Advice needed-House completed but issue with seller-im worried!!

mrdee0

Hello,
I purchased my house which completed onthe 8th.
Got a letter addressed to previous owner arrive.

Its from the previous owners mortgage Halifax saying:

...'there is a shortfall of 2000 in the amount recieved to repay the mortgage account. This is due to early repayment fee.....'

it goes on...

'Until we recieve the funds to allow us to close the mortgage, we regret we are unable to vacate our interest inthe property and seal the discharge documents, we will also be closing our file pending recipet of the funds'....


Im little worried now- should the solicitors have all this sorted out prior to completion?? Does halifax legally have rights to my house?

Where do I stand??

Thanks all!!

Doozergirl

I'd speak to your solicitor. It was the full responsibilty of your vendor's solicitor to ensure that mortgage funds were fully repaid and they should have informed your solicitor if they knew there was going to be a shortfall.

I'd be insisting that their solicitor covers the shortfall until they can reclaim it from your vendor so that you can get the transfer completed. I suspect you won't be able to register properly as owners until that charge is relinquished.
Halifax will have written to your vendor's solicitor aswell, no doubt so it won't be the first they've heard of it.

I wouldn't be too worried though, it was probably a simple mistake, easily rectified.

Cara79

I'm amazed that completion could have taken place if the vendor hadn't paid the full mortgage fees to release their interest on the deeds. I would speak to your solicitor immediately about this.

Also, technically you shouldn't have opened the previous vendors post, but at least you're aware of the situation.

Get onto your solicitor ASAP and let us know.

david29dpo

if the vendors solicitor has boobed, which sounds like they have, they WILL have to pay, or claim off there insurance. you have nothing to worry about. this happened at my friends office recently and it cost them £25k! the partner involved was sacked. the solicitor can try to claim it back from the vendor if they can find them, but i have never heard of one that has.

david29dpo

sorry, above should say your solicitor, not vendors.

PoorDave

I know this has revealed something to do with your house purchase that has worried you, but there is no way in the world you should be opening the previous owners post! How would you feel if the previous occupant of your address is doing the same?

Also surprised the house reached completion in this case. Presumably having done so, Halifax's "small print" allows them to take more money of your vendor.

mountainofdebt

But lets face it ...if I was the OP I would be more worried about the contents of the letter than the fact that I wasn't supposed to open the mail.

ukmike

but there is no way in the world you should be opening the previous owners post!

But maybe the name was blocked off,only the address showing through the envelope window?

cattie

ukmike wrote:

But maybe the name was blocked off,only the address showing through the envelope window?

Ahh, but when this happens it's very simple to just tear a little bit of the envelope above the window panel back to reveal the name of the addressee.

Bossyboots

david29dpo wrote:

sorry, above should say your solicitor, not vendors.

Surely the mistake is the vendor's solicitors', not their own. Only the vendor's solicitors are privy to the sums involved and the contract will have provided for all debts to be discharged. There would be no evidence of this being done until after completion. The vendor's solicitors should have retained sufficient money to discharge the mortgage redemption in full so it is they who have made a mistake and they who will need to pay it out until it can be recovered from the vendor.

The property cannot be registered in the OP's name with the outstanding charge on it so their own solicitor will have their application rejected.

The issue that comes to my mind is who is going to pay the legal fees to sort this out. I would suggest the OP contacts the vendors solicitors direct and tells them he/she is now acting in person on this issue and sorts it out with them direct.

silvercar

The vendor's solicitors should have retained sufficient money to discharge the mortgage redemption in full

Assuming there was enough money from the sale of the property to clear all charges.

The issue that comes to my mind is who is going to pay the legal fees to sort this out.

You instruct your solicitor, at the agreed fee, to do the work necessary to registar your ownership of the property. So there should be no extra to pay. Your solicitor will also be acting for your mortgage company so will have an obligation to them to secure their charge on the property.

I would suggest the OP contacts the vendors solicitors direct

I doubt they will speak to her, she has no contract with them.