Completion with no keys!

MartiMcfly

Sorry long post!


Last month I (stupidly) attempted to complete on selling my flat and complete on the new property I was buying. To make things more complex, I was using two solicitors (one for my old flat, one for my new flat, due to my first solicitor not being on the panel for a great mortgage deal I found,  My old property completed by 10am and my solicitor emailed me saying funds were being sent to solicitor 2. Solicitor 2 are awful and I had a nightmare dealing with them on my purchase.

They didn't pass the funds of my new mortgage and hefty deposit for my purchase until after 3pm.

I was camped outside my new property at 3pm with all my worldly goods, having left my own flat as agreed with my buyer at 2pm ( my new place was vacant , the seller had already moved out to live with her boyfriend) the keys were due to be handed to me upon completion by the agent (interent seller rep)

After waiting for hours, my solicitor rang to say completion had taken place, its now 5.30pm! I rang the seller and she said no-one has contacted her, rang agent rep, he said no-one had contacted him. Furiious, I thought about breaking in, but the seller made it clear she'd send her family down if I dared !!

In the end I booked into a hotel and paid a massive sum for the removal men to keep my stuff overnight and then unpack it into storage in the morning.

As we were packing out a storage unit, me officially homeless despite owning a flat , my seller rings me that she got an email at 8pm from her solicitors saying she had completed and I may now have the ********* key. 

The estate agent rep met me and gave me the keys.

Now, I kept receipts of the hotel, the overnight charge for the removal van and the storage costs and it came to £2,300

Of course, my solicitor is blaming the seller solicitor, the seller solicitor is blaming my solicitor. the estate agent is blaming the seller solicitor and the seller is blaming her solicitor.

I'm writing up a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, hoping they can sort out who I can claim for my out of pocket, but any advice from anyone would be useful as I battle for comp.

HampshireH

MartiMcfly said:

Sorry long post!


Last month I (stupidly) attempted to complete on selling my flat and complete on the new property I was buying. To make things more complex, I was using two solicitors (one for my old flat, one for my new flat, due to my first solicitor not being on the panel for a great mortgage deal I found,  My old property completed by 10am and my solicitor emailed me saying funds were being sent to solicitor 2. Solicitor 2 are awful and I had a nightmare dealing with them on my purchase.

They didn't pass the funds of my new mortgage and hefty deposit for my purchase until after 3pm.

I was camped outside my new property at 3pm with all my worldly goods, having left my own flat as agreed with my buyer at 2pm ( my new place was vacant , the seller had already moved out to live with her boyfriend) the keys were due to be handed to me upon completion by the agent (interent seller rep)

After waiting for hours, my solicitor rang to say completion had taken place, its now 5.30pm! I rang the seller and she said no-one has contacted her, rang agent rep, he said no-one had contacted him. Furiious, I thought about breaking in, but the seller made it clear she'd send her family down if I dared !!

In the end I booked into a hotel and paid a massive sum for the removal men to keep my stuff overnight and then unpack it into storage in the morning.

As we were packing out a storage unit, me officially homeless despite owning a flat , my seller rings me that she got an email at 8pm from her solicitors saying she had completed and I may now have the ********* key. 

The estate agent rep met me and gave me the keys.

Now, I kept receipts of the hotel, the overnight charge for the removal van and the storage costs and it came to £2,300

Of course, my solicitor is blaming the seller solicitor, the seller solicitor is blaming my solicitor. the estate agent is blaming the seller solicitor and the seller is blaming her solicitor.

I'm writing up a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, hoping they can sort out who I can claim for my out of pocket, but any advice from anyone would be useful as I battle for comp.

These costs seem excessive for less than 24 hrs.

What was the breakdown in costs and for example how long did you book storage for?

You would have been expected to mitigate your costs.

Do people really complete at 8pm at night when everyone has gone home?

I expect the solicitor will stand their ground

user1977

MartiMcfly said:

I'm writing up a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, hoping they can sort out who I can claim for my out of pocket

That's not how it works, as you'll see by looking at their website. If you have a complaint about your solicitor, you go through their internal complaint process first.

MartiMcfly

HampshireH said:

MartiMcfly said:

Sorry long post!


