DeTrafford Buyers

Please refer to the attached Warning Notice provided by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and issued to all regulated solicitors, which include the solicitor firm retained by you to undertake the conveyance of your purchases for apartments in the DeTrafford property schemes. Please note, it is very likely your solicitor retained for the purchase/s in the DeTrafford property schemes may have contravened the SRA Warning Notice and is therefore likely to be liable to you for damages. This means your deposit paid and the cost of any furniture package you have committed would be wholly recoverable from your retained solicitor or their professional indemnity insurer. Please contact us to assess your eligibility for this recovery.

View SRA Warning Notice

Don’t miss this opportunity – once a certain number of purchasers are onboard and the recovery action is commenced, it will not be possible for other purchasers to join. This is because our third party recovery will be against the conveyancing solicitors professional indemnity insurers and as such, there is a cap on the limit to insurance cover. Therefore the TPR is limited on a first come, first serve basis.

Whilst a “no win, no fee” might appear attractive, the small print will show that a client may still have to pay the lawyers expenses and disbursements, all of which can run into considerable sums and reduce the overall compensation amount received. This is the case even if the claim is not successful. In addition, under a “no win, no fee” model, the percentage deductions from the compensation received can be considerable leaving the claimant with little return.

Finally, claims such as these require a minimum commercial threshold of claimants in order for lawyers be able to act. Finding claimants to join requires significant resources. I&L’s transparent business model is such that an up-front fee is required to assist with these substantial costs, however no other fee will be asked for, other than the % recovery fee at the end. This includes disbursements, expenses and costs of experts.

“This link to a Legal Ombudsman Report on “no win no fee” agreements gives examples of how the schemes are structured, and case studies of the significant and unexpected costs”.

View complaints report

Additionally, please follow this link to our recent article on 'no win, no fee' arrangements.

If settlement is reached before legal proceedings are initiated, it is typical to anticipate a favorable outcome within 12 months. However, if proceedings are initiated and a court hearing date is scheduled, the resolution may take up to 24 months. Nevertheless, based on our experience, these claims tend to settle before reaching a court hearing due to the strong evidence supporting them. We will provide updates as significant events occur during the claims process.

The Third-Party Action operates separately from the Administration process, which is expected to be lengthy, taking approximately 3-5 years, and may ultimately yield a negligible dividend. Engaging in the Third-Party Action presents an opportunity for you to recover your funds independently of the Administration process. We strongly advise you to take immediate action to protect your position.

In legal terms there is not a finite time to bring about a Third Party Claim.  Generally speaking, this period is 6 years from the date of the breach of contract.  This link provides helpful detail on the matter.  We have found that most purchasers signed their contracts with Detrafford from 2018 onwards, meaning from 2024, the risk of being time barred from bringing a Third Party Claim will become real.

This means if purchasers are waiting for dividends from the Administration process, which is likely to take 3-5 years, they will be time barred from taking any future action.  In addition, NHBC confirmed to the Joint Administrators of the Wavelength development that “investors will only be covered in the event that they signed up to the policy individually, cover is not automatic and that no claims will be processed by NHBC until such a time as the outcome of the Administration is confirmed”. We can assume that the NHBC position will apply to the other developments in Administration.  Again, if you chose to wait for NHBC, which is reliant on the Administration process, purchasers could find themselves time barred from taking third party actions.

There is always a risk with litigation. However, the lawyers are very confident with the evidence they have that there is a strong case for negligence and that proceedings may settle out of court.

In the Administrators Progress Report, NHBC confirmed to the Joint Administrators of the Wavelength developments that “investors will only be covered in the event that they signed up to the policy individually, cover is not automatic and that no claims will be processed by NHBC until such a time as the outcome of the Administration is confirmed”. We can assume that the NHBC position will apply to the other developments in Administration. You will be aware that the Administration process may take many years - by which time you may be time barred from making any third party claim for your deposit recovery. This is why we advise you to act now to safeguard your position. Furthermore, the most the NHBC will pay is 10% of the purchase price, therefore if you paid a higher deposit, you will not be covered for more than 10%.

Where the lawyers are instructed to act for a purchaser in our Third-Party Recovery, they are willing to liaise with NHBC on their behalf in relation to the insurance protection and attempt to ascertain whether they are likely to receive payment under the warranty. This gives you the benefit of two courses for deposit recovery – via NHBC and via your conveyancing solicitor.

We have a proven track record in claims such as this, which can be viewed on our sister website here. The lawyers are experts in their field and are confident of a positive outcome though there is always a risk with litigation. However, to date, and at this stage, our success record is 100%.

We do understand you feeling vulnerable in this situation; however a leading reputable London law firm has been retained to take action against your conveyancing solicitor - they have considerable experience in such cases, and are very confident of a successful outcome and will be working in your best interests at all times.  We have a successful track record in claims such as this, which can be viewed on our sister website here and our Trustpilot reviews can be found here.

The claim will be made against the Professional Indemnity insurers of the conveyancing solicitor; therefore, the trading status of your conveyancing solicitors does not matter.

UK Company Review is a trading style of Insolvency & Law, a multi-award-winning consultancy firm serving company directors, business owners, and individuals with specialist insolvency and debt-related solutions. Established since 2009, incorporated and based in England and Wales.