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

Bossyboots

silvercar wrote:

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

She doesn't need to have for this. In this instance, she is now the opposing party acting in person. They therefore do have to speak to her. They cannot discuss with her the ins and outs of the mortgage account but their failure to ensure sufficient money was paid to discharge the mortgage means she cannot register the property she has just paid for. She is entitled to ask them how they are going to sort it out and in what time frame. Subject to their answer, she will then have to decide whether to press them to pay it themselves and/or inform them that they will need to pay the late registration penalty.

The solicitors who handled the purchase may sort it out with no additional charge but it is not part of the standard process and they would be entitled to charge extra for the work.

The vendor's solicitors should not have completed without sufficient funds in their account to discharge the mortgage, even if it meant delaying completion. The contract would have provided for purchase of the property free of encumbrances and this has not happened.

silvercar

The vendor's solicitors should not have completed without sufficient funds in their account to discharge the mortgage, even if it meant delaying completion.

I thought the mortgage provider would have to agree that the sale can proceed in such circumstances.

Bossyboots

silvercar wrote:

I thought the mortgage provider would have to agree that the sale can proceed in such circumstances.

Yes they would, but the solicitors have a separate duty to ensure that they have sufficient funds in hand or due from the sale to discharge the liabilities. Therefore if there is a shortfall on the mortgage on sale, the solicitors would need to have those funds cleared in their client account before completion. Otherwise the contract cannot be performed as the property is not sold free of encumbrances. The question here is whether they misread the redemption statement or if the early redemption fee was not included on it. If they forgot to ask their client for the shortfall then they have been negligent and can be sued for consequential losses if they refuse to make them good.

Without sight of the paperwork it is impossible to know whether the solicitor or mortgage company made the mistake so the OP needs to get onto her solicitor or the vendor's solicitors as a matter of urgency to find out what happened.