Category: Conveyancing Q&A

I have made an offer on a property which was accepted by the vendor. The estate agents sent a form as in subject above accepting the offer. Now they have received a higher offer from another prospective buyer and I have been told that this is not illegal. This means that their written acceptance is not worth the paper it is written on. Is this true?

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

It is perhaps one of the most unsatisfactory areas of the law in England and Wales [but not Scotland] that an offer and acceptance to buy land is not legally enforceable and unfortunately as you say, not worth the paper it is written on. A purchaser and seller only become legally obliged to proceed with the sale once written contracts have been signed and exchanged.

I am afraid that you have been gazumped and in all probability there is not a thing you can do about it.

Can you tell me how do change ownership of my property in my wifes name?

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

If you wish to transfer the title in your property into the name of your wife it will be necessary for you to prepare and sign the appropriate Land Registry form of Transfer and then register the transaction in the usual way at the Land Registry.

My family recently endured an all too familiar but non the less traumatic experience when our house sale fell through at the last minute.( moments before the contracts were to be exchanged) In fact 3 days before the move our sellers changed there mind and withdrew there property from the market. We believe the current laws of conveyance in this country are inadequate and allow breaches in agreement to proceed without penalty. 70% of sales fail at the first hurdle due in part to the frailty of the Law. We sold our property to the church and stood by our agreement with them to prevent the same happening to the family moving into our home as happened to us. As a consequence we lost thousands of pounds committed to the failed transaction. We have written to our vendors requesting a financial payment towards our costs and they have declined to assist. In total we estimate over £8000 has been lost. Can you advise what if any legal course is open to us. Is a Civil action against our vendors for compensation a possibility for the emotional trauma entailed. They have given no satisfactory reason for the late withdrawal of their property. My Wife is unable to work at the moment due to the trauma and distress endured both leading up to the event and since. We firmly believe the current laws of conveyance need changing and any steps to focus government on this is our aim.

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

I agree completely with you that the law is failing in many respects and there are so of course moves afoot to stop this most unfortunate situation from happening as is the case in Scotland. Sadly however the law as it stands at the moment is quite certain. Until such time as contracts are exchanged, a potential purchaser is under no legal obligation and can withdraw. This being the case you would have no grounds to bring a legal action against them.

My husband & I are purchasing a cattery. The cattery is run from a residential property, the wooden buildings needed for the business are kept in the grounds of the property and the business is run out of buildings attached to the house. We have just been told by a solicitor who we approached to do the conveyancing that we would be liable to pay £8,800 in stamp duty. The purchase price is £295,000 the house was valued earlier this year at £249,000 the remainder we are paying towards the fixtures, fittings and goodwill that make up the business. Why do we have to pay stamp duty on something that isn't part of the property only that which is being left and paid for by ourselves, to enable us to continue running the cattery? Is this solicitor just taking the easy option, ie. less paperwork?

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

It is a little disappointing that your conveyancing solicitor has worries about this transaction as I really cannot see the difficulty. The property which you are purchasing is valued at £249,000. This should be agreed as the purchase price in order to fall into the lower stamp duty category. The balance of the money which you have agreed to pay is clearly for the buildings, good will, and other assets of the cattery business. This is quite usual and proper and would not cause any concern to the Stamp Office as you are purchasing the land at valuation.

My husband has made a single application for a mortgage. we are just nearing completion and his solicitors have sent me a Occupancy Form. I read the form to state that I have no claim on the property if I sign it. My query is if my husband has made a will and left the house and mortgage to me and I have signed this form. In the event of anything happening to him will I not be entitled to a claim on the house or its profits. We have two young children and I need to safe guard their future.

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

This has danger written all over it and I would have to advise you not to sign although I appreciate the possible consequences to your marriage. The simple fact is that you do have an interest in the matrimonial home by virtue of your marriage. None of us know what the future may hold and as you so rightly say you will have to ensure that your children have a roof over their heads.

I am in the process of selling my house but a discrepancy has occurred with the boundaries. The purchaser has checked the boundaries and the path to my house is outside the boundary by about 1.3m. I bought the house 5 years ago and now that this problem has occurred with me now selling the property I asked my solicitor why he didn't pick up on this discrepancy when I bought the house. He stated "solicitors don't get involved in comparing deed plans with property boundaries - this is normally an area for a draughtman". Is this correct?, when I bought the house 5 years ago he said " I should be grateful if you would confirm that there are no other extensions and alterations which have been carried out to the house" - to me this information is very vague. My argument is that I don't know the procedure for buying/selling property, surely should have my solicitor given me better advice or asked me to get a surveyor to make sure the property was within it's boundary?

