When is completion day not completion day?

Grant_Urismo

I found this odd clause in my lease agreement, in the right to staircase section:

"Completion of the sale shall take place and vacant possession shall be given on a date agreed between the Transferor (or it's nominee as applicable) and the Transferee but failing agreement on the date four weeks from the date the valuer's assessment of the market value of the Property made pursuant to Clause 1.5 is received by the Transferor (or it's nominee as applicable"

I'd be really interested in any opinions on what this means in practice!

Our current situation is that over 3 months down the line and having failed to meet 3 different completion dates the vendors are still mucking us about and refusing to complete. Therefore we are in dispute over the completion date, which means according to this clause the completion date "shall be" about two and a half months ago!

Any ideas what this means and why it's in the lease?

G_M

The vacant possession bit seems strange.

My (limited) understanding of staircasing is that it is the buying of additional shares in a shared-iwnership property that you already part-own. Is this the case here?

In that case I'd assume you alreadt live there, so the vacant possession bit would be redundant.

If they (who?) have 'failed to meet' 3 completion dates, then presumably you've already agreed completion dates? 3 times.

So peraps if you explain what parts of the process have taken place, with dates, and in what way they are ' mucking us about '?

Grant_Urismo

The whole thing seems a bit strange!

Yes, I'm staircasing shared ownership to 100%, so the vacant possession bit makes no sense to me either.

'They' means either the vendor or their solicitors - I can't unravel exactly where the hold ups are, I suspect the vendor's solicitors are less than competent, as one of the 3 delays is down to them deciding they suddenly needed to replace the transfer document they drew up a week before, but I also suspect the vendors are very happy for the process to be delayed, as they get an extra 11 quid rent every day. The other delays are due to them giving us 11 additional pages of terms and conditions to agree to, sign and return just 2 working hours before completion day, and to them saying the couldn't get things signed in time.

I'll give a full timeline if you really want, but there would be 3 months of rambling 'we said/they said' stuff in it, perhaps it will suffice to say where we are now? Our solicitors have the mortgage funds and completion was supposed to be today, but the vendors won't take the money unless we sign something that I think we would be daft to sign. The vendor's solicitors have agreed it's wrong, but want us to sign anyway and they will change it later!

davidmcn

G_M wrote: »

The vacant possession bit seems strange.

I presume it means "possession not subject to the sellers' current interest as landlords".

As for the completion holdup, I would expect all the relevant procedure to be in the existing agreement - they shouldn't be entitled to demand that additional stuff gets dealt with.

Grant_Urismo

davidmcn wrote: »

As for the completion holdup, I would expect all the relevant procedure to be in the existing agreement

Me too, but it's not, hence my confusion.

G_M

Does staircasing not involve the same basc process as 'normal'purchases? Has Exchange of Contracts taken place? when?

Since OP now says they have a solicitor, why is their solicitor
a) not forcing Compltion since there is an (well, 3) agreed Completion date?
b) not explaining toOP what is going on?

The clause suggests however that the process is not as typical purchases, and that

"the date the valuer's assessment of the market value of the Property made pursuant to Clause 1.5 is received by the Transferor"

is somehow a binding date akin to Exchange.

davidmcn

G_M wrote: »

Does staircasing not involve the same basc process as 'normal'purchases? Has Exchange of Contracts taken place? when?

The contract is the one entered into between the parties when the original share was bought - it should set out how the staircasing can be triggered and the whole process required, you don't need an additional contract.

G_M

davidmcn wrote: »

The contract is the one entered into between the parties when the original share was bought - it should set out how the staircasing can be triggered and the whole process required, you don't need an additional contract.

Makes sense.

But then as the OP says, the clause quoted pins down the Completion date, just as Exchange would do.

If a party fails to Complete on the contractually agreed date, there is a process to enforce, and there are financial repercussions for the defaulting party.