To be absolutely furious with house seller

[ChagSameachDoreen]

Our house sale/purchase has been limping along for a fucking eternity (November 2020, to be precise).

We offered on a property in February 2022 which was finally accepted. Took the seller an age to find an onward purchase, but luckily our buyer (young, first-time) was willing to wait.

We had a completion date set for September 12th - perfect, as our buyer's mortgage offer expires end of Sep, and we have religious holidays starting on Sep 24. I was just waiting for confirmation to book a removal company.

Today my solicitor calls and says there's a hold up. The title of the house can't be transferred to me yet, as the seller's ex-husband's name is still on it. Since she doesn't speak to him anymore, it has to go through the courts, and nobody has even the vaguest clue when it might be completed.

ONLY NOW THIS HAS COME UP?

I am fucking raging.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, and if so, how long did the courts take to remove the other person off the title?

My situation wasn’t quite the same, but similar. I was at the bottom of a chain and was waiting months for the property at the top of the chain to be granted probate. Finally, the probate came through and we were all discussing completion dates. Then someone noticed that the deceased owner’s long-dead spouse was still on the house’s deeds. Yes, the solicitors had fucked up big time.

We were told it would take the Probate Office another 6-8 weeks to sort this out. 12 weeks later, my mortgage offer was about to expire and the Probate Office hadn’t got to the case yet.

Then the arseholes at the top of the chain pulled out, as they’d decided to sell to a relative instead. I still hope to buy the property I’ve been waiting a year for, but the arseholes have cost me and others a lot of money due to the rise in interest rates.

This should have been flagged up by her estate agent, never mind the solicitor!

I think you'll have to drop out. And yes definitely don't pay solicitor and I'd be tempted to threaten them with a complaint and referral to legal ombudsman.

Not sure to which extent estate agents are obliged to check a seller can legally sell their property or if the process is to take it on trust and assume legal reps will sort it out but I'd definitely be having words with them too! Basically they're adverting a house for sale that at the time of advertisement and agreeemtn legally cannot be sold, which is false representation.

When I put my house for sale, I had to provide proof I was the only legal owner. This is why I find it strange that this wasn't flagged up right at that stage, before other searches took place. My late husbands name was still on the deeds, so I applied to have it removed. Of course, my case was more straightforward. However, you still can't proceed, as a seller through estate agents, if you haven't provided satisfactory proof of title.

It’s your solicitor you should be angry with. This is absolute basics - making sure the seller has the right to sell the house. Why has it taken them 7 months to notice this issue.

I haven't read the whole thread although I can see a few posters have mentioned this, but your solicitor is massively incompetent here. The FIRST thing you do in a house purchase is review the title of the property and this issue would have been evident immediately! She/he should have flagged this straight away with the sellers sols. I agree totally with complaint about solicitor and refusing to pay their fees etc at the very least, unless there's a very good explanation such as they did raise it and were told the ex partner was also a party to the sale or something...

Used to work in conveyancing.

You should be seeking compensation from your solicitor- this is something that they should have spotted as a red flag much earlier in the process.

I would definitely proceed on your sale and move to rented and seek compensation from your seller.

Hi I think my situation was slightly different. But down similar lines of things. My ex husband wouldn't sign the necessary paperwork for me to sell the family home. This was in spite of it all being agreed before hand.
It went to court the judge transferred the relevent paperwork into my buyers name. The down side was that if my buyers had changed their mind, it would have had to go back to court again to put it in the new buys name (as it's name specific)
Actually I think it's probably the same as what your talking about.
The process didn't take long, and tbh it wasn't really a massive deal. Tbh you're the one with the power and control over this situation as your the one wanting to buy the house (I was selling!)
By the time you find a new house and start the process again it will take even longer.
The thing I would be angry about is that this hasn't been brought to your attention before! Not the seller, or either solisitors have noticed this issue till now!
I would continue with buying it, but ask for a further reductions. I would also insist that once it has been agreed in court you exchange and complete on the same day.

This.

This should have been disclosed at the start. Even the estate agent putting the house on the market can only take instructions from the legal owner or their representative ( and they have to see proof of that) The sellers solicitor should have known who the legal owners were too.
id have given up long ago.

There’s something funny going on here. I can’t believe that this wasn’t picked up by both solicitors on both sides here.

I can believe it!

Don't pay your solicitor / or ask for massive reduction if you continue.

This doesn’t add up.

