Exchange and Completion disaster

chopper78

We are in a four house chain (top house is vacant, our house is the bottom of the chain, selling to someone buying for BTL purposes). We're about 12 weeks on from when we accepted the offer on our property.

We originally wanted to complete for 21st August but because conveyancers don't work efficiently, this day came and went and all parties agreed on 26th August and for various other reasons, this date has been agreed for the past couple of weeks but we ended up agreeing to exchange and complete on the same day. Today.

We got the kids to my parents to get them out of the way, and the dogs in kennels yesterday and last night I picked up my truck for removals, started dismantling furniture and today loaded up the truck. My online banking confirmed my mortgage was advanced last night so all happy there. I e-mailed the solicitor at 9.30am who came straight back to me saying all was good, she was just awaiting the chain. So far so good.

About 10.45am, I was quite pleased as the truck was fully loaded and ready to go, when about 10 minutes later my vendor's estate agent called. Bad news. The move was off.

It turns out that our buyer's solicitor (a large nationwide chain of conveyancing uselessness) had originally agreed to the date, but then the conveyancer went on holiday and so nothing was progressing at their end. Our buyers hadn't paid the deposit, and they hadn't requested funds from the bank. It wasn't going to happen.

They were then saying they'd try and work towards Friday as the exchange and completion date, although this is now not going to happen.

So basically all parties in the chain were loaded up into trucks ready to go, and I have spent the day trying to get information out of estate agents and conveyancers (So what exactly am I paying them for?). My solicitors this afternoon said there was no way that the buyer's solicitor would get everything done ready to complete on Friday and so have sent the money back to the bank.

It looks like tomorrow I'll be unloading the truck back into my house (and put the bulky stuff like the sofa in storage) with plenty money wasted to this point.

What a disaster, completely caused by my buyer's conveyancer's incompetence and negligence, and there will be no come back on that.

The whole system of conveyancing is absolutely broken in England. Nothing is done proactively and it seems nothing moves if you don't chase all the time. If I applied this appalling level of professionalism and lack of care in my work, I would have been fired very quickly. I suppose conveyancers work on the basis that they don't expect repeat business, so why bother putting in any effort?

rosie383

This is why I took advice from this forum and refused to exchange and complete on the same day. I feel for you.

G_M

chopper78 wrote: »

We originally wanted to complete for 21st August
that is just a vague target. nothing definate
but because conveyancers don't work efficiently, this day came and went
perhaps it was because the conveyancers were doing a thorough job that the day came and went. Better than have them cut corners....
and all parties agreed on 26th August and for various other reasons, this date has been agreed for the past couple of weeks but we ended up agreeing to exchange and complete on the same day. Today.
Always highly risky to Exchange/Complete same day

Until you Exchange, any one of 92 seperate things can arise, delaying exchange. If Completion is same day.......

We got the kids to my parents to get them out of the way, and the dogs in kennels yesterday and last night I picked up my truck for removals, started dismantling furniture and today loaded up the truck.
If all this ws required, definately a bad idea to Exchange/Complete same day. Only really works if not actually moving that day.

My online banking confirmed my mortgage was advanced last night so all happy there.
???? no idea. Why was the mortgage sent to you, not your solicitorr?
I e-mailed the solicitor at 9.30am who came straight back to me saying all was good, she was just awaiting the chain. So far so good.

About 10.45am, I was quite pleased as the truck was fully loaded and ready to go,
Bitpremature surely, if you have not yet even Exchanged? Ah well - I read on....

when about 10 minutes later my vendor's estate agent called. Bad news. The move was off.
So. No surprise there.

It turns out that our buyer's solicitor (a large nationwide chain of conveyancing uselessness) had originally agreed to the date, but then the conveyancer went on holiday and so nothing was progressing at their end. Our buyers hadn't paid the deposit, and they hadn't requested funds from the bank. It wasn't going to happen.
As I said, if move-in date is critical, exchange in advance.

