Farscical

The first few posts were totally justified as you provided no background, and missed vital information.

You also did not specify what kind of advice you were seeking. So constructive responses were inevitably impossible at that stage.

You had not Exchanged, therefore there was always uncertainty about Completion. The Completion date was not legally 'agreed'. It is only legally agreed when Exchange takes place.

The sensible thing to have done when Exchange was delayed (as often happens for any number of reasons) was to renegotiate a later Completion date.

If you had instructed your solicitor, for example, that you wanted a 1 week gap (or 2 or 3.....) between Exchange and Completion, then whenever Exchange happened, you'd then have had time to plan.

But that is advice for next time.......

Oh, and telling posters not to reply again never works. People are free to comment when and how they wish.

AnotherJoe wrote: »

I do think OPs solicitor was at fault for not explaining to a FTBer the inherent risk in this,

Solicitor isn't responsible for their clients actions though. Simply works on the instructions given. Completion dates before exchange are clearly not set in stone. This would have said to their client at some point in the process.

AdrianC wrote: »

In a chain, of course, such an instruction is really only an expression of preference, to be passed up and down the chain. The others may agree, and it'll be so - or they may not, .

Indeed.

But in this case it appears the OP's solicitor was working on the instruction from the OP to Complete on X date. So when Exchange slipped, the solicitor continued to work toward X date for lack of any other instruction.

Or OP may in fact have re-iterated his desire to Complete on X date resulting in the ever-decreasing gap between Exhange/Completion, and, ultimately, the failure to hit the date at all.

AdrianC wrote: »

Or everybody in the chain was still pushing for completion on that date, and the exchange slippage was just trying to work with that, despite some numpt not having finished the paperwork...

Or someone not getting the cleared/vetted funds into place in time.

We've all been there before ourselves in the past. Waiting for everything to drop into place. There's inevitably someone in the chain that threatens to pull out. If matters drag on. Stressful time. We all vow never to do move again. Yet we do. C'est la vie.