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"Go-it-alone" House Buyer agrees to
use Solicitor
The man who had been told he would lose his £708
deposit and the chance to buy his three-bedroom coun-
cil house unless a solicitor signed one of the convey-
ancing documents bowed yesterday to the council's
demands.
Mr. John Pridmore, a factory worker, of Saint
Alban's,
withdrew
the
transaction
from
the
National House Owners' Society, which had been acting
for him, and put it in the hands of a solicitor for
completion.
The Luton solicitor now acting for him, who asked
not to be named, said he had agreed to take the case
free of charge on condition Mr. Pridmore paid to charity
the difference between what he paid the society and
the scale fee that would have been charged by a solicitor.
Mr. Pridmore has paid £35 to the society for acting
or him and £33 as fees for the council which is pro-
viding him with a mortgage. Solicitors' scale charges
for the sale of a £4,000 house with unregistered title
are £60.
St. Alban's Council had not allowed the sale to be
completed unless a solicitor had verified that photostat
copies and extracts of title deeds which they had sent
to Mr. Pridmore as the "abstract of title" corresponded
to the original title deeds still in their possession.
The National House Owners Society maintained that
the documents could be verified by anyone, not neces-
sarily a solicitor. St. Alban's Council insisted that it
should be a solicitor.
Threat to lose deposit and purchase of house
They warned Mr. Pridmore that if he fails to com-
plete the transaction within a month he would lose his
deposit and the chance to buy the house.
Last night Mr. Sydney Carter, founder of the National
House Owners' Society, said that as Mr. Pridmore had
been in danger of losing the house and his deposit they
had already sent a draft for the £3,400 outstanding to
the council and asked them to sell the house to the
society.
He had also included an open cheque for up to £100
to cover any incidental expenses. "We can sort out Mr.
Pridmore's mortgage later."
Mr. John Jeffrey, the council's deputy clerk, said the
council would not be able to sell the house to the House
Owners' Society. "It is a council house and subject to
all sorts of conditions."
He defended the council's requirement that the docu-
ments would only be certified by a solicitor. When the
council was granting a mortgage and the purchaser was
represented by an outside solicitor, it was this solicitor's
responsibility to verify the abstract of title and they
would accept his verification.
Mr. Carter, who has described the council's attitude
as "ridiculous" and as an attempt to extend the soli-
citors' monopoly in conveyancing, said he was sorry
Mr. Pridmore had decided to withdraw the case from
them.
"People are not prepared to fight the establishment
as much as we are. They just want things to go
smoothly. I can understand their point of view."
Delays due to town council's requirements
He admitted that there had been delays in the case
but claimed these were due to the council's require-
ment. "If Mr. Pridmore says he has paid rent he should
not have done we will look into it and compensate
him."
It would not be proper for the council's lawyers hav-
ing drawn up the abstract as seller to verify it as
mortgagee, he claimed.
A purchaser acting for himself would have to get a
solicitor to verify the abstract and pay him just for that
or instruct lawyers acting for the council as mortgagee
to do it for him at a fee, he said.
In recent years the Law Society, the solicitors' govern-
ing body, has kept up a running battle with the National
House Owners' Society and has warned of dangers of
entrusting conveyancing transactions to "unqualified
conveyancers".
Last November, a High Court action brought on
behalf of the Law Society against Mr. Carter was settled
alter Mr. Carter gave an undertaking that he would not
prepare conveyancing documents for "fee, gain or
reward" contrary to the Solicitors' Act. This protects
the monopoly of solicitors in conveyancing.
Daily Telegraph
(19th September 1972)
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