I will be the first to admit that I am aghast at the sue happy culture this nation has become, but for the first time in my life I have been so outraged by a situation that even I am considering sueing.
I placed an offer on a property in August last year and was told in November that the sellers didn't have the neccessary legal jurisdiction to sell the property as it belonged to someone else and they needed to register the power of attorney. I have extended my mortgage offer twice and I have been waiting five months for the sale. The mortgage offer is now due to expire for a third time and the house is still not legally mine or close to being mine.
1) Were the estate agents legally allowed to place the property on the market without first ascertaining whether or not the vendors had capacity to sell the property?
2) If not, were they legally obliged to inform me that this was the case?
3) If the answer to the above two questions is no, then who is responsible considering I have spent £800 already not to mention solicitors fees?
4) If I do sue, where do I stand? On what grounds can I sue?
I am considering sueing the estate agents, because they need to know that they can't do this to people. It's the principal.
Answer by mnwomen
Find another house if this one is tied up.
Answer by Quizzard
The estate agents have no such obligation to check ownership. That is the job of the solicitors for both sides. Once you found the problem, you should have walked away from the sale until they were legally capable of selling.
It's not clear how you have spent ANY money, but if you have it is not anyone's fault but your own for proceeding.
Answer by Michael Jones
If they lied to you in the process of arranging the sale, recovery of your fees is possible. Otherwise, it depends on intent - if they earnestly didn't know of the legal authority issues and are trying to catch up in good faith, you don't have much of a case beyond your inconvenience.
Answer by Spock (rhp)
not sure where this is, so I don't know which laws to apply. Not sure if law in this area is the same in Belfast, Wales, Scotland, etc. this is what a solicitor does --
in general under English common law,
1. no. sellers warrant to the agent that they have the capacity. agent works for sellers, not for you.
2. they weren't required to know and can't disclose what they don't know.
3. the sellers are responsible for their representations and/or misrepresentations.
4. misrepresentation of the facts which induced you to expend time and money to no avail. you may also be able to sue the sellers for failing to delivery the property.
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