What to do with solicitors who buggered our conveyancing?
 

Just recently bought a (detached) house and the solicitors 'forgot' to point out that there was a legally binding agreement with the adjacent house which means they can use our side wall to build anything against it.

I only found this out when I ordered the land registry documents myself after buying the house and discovering (after cutting the bushes and trees) that the adjacent house has infact built a garage using our wall!

I have written to the solicitors and they appear to be be ignore my letters and emails. How can I escalate this?? (i need to do this in a free a manner as possible because I don't have any money left!)

send them a special delivery letter giving them 72 hours to respond or youwill feel obliged to escalate the problem to the law society

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosin...ressscheme.law

Yeah, look at the Law Soc site - there's quite good stuff on it about complaining.

Conveyancing has more professional negligence cases than any other area of law.

You couldn't tell from your own survey and inspection that they had tied the garage into your wall? Even with trees and bushes this should have been self evident.

Surely you were provided with Official Copy of Register Entries prior to exchange of contracts? These should have been sent to you with the Property Information and Fixtures/Fittings forms. Did you sign the purchase contract without having sight of all the documenation?

I think you'll have difficulty proving that they didn't provide you with the relevant infomration (even if they didn't).

In any event, what exactly is your loss? Is the garage tied into a boundary wall? If so, what exactly is the problem?

The problem might be when the neighbour starts using his lathe during Eastenders ;)

what was the "legally binding agreement"? party wall agreement or something else?
you need to check the terms of the "agreement" before you start complaining - so you know whether you should be complaining about the solicitor's lack of communication or whether there is another angle...or both

But then again the house would'nt be detached in that case.

So is the garage against the garden wall or your house wall? If the former then what is the real concern?

The garage is against my house wall. No, it wasnt evident prior to purchase.

The rest of the house is detached.

When I got the full title deeds there is an agreement re the party wall where the adjacent house is allow to use it to support any structure up to 10ft. This agreement was not mentioned by the solicitors or the seller in any form. The agreement was an addendum to the basic title deeds. The agreement came about in the 1920's because my house and the adjacent house was owned by sisters and they wanted to share the wall!

It bothers me because a detached house should not have someones property attached to it (it also sounds like I was mis-sold the house if it is not truely detached).

Sorry about your predicament but I just can't see how you could not tell from survey and inspection that next door's garage was attached to your wall.

Again, if the document was sent to you by the Land Registry it would be recorded in the Official Copy of Register Entries. Did you not have sight of these prior to exchange?

No I didn't have sight of these prior to purchase of the property. I think the party wall agreement is a major thing and I wasn't told by my solicitors. I think they realise their mistake and have gone awefully quiet.

As the poster mentions above, it looks like I will have to do a special delivery and escalate to the Law Soc.

Chris - most people don't see the deeds. They rely on a solicitor to look at them and point out anything unusual

Can't beleive this, every time I've bought a property I've had sight of everything, all relevant title documents, local search, water search, etc. The solicitor should have done a detailed report in writing or gone through such matters with you in person. If they haven't (more importantly if you can prove that they haven't) they you probably have a good case against them but again, what is the damage? The value of the property is probably not affected otherwise it would have been bought up in your survey report.

I can.

Thats why you pay a solicitor. Chris, I've had sight too, but not everyone does, and not everyone reads it. Your solicitor has an obligation to point out something of this nature.

What I can't believe is that the purchaser didn't see a bloody garage hanging off the house, trees or no trees. Do people not walk round????

I'd always have a nosy into the gardens that adjoin the house anyway ( even if it means not just looking from inside the garden of the house you're looking at ), just to make sure there isnt a load of old mattresses and a half stripped cortina in one of them, or evidence one of the houses is occupied by students who are likely to be partying out the back at all hours in the summer.

It does surprise me when you consider how much money people spend buying a house that they dont take a bit more time to do some detective work of their own.

Would have thought this would have made a huge garage stuck to the side of the house fairly obvious.

But.... have you checked with the neighbour what they use the garage for ? if they just keep their lawnmower and some old tins of dulux in there then it doesnt seem likely it'll make any difference to your enjoyment of the house.

The problem is as well, what are you going to do once they saw "yes ok sorry we didn't see that". Are you going to give the house back?

