Richlist Posted June 17, 2021 Report Share Posted June 17, 2021 It's an interesting story. Billybob has owned a property for over 20 years and he's now in the process of selling it, in fact he's very close to completion. However there's a hold up......the buyers solicitor has now decided there is a document missing. It's not held by the land registry or anyone else and he believes it is absolutely required. * When Billybob bought the property he had a solicitor do the legal work. Over the course of those 20+ years he's also had 3 mortgages on the property. The solicitors and the 3 lenders legal departments had all gone through the legal documents 'with a fine toothed comb' to ensure that the security for the loans was cast iron. None of them identified a missing document. * Billybob also owned 3 other properties on the same development. The same properties with the same leases, built at the same time, by the same builder etc. When they were sold on there was no mention of any missing documents. * As the property is over 35 years old there have been a number of previous owners whose purchase/sale didn't identify a missing document. So, either the current buyers solicitor is one extremely clever dude who has identified something that nobody else has seen or he's asking for something that isn't really needed. Either way, it needs resolving. Fortunately there is a remedy ......an indemnity policy......and either way Billybob has to pay for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grampa Posted June 18, 2021 Report Share Posted June 18, 2021 Indemnity Policies can be a solution for some issues for a couple of hundred quid but are not a magic bullet. A lot of indemnity policies they are hard to claim on according to a couple of solicitors I have previously spoken to, also a lot are time limited. Some purchasers also don't like them and will rather pull out of a sale unless the original issue is rectified. It is a fairly common problem for a solicitor to pick up on issues that have been missed previously by an earlier solicitor. We see it occasionally in houses we might have sold without issue 10 years ago. It does reduce your faith in the legal profession. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted June 18, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2021 When I bought a few years back I remember my solicitor telling me I needed a couple of indemnity policies.........and I had to pay for those policies. I guess that when prices are rising sharply expectations of who pays the bills changes from seller to buyer. At around the same time I bought a couple of leasehold flats and the buyers asked me to pay extra for the property because they had contributed to the reserve fund over the previous 5 years. The reserve fund had grown into a large sum of money to which they had contributed, wouldn't benefit from but I would as the new owner. I refused to pay but, asking for a contribution from buyers at the time was not unusual according to my solicitor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fionaf Posted July 5, 2021 Report Share Posted July 5, 2021 I sold a flat recently and had a similar experience. I tracked down the document that had been included in previous sales but was now missing at Land Registry. A scanning project has apparently messed up a load of documents - my missing one was scanned in with another so didn’t get separately documented so as far as LR were concerned it didn’t exist. It took months for them to sort out. Solicitor recommended indemnity but as I work in a law firm I could see this causing problems down the line and the buyer did too. A second document had been scanned but only every other page and a third had the wrong last page as it got chewed up by the machine so they substituted a document from one of the other flats assigning the wrong garage to my property. I gather a lot of documents suffered a similar fate but LR are not advertising this as you might imagine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted July 5, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2021 Thats a relief, Billybob tells me he was beginning to think he was being singled out for special treatment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melboy Posted July 6, 2021 Report Share Posted July 6, 2021 For those members with long memories........3 years ago I bought a 1986 ground floor flat to renovate in a block of 4 with a 999 year lease and no ground rents etc. The lease had been "lost" by Land Registry when everything went to digital recording of documents and was not on the register but the other 3 flats were. Building company Whimpey did not want to know or provide any help whatsoever. The answer to the problem was to take out indemnity insurance (£150 paid by me) and a copy of the flat lease documents of the upstairs flat were obtained as a mirror lease document. My solicitor was very happy with this standard procedure process in cases like this but my buyer's solicitor was not and it ended up with the buyer "sacking" her solicitor and moving to a new solicitor. She wanted this flat that badly as it had been renovated/restored to a very high standard and came with a large garden. I remember sharing this problem with Grandpa at the time and having a discussion about it all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grampa Posted July 6, 2021 Report Share Posted July 6, 2021 3 hours ago, Melboy said: I remember sharing this problem with Grandpa at the time and having a discussion about it all. Having the memory of a snail I shall take the 5th on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carryon Regardless Posted July 6, 2021 Report Share Posted July 6, 2021 Lawyers huh, I knew the could be good purpose for the 2nd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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