The matter came to my attention through the following letter: “I read about you in the Bodrum Bulletin and wondered if you could confirm if my solicitor is right or not. I bought a house in a building cooperative and after a year discovered my previous solicitor had done nothing. She did not even check if there were debts owed on the house. When the cooperative asked me for site fees owed by the previous owner I changed solicitors, and my new solicitor said I am not responsible for these site fees, quoting a high court ruling. He has written to the cooperative with this information. However, the cooperative is continually threatening me saying that they will turn my water off, that they will turn my electricity off and that they will have me evicted from the house. Each time I tell them to deal with my solicitor, they will not answer him and come back and threaten me. My main question is: Am I responsible for these fees and can the cooperative charge 15 percent compound interest for the monies owed (if I am responsible) even though I have paid the fees owed each month since I bought the house? And, as they will not deal with my solicitor the fees are mounting each month. Hoping you can give me advice. Stuart.”
Dear Stuart (I love this name): Your new lawyer is right. You are not responsible for the former owner’s debts. I understand that you are closely following up with the monthly payments, and you have no pending payments. Simply ignore them. I know that this is difficult, but this is what you should do. The management has no power to cut off your electricity and water. If they do so, your lawyer can simply report them to the authorities.
The pending debt is related to the previous owner, and the cooperative can easily take legal action against the previous owner with the highest interest rate applicable. I am wondering why the cooperative did not put pressure on the previous owner but is instead chasing you this much. In the end, it could have been a very good idea to find out if the previous owner had any other assets or not. If he has other immovable property, it is very easy to get the money from him/her.
What about the former lawyer who did nothing about the previous debts?
Let’s make one thing clear: I am not writing on this topic because I meet inept lawyers or lawyers with bad intentions every day; it is a very rare situation for a lawyer to commit malpractice. The reason I will be writing on this topic is that I have received only a couple of questions and complaints from my readers who have had problems with their lawyers.
Your lawyer is free to provide services to you or not. It is totally up to your lawyer to agree to provide services at the beginning of your relationship. If your lawyer promises and undertakes a certain service and s/he fails to provide this service, or even worse, if she fails to perform it in a defective way, this is malpractice (I don’t even want to talk about “abusing a client.”)
Failing to check the debts of the previous owner is a malpractice issue. When conducting a conveyancing job, the lawyer should perform due diligence on the property. I will write about this matter in my next column.
NOTE: Berk Çektir is a licensed attorney at law and available to answer questions on the legal aspects of living in Turkey. Send enquiries to b.cektir@todayszaman.com The names of the readers are disclosed only upon written approval of the sender.DISCLAIMER: The information provided here is intended to give basic legal information. You should get legal assistance from a licensed attorney at law while conducting legal transactions and not just rely on the information in this corner.
