solicitor seeking fee for amending title after sale

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rosey

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I inherited a house from my aunt a couple of years ago.Her husband had died some years before and she had no children. I sold the house in the normal way- using a solicitor more than a year ago.
Now,my solicitor informs me that the solicitor of the purchasers have got in touch to say that the freehold title was still in the name of my aunt's deceased husband and I have to pay to rectify this. My solicitor says she will do the work for 2,500 euro while the purchasers solicitor has contacted me to say he will do it for 1500 euro .
I am taken aback by this as I assumed that the job of the purchasers solicitor was to check that all was in order with the title of the property etc...otherwise how could they advise their client that I was the rightful owner and could sell the property to their clients?
Surely there is no onus on me to pay this amount now?-I think this should have been discovered before purchase went ahead and the purchasers solicitor was negligent in not finding this out for his clients.
Does anybody know if there is any responsibility lying with me on this and am I under any obligation to pay this? Any advice welcome
 
Normally when you inherit a house there is a process of probate to be gone through in which the house becomes legally yours. In my own case this took about 18 months - cannot recall the exact cost offhand, but it could have cost around €1,800.

I would have thought that your solicitor should have sorted all of this out given the inheritance of the house was what generated the sale.

Its possible that you could play hardball in this case and leave it with your solicitor to sort out, but I would get a second legal opinion before I went down that road.


ONQ.

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.
 
"Does anybody know if there is any responsibility lying with me on this and am I under any obligation to pay this?"

I can think of one situation..............

Property was a leasehold property and there was no evidence from title, from standard queries or from any paperwork when dealing with Probate, that aunt's husband had purchased the freehold. A lot of people bought out their Ground Rent in the early 80's but failed to finish the job off by registering their Vesting Certificate.

Property ownership brings responsiblity even after you've disposed of it.

mf
 
You need to obtain advice from an independent solicitor on this. I'm not entirely sure you have any obligation to pay legal fees here- it might be a case where you could offer to help with their application to register at no cost to yourself ( which would be the decent thing to do even if you have no obligation). Or that you will help where your solicitor of your own choosing is paid to deal with it. Check with an independent solicitor first.
 
+1 what mf1 has posted.

We bought out our freehold separately few years ago.

This was separate legal work for our solicitor and not part of the original sale.

Colloquially, people refer to a house as "theirs" (as I did above) when factually it is on a long lease - not freehold.


ONQ.

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.
 
mf1 said:
"Does anybody know if there is any responsibility lying with me on this and am I under any obligation to pay this?"

I can think of one situation..............

Property was a leasehold property and there was no evidence from title, from standard queries or from any paperwork when dealing with Probate, that aunt's husband had purchased the freehold. A lot of people bought out their Ground Rent in the early 80's but failed to finish the job off by registering their Vesting Certificate.

Property ownership brings responsiblity even after you've disposed of it.

mf
Click to expand...

So what is implied here is that because of the standard queries (yawn) arrangement between solicitors the seller of the property carries the can for the failure of the purchaser's solicitor and the seller's solicitor to be certain of what they were buying/selling.

The problem with seeking 'independent legal advice' is that solicitors, like other professionals look after themselves so the OP is going to get screwed one way or another, either at 2,500 or 1,500 or some unknown number by the 'independent legal advice' provider.

If I were the OP I would sit on your hands. As they say in Donegal, say nothing till you hear more:)
Why should you pay for the inadequacies of the standard queries arrangement.


The probate done on foot of the OP's uncle and aunt failed to pick it up so perhaps the purchaser's solicitor should start there.

I had a similar experience with the use of this sort of standard documentation which is not the law, it is drawn up to simplify the process but such documentation is not the law.

Finally, if you do go down the 'independent legal advice' make sure you get the section 68 paper work nailed down first
 
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"So what is implied here is that because of the standard queries (yawn) arrangement between solicitors the seller of the property carries the can for the failure of the purchaser's solicitor and the seller's solicitor to be certain of what they were buying/selling."

No. You can stop yawning.

The old man filed the Vesting Certificate somewhere where no-one ever found it. From my dealings with my elderly clients, it's usually the Hot Press which eventually springs a leak and destroys everything inside.

End of.

Life is full of "stuff happens". Its not a conspiracy.

mf
 
Thanks for all advice. I am going to seek a written description of what exactly happened from my solicitor and why this wasn't discovered during probate or selling...I'm not going to rush to pay as I'm not convinced I'm liable for this cost..even if the situation is as mf1 says I still think that this is exactly what you employ a solicitor for and if the information is not found out at the time I don't understand how they can come back to you afterwards and say- whoops! we just found this out! and you need to pay us money to fix it....I wonder even if this could be covered in consumer legislation- in terms of supply of services- the service should be fit for purpose intended and I feel that if this happened then the service provided by one of both solicitors wasn't fit for purpose intended... like Hastalavista I'm slightly suspicious of solicitors- a close friend settled a property deal after taking advice from her solicitor only to find out afterwards that her solicitor was part of group that bought the site..she couldn't find another solicitor to represent her in taking legal action and was told by another solicitor that she wouldn't- and a complaint to Law Society wasn't upheld so I do feel it is hard to know if your solicitor is entirely honest- I know of other times with solicitors chancing their arms with charging fees....the solicitor of a man renting land from my dad sent my dad a bill for his services setting up rental agreement-he wasn't even my dad's solicitor!- my dad said you bill your own client not me!- I wont be paying this! and he never heard another word about it...in this case the purchasers solicitor kindly offering to do the work for a lesser fee just makes me wonder....I'm sure there are plenty of honest solicitors out there but unfortunately these incidences have coloured my view of solicitors...
 
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Based on what you've posted the purchasers solicitor did not get clear title and your solicitor did not supply it. That was their job to do and you paid your solicitor for doing so. Unless there is something else missing from the story I cannot see how you will have to pay more. You are correct to get it in writing from your solicitor what exactly the situation is and take it from there. But luckily for you the pressure will be on the purchasers solicitor. Presumably you have received the purchase monies?
 
Presumably you have received the purchase monies? that is the key and if you have not tread carefully. If you have then ... and by the way is all this verbal or do you have something in writing eg the 2 different quotes?? if its verbal, >>>>>.

noah
 
NOAH said:
Presumably you have received the purchase monies? that is the key and if you have not tread carefully. If you have then ... and by the way is all this verbal or do you have something in writing eg the 2 different quotes?? if its verbal, >>>>>.

noah
Click to expand...

oh yes the sale went through a year ago..all payments done and dusted long ago..that is my issue I guess..I haven't got the 2 quotes in writing...need to get that I guess too..
 
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