Closing date hindered by death certificate

[Mynydd]

Hi,

On our closing date our sollicitor informed us that the Land registry office did not have a death certificate of the house we are buying, so it is still on two names and only one seller. When signing the contracts I spotted this, and asked for the death cert. Our sollicitor said that it was upstairs and he believed the man was dead. Now it turns out that the death certificate is only an onofficial copy, and in Chinese....And therefore we would have a delay of 6-8 weeks. I called back with more questions, and was told by a partner that it could even take a year, although the vendor is eager to sell and will be in Ireland soon. I gave my notice to my landlord and he needs the house, so now I really don't know what to do.
Was anyone ever in similar circumstances, will it take really that long, and am I right that our sollicitor should have spotted this earlier? How could he believe that the death cert was fine when he does not have any knowledge of Chinese?

 

[MOB]

"am I right that our solicitor should have spotted this earlier? "

Possibly, but probably not; it is the job of the vendor's solicitor to furnish title. Where, as in this case, it appears that one of the joint owners has died, the vendors solicitor should have furnished sufficient documents to have the title updated -i.e. the death certificate. It appears a document was furnished to your solicitor and that your solicitor was told this was indeed a copy of the death cert.

"How could he believe that the death cert was fine when he does not have any knowledge of Chinese?"

Perhaps because he was told that this was what the document was, and accepted this at face value?

Certainly, it is the job of your solicitor to make sure that things are in order; but consider this:

1. If he had been given a proper official copy of the death certificate and had paid out what would (with 20:20 hindsight ) have been wasted money getting it translated\verified would you have been happy with the extra expenditure?

2. If he had said to you - "I have been given this copy of what the other side say is a death cert; I'd like to have it translated or verified, just in case there might be a problem with it" would you really have said yes, go ahead and spend the money?

Certainly, it would be nice to have been asked, but if your solicitor was told that there was a death cert. available, and was given a copy of a document purporting to be just that, then I don't think this is really his fault.

 

[Sunny]

Certainly, it is the job of your solicitor to make sure that things are in order; but consider this:

1. If he had been given a proper official copy of the death certificate and had paid out what would (with 20:20 hindsight ) have been wasted money getting it translated\verified would you have been happy with the extra expenditure?

2. If he had said to you - "I have been given this copy of what the other side say is a death cert; I'd like to have it translated or verified, just in case there might be a problem with it" would you really have said yes, go ahead and spend the money?

Certainly, it would be nice to have been asked, but if your solicitor was told that there was a death cert. available, and was given a copy of a document purporting to be just that, then I don't think this is really his fault.

1. Would have been happy
2. I would have paid the money

Why should he take the word of someone else that everything is in order. Next time, I do something that needs proof of ID, I will give it in chineese. They will never know. At the very least, he should have informed the OP that this was an issue and ask for instructions.

 

[MOB]

I am not wholly disagreeing: I like to think that I would probably have raised this issue with the client if I were acting in this purchase. But the reality these days is that conveyancing is a price-sensitive market. Many solicitors - esp. in Dublin - find themselves in a catch 22 situation. If they go the extra mile on stuff like this, then in the 90% of situations where there isn't actually a problem, they find serious consumer resistance to getting paid for the extra work; This is bound to affect their willingness to undertake extra work. Far easier to just rely on the fact that most of the time, there won't actually be a problem. I'm not saying this is right, but where a market is characterised by strong price competition, it is almost inevitable.

The answer to this, I suppose, is that those solicitors who do habitually go the extra mile should not be embarrassed to charge more than the 'going rate' for their service, and consumers who would prefer to be sure of getting such a service should not use price as their main criterion when selecting such a service provider.

Of course, some will say that many solicitors used to (and that some still do!)just charge what they like and still not go the extra mile. The answer is, in my opinion that one should always choose a solicitor (or accountant or other professional adviser) based on personal recommendation.