My Buyers Failed to complete on completion day

paye

Today was suppose to be completion day for the sale of my property, however this didn't happen as my buyers failed to complete. I was told by my solicitor that the people at the bottom of the chain their banks are requesting for some additional paperwork on completion day.

Obviously my buyers are homeless I'm ok as I've got somewhere else already to stay for a few days. My query is shouldn't all the paperwork be completed before the exchange took place, why is that on the day of completion the bank decided to ask for additional paperwork from the people down the chain. I'm losing money now so everyday completion is delayed I will still be paying interest on my mortgage. I wanted to know if I can instruct my solicitor to issue a final notice to complete within 5 days. If after 5 days completion hasn't taken place can I take my buyers to court for failure to complete. Essentially they are in breach of contract.

G_M

Yes, you claim ALL your expnses from your buyer.

He in turn can pass all HIS expenses(which of course includes yours) to HIS buyer for failing to Complete.

And so on down the chain. The FTB who was the cause of everyone's distress, cost inconvenience, picks up the whole bill.

It is VERY unusual for a mortgage lender to raise issues this late - it may be they have just discovered (just an example) that the FTB was not totally honest about his salary or employer and are seeking confirmation....

mrginge

Hurrah it's completion day for us too!

Or it was...

Looks like a little problem with the buyers solicitor. Lucky i'm such an easy going kind of chap

Elfbert

I was a day late completing on my purchase - nothing to do with me, everything to do with HSBC/Countrywide being a complete clusterf**k and faxing papers to another client's solicitor!!

Anyway, I agreed to pay my seller's interest on his mortgage for the one day (£10!) and, thankfully, by the next day, following much crying down the phone by me to HSBC, someone figured out they had the wrong number and everything sailed smoothly through

(I'd been homeless for 3 months by then - £10 seemed a small price to pay to finally get it done.)

Your situation sounds a little more complex, but do explain to your buyer that they must just pass the cost on down the chain (in case they don't realise and just go into a panic.)

ACG

The downside to that is if the bottom of the chain is struggling to get a mortgage and you pass your costs on and so on and so on, you may find they have to pull out completely as they can not afford it - in which case you are then waiting maybe a another month or so to complete.

mrginge

Fortunately for us we have split our sale and purchase so no real damage has been done.
Of course, fingers had better be pulled out first thing monday or my patience will quickly start to run out.

Elfbert

You've just reminded me why I told my solicitor that I refused to schedule completion for a Friday! I said no later than a Wednesday, because I refused to wait the weekend if anything went wrong! So it was agreed for a Wednesday, happened on the Thurs. once everything was sorted.

A stipulation I will definitely insist on next time too.