Solicitors have left us homeless!!

bradders4

Hi everyone 

I’m looking for some advice on what to do here please. 

Friday my family (2 adults and 3 small children) were left homeless with all our possession on a driveway because the money from our sale didn’t get sent to the purchases solicitors - at this point reasons unknown!

I received a phone call at 3:45pm Friday from the solicitors to say that the sale and purchase was complete, closely followed by an email confirming this. I went to the estate agents for the keys whilst my partner started to unload our belongings onto the driveway with the removal men (they had to leave at 5pm so needed to make a start for the second run).

when I arrived at the estate agents they said they’d heard nothing from the solicitors and couldn’t release until they had but would email them to chase. 30 minutes went by (4:30pm now) and we’d still not heard anything so she rang them. Nothing! I rang them - nothing! The sellers solicitors rang them - nothing! Phone lines cut off as soon as we pressed 3 to speak to someone. The sellers solicitors said that no one had contacted them to confirm money had transferred which should have taken place before close of business. They kindly stayed behind until 5;45pm to try and contact someone as did the estate agents who took pity on a woman hysterically crying at the prospect of being homeless with 3 children with all our possessions.

Basically I’ve had to find alternative accommodation all weekend and store my items until the solicitors open Monday morning to see what’s happened. 

My question is for anyone in the legal word is what should have happened and where do we go with this? Surely our solicitors have been negligent here leaving us vulnerable on the street? No one checked with the sellers solicitors that payment had been received or called the estate agents to confirm completion before leaving for the weekend. 

I cannot begin to tell you how stressful this situation was! Imagine 6pm on a Friday night with your entire home on a driveway with 3 small children, forced to leave your home as it’s not longer legally yours but neither is the one you were moving too! Devastated 😢

ele_91

You don’t know the money wasn’t sent, maybe it is stuck in the system somewhere. The happened to me on my last but one purchase, the money was sent too late in the day to make the CHAPS cut off. I got the keys Monday morning when they confirmed it had cleared. Were you in a long chain at the top or did you exchange and complete the same day? Maybe the money from your buyer came across late?

SuperHung

Captain hindsight here. Friday late afternoon is always a bad time to exchange. Hope solicitor didn't run off with the money.

GrumpyDil

SuperHung said:

Captain hindsight here. Friday late afternoon is always a bad time to exchange. Hope solicitor didn't run off with the money.

Nothing in the post suggests Friday pm exchange and completion was planned. It looks like a Friday completion and probably last in the chain to be done.

OP I'm assuming that the money was sent too late to be received by your sellers on Friday.

Not sure what could have been done and whether an undertaking from your solicitors would have sufficed but agree not ideal that your solicitors seem to have we emailed you and left without any sort of follow up. Maybe I'm spoilt but the conveyancer I've used on our last four sales/purchases always rings to confirm completion. 

rigare11a

ele_91 said:

You don’t know the money wasn’t sent, maybe it is stuck in the system somewhere. The happened to me on my last but one purchase, the money was sent too late in the day to make the CHAPS cut off. I got the keys Monday morning when they confirmed it had cleared. Were you in a long chain at the top or did you exchange and complete the same day? Maybe the money from your buyer came across late?

I used to work in a bank and most cut offs are 3pm - 3:30 this is a reasonable assumption based on your timelines above. I would assume the solicitors know this and maybe avoiding the calls because they have not processed the payment in time for a same day payment. Really awful if this is the case and I am so sorry for your situation. 

I would raise a complaint with the solicitor and bank to validate if this is the case and see if you can obtain compensation for the costs you will have incurred this weekend. 

I hope that this is sorted for you tomorrow and you will be able to move in and deal with the fall out after 

all the best to you 

bradders4

ele_91 said:

You don’t know the money wasn’t sent, maybe it is stuck in the system somewhere. The happened to me on my last but one purchase, the money was sent too late in the day to make the CHAPS cut off. I got the keys Monday morning when they confirmed it had cleared. Were you in a long chain at the top or did you exchange and complete the same day? Maybe the money from your buyer came across late?

The sellers confirmed that no money had been sent and that they’d received no notification from the solicitors to suggest that either. 

