Delay in Completion😳

Lozzer008

Hello! I was wondering if anyone has experienced this problem with completion?
We exchanged over 2 weeks ago and set yesterday as our completion date and left our home.
The sale of our house went through and the keys have been handed over to the new owners. However, the funds sent from our mortgage company for the house we are purchasing did not reach our solicitors until after the cut-off point for transferring the money and the top of our chain refused to accept the undertaking from our solicitors that the money would reach them on Monday..
So we have no home this weekend and had to send our removal company away with all our belongings to put in storage, costing us an additional £1200 in storage fees alone!
Our mortgage company have said they sent the money before the cut-off but our solicitors are saying that the funds arrived in their account 20 minutes after the cut-off - we really don't know how we now stand contractually as it is technically our part of the chain that has failed to complete on the agreed date?!
Advice would be greatly received!!!

G_M

I'm afraid your storage costs are the least of your worries. You will also be liable for your seller's costs, since you failed to Complete.

And their sellers, will claim costs off them, who will pass the costs on to you. And so on up the chain.

Whether you can pin the blame on either your mortgage lender, or solicitor, is your next step. But with each blaming the other it will be an uphill task. You may need to use a seperate solicitor, a specialist in litigation, to sort this out.

Do you have legal cover extension on your home insurance? Or legal help as part of your union benefits?

Start doing everything in writing and keep records. avoid the phone, as any excuse, or admission (if you're lucky) made to you by phone will be hard to prove later.

jamei305

My solicitor always requests the mortgage funds the day before to avoid this problem. Completion is then possible before 10am.

pleasedelete

The storage costs seem high. Are they actually unpacking the van or just storing the stuff to deliver on Monday? Is some of the cost a 2nd delivery charge?

G_M

pleasedelete wrote: »

The storage costs seem high. Are they actually unpacking the van or just storing the stuff to deliver on Monday? Is some of the cost a 2nd delivery charge?

I suspect the OP was in no position to shop around, and the removal company quoted what they thought they could get away with.

And if OP accepted the quote, not much he can do now. But as I said, that's the least of his worries.

Lozzer008

Being liable for the other expenses in our chain is what we are really concerned about! I'm assuming these would be submitted via our conveyancer?

I do have the legal cover with our house insurance, but when I spoke to them regarding this, they said that I should be speaking with our conveyancer regarding this matter..

I also thought that mortgage companies usually transfer the funds the day before too, especially as we had over two weeks between exchange and completion!

The storage fees also include the redelivery on Monday (well hopefully Monday!!!)

Thanks for your advice guys!

csgohan4

that's quite high storage costs, double my removal fees. Ouch,


My completion is not due this Monday but the lenders are unable to send the money in yesterday as it would mean a reissuing of certificate of title which would be more hassles from the solicitors and delay things as the lenders need recheck.


I hope it goes well.

Lozzer008

I know! The original costs were £525 but it's the weekend that has cost us!

Hope all goes well on Monday! 😊

csgohan4

Lozzer008 wrote: »

I know! The original costs were £525 but it's the weekend that has cost us!

Hope all goes well on Monday! 😊

I lied it's triple my removal costs

ancientofdays

I do hope this works out for you

PasturesNew

One'd like to believe that this will end up coming out of the solicitor's pocket. It's got to be between the solicitor and the lender.

However, I can appreciate that being homeless, with the extra costs, isn't helpful if you've not got the spare beans to rub together and cover all your outgoings in the interim. Reimbursement's only OK for the wealthy.

A small plus point ....at least it's not the weekend before Xmas, in the freezing cold/dark etc.