Money received late by Vendor on completion day

ms_tar

Hi,

FTB and worst experience of life.

I was due to complete last Friday. My solicitor did not receive money by Friday morning from the lender and chased them up ( do not know why was that not done on Thursday !!!). Money reached by solicitor's account on Friday afternoon and he sent the money through CHAPS directly to top of chain after 3:00 PM. Money did not reach the destination until around 06:00 PM when I got a call that I could collect the keys.

Now my solicitor is telling that we completed on Friday but the vendor has sent a bill for breach the contract which was suppose to finish by 02:15 pm on the Friday.

He hadn't told me the exact amount of late completion bill for the breach of the contract yet (although he indicates it is few hunderd pounds) and he is drafting explanation to me about lender's delay in sending money.

Now I want to ask: is there any specific time by which contract has to be completed? I thought it can be completed anytime by that day end.

Secndly, whose fault it is considered? sol's or lender's and would I be able to claim the late bill from any of them.

I will post more as soon as I get more info from sol.

Thx

[Deleted User]

I'll be watching this thread with interest, because I always thought that as long as you complete on the date agreed you'd be ok? Sometimes you have several people moving on the same day and if they chain is long, completion doesn't happen until late in the afternoon. Let us know what your solicitor says.

barnaby-bear

Van1971 wrote: »

I'll be watching this thread with interest, because I always thought that as long as you complete on the date agreed you'd be ok? Sometimes you have several people moving on the same day and if they chain is long, completion doesn't happen until late in the afternoon. Let us know what your solicitor says.

6pm would be after of close of business - sometimes they insist on times because the vendor probably needed to transfer the funds for his purchase so couldn't complete...

ms_tar

Thx for the posts...

I will write more once I get thee letter from sol but I want to mention that completion was on same day as I was handed over keys in the evening. Also my sol transferred money to the top of chain directly so releasing keeyss to myself should mean that money was received by vendor's vendor by Friday evening.

Generali

When I bought a flat, our buyers completed at about 4pm which is when CHAPS closes. This was considered late (although I got my keys on the right day) and a few months later I got a cheque for £2-300 (forget how much).

No idea who paid it though.

brazilianwax

2.15pm is a funny time.

Was it stipulated on the contracts at the point of exchange? That's when dates (and times if included) become legally and contractually binding.

rjm2k1

IANAL but what are they billing you for exactly? Even with breach of contract they would have to show that they had incurred extra costs due to the delay. I would expect that it's the responsibility of either your bank or sol, though they may attempt to sue you and you sue the culprit etc. They are probably just trying it on. As for the exact times, I guess it depends on what was on the contract, but if your sol is worth their salt ( along shot I know!) they shouldn't have allowed anything too specific to have been included.

benood

I'd pass it straight back to my solicitor and lender to sort out.

Generali

IIRC, penalty clauses were built into my contract for late completion. Wouldn't the loss be having to pay mortgage interest over the weekend/losing a weekend's interest on the funds?

If there's no penalty for completing late, there's no pressure to do so.

I agree with Benood. Let your sol sort it out.

Richard_Webster

Most contracts say the money has to arrive in the seller's solicitor's bank account by 2pm. If it doesn't, technically it can be treated as a late payment and interest charged.

Sellers have mortgages to pay off and this often has to be done by electronic bank transfer. Most solicitors consider it bad form to charge interest if the money arrives by the close of banking business which is sometime between 3.30 & 4pm. Others are awkward and insist on charging in any event.

If the mortgage can't be paid off for a day or two then the extra interest on the mortgage of a seller would be a fair enough charge - the contract rate is usually Bank Base Rate + 4% on the balance of the purchase price after the exchange deposit has been allowed for.

Who's fault? Difficult to say. Have a look at this thread where I explain the kind of nonsense that some lenders create before they will send the money:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=550114

I have just heard today that people buying a property from one of my clients are driving from Hampshire up to Leicester to present themselves with passports etc at the head offices of the Alliance & Leicester in the hope that will cause the mortgage money to be sent to their solicitors! You might wonder how the mortgage offer got issued in the first place without the ID!

knowledgeman

Sorry but you breached the contract

Close of business is 5pm, even if the contract didnt stipulate 215pm you failed to complete before close of business on friday and breached the contract

That is your/your solicitors fault and not the vendors etc etc

They have every right to be aggrieved