The land registry search would have flagged up the ownership. The seller is obviously trying to sell the property regardless of the fact her husband still owns a portion of it, which explains why she hasn’t disclosed that he is on the deeds. But there’s no reason why your solicitor shouldn’t have picked up on the ownership anyway.

Honestly? I wouldn’t get involved. Chances are the seller may be trying to sell the house before the financial settlement on the divorce goes through etc.

I would pull out at this stage and find somewhere else.

And I would find a new solicitor, because the one you’re using is clearly inadequate.

You have my deepest sympathies!
I was trying to move last year. I need a bungalow to cater for my parents. The lady that was buying mine, sold immediately & moved in with family pending our move. We had an offer accepted on a bungalow that was empty, barr a family member house sitting till all was completed. Except she was a sitting tenant & point blank refused to move. And the bungalow had to go through probate. It all fell through, my buyer bought somewhere else & my dad had a heart attack. Fun times.. x

Your conveyancing solicitor has been negligent.

I wouldn't sell and move into rented. Whatever money you get will be devalued by whatever the rate of inflation is.
So in a years time, you would lose 10% of the value of your capital. That's if inflation stays at 10%.

Beggars belief why you and your solicitor has allowed this to carry on for so long.

I think some estate agents are disgracefully lax in this area.

I offered on a house about 15 years ago, vendors were divorcing, H remained in the house while W had gone elsewhere.
The H was ... odd. Had v recently needed to leave the school he taught at under a cloud. Was the type who Could Not Be Wrong eg he handed me one of his brand new biz cards for his contact details - but his email bounced back as there was an extra [dot] out of place, so texted him to let him know he might want to call his printers. He blew up - the email was not incorrect, I simply could not type properly etc.

Given how volatile & .. unusual .. he was, I backed off him & started to negotiate via the posh but lazy agents. Following the email contretemps, the vendor suddenly informed them that he wanted another £5k out of me.
There were no other buyers, so I pushed back.
Agents eventually came back to me saying no go, the extra money or bust.
So I told them to put the offer to the W as well as the H.
They said they couldn't do that as they had no contact details for her.
When I asked how they obtained a copy of her passport & current address, as per legal requirement, they got arsey too.

So I rang their senior partner, explained the sorry mess, expecting him to be aware of the regulatory exposure his staff had subjected his business to & get cracking with some answers & some comms with the wife.
Amazingly he was just as clueless. Or arrogant, who knows?
At that point I pulled out, because the vendor was just going to be a menace to deal with.
The senior partner was highly offended when I told him why - "for all you know, the W is under the patio & you haven't bothered to find out. I can't be dealing with this level of incompetence."

OP - yes, the estate agents are repsonsible for finding out exactly who owns the property, who is on the deeds, title, etc. But your conveyancer ... sheeesh. I hope you go loco on their arse for the time, opportunity & cash they have already cost you.

Also - I think your plan to sit it out for a few months & get back to it post-partum is sound. After 2 years of this nonsense, you need a re-set!

EXACTLY this happened to me, except I was the seller not the buyer. I had been divorced for years and owned my property outright. However, the lawyer who had handled my divorce (obviously a different one than did the conveyancing on the house) had failed to file the final papers to remove my ex from the title deeds.

No one (including me!) had any idea of the hiccup until both solicitors were doing final paper work before exchange when this suddenly became known.

So please don’t assume it is your buyer’s fault. She may have no idea.

I contacted the solicitor who had done the divorce. They apologised and fixed it pretty quickly - I think it probably took only a week or so, but I lost the sale anyway. I was furious, but I never got any compensation from the solicitor.

Compensation only works if the person you are seeking it from has any money.
Also if there is a legal precedent for obtaining it.

Then someone noticed that the deceased owner’s long-dead spouse was still on the house’s deeds. Yes, the solicitors had fucked up big time

This has happened twice with relatives of mine, but fortunately was resolved quickly - when my aunt died it turned out my uncle's name was still on the deeds.

And when my MIL died earlier this year it turned out that FIL (who died some years ago now) was the legal owner. They had to find a will he'd made in the 1960s! Fortunately they found it quickly and are now in the process of selling.

In both cases the house was bought many decades ago when it was rare for women to even co-own houses!

Do you guys know each other?

No one (including me!) had any idea of the hiccup until both solicitors were doing final paper work before exchange when this suddenly became known

But it was the lawyers' fault. Surely the first thing they do when instructed to sell a property is check who the legal owner is - ie check the Land Registry and check your ID. Your divorce lawyer might have messed up too, but the conveyancer was at fault too.