Conveyancing solicitor’s negligence in failing to advise about lack of access to property
The Claimants bought a detached property in Kent which had been developed by the owner of the neighbouring land. Seven months after they completed the purchase they received a letter from the Treasury Solicitor advising them that a strip of land running along the front of the property between their garden and the public highway, belonged to the Crown. The letter formally objected to the trespass by the Claimants on the land. The Claimants had no other means of accessing the property.
A claim was made to the conveyancing solicitors who initially denied liability on the grounds that a reasonably competent solicitor would not have noticed the deed giving the benefit of the strip of land to the Crown which was buried in the deeds. The Land Registry plans were admittedly difficult to decipher.
Ultimately the solicitors indemnified the Claimants against the legal costs of suing the sellers to whom the Treasury solicitors had notified of the problem before completion. The sellers claimed not to have received two letters from the Treasury Solicitor.
The claim against the sellers was settled at the door of the court.
Our clients were compensated – through damages and indemnities - for every pound that they had lost.