Has the conveyancer made a mistake

Hi Elizabeth,

I would not be able to comment on the legal aspect with authority, but I am sure other readers can. However, you are doing exactly what I would do and have the solicitors involved treat this as a complaint.

Then if you are not satisfied with the response you can take it to the Law Society and if upheld the solicitors would be able to claim on their Professional Indemnity insurance to compensate you.

Hi I assume you will need to pay the service charge in any event and then make a claim against your legal advisor.

They haven't pushed for the previous owner's outstanding as yet, just taken mine - I've taken it up with them as well as I repaid some 'overpayment' to the previous owner when I completed - it's a real mess. I'm not sure that the managing agent supplied the correct information, I've asked to see what they provided to the conveyancer and so far they've only managed to supply a copy of information supplied to a previous aborted purchase.

The buyer of a leasehold property could potentially take on the debt of the service charge on the property if the previous leaseholder didn't clear this amount. Your solicitor would or should have contacted the managing agents of the block to obtain a sales pack which contains all information relating to the property. Along with this a balance of the service charge account would have been provided. Did you receive this?

Please do not ignore this, (which I know you are not). I know it is frustrating especially if it isn't your debt. But alot of managing agents will often take the lack of effort made by leaseholders to challenge it as an opportunity to add their admin charges and obtain the funds from your mortgage company etc.

Keep the line of communication open with your agents (Do it via email).

I hope it all goes well and good luck.

I

This is the result of social mobility and using franchised legal firms.

Advance and Neil above are right.

If the conveyancer has not done his job and ensured any outstanding service charges are either cleared before completion or deducted from the purchase price then they have been negligent. A complaint should be made to tbe Solicitors Regulatory Authority. But don't hold your breath.Very few complaints are upheld.

However demands for service charges are governed by legislation. If they are not sent out in the prescribed format, or without being accompanied by a Summary of Rights and Obligations, in a specific form of words and in not less than 10 font, then you can legally withold without penalty. And you have a right to take the case for £65 to a First Tier Tribunal for a determination as to whether you should pay the previous tenants service charges and how much. You can do it by paper submission unless the Tribunal decide a hearing is required and a hearing fee is payable. Usually Freeholders and Managing Agents do not want to go to this extent and either negotiate a reduced settlement or go away. Ipersonally have saved a client £600 in "admin fees" for a ground rent demand sent to the wrong address and with a Summary of Rights served in a 6 font (so small you could not read it)

Thank you Gary for the very sound advice and information - the initial email from the conveyancer was 'find yourself a solicitor who specialises in this'. No one has asked who they are, but it is probably the biggest on line agency and many of the conveyancers recommended by Estate Agents are also part of this very large group but with varying names. This is the second time a mistake has been made but this last one was my first time of using them so obviously I thought all had gone well, the second issue was the conveyancer not getting all the information in time for the exchange so I was left with a decision to be made - the decision was to take take the property from them and give them to another solicitor but did cause me to lose some 'benefits' but oddly they that should have come with a new build but the on line company 'waived their fee'. Yes, I'm learning from this.

could it be that the actuals have now come through and that the zero balance was on the estimate.

Like the solicitors & should not expect much from the "First Tier Tribunal "

"First Tier Tribunal" when they operated as Leasehold valuation tribunal they were in my opinion grossly incompetent & one sided.

Check "google" for the postings by disgruntled posters " LVT not fit for the purpose " .

Do not assume that the Managing Agents will not go to the Tribunal. They would go as soon as they feel that they can. There is money in it for them as the lease will allow them to recover cost and their solicitors partners in crime will share the loot as well due to the bias of the LVT.

Irrespective when the actual's come through at the time of the completion of the sale there is a cut off and any over or under is borne by the buyer. There is an exception where the reserves are not calculated and the new buyers gets the credit of the reserve contributed by the previous vendor.

I've bought a few over the last couple of years and always had an amount lodged with the solicitor when there haven't been finalised accounts, I had a underpayment recently paid by the previous owner, the only issue being the length of time the solicitor took to pass it on to me (3 months would you believe). This was my first BTL purchase on my own and first leasehold and I'm afraid I wasn't up to speed on it all, but as I had to repay some of the service charge i've a funny feeling that the issue is also with the managing agents, they haven't provided the information given for my purchase to the conveyancing company, only the one prepared for a previous sale. I've not much faith in 'ombudsmen' or 'complaint procedures' either - usually phrases of 'I'm sorry you are disappointed on this occasion ....' type of comment.

Having said all that, it was up to the conveyancer to do the work - not me, and I have to assume that they had all the correct information, I noticed the date and name on the paperwork immediately the managing agents sent me a copy (showing a previous purchaser) so the conveyancer should have as well.

We shall see.