They were then saying they'd try and work towards Friday as the exchange and completion date, although this is now not going to happen.
delays to exchange are common.
Once exchanged, delays to Completion are rare. very rare.

So basically all parties in the chain were loaded up into trucks ready to go, and I have spent the day trying to get information out of estate agents and conveyancers (So what exactly am I paying them for?). My solicitors this afternoon said there was no way that the buyer's solicitor would get everything done ready to complete on Friday and so have sent the money back to the bank.
Wise.

They should now be advising you (and the others in the chain) to Exchange asap with a Completion date a week later that you can the all plan for properly.

It looks like tomorrow I'll be unloading the truck back into my house (and put the bulky stuff like the sofa in storage) with plenty money wasted to this point.
Yup.

What a disaster, completely caused by my buyer's conveyancer's incompetence and negligence, and there will be no come back on that.
No. Caused by over-confidence and under-planning by all.
But yes, no come back.

The whole system of conveyancing is absolutely broken in England.
Not if it's done as most sensible people do it. Exchange, then organise day off work, removal van, kids to parents etc, and then Complete calmly & with confidence a week or 3 later.

Nothing is done proactively and it seems nothing moves if you don't chase all the time.
My interpretation is that the problem is most buyers/sellers have poor expectations of the process. They want/expect it to move fast, so they chase. They expect the chasing to speed up things, which in reality often cannot be speeded up. Then they blame lazy, incompetent, whatever conveyancers.

If I applied this appalling level of professionalism and lack of care in my work, I would have been fired very quickly.
It is probably precisely because care IS being taken, that it is taking longer than you want/expect.
If the conveyancer did not wait for answers to Enquiries, or for the LA to return the seraches, THAT would be unprofessional
I suppose conveyancers work on the basis that they don't expect repeat business, so why bother putting in any effort?

No comment on the final statement. My earlier comments cover it.

chopper78

I really didn't want to exchange and complete on the same day, but we were pushed down the route partially by someone else further up the chain who was quite specific on when he wanted to complete, but we also wanted it out of the way this week and it has been the timeframe we have worked to. The fact that conveyancers don't appear to do any work in parallel (so one document, put it in a pile, wait for it to be chased before dealing with it, move on to the next document) simply meant that what should have involved a decent gap between exchange and completion ultimately turned into no gap and then a failure.

I am of the opinion that I have pretty much had to project manage the whole thing myself, so maybe next time I'll just do my own conveyancing. It certainly doesn't seem to need any form of skill whatsoever.

alchemist.1

chopper78 wrote: »

I suppose conveyancers work on the basis that they don't expect repeat business, so why bother putting in any effort?

The only way of making any money in conveyancing is volume. The level of service you are expecting isn't something majority of people want to pay more for.

chopper78

G_M - not really much I disagree with you on there.

I'm not sure about overexpectation on the part of conveyancers. I do expect the process to be managed better and it seems they refuse to move into the 21st century to move things on a bit. The problem here isn't one of the solicitor being diligent, it is a paperwork exercise that they failed to do because instead of proactively moving on with things, it just ended up at the bottom of the pile.

Kynthia

I'm sorry that it happened to you and must of been an incredibly stressful day. However there was a huge risk of it happening as exchange of contracts is often delayed last minute. That's why people have time between exchange and completion so that they can have a definite completion date to work towards. Also it's completely insane to exchange and complete on the same day if you are moving out/in on that day and are paying for removal firms and other expenses.


Next time insist on no less than a week between as you are moving between properties. My seller insisted on five weeks because she'd done nothing throughout the whole process and now needed to organise her whole move and three adult children.

matttye

If you exchanged and set the completion date at the point of exchange you could have sued for breach of contract and probably got your wasted costs back.

Exchange and completion at the same time is really not ideal.

Do you realise that before you've exchanged contracts, the person can pull out altogether? So you could have had your dogs in the kennels, truck loaded up and then the seller could have said "Nah I'm not selling after all." and there's not a thing you can do about it?