Solicitor has lost Deeds

[Teejon]

We bought this house 5 yrs ago and are now hoping to sell it. The solr we used originally never registered the property with the Land registry or returned the deeds to the bank (AIB). We only discovered this when our new solr went loking for the deeds to draw up contracts.

Our original solr dodged calls for the past month and has now admitted that the deeds are in fact lost. He claims he will have to go back to builders solrs and get them to reissue deeds, and can give absolutlely no time scale or assurance that this will be done promptly. He has no sense of urgency or apology about this big mess, and acts like a phone call from us is a big inconvenience.

We fear our house sale may fall through because of this guys sloppy work (which he was well paid for 5 yrs ago).
anyone help with advice of what we can do to speed things up ?? Does he really need to get deeds re-issued ?? C an we complain to law society ?

 

[Guest107]

is there any evidence that

1. deeds were issued
2. he ever had them
3. he ever chased them if the answer to 1 or 2 was a no

He would have given undertakings to the bank you got your last mortgage from, can you check these undertakings with the bank

If he never chased the deeds and never told you you had no title and would have a problem selling and you have a case with the law society

If he did not comply with the undertaking the bank has a case with the law society

get them after him

 

[Teejon]

Thanks for your reply...
yeah deeds exist alright, we signed them 5 yrs ago when we bought this as a new house.However the solr claims he lost them in the post while sending them to land registry, and the bank never came looking for the deeds even though its been 5 yrs.
Just wondering would law society have any interest in this case, could they help speeden things up ?? or would it just make matters worse. Solr is so unco-operative . Does he really need to get builders solrs to re-issue deeds or is there anything quicker that can be done?

Thanks anyone for any assistance or advice on this !!!

 

[Guest107]

Thanks for your reply...
yeah deeds exist alright, we signed them 5 yrs ago when we bought this as a new house.However the solr claims he lost them in the post while sending them to land registry, and the bank never came looking for the deeds even though its been 5 yrs.

you signed contracts 5 years ago, not deeds I'd say.

there is no evidence he had them or chased the vendor for them is there? I'll give you 3 to 1 he did nothing to get them, never had them and lied.

the bank was given an undertaking, find out what it was and what happened between him and the bank in the past 5 years .

Just wondering would law society have any interest in this case, could they help speeden things up ?? or would it just make matters worse. Solr is so unco-operative . Does he really need to get builders solrs to re-issue deeds or is there anything quicker that can be done?

well he could issue another undertaking to your current solicitor but your buyers solicitor should spot that if they are any good and put your current solicitor on the spot...and its not them who lost the deeds is it.

Your current solicitor probably will not help with the law society case either coz they are bounced into this.

Once you find out what those undertakings were you may ask the Law Society to ensure their member complies in full with them, as per his 5 year old undertakings, and passes the same undertakings to your buyers solicitor forthwith and to your solicitor.

Thats the best track .