Possible Delayed Completion (Scotland)

Stej1544

Hi
Myself and my partner are looking for some advise as to our options regarding a possible delay in completing the purchase of a house.

We had an offer accepted on October 2nd and were asked by the seller if we could sort everything quickly and move in today (October 25th) as they had another property they wanted to move into. While it seemed difficult to do everything in 3 weeks, we agreed and pushed everything as hard as possible.

We managed to get it all sorted and on Wednesday this week everything looked fine. The problem now however is they've been told that their new house isn't actually available & they appear to be trying to delay things, we are supposed to get the keys today however our solicitors are advising that they haven't heard anything regarding where/when we get them!

As our mortgage/insurances etc all start today we are starting to get a little concerned and wandered where we stand if we didnt get the keys today, can we force them to move out or go down another route?

Thanks for any advise, very stressful time!!

davidmcn

You'll be speaking to your solicitor today anyway.

You can't force the sellers to do anything if you haven't concluded missives (which I'm guessing is the case) - either they (or you) are legally free to renegotiate or walk away.

As for your mortgage, if your solicitor already has the funds and doesn't need them, they will be able to send them back to the lender with no (or little) charge. You can cancel your insurance (should be a cooling-off period).

Stej1544

Yeah we intend to contact the solicitors shortly and find out what's going on.

We concluded missives on Wednesday about 1pm actually & then everything seemed to start going wrong late Wednesday afternoon

The seller didnt get told of the delay to her new property, we got told that first through the estate agent and had to advise her solicitors about it!

Might just be us panicking a bit but all seems to be quite a strange situation, thanks for the advice about the mortgage funds & insurances, that was our main concern just now!

davidmcn

If you've concluded missives then there is a contract (so we're probably just talking about a delay rather than the whole thing falling apart), and they're liable for any direct expenses you've had to incur. Which hopefully won't be a huge amount if you're not sitting in a removal van with all your possessions and nowhere else to sleep.

Stej1544

That's reassuring to hear so thank you. We arent sitting in a moving van as such but do have a ton of stuff ready to move today and a van hired so going to be a long day I think!

Hopefully find out shortly when our solicitor has her coffee and decides to answer the phone!