Solicitor failed to register deeds

S

somehope

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Hi all, My wife and I scrimped and saved since 2001 to pay off our mortgage to First Active (another sorry story). This we did in November 2007. But alas, no champaign - we discovered that our solicitor has never registered ourselves as owners. Our house is not registered in the Land Registry and a search at the Registry of Deeds (all having to be done by myself due to silence from First Active to our queries as to no documentation) shows that the Title Deeds were never registered - the last entry shows the previous owners assignment back in 2000. We have contacted this solicitor numerous times but he keeps fobbing us off. What can we do?
 
If not sooner. I would not have any problem in telling him of your proposed actions. I know it will cost you extra but it might be sensible to use the services of another solicitor as well to help you sift through this mess. Let us know how you get on and Good Luck.
 
And furthermore if the Solicitor in question charged you for registering your interest with the Land Registry (which I would most definitely say he/she did), you are entitled to a refund which will help pay the fee of the new Solicitor.

I would also put in a complaint to the Law Society and let the Solicitor know you are doing it - will put the frighteners on him/her and might get them to sort out this mess for you. Best of luck
 
And I assume you have paid the stamp duty as well. ????!!!!
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I have been looking at the Law Society's website on complaints handling. Looks like they go out of their way to state what they *can't* do. So it does look like we may have to go through another Solicitor - what a system! I presume though we can claim all the 'new' Solicitor's expenses from the negligent one?
 
The stamp duty thing does worry me - it was a big chunk of money - but if he did not pay it then he's surely guilty of a criminal offence? And we are not liable?
 
Any papers you have you need to get them copied and submit them to another solicitor. Contact the Law Society for your own sake.
 
Yes somehope you would be entitled to a refund of the fees - if he did not do the job you paid him to do. Which he clearly didn't. Let your new Solicitor handle that - and when you do go to see the new Solicitor make it clear that this is what you want him to do - get you a refund from the old Solicitor.

You say the Solicitor is "fobbing you off". Have you spoken to him? What exactly is he saying?
 
I wouldn't even bother to speak with him - It will only get you too bothered, frustrated and annoyed. I have heard of another Solicitor in Dublin (south), who appears to have done the same thing. It would be interesting to get an opinion from First Active as to why they empowered the Solicitor to register their interest. Let's remember its a full eight years since the house was purchased by the OPs.
 
Actually, First Active never told us anything until I took a case against them to the Financial Ombudsman. It was only then that they investigated it and then told us that they had sent multiple correspondence to this solicitor for the title deeds to register the mortgage against it but never received any reply! But now that we have paid the mortgage off they have no longer any interest! Are they also negligent in not alerting us to this fact throughout the past years?
 
The solicitor is simply not responding to any correspondence (phone, email, etc). I faxed the proof from the registry of deeds to his fax and have proof that it was received.
 
I will contact the Law Society tomorrow and try to talk to this guy at his offices. I'll update the thread with the status. Thanks for the advice everyone.
 
If the practice was made up of two or more solicitors, is this still the case? Quite often if a partnership dissolves, files are split between the original partners. When you checked to see if registration was complete were there any dealings pending? (which may mean that the title deeds were sent for registration, a query arose which was never completed and therefore registration is incomplete).

If the above is not the case, is the solicitor still practising? If so write to him and give him a timeframe in which to reply. Also ask him the whereabouts of the title deeds to the property which are presumably in his office. State clearly in your letter that you will be contacting the Law Society if he fails to reply. If/when he fails to reply write to the Law Society enclosing a copy of the letter you sent to your original solicitor. The Law Society should then investigate the original solicitor.

If the solicitor is no longer practising, you should instruct a new solicitor to take a case against the original solicitor. I'm afraid you may end up going down this route either way.
 
Why do I get the feeling that we might not be getting the full picture here !
what was the story with FIRST ACTIVE ?
 
Hi, Is there anywhere to vet a solicitor before using him/her ?
e.g. can you ring the law society and/or is there a better way ?
 
jerry2623 said:
Why do I get the feeling that we might not be getting the full picture here !
what was the story with FIRST ACTIVE ?
Click to expand...


This?

somehope said:
Actually, First Active never told us anything until I took a case against them to the Financial Ombudsman. It was only then that they investigated it and then told us that they had sent multiple correspondence to this solicitor for the title deeds to register the mortgage against it but never received any reply! But now that we have paid the mortgage off they have no longer any interest! Are they also negligent in not alerting us to this fact throughout the past years?
Click to expand...
 
The story with First Active:

We paid the final mortgage installment last November. So we expected to be opening the champaigne at Christmas with our Title Deeds safely in our posession. Christmas came and went - no correspondence from FA. Around mid january I started contacting FA. Each time nothing - no response at all. Finally in March I formally complained to the Financial Ombudsman. When I notified FA of this they replied within the week! That is when the whole horrible situation was relvealed to us (the rest is history, as they say).
 
The story so far:

I called the solicitor last Friday and discovered that he has the Title Deeds and they are stamped (so he says). He is saying that they will be registered within the next 2 to 3 weeks (has to get FA to formally discharge the mortgage even though it is paid off - is that normal?). He explained that this happened as a result of the original solicitors partnership breaking up around that time (FA documents does show the solicitors name changing).

I'm going to give him the 2 weeks to get it sorted (but will call for status updates every week) and I am sending him a registered letter confirming what he is telling us to have it recorded in case it doesn't work out.

I reckon it is better to give him a chance to sort it out before going the legal route.
 
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