Very small chain - first time buyer, me and then my seller moved into rental 1 week beforehand. 

We should have exchanged 1 week ago but it seems everything ended up being done on the day. 

bradders4

GrumpyDil said:

SuperHung said:

Captain hindsight here. Friday late afternoon is always a bad time to exchange. Hope solicitor didn't run off with the money.

Nothing in the post suggests Friday pm exchange and completion was planned. It looks like a Friday completion and probably last in the chain to be done.

OP I'm assuming that the money was sent too late to be received by your sellers on Friday.

Not sure what could have been done and whether an undertaking from your solicitors would have sufficed but agree not ideal that your solicitors seem to have we emailed you and left without any sort of follow up. Maybe I'm spoilt but the conveyancer I've used on our last four sales/purchases always rings to confirm completion. 

It was planned and agreed for a completion on Friday - I even doubled checked Thursday and rang them twice on Friday to see what was happening. They said yep everything is going through. They rang me to say it was done at 3:45pm. 

ele_91

It really sounds like your sellers solicitor just hasn’t received it yet, with there being large sums of money involved the transfer isn’t instant. They won’t release keys until they have confirmation the funds are received by the sellers solicitor. Exchange and completion the same day in a chain of three will slow things down unfortunately. They may have not managed to exchange and get started until mid-morning especially with more transactions happening on a Friday. They’ll need to firstly confirm everyone is happy to exchange, then wait for the funds from your FTB before they can be then sent on to the seller and if that isn’t done by mid afternoon they won’t make the deadline.

That was the exact chain length when this happened to me and the problem was that my buyers solicitor wasn’t able to confirm they were ready to exchange until mid morning, so their funds were not received until early afternoon. By the time these were sent to my seller it was looking unlikely they would clear in time but my solicitor decided to try anyway, however they didn’t clear. I got a call from the estate agent first thing Monday to collect keys. 

Its a rubbish situation and the communication from your solicitor sounds poor but I would be hopeful for a positive outcome tomorrow when the money has cleared. Whatever happens, it is not your fault and it will get resolved.

bradders4

ele_91 said:

It really sounds like your sellers solicitor just hasn’t received it yet, with there being large sums of money involved the transfer isn’t instant. They won’t release keys until they have confirmation the funds are received by the sellers solicitor. Exchange and completion the same day in a chain of three will slow things down unfortunately. They may have not managed to exchange and get started until mid-morning especially with more transactions happening on a Friday. They’ll need to firstly confirm everyone is happy to exchange, then wait for the funds from your FTB before they can be then sent on to the seller and if that isn’t done by mid afternoon they won’t make the deadline.

That was the exact chain length when this happened to me and the problem was that my buyers solicitor wasn’t able to confirm they were ready to exchange until mid morning, so their funds were not received until early afternoon. By the time these were sent to my seller it was looking unlikely they would clear in time but my solicitor decided to try anyway, however they didn’t clear. I got a call from the estate agent first thing Monday to collect keys. 

Its a rubbish situation and the communication from your solicitor sounds poor but I would be hopeful for a positive outcome tomorrow when the money has cleared. Whatever happens, it is not your fault and it will get resolved.

Thank you. 

Makes sense I just can’t understand why we had a phone call to say sale and purchase was complete and to collect the keys from the estate agents and also if they knew that it was too late to complete on both by close of play, why they completed on mine leavening us on the street with children and the contents of a house instead of waiting until Monday with no idea of what was going on. 

Skiddaw1

I don't understand why they rang you to say you'd completed either. I really hope you get things sorted out tomorrow @bradders4 and whilst I can't suggest anything to help, I can at least send a few virtual hugs your way. What a nightmare....

GrumpyDil

OK. So it wasn't clear from the initial post that exchange and completion was same day which is always slightly more risky.

However, it wouldn't really have helped not completing your sale as that could have left your purchasers potentially with additional costs to be claimed as well.

I'd be speaking to your solicitors on Monday, to clarify what happened but given the 3.45 call sounds like they thought the money had been sent in time, albeit very tight to deadlines for receipt that day so I'm wondering if they should have contacted the recipient solicitors to confirm receipt by them.