Estate agent possible misconduct

[westcoastclassic]

Hi hoping for some advice from anyone in the know .
I am in the process of a house purchase which has been significantly delayed due to issue with title . Specifically offer was accepted and my solicitor instructed , they soon discovered that the seller was not on the title and did not have right to sell. This was due to a cock up with allocation of parking spaces which had not been remedied by the developer even though the houses were completed back in 2021.
I think that the estate agent should have carried out the very basic due diligence of checking that the person offering property for sale actually had the legal right to do so, a land registry check costing £7 and taking 2 minutes ! I think that they are in breach of their code of conduct for not ensuring the house was actually sellable before marketing . I have brought this up with them , but they are basically saying I could have pulled out and that they saw proof of ID for seller which satisfies their compliance .
Whilst I know I could have pulled out earlier , and no house purchase is guaranteed to run smoothly anyway , I really think they have failed in their obligations and am thinking of pushing a complaint further and going to ombudsmen if possible as this whole situation has caused considerable stress all round , which would have been completely avoidable if the basic checks were carried out .
If any wise mumsnetters have any knowledge / advice - I am all ears !!

I know nothing about ea or house sales so sorry for replying but I expect it would be very expensive to do a land registry for every house they're sell.

Hmmm I am not sure about the legal side of it but we have recently sold our house. When we put it on the market our EA did all the relevant checks on us such as ID, and also checked that we were legal owners of the house and accessed the title deeds to check we had the right to sell it.

Like I say, I am not sure if this is a legal requirement for the agent to make these checks although you think it would be wouldn't you? I think maybe try and find out that information first before going further because if not then the EA can't be held accountable for not knowing that info.

Why bother replying if you have absolutely no idea about what OP asked and didn't even offer any useful advice?

@westcoastclassic Land registry checks should be carried out as part of their money laundering checks, I'm unsure if it's a legal requirement but it should be common practice in every EA in the country. If you can find out if it's a legal requirement or not, that will tell you if it's worth pursuing or not.

Having recently sold I don’t think it’s common place to do this, this falls into the solicitor’s realm. As far as I remember our EA just had us make a signed declaration that we had the right to sell the property.

I don’t think there’s really any recourse here, you found out fairly early about the title and you choose to continue with the sale? What is that the EA’s fault?

As far as I'm aware, an EA's obligation purely rests on doing anti money laundering checks against the purchaser.

I don't think it's practical for them to check the land registry for every potential sale. Just think of how many sales fall through, the number of people who dump agents after 3 months with no viewings, those who only put their house on the market to see if they can get an unrealistic amount of money with little intention of ever really moving, etc. Added to that, I've just had a pack from my solicitor this morning about our purchase that warns us to bear in mind (in case we're getting a 2 year mortgage fix) that the Land Registry is currently taking up to 3 years. So, even if they were to make a habit of downloading title deeds, there's no guarantee what they get is going to be up to date or accurate.

"HMLR is currently experiencing significant delays and it may take up to 3 years to register your purchase.
Please see the latest government guidance on estimated completion timeframes here: https://www.gov.uk
/guidance/hm-land-registry-estimated-completion-timeframes. Whilst HMLR aims to complete most routine
transactions within 3 months, more complex cases — including new builds, new leases and lease extensions,
transfers of part, and unregistered properties — are taking considerably longer. Although it may be possible
to expedite an application in very specific circumstances, it may be difficult to sell your property until your
registration is complete. During this time, you are also unlikely to be able to re-mortgage your property"

We are in the middle of moving. The EA for the property we are buying did identity checks on us. It was the solicitors who requested our deeds though once the process was underway.

Very difficult to pin this legally on the EA, in my opinion. Not worth trying.

Hi thanks for all the responses . As far as I can ascertain whilst it is not a legal requirement , it is required under the code of conduct for EA's . I am actually shocked that it isnt standard practice , particularly with all the recent spate of property frauds, to marry up the identity documents to the title , I take the point that registration is taking ages at the moment , but at least when flagged the application could be evidenced . As part of my job I am required to do LR searches , and they literally take 2 mins and £7.00 so it really isnt onerous ..

Probably not worth pursuing , I think I am just looking for someone to take out my frustration on!!

Thank you for sharing this.

During this time, you are also unlikely to be able to re-mortgage your property"

How are people expected to remortgage in that case?

Best to ask a mortgage broker that in advance, I guess.

There is some sort of expedited process solicitors can use, I think. Don't take my word on that if your mortgage is at stake though. Ask the lender/broker/lawyer.

The recent spate of property frauds shows its not standard practice rather than the opposite. I've not known an EA to do this and would've assumed it's for the buyer's solicitor to do, or I guess your EA could argue you could've done it as you say it's only £7 and takes 2 mins, and you do it all the time for your job. Not saying it's not annoying, it really is and I sympathise, but such is the mighty frustrating nature of house buying and selling and your EA's response that you could've pulled out tells you everything about the number of issues they're used to and become immune to.

Years ago I was in the process of buying a flat which was part of a small Victorian warehouse conversion.

Once we got to the stage of conveyancing, it came to light that the developer had never had building regs sign off for any part of the conversion and building regs were unwilling to certify the work as they had not been able to observe the works prior to them being covered with plastering etc.

it cost me a considerable amount of time and money in legal fees before being advised to pull out of the sale. I was furious with both the vendor and estate agent, especially when it later transpired that previous buyers had pulled out for the same reason. Unfortunately though house buying is a horrible process and estate agents are accountable for very little.

Nope, in England there is zero resource. Its because listing houses before probate etc... is granted is so common.

The house I was buying that fell through was a probate property and the lister said they where the persons child. The person selling failed probate, it dragged on over 12 months while they kept appealing the courts and then it got repossessed by the bank to pay off the growing debts on the estate. The bank refused to honor the sale even though we where ready to sign and I lost a year and all the money put in.

The bank JUST this week sold it at auction (we are completing this week on a new house but for curiosity I HAD to watch the auction) after failing to sell at 3 other auctions and it sold for LESS than the sale that had been agreed between me and EA. So they pulled out/cancelled the sale, lost us all our money (surveys, fees etc...), wasted a year of our time and a further 6 months of theirs and actually made LESS than they would have if they sold to us.

Legally EA have no requirement to check the person listing actually owns a property or has the right to sell, anyone can list anything and it will only come up once the solicitor notices. They don't get paid until after a sale goes through so don't profit from anything, they can just 'trust the word' of the seller.

The EA works for the vendor. Not the buyer.