Negligence By Conveyancers In Dealing With Your Property Transaction
If your conveyancers fail to handle your transaction correctly, take action to find a remedy.
What Is Professional Negligence By A Conveyancer?
Buying or selling a property is one of the biggest events in a person's life. Even entering into a commercial lease could tie you into a contract for years. Getting those transactions right, and making sure that you deal with property correctly, has never been more important.
When you instruct solicitors or conveyancers to handle your transaction, you should be able to trust them to carry out the transaction and provide you with advice to a reasonable standard of quality. If they don’t, and you suffer loss as a result, you may be able to make a claim against them for professional negligence.
There is no fixed list of what may be considered negligence by a conveyancer, but common examples include:
· Failing to adequately investigate the title of properties;
· Failing to make adequate enquiries with others involved in the transaction;
· Failing to report to you on a significant matter affecting the property;
· Missing out necessary features required in the transaction contract;
· Transferring an incorrect or incomplete part of the Property;
· Failing to register or remove your interest at the Land Registry;
· Failing to add or a remove a charge on a property, when required;
· Failing to act on your instructions;
· Failing to provide you with adequate advice;
· Incorrectly implementing your instructions;
· Acting without adequate authority from all owners of a property; or
· Causing significant, unnecessary and unjustified delays to the transaction.
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If you are would like to discuss your circumstances or concerns, we can help identify if your conveyancers have done what they should have. Contact us for a free initial no-obligation consultation.
What Elements Do You Need To Prove To Succeed In A Claim?
In all claims for negligence against a professional, there are a number of hurdles that you will need to overcome in order to be successful in a claim
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Duty of Care
The conveyancers must owe you a duty of care, before they may be capable of being negligent in their services to you. A duty of care will usually exist if they have given you legal advice and have taken you on as a client. As a client, you will also be able to rely on any contractual obligations that the conveyancers have agreed to be bound by.
Breach of Duty / Negligence
Once you have instructed a firm of conveyancers they will have various duties, including a duty to provide you with accurate legal advice, manage any transaction on your behalf with skill and care, provide you with regular updates, and many others.
In all transactions there is often some element of risk, and it is not possible to prepare for every eventuality. Simply because a problem arises in a transaction, does not mean that your conveyancers have failed in any way or have been negligent. In order to show that your conveyancers have been negligent, you would need to show that they have breached one or more of their duties to you.
Loss
The breach of duty by the conveyancers must have caused you loss, in order to have an actionable claim.
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It is not always easy to identify what loss has been suffered. In some instances, it may be as clear as being required to pay a sum for tax that you were not advised would be payable. However, in other instances, it may be less clear, like a reduction in the value of the property title.
Additionally, any loss which is suffered needs to be reasonably foreseeable and sufficiently close to the breach of duty, in order for you to be able to recover the cost.
What To Do If You Think Your Conveyancer Has Been Negligent
Whilst every case is different, here are some practical steps you can take to place yourself in the best position to reduce any loss/disruption and begin preparing to make a claim.
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1. Independent Advice: If you have any concerns that your conveyancers have been negligent, seek independent legal advice. If you would like to discuss your particular circumstances, contact us and see how we can help in a free no-obligation consultation.
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2. Communicate With Your Conveyancers: Raise your concerns with your conveyancers. The sooner you can do this, the better. If there has been a breakdown of the trust and confidence between you and your conveyancers, you may want to instruct new conveyancers to continue with your transaction. In either event you should try and take any corrective action to minimise the problem (e.g. if a deadline has been missed, it may be possible to seek an extension to the deadline).
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3. Gather Evidence: Once you think there is a reasonable chance that you may need to make a claim, you should begin gathering any evidence needed to prove your claim. This may mean ensuring you keep a copy of all letters and emails sent to you by your solicitors, or it could involve asking your solicitors for a complete copy of your file.
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4. Prepare To Make A Claim: If it is not possible to fix the problem, and you still end up suffering some form of loss, you may have a claim for breach of contract and/or negligence against your solicitors. If you want to seek reimbursement from your solicitors, the first step would be either to make a complaint, or send a letter of claim. Any letter of claim should comply with the Court's protocol on pre-action conduct for professional negligence claims. For more information on the pre-action protocol or letters before claims, see our Quick Guides on our resources page.
5. Notify Insurers: Considering how you will get paid if you are successful in a claim is a vital issue to consider early in any claim. It is often sensible to identify and notify any insurer that may provide cover for the solicitor. Solicitor's are under a regulatory duty to hold professional indemnity insurance, and if you need to make a claim, you will want to ensure that their insurer is able pay out for your claim if you are successful.
See How We Can Help
Our solicitors are experts in litigation and experienced in managing individual and business legal claims. This means whatever concerns or problems you face, we can help.
Book a free consultation by contacting us below, or call us on 01242 894 796
We offer a free no-obligation consultation to discuss new enquiries with you. That means you can discuss any problems you have, and consider your options, without the worry of incurring any legal costs. We will gladly listen to what you want to achieve, address any of your concerns and answer any questions that you may have.
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We will give you clear advice about any legal costs at the very start, so that you are in a well informed place, to decide what action to take.
Depending on your particular circumstances, and if we think that a legal claim has good prospects, we may be able to help on on a no-win no-fee basis. That means that we would not take anything for our fees up-front, but would usually take our fees at the end of a successful claim, and out of sums recovered from your opponent.