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

I have to admit to being totally amazed at what the solicitor who acted in the purchase of your house has said to you. One of the main tasks of a solicitor when acting for a purchaser of property is to ensure that his client has transferred to them the legal estate in the land they intend to purchase. Of critical importance is the title to entrance paths. It is the duty of conveyancing solicitors to not only get involved in the plans shown on the deeds of property being purchased, but also to ensure that they accurately describe the property being purchased.

I Purchased a freehold property in which a vital information was not disclosed until after exchange of contracts. An on-going cost of about £600 per annum would have to be paid on the property and this information was not provided until 3 days to completion. I decided to pull out of the contract but my solicitor told me I would be loosing my money to the seller. I had to seek advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau and they said my solicitor would have an expert knowledge on this matter. The Estate Agent also confirmed that all the necessary information needed by my solicitor was given and if I pull out, I would definitely loose all my money to the seller. So I had no choice but to make a payment of the part charge for completion. I made a complaint to the firm after completion and they wrote me back, saying the seller and her solicitor failed to disclose the rent charge. They attached copy of sellers property info. form indicating where both seller and her solicitor have refused to provide the right information. I'm also confused about the part of the letter which says: ''In fact if the rent charge was revealed after exchange of contracts then they would have alleged that exchange of contracts was on the basis of a misrepresentation in which case no exchange in law occurred This advice was never given when I decided to pull out of the contract and I need you advice on what to do.

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

I do not have the slightest hesitation here in advising you that the solicitors instructed by you in the purchase were negligent. The reason you instructed them was exactly to stop this sort of thing happening. You were entitled to rely upon their expertise to ensure that you were made fully aware of what you were purchasing and any costs or restrictions attached to the property.

I own my property in my name only. I would like to put it into joint names with my husband, what does this involve.

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

This should not be difficult. All that is required, providing title to the property is registered, will be a simple land registry transfer which is easily arranged. However you must consider any stamp duty or taxation implications and also the position regarding any mortgage.

I signed a sole agent agreement with a firm of estate agents. They were useless and sent 3 people around and couldn't understand when I wouldn't accept 30 thousand less for the asking price. I was constantly chasing them. My house went in the paper only twice and they just sat there waiting for things to happen. After the 6 week binding contract I cancelled and signed on with another agent. To cut a long story short, we eventually decided not to move so I took the property off the market all together. Through out all the selling time I had put my house for sale privately. I was contacted by my present buyers as they had seen my advert on the website. They had originally been sent by the original agents over six months previously but could not afford our house until they had sold theirs. They thought we had taken ours off the market and were not selling at all. They were supprised to see it for sale on the web site. This new introduction was through my own advertising. As I was selling it privately, with no estate agency fees, I had reduced the price. They could now afford it. I have had a letter from the agents reminding me that If I sell to these people I owe them commission. We complete soon. Do I have to pay them as this was a completely separate introduction.

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

It may be of little comfort but you are far from alone in what has happened, and there has been any amount of litigation through the courts on these 'estate agent cases'. If this matter is to go further it will be necessary to carefully consider these cases. The position as I understand it however is as follows.

I'd like to know if it's possible to make a claim for compensation in the small claims court against a housing association. The facts are in September 2006, said housing association sold me a keyworker flat for which a reserve fee was paid. At the time I was told that I would have to have a financial interview and apply for a mortgage within 5 working days of being assigned a flat otherwise I would lose my reserve fee. This was done in November 2006. In December 2006, the development was completed and I received a mortgage offer from my lender. Since this time everything has come to a halt with no date for exchange and completion. Each time I try to get a straight answer from the Housing Association, I'm given the run-around. Initially I was told some internal building works needed to be finished then I was told the Council in the area was creating obstructions with the lease. This development was built over a school extension and one of the housing association's employees revealed that the flats could not actually be sold until the school was handed over to the Council (this was done at the end of February), however this was not revealed back in September and no-one will confirm this. I then wrote to the Councillors for the area to investigate why the council was being so obstructive, they've written me back that the housing association has said to them that the delay is being caused by minor legal matters with land registry. I've now had to re-apply for my mortgage at a higher interest therefore will now be out of pocket and the housing association refuses to take any responsibility saying the delay is due to unforeseen events. If I've been misled about their ability to sell in September along with the reason for the delay, could I make a claim?

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

I am afraid that legal action is not possible. Although a reservation fee was paid, the housing association did not exchange contracts with you on your intended purchase and therefore no legally enforceable commitment to sell was entered into.