Solicitors have left us homeless!!

anselld

bradders4 said:

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. 

Sellers cannot possibly confirm than no money was sent, only that it was not received.  As others have said, it was probably sent but missed the cutoff at either the sending or receiving bank.

ele_91

Agreed the only thing they could really have done was to hold off the whole thing until everyone was ready and got exchange done well beforehand. If you move again I would be insisting on a week between exchange and completion for this reason.

user1977

GrumpyDil said:

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.

Only if exchange had already taken place - I don't know what the normal protocol is for simultaneous exchange/completion, but I'd have thought it feasible for the funds to be transferred first (under appropriate undertakings) and everyone agrees exchange and completion once the money is sitting in the correct accounts.

GrumpyDil

user1977 said:

GrumpyDil said:

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.

Only if exchange had already taken place - I don't know what the normal protocol is for simultaneous exchange/completion, but I'd have thought it feasible for the funds to be transferred first (under appropriate undertakings) and everyone agrees exchange and completion once the money is sitting in the correct accounts.

I can only go on my same day exchange and completions where we exchanged in the morning and completed in the afternoon. Don't know if it can be done in the way you described but the OP's solicitors could normally only send the money for the purchase once they had received the money from the sale.

Either way that doesn't help the OP who needs to speak to their solicitors first thing Monday morning. 

pinkteapot

Just to say that you have my sympathies, OP - that must have been insanely stressful. On one move we had a delay of an hour or two getting in because the sellers were slow moving out, and I clearly remember the horribly disconcerting feeling of being outside a house, with our whole life on a truck, and thinking 'What if they don't leave?!' Adding stressed out kids to the mix must make it a million times worse. 

I'm staggered that your solicitor told you you'd completed without checking that funds had been received, or speaking to the EA. Like others, I'm betting completion will be confirmed first thing tomorrow when everyone opens again and you'll get the keys then. Make sure you keep the receipts from the weekend's accommodation and storage as you'll probably end up making a complaint to the solicitor and reclaiming the costs (you can't claim for stress but under the circumstances you may get a small goodwill gesture out of them). 

verytired11

This sounds so stressful.  I really hope you manage to get into the property tomorrow.  

peterhjohnson

user1977 said:
but I'd have thought it feasible for the funds to be transferred first (under appropriate undertakings) and everyone agrees exchange and completion once the money is sitting in the correct accounts.

I wonder about a system where everyone due to put net cash into a chain must send it to a special account for that chain the day before. Early on completion day, the institution holding the chain account notifies everyone that it has the expected balance (or not!) Keys are released before lunch and money distributed the same afternoon.

James-may

With the amount of money involved, it's unbelievable that if you miss a 3.30 cut off on a Friday, seemingly the banking industry can't resolve it til Monday morning.
The banks have been open through the whole pandemic, as they for some reason were deemed essential.
Not essential enough that they need someone working fri-mon though.

NQManchester

The individual bank cut off will be earlier to allow for processing but the market CHAPS cut off isn’t until 5:40pm so if your solicitor had noticed the issue on Friday afternoon it could possibly have been escalated at the bank. If the instruction is done correctly it only takes moments to arrive at the recipient account. 

As others have said the payment has probably fallen to the next working day and hopefully this will be resolved for you first thing. 

What a stressful situation you’re in! 

Irishpearce26

Hi OP I hope you're family were able to get comfortable over the weekend, what an absolute nightmare to be faced with.

I think the solicitor has really failed you here, they didn't ensure that both transactions were complete and then left for the weekend without confirming you completed. That is unethical and you have a case for compensation from the firm for neglecting your interests.

In the morning i would explain the situation to the call handler and ask to speak to the CEO/MD of the frim to ask for an explanation.