Move from hell, purchasers failed to complete HELP!

Megamonty

Hi

We were meant to complete on the sale of our house and purchase of another on Friday. Removals turned up, we loaded the lorry moved the animals and headed to the new house at 1.30pm just as our purchaser arrived at our house.

At 2.30pm we still had not completed, I called the solicitor and had been told the money had still not arrived. After a few frantic calls (we are number 3 in a chain of 4) it turns out the buyer at the very bottom was 17K short to make the initial purchase of 500K. Apparently some money had not arrived that his wife had apparently transferred. He is away in New York and she is visiting family in India???.

It was the very worst day of my life, I sat weeping in the estate agent as the Solicitor told me we definitely would not be completing. It was also explained to us that technically we could be liable for all the expenses from the house we were buying at just under 1M, and we would all need to sue down the chain. I have had one hours sleep in the last 3 days, I have chest pain and keep getting panic attacks as the stress is terrible. We have next to nothing at home, just a matress on the floor and a sofa. All our services have been cut off and my wife looks like she is about to commit suicide or go catatonic. Both clearly in shock at the moment, but has anyone any similar experience and what was the outcome?. Im worried that something we all do regularly could actually bankrupt me if it goes really bad..

Really need any advice as this is so rare!!!!

Megamonty

Im serious 95% of our belongings spread between two lorries, we have next to nothing.

Broadband cut off (im on an EE dongle we bought today)
Phone cut off
Post redirected
No TV as no sky boxes here, so when I say services disconnected im serious with the exception of electric and water.

We had white goods delivered to the new house today, and the Sky engineer went to put us on there.. clearly all useless as we never moved. It's a right mess... post pictures if it comes to it im no jam jar this is serious and we need help.

Generali

Megamonty wrote: »

Im serious 95% of our belongings spread between two lorries, we have next to nothing.

Broadband cut off (im on an EE dongle we bought today)
Phone cut off
Post redirected
No TV as no sky boxes here, so when I say services disconnected im serious with the exception of electric and water.

We had white goods delivered to the new house today, and the Sky engineer went to put us on there.. clearly all useless as we never moved. It's a right mess... post pictures if it comes to it im no jam jar this is serious and we need help.

Talk to your solicitor, you need proper advice. I suspect that this will cost the people that beggured up the chain a fortune.

Megamonty

I have and I will on Monday, we are just sat here stressing I can honestly say it's been a truly terrible experience. Just curious if anyone has actually been through this as the estate agents said they have not seen it happen in over 20 years. Also sounded like he was really startled and said it was a once every few years or so thing.

notanewuser

Soon as the offices open on Monday, speak to your solicitor. All sellers should issue a notice to complete within a timeframe of 2 weeks or something. I'm not sure whether the muppet at the bottom will be liable for all costs incurred by the chain or whether you'll all have to pay your own and then sue them. It doesn't mean that all deals are off. If everyone still wants to move and the missing £17k is tracked down there's no reason ou can't all set a new completion date and move.

It's just going to be extremely stressful and expensive in the meantime. Try and get some rest. It can all be sorted out.

eddddy

Hi Megamonty

In due course, you will be able to sue your buyer for damages in respect of your reasonable losses and expenses (who will then sue their buyer, etc.)

In these circumstances, I would say it's absolutely reasonable for you to get a hotel room - rather than sleeping on a mattress on the floor - and adding the cost to your claim.

Similarly, if you have no access to day-to-day essentials (e.g. clothes), it seems reasonable to buy them and add them to your claim.


From a legal perspective, your buyer has breached their contract with you:

the rule of the common law is, that where a party sustains loss by reason of a breach of contract, he is, so far as money can do it to be placed in the same situation, with respect to damages, as if the contract had been performed.

franklee

Never understood why every man and his dog wants to complete on a Friday, the only day where if things fail you can't get them put right next day due to the weekend.

Suggest you camp out and make the best of it and assume all will be sorted on Monday. If it's not your solicitor will serve your buyer with 10 days notice to complete. If it all happens within that time then costs won't be that much so try to get some rest for the weekend and don't panic.

Make sure the EA and everyone in the chain knows what's happening.

Hopefully your removal company will have all your things safely stored and will deliver them asap once the sale has gone through.

PS: Yep I've been through a late completion, the buyer kept us waiting the whole 10 days after our solicitor served them notice to complete. We just let it go as the property wasn't lived in so no inconvenience. I think the reason was they didn't want to cash in their fixed rate savings early or something like that. Why they didn't tell us upfront they needed more time I will never know. Could have charged them interest for the 10 days but it didn't amount to enough to bother. YMMV.

Doozergirl

It happened to us as well, but we were only selling so like franklee, we weren't terribly inconvenienced. It took until Wednesday for the buyers to find the £15k they were short.

I am almost certain that the money will be found shortly, whether the buyers find it or it comes from a shared price reduction along the chain, who knows.

You won't try and move house on a Friday ever again, that's certain.

It seems really bad now, but it will pass and be a distant memory. People live in far worse conditions on a permanent basis.

Take some deep breaths and calm down. It will be fine.

Alchemilla

It must have been a terrible shock, I confess I will avoid completing on a Friday for the same reasons.

moneyistooshorttomention

Just clarifying = you are actually physically in possession of the house and can get in it and use it can you?

If that's the case...then you have the major thing sorted = your possession is in your hands.

That duff buyer at beginning of chain shouldn't have been so blimmin' inefficient...but keep a record of all necessary expenses incurred because of Duffhead Buyer, so that you can claim them back from them at the end of all this.

I think Small Claims Courts handle claims of up to around £10,000 these days????? That being the case, it would only be a cheap, low-level court the buyers above Duffhead would have to take him to court for.

I would imagine "reasonable expenses" would include a couple of nights in a reasonable standard bed and breakfast place (ie not a grotty cheapie place, but not a luxury hotel either) and ditto to, say, having a main meal out each day (ie reasonable standard - rather than "grotty cheapie" or "luxury").

Davesnave

Yes we had a similar experience. We came home at 10pm to find our house had caught fire and was completely uninhabitable.

We had the clothes we stood up in. We were young and poor, so contents insurance was something we were still saving for. We'd just sold an inherited item, so the cheque was sitting there, ready to pay-in for that purpose. It didn't burn, but it was very black!

It took 6 months of re-building work before we could return.

A horrible experience, and we learned a great deal about loss adjusters, project management and dodgy builders, but we survived it, like you have to.

Good luck. Hopefully, your discomfort will not be long-running, or the delay expensive. It will be sorted and the party at fault will pay.:)