How could this happen? Solicitor error.

susieb

I thought I had heard it all, but this one has surprised me. We exchanged yesterday, for completion on the 9th, this date was always agreed from a long time ago as my buyers needed this date. (We are actually going into rented as we are buying new build and its no where near ready). Anyhow its all signed and sealed for my sale for the 9th, then my poor buyer finds out their sale has a completion date of the 23rd on it, also signed and exchanged.
How can a solicitor do this, how the hell can they pay for my house 2 weeks before they get the money for theirs, I presume their solicitor is going to have to fund the gap somehow. My poor buyer is so stressed, I feel so sorry for them as they so desperately want the 9th, which has always been fine with me.
My solicitor says its not our problem, completion is set and contracts exchanged and penalties will be incurred if the completion date is not met. I'm sure there a massive panic underway at our buyers solicitors, but can anyone give any advice of what may happen?
How could this have happened, I thought such a mistake would be impossible to make, surely there should be safeguards of some form in place.

SammyD_2

Well, your buyer would have seen the contract before signing, so some fault at least must lie with them - the date is pretty fundamental, and they should have checked. I think having the person who signs the contract checking it would be the "safeguards" you refer to.

It does seem a bit of a stuff up, can you not just extend your sale to the
23rd as well so the buyers dates match? Or else change the date on their sale - if someone agrees to change the date so they are either all the 9th or all the 23rd, then I can't see the problem.

LittleTinker

You have exchanged contracts for the 9th.....so what is the problem for you exactly?

If they dont stick to that, then they lose their deposit and you have money for nothing.

susieb

Little tinker, I dont surpose I have a problem, I just wondered if this sort of !!!! up was usual.

silvercar

LittleTinker wrote:

You have exchanged contracts for the 9th.....so what is the problem for you exactly?

If they dont stick to that, then they lose their deposit and you have money for nothing.

Not exactly, you serve notice on them to complete and they have, I think 14 days, to do so. You get interest in the mean time.

In this situation can't you agree to reschedule for the 23rd?

susieb

Hi Thanks for that info silvercar, we can move our date to the 23rd without too much hassle (would lose removal deposit and have already paid for the rental accomodation for the 2 weeks from 9th to 23rd) but yes we can move, but its our buyers who really want the 9th and we have gone the rental route to help them etc, our own house will be ready on the 30th and the thought of us with 2 kids and 2 dogs doing 2 moves in 1 week is not appealling as we have incurred costs to allow the buyers the date they wanted, but of course, I could change, it just means not only 2 moves in 1 week but also that I will have incurred costs I neednt have done if I had hung on for the 30th.

silvercar

so tell them you can complete on the 9th or the 30th but no other day and leave them with the problem.

johnofhertford

I think SammyD is being a bit harsh on the buyer. We pay solicitors to look after our interests in the conveyancing process - in this case it ounds like the solicitor hasn't done that and is responsible for sorting out the mess. If the buyer was left out of pocket then, on the face of it, he or she would have a pretty good negligence case to bring against the solicitor.