The best you can hope for is for the solicitors to give you the conveyancing fee back.

The law society can warn them but I don't think there is alot else they can do in a matter like this.

This is correct, but it seems in this case that the solicitor hasn't done the report, or hasn't explained it. One of the main resons for using a solicitor is that deeds, covenants and easments are not always in plain English. For old properties this can run into tens or hundreds of pages. The complete title deeds will have many pages of irrelevant info, but Joe Bloggs wont necessarily know what is relevant and what isn't. The solicitor would usually filter out the irrelevant stuff and do a report on the rest

not true, solicitors have hefty insurance policies to cover themselves over things like this. If the solicitor has not fullied his/hers obligations as there is a case for negligence. From what I have read above I would say that there is definately a case. The solicitor should have reported this agreement.

chop

Agreed, but if you've had a copy of something and not bothered to read it, or read it, not understood it and not bothered to raise an enquiry then more fool you. Yes it should be pointed out but it will be nearly impossibe to prove that it wasn't.

Title Deeds as people refer to them are virtually obsolete, there are very few properties left which are unregistered and even those that are normally only consist of one or two conveyances. There's more paperwork and complex covenants, agreements, etc involved with a new build property.

Most properties are now registered with the Land Registry and the "Office Copy Entries" which is effectively your "Title Deed" is normally no more than 1-2 pages long.

I have never been forwarded these sort of document, I pay my solicitor to point out anything unusual. I work in the industry and I no for a fact that most solicitors do not send this information out. Even if they did send out I would have thought they have a responsibility to point this out.

Its a tricky one.

Were they solicitors recommended by the lender or estate agents? Just curious.

Nothing to lose by contacting the law society.As someone has pointed out though,the question would be what the actual loss is.

LOL, then the solicitors you know are crap ;)

What part of the industry do you work in?

You should have sight of all relevant documents AND anything unusual/important should be pointed out. A decent solicitor will fowrard a report with copies of all documents for your own records. If they don't then they are placing themselves at risk.

Can we have a piccy please as I'm lost as to how you cannot notice a garage bolted to your house.

On the other side though I agree the solicitors are crap.

Probably ;)

Thing is most of the people we are talking about are not solicitors, they are 'conveyancing executives' or similiar, you don't have to be a solicitor these days and to qualify to deal with conveyancing is extremley easy. It is a competetive market now and their fees have been pushed down so some are not spending the time they should be on files. Even so this is not an excuse.

I started in estate agency years ago, now own one or two properties and work in land & property development. My solicitor is now a friend and is well looked after, even so I never get any documents apart from transfer deeds, contracts & fixture & fittings. I pay him to look after me and my investments and I would expect him to point anything like this out.

chop :)

Agreed :)

Most large firms of licensed conveyancers are utter crap. You deal with whatever muppet answers the phone who can't tell you anything more than what's on their computer screen. Normally there are 100's of minions doing the legwork with 1 solicitor overseeing them. Peanuts and Monkey's spring to mind :D

I think the OP would have a hard time proving the solicitors were negligent in not telling him.

Would it be a reasonable assumption ( in their eyes ) that the OP would have noticed the garage attached to the house ? if the answer is yes, why would they bother pointing out the part in the deeds where it mentions it ?

Also, does this garage also attach to their house ( meaning your house would be more likely considered a semi ), or is it a seperate free standing building or some shonky lean-to that is more of a garden shed ?

OP, can I ask what your intentions are with this house ? are you planning for it to be your main residence, or is this something you have bought to develop or sell on and thats why you are more bothered about its detatched status ?

post 25, would not be a semi, would be link detached.

I don't see how a solicitor is at fault for you not noticing there was a garage attached to your house. Unless it was one of them stealth garages :Suspiciou

The garage is further down the side and I honestly did not notice that it was attached to our wall - maybe I did see it and thought that there was a gap, but the views were obscured by the trees.

I am writing to the solicitors to provide a response within 5 days or else I will escalate the matter to the Law Soc.

The soliciotors never pointed out the party agreement to me at any stage. I think its a very major thing.

The solicitor is at fault for not pointing out there was a party agreement in plalce from 80 years ago which allows the neighbour to use my side wall for anything they want to build up to 10ft.

Is there a case against the agents for offering a 'detached' house, when as said earlier its link detached?