Aggressive Land Law solicitor sought

[Dinnerplatedahlia]

Does anyone know of a property lawyer who is red hot about covenants and stands no nonsense? We are being pulverised by our affluent neighbours’ solicitor and our solicitor is no match. She sadly dropped the ball during the conveyance process and it has only just come to light. She doesn’t want to go there but unfortunately we’ve got no choice. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks

Two fold

Professional negligence against your conveyancer

Misrep against your NDN

Yes you are both right. It’s an unholy mess that needs untangling. There’s no choice unfortunately. We’ve tiptoed around them trying to not be a problem but life teaches you, you can’t appease a bully. 😔

https://www.kennethbush.com/about/jonathan-eales/

I can recommend Jonathan Eales. I used to work with him.

I’ve PMd you OP

This is not a conveyancing solicitor you're after they mostly churn through transactions and residential sales and won't have come across this.

If she's genuinely missed it then her insurance should cover costs, you need someone who specialises in property litigation/disputes. Different ball game really tbh

Were the ndn also the vendors? Otherwise why were they filling out forms?

And if it makes you feel any better about suing "someone nice", you won't be suing her, but her firm, who will be covered by professional indemnity insurance. So, subject to paying the excess, it is the insurance company who would ultimately be paying.

You need a property litigator and your conveyancer cannot act got for as not only is she not the right specialism but she and the entire firm is conflicted. You need to refer this to their compliance department and look to instruct somebody else.

Have you been to garden law forum. There are some real experts on there. @collaborate I believe uses both Mumsnet and GLF. You will need to give a bit more detail, but you will get some good advice (and probably cause a fight amongst the resident experts).

@eurochick yes they are. @MinnieMountain thank you for the recommendation. I will consider them all. @Jellybean85 You’re right. I’ll never trust one again.@Kimberflop @kirinm thank you both for your comments.
This is like waking up in a nightmare. I thought as the days passed it would get easier, but it’s getting worse. What are people’s opinions on no win no fee? We have a couple of thousand savings although debt free. Very ordinary working class people. We are facing the complete opposite, as much time and money as you could wish for. Although morally bankrupt.

A no win no fee is a conditional fee agreement in slightly fancier terms - you'll need to get the person you instruct to speak to the partners of their firm and see if they're okay with doing that. A lot of firms don't like to do them though.

You can also do a deferred payment agreement, where you pay at the end - only really good if you win.

You can see if your home insurance has legal cover, they may cover it. You can get after the event insurance which can be used to pay fees.

It may be worth approaching the firm who did the transaction with an official complaint and then asking if they will cover the fees for the covenant issue - their insurers may agree to that.

That is certainly the question we’ve posed in the first instance to the original law firm.

Justice appears to be expensive though 🙁

I would check your household insurance policy for legal expenses insurance. You may find you are covered by DAS or ARAG (think they may be the same company now). Legal expenses insurers have panel firms of solicitors they may instruct for you.

Thank you. Home insurance doesn’t cover it (ours). I will look into ‘after the event’. Deferred payment would likely be the only way, we couldn’t pay up front. Our next step is a complaint to original law firm. We have asked some questions, this time in writing, because we asked verbally but didn’t get an answer. It remains to be seen if the written ones will be ignored. We are gathering our evidence to take this further. The hope is that we don’t want to be paying an expensive law firm to be photocopying and putting correspondence in chronological order. We want to present a file.

I will double check this. My husband said he’d checked and it’s no, however, I will double check. Thank you.

To be brutally honest OP, it doesn’t sound like you have the resources to fund this unless you can locate some kind of insurance. This is not the sort of claim that firms will take on a no win no fee agreement. If you have a couple of thousand in savings, that will cover an initial review and a letter and not much more.

I agree. This is the awful realisation that is dawning on us.

Are you a Union member?

Some offer legal assistance

This isn't true.

OP doesn't need a Legal 500 firm, just a robust one.

OP, where are you located?

Midlands

No sadly.

OP please start by making an official complaint against your original solicitor, and ask them to notify their insurers.

The SRA code of conduct says:

“You are honest and open with clients if things go wrong, and if a client suffers loss or harm as a result you put matters right (if possible) and explain fully and promptly what has happened and the likely impact…”

You need to bring this to the attention of the Firm’s management (via the complaints partner) as it sounds like your solicitor is hoping this will go away (which is not in line with the code of conduct).

Give them the opportunity to sort it out (at their cost) before you incur your own costs.

Do you have a mortgage? Since covenant breaches and incorrect PIFs relate to the security a lender has over the property, you need to notify them immediately and it may be that they take the decisions over how this progresses (but without giving any details at all as to the nature of the covenant or whether you’ve breached it, nobody can really advise here).

Yes I agree. We sent questions 2 days ago. So far no response, fair enough they need time, however, we’ve agreed our next step is an official complaint. We simply don’t have a choice.