‘Our daughter's lawyer accidentally sold her plot of land for free'

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a day ago

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Hello Gary,
I am writing on behalf of my daughter and son-in-law, who are having a legal nightmare.
They were on track to sell their home, but the sale fell through. This sale included an extra plot of land, adjacent to the property, about the size of a tennis court, and possibly big enough to build a small house.
The second buyer could not afford to buy this plot as well as the house, and a lower sale price was agreed for the house and garden alone, excluding the extra land.
After completion, my daughter sent an auctioneer to value this land for future sale, but was told by the new owner of the house that he was now the owner of this plot of land and has the Land Registry documents to prove it.
It appears my daughter's solicitor sent the wrong transfer deed to the buyer's solicitor, which incorrectly included the additional plot of land. My daughter's solicitor works for a large law firm that has about 20 offices in the UK and has admitted that he was in the wrong.
The new owner of the house was sent a firm, but polite, legal letter asking for rectification of the error, mentioning, among other things, unjust enrichment. He has refused to do anything, stating that since he has in his possession the Land Registry documents, he is now the legal owner, even though he knew at the outset that the land was not included in the sale.
My daughter's solicitor has passed the problem on to their firm's 'compliance team', but I don't think they are treating the problem with as much importance as they should, particularly as I think they have been negligent.
– Ross, by email
Dear Ross
This is a very sorry tale which reflects badly on the firm your daughter and her husband trusted and paid to carry out important legal work. I agree it is professional negligence, and it is shocking to me that the law firm concerned is not moving heaven and earth to sort it out.
It sounds like the buyer is a chancer and is behaving badly. There may be a legal argument for rectification, especially if the contract for sale correctly described the extent of the property to be sold, and it was only the transfer deed that was wrong.
Or even if both the contract and transfer deed were erroneous, there may be other evidence, such as the memorandum of sale from the estate agents and other correspondence, which serve as evidence that everyone involved was aware the sale was intended to exclude the additional plot.
However, these are issues for the negligent solicitors to resolve as best they can in order to mitigate their liability and the potential value of the claim coming down the line to them from your daughter and her husband.
Your daughter should get the auctioneer to value the land, which should have been retained, so the potential claim can be quantified. The question to ask the auctioneer is: 'What would you expect this plot to achieve both as it is and with the benefit of planning permission for a house?'
I suggest this because going to the solicitors armed with evidence as to the potential value of the claim against them should focus the mind of the compliance officer. Your daughter should also ask for the legal fees that have been paid to be refunded on the basis that the work was not to the standard expected.
A sensible compliance officer would then escalate the complaint to being a top priority and indeed try to resolve it in whatever way is possible in the circumstances.
Your daughter and son-in-law may apply additional pressure on the solicitors by giving them a reasonable time frame of say one month to get agreement from the buyer that he will transfer the land back. Also, say if they do not achieve that, they will be bringing a negligence claim, and in that case, they expect the solicitor's professional indemnity insurers to be informed.
Solicitors are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and one of the many requirements of regulation is for a law firm to have an insurance policy in place to be available to protect and compensate clients when there is negligence on the part of the law firm.
If your daughter and her husband have 'legal expenses cover' with their home insurance, they may be able to get independent legal advice at no cost to them regarding the potential negligence claim.
But if not, this seems like such a clear case (and indeed the solicitor involved has already admitted liability) that obtaining independent legal advice and ultimately having the cost of that advice paid for by the negligent law firm should not be a problem.
All of this should be pointed out to the compliance officer as soon as possible. If the negligent law firm is not sensible enough to immediately seek to resolve this issue without further delay, your daughter can also say she will be asking the Legal Ombudsman to investigate, which is an organisation with a remit to resolve disputes between the providers of legal services and their clients.
The Ombudsman can look at issues such as how a complaint has been handled and how the actions of the law firm have impacted the client beyond just financial loss.
I hope all this helps and that this distressing situation is soon resolved, either by the land being restored or appropriate compensation being paid out to your daughter and her husband.
Ask a Lawyer should not be taken as formal legal advice, but rather as a starting point for readers to undertake their own further research.
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