Quinten Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Hi, Bit of an odd one this. 3 years ago we bought our house (terraced/freehold) and used a local conveyancing firm for the purchase. At the time we were told that there would be secure parking and gates and what not, and so we would have to pay an annual service fee for this to a management company (RMG). So far, so good. We pay around £200/year and it keeps the riff raff out Now 3 years later, we receive a letter (and subsequently a 'welcome pack') from The Land Trust (TLT) who claims to have bought our "public open spaces" (POS) (think play area, park, etc) from the Home and Communities Agency (HCA) and is demanding a annual fee for the maintenance and management of these. In the welcome pack they refer us back to the Land Registry title/charges register and sure enough, after digging it out, there appears to be a section, which although refers to a 'Copy filed' part mentions the HCA, and also a section which mentions RMG. So we are screwed for two types of fees (let's ignore council tax) on an annual basis. I should mention that we've never had to pay for this maintenance when the POS was owned by HCA, and that some houses on our development (which is relatively new) are 9 years old and never had to pay. Up till now. Now to the question. I can not for the like of me find any document from the conveyancing firm that details their 'Searches' and what the results of those were. Sure, I paid for the Searches, but no paper trail to back that up.... Am I right in assuming that conveyancers have a duty to inform you the results of these Searches and explain what it means? Could they have been negligent? It could well be that I was presented with these papers and asked to return them signed, but I am sure I would remember that I would be liable to two maintenance fees instead of the one... Not sure where I will be going with this yet, but I will give the conveyancing firm a call tomorrow and see what paperwork they claim to provide to customers and then see if they can find mine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1959grantura Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Tell you before helping mum sell and buy another house last summer never had any involvement in solicitors, and estate agents ... What an absolute bunch of rip off b******ds they are!! For example We had a survey done which came back all good and the buy was stalled dude to a missing certificate for heating installation. The sale went through and within about the first 6 weeks mum happened to have her own people up in the loft who were a little concerned with the flue just pumping fumes into the loft (no effort was actually made to even reach the outside) . The gas was shut off and the house actually condemned. The surveyer : read small print we cannot be accounted for if we miss anything The solicitor : the certificate was never produced and now you would have to prove it was done before you moved in Absolute joke !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dombanks Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Agree .. solicitors are just money grabbing birthing Ystrad (interesting auto correct there) after our recent purchase. No chain on either side, mortgage agreed in principal with 20% deposit on the day the offer was accepted, empty property, and it still took nearly 2 days shy of 5 months and that was after both sides had to threaten to pull out and pay no costs. £300 for a equity agreement that I could have written in 10 mins with the wording of a 10 yr old. When it comes to selling the house with my ex I'm going for a out of the box purple bricks type thing. Some of the paperwork the solicitors have done is little more than ask for a review. Getting ethics through to take patient blood was way more complicated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reeves_luke89 Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinten Posted May 18, 2016 Author Share Posted May 18, 2016 As one of those estate agent b******s I'd say you should have a claim against the solicitor. Once all the searches and enquiryiers are back they should have reported everything to you. Only then can you make an informed decision wether to purchase or not. Thanks, it will be interesting to see where this will lead to... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1959grantura Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 As one of those estate agent b******s I'd say you should have a claim against the solicitor. Once all the searches and enquiryiers are back they should have reported everything to you. Only then can you make an informed decision wether to purchase or not. Dom - don't use purple bricks! I've had a few cleients have really bad experience with them. They do no sales chasing, they often don't know the local area, when a buyer calls to arrange a viewing they get through to a call centre and somebody who has never seen your house and often doesn't have a clue where it is. Use a good quality local independent agent not the cheapest option. Apologies to offend just another part of the complete cluster duck was the estate agents dealing with selling mums house were also the same agent she was buying from , They Hounded her out of hers with a weeks notice (Yes a weeks notice) threatening the buyer will pull out etc , Knowing and withholding the information that the owner of the house mum was buying from was a complete pain the bum that had pulled out of sales before , So we ended up with mum homeless for 4 months sleeping in our front room with double removal and storage charges ... The whole process from start to finish absolutely sucked that's without even mentioning them taking advantage of putting a high % fee on the sale with mum just trusting them. Other than that yeah Estate agents, Solicitors and surveyors get a massive thumbs up from me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reeves_luke89 Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 I wasn't offended at all. Most of us are complete w*****s! It sounds like you had an awful time of it. Sadly I see it all too often when people over promise and under deliver. