearly absurd. The level of service offered by Mortgage lenders, solicitors (mine excepted), surveyors etc is absolutely atrocious (six weeks to process a mortgage application, not having carried out searches after NINE weeks etc). Most individuals involved seem to feel as though they are doing you some sort of favour by taking your business, and feel absolutely no shame or embarassment at sitting on paperworks for weeks at a time without progressing matters.The system is clearly long overdue for an review, and I would suggest that this time customers needs are made paramount, rather than those of the self-serving 'professions'.
Cheers,
Alex
P.S. I would like to recommend my solicitor Simon Langford at Sayers in Harrow. He has been utterly punctilious my dealings with him, has turned around all paperwork 'same day', and best of all has worked for a flat £400 fee. Thanks for trying Simon!
P.P.S. I should have rented the empty house as soon as I moved out. If you can raise the deposit for your new place, this breaks the chain and allows you to benefit from upward moves in the property market (which you couldn't do if you decided to rent).
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