Solicitor messed up completion date

sgaforbes

Hi all,

So, my wife and are in the middle of a three part chain. We'd provisionally agreed a completion date of the 26th of April with our buyer, however, our solicitor put a date of the 7th of April to our seller. My wife emailed to clarify that we were working towards the 26th and the solicitor said she would confirm but never did. The particular trainee legal executive that was working on the case and said she would confirm left the company shortly after and handed our case to another trainee legal executive. Our seller has booked movers for the 7th and is unable to work to any other date. We've already been asked by our buyers to cover the loss in rent our buyer is facing. Furthermore, we don't yet know if our buyers funds will be available in time for completion on the 7th. If this is the case I'm aware there are likely to financial implications for our seller which I'm also aware are likely to be passed up the chain. Given that this has all stemmed from our solicitors negligence, should we be seeking to recover any added costs from them?

Thanks

saajan_12

Have you exchanged?
If NOT, your sellers shouldn't have booked movers etc on a 'provisional' completion date and if they did, that's on them not you/your sols. Your buyers weren't due the rent for 7th-26th April without a guaranteed completion, so you aren't liable for that either. Overall you aren't out anything as a result of a 'provisional' completion date so you don't have any losses to claim from your solicitors.

If YES, then find any proof of your instruction to your solicitor (or an acknowledgement from them) giving your original preferred date. If the solicitor has exchanged with the wrong date on either side, you buyer MAY be able to claim losses from you which you can claim from the solicitors. Please post back with the dates in each contract then.

Hoploz

Have contracts been exchanged?

If so, you will have to do it on 7th.

If not, nobody should be booking anything, as you don't know whether the deal will even go through at all.

Be warned, I had a buyer who threw his toys of the pram based on his own idea of when we should move, without his own sale even being ready to exchange on the date he had decided it was all going to happen on .... He ended up pulling out of buying my place at this point, because for some reason his solicitor not being ready to exchange and complete on that day was my fault. So my house had to go back on the market and he didnt get to buy it. Luckily we managed to sort finances out to buy our onward purchase a couple of weeks later without selling.

Be careful, there's are a lot of idiots out there.

sgaforbes

Thanks for the replies, very helpful indeed!

We've not exchanged yet no, I believe we're waiting for confirmation that our buyers funds will be available with the intention of going ahead with completion on Friday.

The wife and I aren't too bothered about moving earlier than planned, we're pretty well packed already. We agreed to cover £100 of buyers rent as he was refusing to request his funds otherwise, to try and minimise disruption for our seller.

It turns out being in the middle of a chain isn't much fun!

Thanks again for your replies, hopefully today we'll find out what's going on!

TBagpuss

As Saajan says, unless you have exchanged contracts and agreed a fixed completion date then it was never more than a proposed date and neither you, not your solicitor, are responsible for any extra costs anyone else in the chain has incurred.

If you have exchanged, then normally the contract would have specified a set completion date and no-one should have agreed to that date unless they know they could do it.

I would suggest that you go back to your solicitor and let them know that you ave never agreed any date except the 26th and that you still prefer that date and will not take responsibility for any costs anyone else may have incurred for picking a different date. If it is the agents who are chasing you, simply say "We never agreed 7th, we've made clear all along that we were working to 26th but in any event, we are not responsible for the sellers having made arrangement before contracts have been exchanged and a firm date set"

As a separate issue you can raise with your solicitors the fact that they made a mistake and that as a result, you are under pressure and that it's causing problems, but unless anyone n the chain is so !!!!ed off that they pull out, or your solicitors exchanged contracts with a completion date you had not agreed, then neither you or they are liable for other parties costs.

If the solicitors have exchanged and committed you to 7th then you can legitimately complain and ask that they cover any additional costs you incur as a result, but it doesn't sound as though that is the case.

ThePants999

Can't put it any better than TBagpuss. Nothing is set in stone until exchange, and anyone booking in non-refundable services prior to then is doing so at their own risk.

eddddy

sgaforbes wrote: »

We've not exchanged yet no, I believe we're waiting for confirmation that our buyers funds will be available with the intention of going ahead with completion on Friday.

So it sounds like you're exchanging and completing on the same day (or within a couple of days).

That's always going to be super-stressful. That's why most people go for a 2 or 4 week gap - its much more civilised!

If exchange and completion are on the same day, you'll be waiting for a phone call on Friday to tell you whether you're moving or not. The Friday phone call might even be to say the chain's fallen apart, and you have to put your place back on the market.

saajan_12

sgaforbes wrote: »

We've not exchanged yet no.

We agreed to cover £100 of buyers rent as he was refusing to request his funds otherwise, to try and minimise disruption for our seller.

Cool, if that works for you in keeping your chain together. As long as you know its all a negotiation, the £100 is essentially a goodwill payment from you, you were not liable for it so the solicitors can't be liable to reimburse you.

sgaforbes

Yea, we have a 5 week old baby so trying to minimise the stress of the whole transaction really. Oh, and I just started a new job last week Have now stipulated that if we don't have confirmation of the buyers funds by midday tomorrow we won't be going ahead with completion on Friday. Turns out our buyers solicitor is out of the office this afternoon, huzzah!

G_M

You've not exchanged so no one is commited to anything.

and no mistakes have been made (yet) by any solicitor or anyone else.

So no one has to compensate anyone for anything.

Contact your solicitor asap, both by phone and then confirm in writing exactly what your instructions are with regard to Exchange and Completion dates. That will clarify matters from your perspective.

My advice is that you do NOT try to do both on the same day. Instruct your solicitor to put a 2 week gap between. That gives you, and everyone else, time to plan the move with a fixed date contractually agreed.