Robs dad
LE
Long story short - it concerns whether a solicitor has been libellous about an opposing solicitor and can be held to account if a house sale goes tits up :
My daughter is selling her flat (shared ownership with Housing Association - 40/60%) and buying a house (empty unoccupied). My son is moving out from under our roof (thank f*ck) and buying his sister's/Housing Association flat. A very short house sale chain starts. Simples....
His offer was accepted around ten weeks back and so he took on a solicitor to handle the sale and so did his sister etc...(different companies based miles apart in different towns - so no association with each other)
The seller of the house was hoping for quick completion as it was empty and presumably they didn't want to pay any more mortgage/insurance for an empty property than they needed to. My son's solicitor has however been quite (very) diligent in her enquiries and however quickly my daughter and her vendor may have wanted this sale to be completed it is now in it's tenth week. A whole raft of enquiries were sent out by my son's solicitor to my daughter's solicitor about the property and even I was thinking "Why is she asking all these f**'ing questions?".
But when I gave them serious thought and took out the fact that he was buying off his sister then it wasn't difficult to see why these questions were being raised in the first place. The flat is in a new-ish (5 years old) housing estate and the roads are not being adopted by the local Council, hence future drainage and maintenance of roads was being questioned, why the roads weren't being adopted was also questioned (because they were built sub-standard? Or because they weren't built to approved planning permission maybe?), the flat is shared ownership and the Housing Association part has just changed hands so that future lease agreement was being questioned, she went though every part of the 50 page contract for the lease of the flat, she wanted copies of documentation for all sorts, etc etc.....
My daughter's solicitor was saying to my daughter that these questions were overly fussy and amateurish, whereas even though I wanted my son out of my house quickly I thought his lawyer was actually doing what she was being paid to do rather than cutting any corners.
The vendor's estate agent and my daughter's solicitor have been pressuring my daughter for several weeks now to try and get her to give my son a kick up the backside to shift the process along. I've been trying to keep out of it as they're both grown ups (25 & 28.) and I wanted them to sort this out themselves, but I wasn't happy that this pressure was being put on her as it wouldn't have been applied on my daughter if it wasn't for the fact that her buyer was her brother - and what did the solicitor think my son could do to influence and bypass the buying process - he ain't a lawyer.
Anyhoo, yesterday the seller of the house decided it had all taken far too long and has decided to pull out and remarket her house, leaving my daughter nowhere to buy. Ironically this is on the same day that I THINK that my son's lawyer may be satisfied that all her enquiries are completed and we can move to exchange and completion (he's trying to contact her this morning to confirm).
It may not be too late..... but if it is and the vendor doesn't want to deal with my daughter any more then I have a question on how to deal with these solicitors when they come asking for their fees
An email from my daughter's solicitor (from one of the Partners at the firm - so full signature block etc etc) she had last week states:
"Such a lack of progress is being made with your brother’s solicitors and such a lack of legal knowledge begins to make me think that you should seriously consider selling to someone else. This is incredibly rare but I really cannot see us being able to do business with these people."
Now if this chain has indeed broken up rather than just being estate agent bluff and bollocks and it all goes tits up (yet the solicitors still want there fees), how would you use this incriminating email? And is it incriminating?
The statement about 'a lack of legal knowledge' is certainly defamation of character I would have thought and questions her ability to be a solicitor dealing with conveyancing. 'These people' is also hardly a term that you'd think that her firm would be particularly happy about being referred to by another legal firm. It seems an unprofessional email to have been sent out and potentially opens this legal Partner up to some retaliatory action in my opinion. Do you think?
How to use this to my son's advantage though rather than the solicitor's advantage if they decide to have a squabble about 'Professional Standards' etc?
When my son's solicitor presents her invoice would you argue that you are unwilling to pay X% as you feel the service she has provided has contributed to the sale falling through, and you have a written statement from the vendor's solicitor (my daughter's) confirming this? (It shows your hand straight away)
Or would you use that email in a similar way (almost a blackmail) to my daughter's solicitor when he holds out his begging bowl for his fee and imply that the process has fallen apart because he didn't deal with the enquiries in a timely manner?
Or would you bypass the pair of them and ask for some sort of review by some legal ombudsman to ask why this sale may have fallen through and both of my kids might be out of pocket?
I have an emotional and financial attachment to this sale as I (Bank of Mum & Dad) have provided the 10% deposit my son is laying down to buy his sister's flat and I also want him to move out and start looking after himself.....