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewBClarke Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 We buy and sell houses as a business and have to use Estate Agents etc. Some are good and some terrible. At the moment using one in Lincoln who seems to be brilliant and pushing through sales and updating sales details without us having to chase. Solicitors - generally you get what you pay for. Conveyancing firms are not worth a toss. With regard to your original question about searches - these are gained for the lenders benefit and not yours. You probably have not even been given a copy although you are the one paying. Presumably no issues were raised on the searches as the sale completed so the lender must have been satisfied. There are comments above about the surveyors reports - yes they are normally a waste of time and money with get out clauses etc. We don't bother with them. Just a valuation as needed by the lender. Do the rest yourself or get someone in who you know to take a look. We always get a plumber and electrician in before exchange of contracts. With regard to the additional management charge, go back to the conveyancing company with a well put together factual letter - you never know. Another way may be to contact the trade ombudsman of the management company if there is one or go directly to them. Either way good luck. None of us like the feeling of being done over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dombanks Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 The estate agents and mortgage lady were great for me it was just both our and the sellers solicitors that were totally useless and seemed to charge us for their incompetence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinten Posted May 18, 2016 Author Share Posted May 18, 2016 Solicitors - generally you get what you pay for. Conveyancing firms are not worth a toss. With regard to your original question about searches - these are gained for the lenders benefit and not yours. You probably have not even been given a copy although you are the one paying. Presumably no issues were raised on the searches as the sale completed so the lender must have been satisfied. That is news to me, but I can see why. With regard to the additional management charge, go back to the conveyancing company with a well put together factual letter - you never know. Another way may be to contact the trade ombudsman of the management company if there is one or go directly to them. Either way good luck. None of us like the feeling of being done over. Having now spoken to the conveyancing firm, they state that I would have signed a TP1 document which would have contained this information. Now I have pretty much copied every little stupid document I signed, but one... the TP1 I've still got some options: 1) see if the conveyancing firm has a copy (they send the original off to the Land Registry). 2) see if the Land Registry can provide me with the copy I signed. Am not sure this is even possible. 3) some residents in the area (thank you Facebook for Groups) do have a copy of their TP1, which although will be specific to their home, should hopefully proof if we were supposed to know all this or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephenh Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 Was this a new property when you purchased it? If so, a copy of the TP1 would be one of the filed documents which you can easily get a copy of from the Land Registry for a nominal sum. If the property wasn't new, then you would have signed a TR1 not a TP1, and it would have been destroyed once your purchase had been registered. However in that case, the original purchaser of the house (from the builder) would have signed a TR1 containing all the relevant rights, restrictions, and covenants, and a copy of that document will be filed at the Land Registry, and you could get a copy for a nominal sum from the Land registry. It never ceases to amaze me how many people say that their solicitor is [insert whatever profanity you think appropriate]! Why don't they find a solicitor who gives a good professional service? There are people who give a poor or incompetent service in every trade and profession. I personally try and find people who are highly recommended by friends or business associates, sadly however so many choose providers of services solely on the basis of cost. Generally in life, I find you get what you pay for. If you choose a cheap service, don't be surprised if you get a cheap service, if you see what I mean! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dombanks Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 it doesn't always work that way tho stephen. the solicitors I used came recommended by both our mortgage advisor and by one of our friends who used them in the past. It was only when the mortgage advisor talked to one of the senior partners that she knew personally that it all started to get going for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinten Posted May 18, 2016 Author Share Posted May 18, 2016 Was this a new property when you purchased it? If so, a copy of the TP1 would be one of the filed documents which you can easily get a copy of from the Land Registry for a nominal sum. Yes, new property. Do you know if I need to use form OC2 for this purpose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephenh Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 I think so Quinten, but I've been retired for over 3 years now, however, just looked on the Land Reg. website, and yes, that is the correct form. Make sure you are on the correct website, there are crooks out there who have a website that looks a bit like the L R site, but in fact they are a commercial organisation. You would probably still get your copy document, but it would cost you 3 times as much! Make sure the website you look on has "Govuk" in the address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinten Posted May 19, 2016 Author Share Posted May 19, 2016 Thanks Stephen, I may well have to request that then. I gather from others in my area that their TP1 only mentioned the single OSMC (on-site management company), so we may well have to get legal advice on this... it seems it is not uncommon to have a discrepancy between TP1 and Land Registry entries, but mostly that is about boundaries Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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