Complain about solicitor 9 years later.

[Panda2021]

In middle of process to move house and have now realised that the solicitor we used for the purchase of the property 9years was not thorough enough in relation to an issue and as a result this issue is now going to cost us several thousand pounds to hopefully resolve to enable us to sell our house. Question being-is there a time limit to how long ago you can complain about? The solicitor in question no longer works in the practice so the practice in general will be receiving the complaint. Anyone any experience? We would ideally like the solicitors to pay the costs to rectify the issue as we believe they didn’t do due diligence at all.

Depends what the issue is and the circumstances around it

I don’t believe that the time that has elapsed is an issue - this is the first time you are aware of an issue and so I believe that this is when the clock starts ticking from a Statute of limitations perspective.

The fact that the solicitor no longer works there is irrelevant - it is the practice that is liable for the work, not the individual

I would definitely raise it with the firm, clearly set out the issues that have arisen and that you hold them responsible ..... for what it’s worth, the SRA require every law firm to carry insurance to cover exactly this sort of issue

Sorry, I’ve assumed you are in the U.K. which was a bit presumptuous of me!

If you are in England or Wales then your first step should be to complain to the firm (it's irrelevant that the employee who carried out the work has left). The time elapsed doesn't usually matter in conveyancing cases, its the time from when you discover or might of reasonably known there was an issue. As pp stated the firm will carry insurance, so if they did make a mistake the insurance (or the firm) can cover it. If you don't get a proper response you can go to the legal ombudsman.

Lawyer based in NI, but the same should apply across the UK - you have only just learned of the issue and so there should be no difficulty in raising it now. I would have thought the solicitor acting for you in this sale may be raising it with the previous firm from a conveyancing perspective, and you would also raise it directly with the firm itself as the former client - as other PPs have said, they will have professional indemnity insurance to cover mistakes like this and it doesn’t matter that the solicitor in question has moved on because it is the practice that will have to deal with it, not the individual. If you don’t get a timely and/or satisfactory response from the practice, you can refer to the Law Society. Hope you get it sorted quickly OP.

That’s tricky OP.

The time limit to complain to the ombudsman is 3 years from when you ought reasonably to have been aware of the problem, not necessarily the date that you actually found out about the problem.

Most solicitors firms destroy client files after 6/7 years so it could be problematic on both ends.

It really depends on what exactly was missed, and whether you could have been aware of it at the time of sale/purchase or any reasonable time thereafter.

No idea why there’s a strike through, sorry!

Thanks everyone, have asked for the company’s complaints procedure and will draft a letter in relation to the details and go from there. They still have the paper file as I had someone check and go through it for information relating to the issue when I first found out last week. Our current solicitor isn’t planning to contact them as far as I know but asked me to which I did . Thanks for all help and responses!

Just as a general comment.
We made an official complaint about a solicitor a few years ago[not house related, but we thought they had been slow in a transaction and lost us several thousand pounds because of their delays].
I would be wary.
In our case, they wrote back with several pages of legality, indicating why the delays.
We could see half the reasons but didnt agree with the other half.
But we realised we would need a solicitor to deal with the firm of solicitors, and ideally solicitors that didnt know the original. Which we thought was going to be tricky in our part of the UK.
We eventually dropped the idea, as could see it was going to be tricky, costly, time consuming, we were up against solicitors, and we were only half right. Though we were still owed a not inconsiderable amount of money in our opinion.
We decided to chalk it all up to experience, and moved on.
In our case, the solicitors acted far too slowly. But have since learnt that that is part and parcel of solicitors. Also that sometimes, they are relying on other solicitors or organisations too, to get back to them. Also, we were using a solicitor that only worked two or three days a week, hence more time delays. There was no cover for her during sickness or illness either.
Just saying all of this in case it is of any help to anyone.

I do hope you get what you want op. Personally, unless you are willing to go all out with it, I wouldnt hold out too much hope.

Thanks@lightand I suppose really I would like an apology and recognition that they had responsibility and their Error or lack of action cost us dearly and stress. Though as you say I don’t hold out much hope regardless as a few years ago I supported someone in a work capacity to complain about a terrible solicitor who failed them so so badly with life changing consequences ( immigration). The company admitted they were wrong and just said oh sorry about that and nothing more could be done without infinite resources to pay other solicitors to represent. The complaint was sent into the registering society due to the gross malpractice but again not much was said.
In my area of work you’d be likely struck off If had such bad practice.
Thanks though for all the support- il see how I feel in the next week or two Nd see if I can expend the energy to write the letter or just leave it.