Help! What can I do? Attorney screwed up title and other things?

[Chris Y.]

We have used the same attorney for a few purchases and recently came to realize he screwed up many things. 

1. He failed to find out there is an open permit on the house. The previous owner applied for a permit to expand the waste water system from 2 bedroom to 3 B capacity, but he never finished the work, so the permit was not closed. The house is still a 2-b house. But we bought it thinking it was a 3 bedroom house. The seller disclosed it as a 3 bedroom as well. 

what can we do: go after the seller and seller's agent? 

What upset me the most is our attorney failed to find that out which is a very straight forward thing to do?  The town clerk said it is a matter of reviewing the town's records, which is like attorney 101. 

Can we demand compensation from the attorney for being negligent on that? what is the best way to proceed? Sue the attorney?

We do have title insurance, but not confident we can get compensation from the title insurance company. Does anyone have experience?

2. The attorney also failed to ask the outstanding balance on another property's water bill? We ended up having to pay $500 plus for the water bill. This is not enormous amount but the city said if the attorney asked about it, we would be able to press the seller to pay for it. 

Could anyone advise how I can go after the attorney? Do we really have to bring a suit against the attorney to get something back? 

thanks much.

[Steve Vaughan]

I consider checking for open permits and checking utility bill balances part of my DD.  O&E title searches will only show ownership history and recorded encumbrances / lis pendens.

Like you said, they are checked with a couple phone calls. I do it myself.  With the title of your post I thought your attorney  messed up the deed or something.

it's still worth checking any seller disclosures that were filled out to check if the seller disclosed or hid something, but I don't expect my attorney to check simple things with the city.