house not registered 6 years after house sale

Our man in Havana

****I am not looking for legal advice and I shall not rely on any of the replies received as legal advice****

My wife purchased our house some 6+ years ago and got a mortgage sorted at the same time. She used a solicitor and all appeared to have been done ok.
About 3 years or so ago I did a search in the land registry which showed the house as still being in the previous owners name. We consulted the solictor and told him this and that we were not amused. He promised to sort it. We asked him several times for confirmation it was sorted and nothing.

Today, he writes to my wife advising he hasn't done it and he wants €400 to register the sale. We are most unhappy with this. I think that he has been incompentant in handling the sale, ie taking 6 years to register it. Personally I think he has a cheek demanding this money now and that he should sort out the mess himself.

Any point complaining to the law society?

Thanks
007

dermot_sheehan

Compain to Law Society, and tell solicitor to get it sorted out ASAP or else you are going to engage another solicitor to sue him for professional negligence and breach of contract.

grumpytrousers

Bond-007 wrote:

****I am not looking for legal advice and I shall not rely on any of the replies received as legal advice****

My wife purchased our house some 6+ years ago and got a mortgage sorted at the same time. She used a solicitor and all appeared to have been done ok.
About 3 years or so ago I did a search in the land registry which showed the house as still being in the previous owners name. We consulted the solictor and told him this and that we were not amused. He promised to sort it. We asked him several times for confirmation it was sorted and nothing.

Today, he writes to my wife advising he hasn't done it and he wants €400 to register the sale. We are most unhappy with this. I think that he has been incompentant in handling the sale, ie taking 6 years to register it. Personally I think he has a cheek demanding this money now and that he should sort out the mess himself.

Any point complaining to the law society?

Thanks
007

Chances are that the €400 is Land Registry fees which he would consider to be 'outlay' as opposed to his own fee. I'd have a word with him, asking him exactly what the story is with the €400; if it sounds like it's going into his pocket, then write to the Law Society...

You can't really sue him for professional negligence as there's no quantifiable 'loss' on your part - from what I understand, you've probably had full enjoyment and use of the house etc etc etc...

anyway - just me 2c. as usual, i am not a lawyer, the value of investments can go down as well as up, nothing to be construed etc etc etc!

Sleipnir

Call the land registry and ask them what the fee is. Anything above that shouldn't be paid as I'm sure he would have charged your wife for it originally.

dermot_sheehan

grumpytrousers wrote:

You can't really sue him for professional negligence as there's no quantifiable 'loss' on your part - from what I understand, you've probably had full enjoyment and use of the house etc etc etc...

The "loss" is not having legal title to the house for six years, which although may not have caused major financial damage, was still a harm that might have reared it's head if a mortgage was sought, or the house was compulsory purchased and compensation was paid to wrong person, or prior owners attempted to perpetuate a fraud. Registered interests have priority, so if they attempted to fraudulently sell the legal interest in the house to someone else, and that person was a bona fides purchaser for value of the legal estate without notice (equity's darling) it could potentially end up with them owning house and only cause of action being against prior owners who perpetuated the fraud (and solicitor for professional negligence).

Maximilian

^^ You can't sue for losses which could have happened.

Anyway, 6 years is a ridiculous amount of time. I can't believe the solicitor in question didn't review his file for that long. I also can't believe that your Bank hadn't been on to him looking for the title deeds to be returned. He/she wouldn't have gotten away with ignoring requests from a Bank for that long.

I sympathise but I wonder is there more to this than you are aware of.

focusing

Contact the Law Society for advice.

First thing to do, check if he's already charged you for the registration. I'd be surprised if it wasn't included in the bill originally.

I'd also be very surprised if the bank hadn't registered the mortgage in the Land Registry. Have they?

Make very sure stamp duty was paid also.

Our man in Havana

Neither bank involved has registered their mortgages in the Land Registry. I suspect they are unable to given what is going on with the registration of the title.

AFAIK all fees were paid at time of sale and again at remortgage. So I can't see what his problem is.

dermot_sheehan

One possibility is that the Bank has the land certificates and is holding them as an equitable mortgage instead of registering the mortgage on the property. Still the land should be registered in the folio in your names.