So Stressed out!

jawa1

Sold house last Feb but it fell through at last minute as couple below us split up!

Sold again 12 weeks ago with a chain of 5 – 4 below us. A completion date was all agreed by all parties but then found out 2 days before moving at the end of July that first time buyer has not got mortgage offer! Everything in our house was packed and people above us had moved out into rented.

The FTB was being chassed and hassled by several people every day about getting the mortgage offer and in the end when it was clear that the completion date was not going to happen she said that if people did not stop hassling her she would pull out

Anyway on Tuesday I was told that the mortgage offer for the FTB is now in place and have a completion date of Thursday 23/08/2007. But that date is really not suitable for us so this Tuesday my solicitor sent a fax saying that date was unsuitable and can we have another date before then.

It is now Thursday and not heard anything back. When I speak to my solicitor she just says “Well I sent person in the chain below a Fax on Tuesday”

Should be chasing my solicitor or EA to get a completion date or should I just wait until I get a phone call?

I know all this probably sounds pretty trivial but they have been so many hurdles with house move.

ono_no_komachi

I know how you feel! It will be your solicitor who contacts all parties to sound out suitable dates, etc. The EA can sometimes prove a useful point of communication but it's only your solicitor who can say whether a certain date will be possible.

I would be tempted to call the solicitor with a range of dates that are better for you than the 23rd and ask them to put those specific dates to the other parties in the chain. Don't forget you may also need a 'drop-dead' date by which you need to exchange in order to achieve a certain completion date.

Best of luck!

krispy444

Your solicitor can only talk to parties either side of you ie your buyers and your sellers. However the Estate Agents can "chain hop" and ring further down the chain to find out whats happening etc. So maybe it would be an idea if your solicitor hasn't heard anything to contact the agent so they can help sort it. Good luck

jawa1

A week has gone by with me phoning solicitors and EA most days but still not got any idea of a new completion date.

Do solicitors normally take this long!?!

ono_no_komachi

Problem is, until everyone in the chain is ready and willing to exchange there can't be a firm completion date.

It's a bit of a catch-22, everyone needs to have a mutually agreeable date for exchange to take place, but only once exchange takes place does that date become fixed.

We've had a hell of a time trying to get a mutually agreeable date (well we had two, but all parties weren't ready to exchange in time); we now think that everyone has managed to agree on the 29th, but we are anxious for exchange to take place to fix that date, because we know there are still no guarantees until exchange has happened.

Maybe the solicitors are making sure all legal issues are cleared before further discussion of dates is possible. Have you asked them specifically if there are any outstanding issues in the chain?

krispy444

jawa1 wrote: »

A week has gone by with me phoning solicitors and EA most days but still not got any idea of a new completion date.

Do solicitors normally take this long!?!

It depends really whether they are hearing back from the other solicitors below you. If you imagine in a chain each solicitor sends a letter/fax/email or even phones the solicitor below them and each of them do the same to the bottom, then you have to wait for the reply to come back up. This can take time, even longer if you don't have a solicitor who is chasing the reply up. Your solicitor could have followed up the fax with a phone call. In the fax that was sent was no other date suggested ? Were you just relying on someone else suggesting one ?

I still think that you should use the Estate Agents more to sort this out, afterall they will want their commission so let them earn it :rolleyes:

Good luck

jawa1

Well last Friday (17th) we finally all agreed via the solicitors to complete this coming Friday.


My solicitor says we should complete Monday (today) or Tuesday, just waiting on the rest of the chain below!

I need exchange as soon as possible but I just don’t trust solicitors to get things sorted quickly.

jawa1

Friday was moving day just!

In a chain of 6, at 12:30 solicitors number 3 in the chain sent the money. It never arrived at the next solicitors and resulted in all the people above not getting the money!

At 4pm the solicitors served notices on each other for failing the contract to complete and then shortly after agreed to start to do an undertake and then had to speck to all the clients to see if everyone would agree. Apparently it was a bit of nightmare trying to get in touch with everyone and at first the person at the top did not agree!

With the solicitor closing at 5 we are all getting very worried!

At 4.55 fax were sent out to EA and the keys were released

Well we finally got the key at 5.10 pm.

We did not think our buyer would get to our EA in time to get his keys so we took a spare set just in case and started to drive back to our now old house but got a phone call on the way to say he got to the EA at 5:25 (they closed at 5:30!)

What a day.

Moral of the storey, will never sell a house again in the chain more than 3!

Hopefully all the money will get sorted out on Wednesday.

Not sure at this stage how bad the extra costs are going to be with the solicitors failing to complete and then the time to setup the undertake. Pretty worried about this but will just have to wait and see!

spring_chicken

Blimey! What a nightmare! You mention extra costs? Why should you have to pay extra if its the solicitors fault? I agree with you, never get in a long chain, its too risky. Good luck in you new home.