Has my solicitor made a mistake? Are they responsible to fix it.

[fashu]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could offer advice re: a solicitor I have used in the past and using again now.
I bought my house in 2018 and because of a change of workplace and being pregnant we have decided to move to a bigger house closer to work.
We have solar panels and they were a massive pain in the bum to get sorted. Long story short, the lease needed updating and there was a charge for the seller to update that.
All was finalised and we thought sorted.
Now we are selling the house and the lease needs updating again!!! Apparently they didn't update the whole lease even though the last change in guidance was 2013. Also after speaking to the solar panel company my solicitors didn't even advise them when the sale was completed, they got my details from doing a land registry check.
Am I right in thinking that my solicitor when buying my property should have made sure the lease was up to date? They are also taking forever. I have the buyers solicitors sending me emails chasing replies for 2 weeks!
Can I ask my solicitor to pay for the solar panel lease when they didn't request for it to be updated correctly?
Thank you!

I think you should write to them setting out the facts and ask them to put it right. Do you have a record of your correspondence with them at the time and what it was agreed they would do? Are you using the same solicitors now for the sale?

Arguably if you were dealing with it, no it wasn’t their responsibility l unless they said they would do this. You can ask them to pay for your lease, but I’d suspect they will say no.

@wowfudge yes, same solicitors. At first they were asking for a lot of docs they never sent me, but luckily they found them on my file. I've kept all the emails from them in a special folder but a lot of discussion was over the phone. We had to pay extra too for this lease to be sorted so I feel like it should have been updated correctly.
@Bluntness100 I didn't really get involved with the ins and outs. They said the lease needs updating we will charge you extra to process and the seller will pay the solar panel company their legal fees so I assumed it would be updated especially if the guidance was changed in 2013.

Sounds as though someone dropped a ball - you've nothing to lose by raising it with them imo.

Ok then if you’ve a record of that and the charge then I’d go back to them. ,

OP, what do you mean by "updating the lease"? Do you mean that the solicitors were paid to notify the solar panel company about the change in ownership but didn't do that? If so, yes, they should have done and should put it right now.

If you mean that you thought your name would now be on the lease, that's not the case. If a lease is dated, for example, 1st January 2000 between Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchitt, that's always how it's referred to. The fact that Ebenezer Scrooge sold his interest to Mr Smith and Bob Cratchitt sold his interest to Mr Jones doesn't change what the lease says on the face of it.

So what did they actually do to the lease in 2018? Because the CML guidance has, as you said, been in place since 2013. It’s the same for all lenders.

@GU24Mum the CML has a letter which sets out certain requirements that have to be in solar panel leases. It changed in 2013, so leases granted before then frequently need a deed of variation when a property is sold,

So the original lease didn't contain the dates that it was signed. So that was apparently what was updated. They said they need to add point 5.1 now. No idea what that is and why it wasn't added in the first place.
Solicitors charged me for the extra work needed for the deed of variation which clearly hasn't been carried out correctly. They tried to charge me more in the end for it which I had a conversation with them about and they agreed to half it and I'm wondering if that is why they didnt send the information.

I expect the not sending notice to the solar panel company was simply an administrative cock up.

Definitely raise it and expect them to do the deed of variation for free.

Which solar panel company? A Shade Greener are pretty quick at replying.

Your OP is very confusing. You don't say what you think they did wrong, or what you think wasn't updated. In a subsequent post you mention a deed of variation. Did that not resolve it?

@thinkfast sorry I'm not very clued up on legal things so didn't know what was best to include. The original lease was around 2012 without dates. Lease was updated in 2018 to add dates when I purchased the property. I was charged nearly £400 for the legal work by my solicitor and seller was charged £200 by solar panel company. Now when selling the property solar panel company want another £200 because a clause was not added when the lease was updated in 2018 although guidance came out in 2013. Surely that's what I paid my solicitors for, to make sure my documentation was up to date? So no deed of variation did not solve problems like we thought it would when we paid for it.

It makes sense to me OP. But I deal with lots of solar panel leases.