A real estate team has cost its firm over €8.5 million because it failed to register a client's land.
In 1994 leading Irish firm LK Shields acted on the £765K purchase of five industrial estate lots for its client, Rosberg Partners. However when the firm tried to register the purchase, an error was discovered on one of the plans which meant it couldn't complete the process. It took two years for the firm to start asking the seller's solicitors if they could help sort it out.
Fast forward 11 years to the teetering climax of the Irish property boom, and Rosberg's next door neighbour offered to buy one of the lots from it for €10 million. To the horror of sweating LK Shields partners, it turned out that the associate who had inherited the file had continued the same gentle game of email tennis with the seller's solicitors for the last decade and the 1994 purchase still wasn't registered. As a result the sale had to be abandoned.
Justice Michael Peart ruled that LK Shield's error had prevented Rosberg from being able to sell the site, which is now valued at just €1.5 million (and remains unsold). The firm has been ordered to pay its ex-client the difference of €8.5 million, plus a sum to be assessed which arises from Rosberg's inability to pay back an €8 million loan which the sale would have enabled it to settle.
A spokesman for the firm told RollOnFriday "an appeal is under consideration by our insurer's legal team who are handling thismuch quicker than we would".
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In 1994 leading Irish firm LK Shields acted on the £765K purchase of five industrial estate lots for its client, Rosberg Partners. However when the firm tried to register the purchase, an error was discovered on one of the plans which meant it couldn't complete the process. It took two years for the firm to start asking the seller's solicitors if they could help sort it out.
Fast forward 11 years to the teetering climax of the Irish property boom, and Rosberg's next door neighbour offered to buy one of the lots from it for €10 million. To the horror of sweating LK Shields partners, it turned out that the associate who had inherited the file had continued the same gentle game of email tennis with the seller's solicitors for the last decade and the 1994 purchase still wasn't registered. As a result the sale had to be abandoned.
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"It's been my top priority" |
Justice Michael Peart ruled that LK Shield's error had prevented Rosberg from being able to sell the site, which is now valued at just €1.5 million (and remains unsold). The firm has been ordered to pay its ex-client the difference of €8.5 million, plus a sum to be assessed which arises from Rosberg's inability to pay back an €8 million loan which the sale would have enabled it to settle.
A spokesman for the firm told RollOnFriday "an appeal is under consideration by our insurer's legal team who are handling this
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