Any thoughts from someone who may be in the profession or have had similar dealings?
Sorry for the long blurb above.
My daughter is selling her flat (shared ownership with Housing Association - 40/60%) and buying a house (empty unoccupied). My son is moving out from under our roof (thank f*ck) and buying his sister's/Housing Association flat. A very short house sale chain starts. Simples....
His offer was accepted around ten weeks back and so he took on a solicitor to handle the sale and so did his sister etc...(different companies based miles apart in different towns - so no association with each other)
The seller of the house was hoping for quick completion as it was empty and presumably they didn't want to pay any more mortgage/insurance for an empty property than they needed to. My son's solicitor has however been quite (very) diligent in her enquiries and however quickly my daughter and her vendor may have wanted this sale to be completed it is now in it's tenth week. A whole raft of enquiries were sent out by my son's solicitor to my daughter's solicitor about the property and even I was thinking "Why is she asking all these f**'ing questions?".
But when I gave them serious thought and took out the fact that he was buying off his sister then it wasn't difficult to see why these questions were being raised in the first place. The flat is in a new-ish (5 years old) housing estate and the roads are not being adopted by the local Council, hence future drainage and maintenance of roads was being questioned, why the roads weren't being adopted was also questioned (because they were built sub-standard? Or because they weren't built to approved planning permission maybe?), the flat is shared ownership and the Housing Association part has just changed hands so that future lease agreement was being questioned, she went though every part of the 50 page contract for the lease of the flat, she wanted copies of documentation for all sorts, etc etc.....
My daughter's solicitor was saying to my daughter that these questions were overly fussy and amateurish, whereas even though I wanted my son out of my house quickly I thought his lawyer was actually doing what she was being paid to do rather than cutting any corners.
The vendor's estate agent and my daughter's solicitor have been pressuring my daughter for several weeks now to try and get her to give my son a kick up the backside to shift the process along. I've been trying to keep out of it as they're both grown ups (25 & 28.) and I wanted them to sort this out themselves, but I wasn't happy that this pressure was being put on her as it wouldn't have been applied on my daughter if it wasn't for the fact that her buyer was her brother - and what did the solicitor think my son could do to influence and bypass the buying process - he ain't a lawyer.
Anyhoo, yesterday the seller of the house decided it had all taken far too long and has decided to pull out and remarket her house, leaving my daughter nowhere to buy. Ironically this is on the same day that I THINK that my son's lawyer may be satisfied that all her enquiries are completed and we can move to exchange and completion (he's trying to contact her this morning to confirm).
It may not be too late..... but if it is and the vendor doesn't want to deal with my daughter any more then I have a question on how to deal with these solicitors when they come asking for their fees
An email from my daughter's solicitor (from one of the Partners at the firm - so full signature block etc etc) she had last week states:
"Such a lack of progress is being made with your brother’s solicitors and such a lack of legal knowledge begins to make me think that you should seriously consider selling to someone else. This is incredibly rare but I really cannot see us being able to do business with these people."
Now if this chain has indeed broken up rather than just being estate agent bluff and bollocks and it all goes tits up (yet the solicitors still want there fees), how would you use this incriminating email? And is it incriminating?
The statement about 'a lack of legal knowledge' is certainly defamation of character I would have thought and questions her ability to be a solicitor dealing with conveyancing. 'These people' is also hardly a term that you'd think that her firm would be particularly happy about being referred to by another legal firm. It seems an unprofessional email to have been sent out and potentially opens this legal Partner up to some retaliatory action in my opinion. Do you think?
How to use this to my son's advantage though rather than the solicitor's advantage if they decide to have a squabble about 'Professional Standards' etc?
When my son's solicitor presents her invoice would you argue that you are unwilling to pay X% as you feel the service she has provided has contributed to the sale falling through, and you have a written statement from the vendor's solicitor (my daughter's) confirming this? (It shows your hand straight away)
Or would you use that email in a similar way (almost a blackmail) to my daughter's solicitor when he holds out his begging bowl for his fee and imply that the process has fallen apart because he didn't deal with the enquiries in a timely manner?
Or would you bypass the pair of them and ask for some sort of review by some legal ombudsman to ask why this sale may have fallen through and both of my kids might be out of pocket?
I have an emotional and financial attachment to this sale as I (Bank of Mum & Dad) have provided the 10% deposit my son is laying down to buy his sister's flat and I also want him to move out and start looking after himself.....
Any thoughts from someone who may be in the profession or have had similar dealings?
Sorry for the long blurb above.