I moved house at the end of December and am still trying to get hold of guarantees/building regs./warranties etc. all of which were recorded as available on the TA6 Property Information Form filled in by the people who owned the house.

My Solicitor is being less than helpful and is just saying he doesn't know what to do next (he's tried to contact the people I purchased from (who were nightmares) with no joy - surprise, surprise) and I just want to know who it is I should be chasing for these items. Should it be my Solicitor or the Solicitors who acted for the people I bought the house from? As it stands I have no deeds (apparently lost), only have land registry docs., and no guarantees for windows/doors, building works done and electrics all of which are supposed to still be under guarantee.

Well I could be wrong but I think it is your solicitor who should have checked these matters anyway both before and after the contracts were exchanged, may be the other parties solicitor could be of help if not perhaps a complaint to whoever one complains to when a solicitor fails to come up to expectations.

I believe the deeds for a house are all held electronically now - I did ask my solicitor if he would store them for me but he said it would be wasting my money due to no longer needing to have the originals in your posession. It was fascinating reading them and seeing who had lived in our house before.  Your own solicitor should be able to confirm this - deeds used to be held by the mortgage company and were released to owners following repayment of a mortgage.

> I believe the deeds for a house are all held electronically now

Yes - they are :) The deeds to our previous house were destroyed by fire when they were stored at the mortgage company's 'safe' storage facility ! :) When we subsequently sold the house in 2009 we had no problems (although the mortgage company had provided us with insurance to cover any problems) because they were no longer required.

We also didn't get any guarantees etc when we bought this house, but the quality of the double glazing was so awful anyway we ripped it out :)

The thing is I was told there were guarantees and so expected to receive them. According to my Solicitor, the sellers Solicitor was told the guarantees would be left in the house, which they weren't.

I am not a solicitor, but I think the information that the sellers put on the pre-sale form is now legally binding. If they say the house has been rewired or not had problems with the neighbours and you subsequently find this not to be true. I am sure I have read somewhere that you can sue for compensation.
My advice would be to go back to your solicitor, it is his responsibility to make sure all the legal requirements were in place at the time of sale, and if there are subsequent problems he should take it up with the sellers solicitor.
You paid him in good faith to do a job, and if he has not fulfilled his obligations then you can take it up with the law society.
Hope it all works out, have a look at some forums like, money saving expert or just google  it is surprising what comes up.

> all of which were recorded as available on the TA6 Property Information Form filled in by the people who owned the house.

I would press your solicitor on this as these details should form part of the contract, I would imagine.

interesting

See section 6 'The seller should list all the guarantees affecting the property and if not already supplied the buyer's solicitor should ask for copies'

Solicitors seem to be very bad at this sort of thing :( When we were buying this house, the seller's solicitor couldn't come up with the details of the planning permission for an extension. I had to find the details on the council website and send it to our solicitor (who is a very good friend of ours :( )

I finished my mortgage less than a year ago, and I was sent the deeds shortly after.

We were sent the paper copy of our deeds when they went electronic, a few years before we paid off the mortgage.

The deeds can be obtained electronically if you write in to request them which should have been done by your solicitor.

As for the build regs etc if they said they would provide them then legally they will have to do this or if the paperwork in unavailable you can take out an insurance policy to cover and liability to cover things like this which the house sellers again should pay for if they are unable to provide the documents. ( This is what we had to do on our house purchase)This is something your solicitor should have been dealing with and I would be quite insistent they sort it out. If they refuse then I suggest you say that you will take this further and go through three stages to complain detailed here.

http://www.theadvisory.co.uk/conveyancing-solicitors.php

This is the reply I've had from my Solicitor (names etc deleted for obvious reasons) which I really don't think is satisfactory:

"There are no Deeds as we once knew them. All that is now required as proof of ownership is the Land Registry print out that was sent to you on 15th January.

There is no legal obligation to provide any documentation relating to the services. But it is good practice to do so. Obviously both the **** and their solicitors do not practice it. I have tried on numerous occasions to obtain the originals of the documents but as you know without success. Quite frankly, I do not know what more I can do. I cannot force them to supply the originals if the **** did not give them to their solicitors . As you know they told their solicitors that they would leave them in the house for you.

It seems to me that the **** handling of the matter throughout left something to be desired."

Now from reading various links supplied by yourself and Daisy (many thanks), it appears there IS a legal obligation to provide these items and I feel as if my Solicitor is trying to fob me off.

I think so it seems like you need to escalate through the steps provided.

The deeds are very important . For example we have access to our house via an in adopted road. In our deeds it flatly show permission was granted and if any changes are to be mad they have to go through proper legal proceedings to change out right of access. Not having deeds that state this would mean we could be at risk of having the access to our house cut off.