Legal mess up

beaniepole

I've had a nasty situation where the seller (Property Developer) gave me a legal completion date, asked me to sign some paperwork and so on.

It then transpires 2-3 weeks later that although their sales office believed it was the case, they didn't inform their legal team. No one told me about this and I only found out 3 days before "completion" that there was no way it was going to happen for at least 6 more days.

I've arranged all kinds of things like termination of my current tenancy, time off work (too late to realistically undo that now), appliance deliveries, removal van, utilities, etc. The amount of personal inconvenience is huge. It's also going to cost me a lot of money!

Question is, do I have a leg to stand on? I never chased the legal team or my solicitor to ensure the completion date was realistic - foolishly taking the word of the seller.

Any pointers or experience in this area would be greatly appreciated.

kingstreet

If you have exchanged contracts with a set completion date and the vendor fails to meet that commitment, you can sue them for breach of contract and expect to have all your expenses covered as a result.

You use the term "Property Developer." Are you buying a newbuild? If so, it's normal for you to exchange contracts with completion "on notice" which means the builder lets you know a couple of weeks before, that the property will be ready and completion will take place on such a date.

Could you please set out what has happened here and the circumstances of the purchase.

beaniepole

Hi there, sure - it's a new build as you say and we did exchange 'On Notice'.

I received such notice about 3 weeks ago over the phone confirming the 29th as the date. This was then re-affirmed on the familiarisation visit about 2 weeks ago - their forms (which I think are more for record keeping) also listed completion date as the 29th.

Verbally I'd been told 29th and the house is ready. The problem is that they hadn't told their legal team, so I'm guessing that although they told me they're ready to complete, legally they had none of the paperwork done.

The sad thing is that no one knew this before I started making noise yesterday and got Taylor Wimpey's legal team to call their sales office to work out what went wrong...

This is why I'm not sure if I have a leg to stand on, they have been telling me verbally 29th yet their back-end processes failed.

nidO

If you've been given notice of completion on the 29th (and have this on paper as well as verbally) but they aren't ready to actually complete on that date, you can as kingstreet has mentioned bill them for all costs you rack up with not being able to move on that date.

You may wish to make very clear to them that you can and will be doing so, it might knock some butts into gear to get them shifting. If the house is ready and the legal work at your solicitor's end is ready and the only issue is Taylor Wimpey's legal team, they can get that sorted by tomorrow if they find a solicitor with time to block out of their diary, and they'll probably be much more inclined to do so if you make them abundantly clear how much not doing so is going to cost them.

loubel

You need to ask your solicitor whether notice has been served. I would be surprised if it has given you say your solicitor hasn't contacted you by the day before you are expecting to complete!

Thrugelmir

You haven't mentioned your solicitors once in your posts.

Were you communicating with them?