Guides · Professional negligence · Series
You paid a lawyer to check. They didn't.
What a conveyancer was meant to check before you bought, and what happens when they didn't: missed search results, covenants, rights of way and boundaries, unauthorised works, leasehold traps, how loss is measured, getting your file, complaining, and the time limits that catch people who only find out when they come to sell.
9 guides · about 49 minutes to read the lot · England & Wales
Read in order, or jump in
Conveyancer negligence, start to finish
Conveyancing negligence: my solicitor missed a right of way, restriction or planning problem
The most common conveyancing failures, the difference between a service complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and a negligence claim, and what you need to prove that the mistake caused your loss.
3 min02My conveyancer didn't report a problem in the searches
What local, drainage, environmental, mining and chancel searches are for, why a conveyancer must explain the results as well as obtain them, and how causation and loss work when an adverse result was missed.
6 min03A restrictive covenant stops my plans and my conveyancer never warned me
When a conveyancer should have explained a restrictive covenant, what indemnity insurance does and does not do, how an application to the Upper Tribunal under s.84 Law of Property Act 1925 works, and how loss is measured: cost of cure or drop in value.
6 min04No planning permission or building regulations sign-off: my conveyancer didn't pick it up
What a conveyancer must do when a property has been extended or altered, how long councils have to take enforcement action in England and Wales, when indemnity insurance does and does not help, and how loss is measured if the problem was missed.
5 min05Leasehold conveyancing negligence: short lease, ground rent and service charges my conveyancer missed
What a conveyancer must check and explain when you buy a leasehold flat or house — the unexpired term, the ground rent, the service charge and planned major works, and the restrictions in the lease — and how loss is measured when they get it wrong.
6 min06Right of way, easement or boundary problem: did your conveyancer miss it?
How rights of way, access and drainage rights and boundary discrepancies should be picked up on a purchase, what the buyer is expected to notice, and where HM Land Registry's own rectification and indemnity scheme fits in.
6 min07Conveyancing negligence: how the courts measure the loss
No-transaction and successful-transaction cases, diminution in value against cost of cure, consequential losses and wasted costs, the scope-of-duty limit, loss of a chance, and what reduces the figure.
6 min08Getting your conveyancing file and complaining: the firm, the Legal Ombudsman, the SRA and the CLC
Which parts of a conveyancing file belong to you, how a subject access request differs from asking for the file, how the complaints route works from the firm's eight weeks to the Legal Ombudsman's £50,000 limit, and why none of it stops the clock on a negligence claim.
6 min09Found the conveyancing problem when selling? How the time limits work
Why the limitation clock for a conveyancing claim usually starts at the purchase, not when the problem comes to light, how the contract and negligence periods differ, when the three-year knowledge rule and the fifteen-year longstop apply, and why the pre-action process needs time built in.
5 minFrequently asked
Can I claim against my conveyancer for something they missed?
Yes, if a reasonably competent conveyancer would have found and explained the problem, and you can show what you would have done differently and what that has cost you. Solicitors and licensed conveyancers must carry professional indemnity insurance, which is what usually pays a successful claim.
Is a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman the same as a negligence claim?
No. The firm's own complaints procedure and then the Legal Ombudsman deal with poor service, with a cap on what can be awarded. A negligence claim is for financial loss caused by a breach of duty, is not capped, and follows the Professional Negligence Pre-Action Protocol. A complaint does not pause the limitation clock for a court claim.
I only found the problem when I came to sell. Is it too late?
Not necessarily. A negligence claim usually has six years from the date of the purchase, or if later three years from when you knew or could reasonably have known the material facts, subject to a fifteen-year longstop (Limitation Act 1980, ss.2, 14A and 14B). The date you found out matters, so record it.
What will I get back?
Not a fixed sum. Loss is usually measured by what the mistake actually cost you: often the difference between what you paid and what the property was worth with the problem, or the reasonable cost of putting it right, plus losses that flow directly from it. Only a solicitor who has seen your documents can assess it.
When you’ve read enough
Work out where you stand in five minutes.
The check asks for the survey date, the date you found the problem, a value band and what you hold. It gives you an estimated deadline, the likely court track and a report you can take to a solicitor — and, only if you ask, an introduction to one.