Specters have recently settled a professional negligence claim against a solicitor arising from a residential property purchase that fell through as a result of the solicitor’s mistake.
The solicitor in question acted for the prospective buyer of a residential property. Exchange had already taken place and the parties were working towards completion of the purchase.
Unfortunately, the solicitor failed to make sure that an important deed was properly witnessed. Without this crucial deed, the lender would not release the loan monies to fund the purchase. The solicitor only realised their oversight on the day of completion.
Completion did not take place, and the seller quickly served a Notice to Complete. A Notice to Complete is a notice that can be served after the date for completion agreed in the contract. A Notice to Complete requires the receiving party to complete on property purchase by a certain deadline, usually 10 working days following service of the notice.
A Notice to Complete can have extremely serious implications. If the notice is served on a buyer, at the expiry of the deadline in the Notice to Complete, the seller will be able to terminate the contract and keep the deposit.
In this matter, despite service of the Notice to Complete, the solicitor still failed to take the necessary steps to make sure that the transaction was ready to complete. Even worse, the solicitor failed to advise their client of the serious implications of failing to complete by the time limit specified in the Notice to Complete.
The deadline in the Notice to Complete passed, and the buyer lost their deposit.
The buyer instructed Specters to bring a Professional Negligence claim against their former solicitors. Specters recovered the majority of the buyer’s deposit within a year anniversary of the failed transaction.
To learn more about our experienced team or make your own claim, you can call us on 0300 303 3629 or fill out an enquiry form.