Last month I (stupidly) attempted to complete on selling my flat and complete on the new property I was buying. To make things more complex, I was using two solicitors (one for my old flat, one for my new flat, due to my first solicitor not being on the panel for a great mortgage deal I found,  My old property completed by 10am and my solicitor emailed me saying funds were being sent to solicitor 2. Solicitor 2 are awful and I had a nightmare dealing with them on my purchase.

They didn't pass the funds of my new mortgage and hefty deposit for my purchase until after 3pm.

I was camped outside my new property at 3pm with all my worldly goods, having left my own flat as agreed with my buyer at 2pm ( my new place was vacant , the seller had already moved out to live with her boyfriend) the keys were due to be handed to me upon completion by the agent (interent seller rep)

After waiting for hours, my solicitor rang to say completion had taken place, its now 5.30pm! I rang the seller and she said no-one has contacted her, rang agent rep, he said no-one had contacted him. Furiious, I thought about breaking in, but the seller made it clear she'd send her family down if I dared !!

In the end I booked into a hotel and paid a massive sum for the removal men to keep my stuff overnight and then unpack it into storage in the morning.

As we were packing out a storage unit, me officially homeless despite owning a flat , my seller rings me that she got an email at 8pm from her solicitors saying she had completed and I may now have the ********* key. 

The estate agent rep met me and gave me the keys.

Now, I kept receipts of the hotel, the overnight charge for the removal van and the storage costs and it came to £2,300

Of course, my solicitor is blaming the seller solicitor, the seller solicitor is blaming my solicitor. the estate agent is blaming the seller solicitor and the seller is blaming her solicitor.

I'm writing up a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, hoping they can sort out who I can claim for my out of pocket, but any advice from anyone would be useful as I battle for comp.

These costs seem excessive for less than 24 hrs.

What was the breakdown in costs and for example how long did you book storage for?

You would have been expected to mitigate your costs.

Do people really complete at 8pm at night when everyone has gone home?

I expect the solicitor will stand their ground

The removal firm charged me by the hour, so effectively I had them from around 9am to 8am the next day,

We completed at 5.30pm, but it APPEARS the seller was informed at 8pm, the EA wasn't informed at all.

MartiMcfly

user1977 said:

MartiMcfly said:

I'm writing up a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, hoping they can sort out who I can claim for my out of pocket

That's not how it works, as you'll see by looking at their website. If you have a complaint about your solicitor, you go through their internal complaint process first.

user1977 said:

MartiMcfly said:

I'm writing up a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, hoping they can sort out who I can claim for my out of pocket

That's not how it works, as you'll see by looking at their website. If you have a complaint about your solicitor, you go through their internal complaint process first.

I have gone through formal complaints with both solicitors, neither one accepts any responsibility. I've spent the last 6 weeks doing so. SRA for breach of conduct ( firm 1 were negligent in passing funds after 3pm despite having funds deposited at 10.30am from my sale) firm 2 were negligent as their client wasn't informed at close of business completion had taken place, causing her to breach contract and refuse giving me keys.

I've documented all emails with both firms in my SRA complaint

Thrugelmir

The funds transfer is normal. Fault lies elsewhere.  When was the EA informed that completion had taken place? 

PollyWollyDoodle

You need to distinguish between negligence, poor service and breach of conduct regulations. 

Nothing you have said above would suggest a breach of regulation, so it’s unlikely that the Solicitors Regulation Authority will take it up. A complaint about the service you received would be dealt with by the Legal Services Ombudsman.  If you are alleging that your solicitors were negligent and that you have lost money as a result, then you may need to take out a civil case against them. 

GDB2222

The purchase contract probably stipulated that the money needed to reach the seller by 2pm. It didn’t, and you were in breach of contract.  There’s a procedure for dealing with this, which fortunately was not followed, as it would have cost you even more. 

You can’t transfer the money late and then complain that the sellers didn’t release the keys immediately. In other words, the sellers and their solicitor are bulletproof.

Your complaint is about whichever of your solicitors was responsible for the late transfer, if either. CHAPS transfers are not instant, in any case. So, solicitor 1 gives instructions to the bank, but solicitor 2 may not get the money until hours later.

Thrugelmir

GDB2222 said:

Your complaint is about whichever of your solicitors was responsible for the late transfer, if either. CHAPS transfers are not instant, in any case. So, solicitor 1 gives instructions to the bank, but solicitor 2 may not get the money until hours later.

Cut-off for banks is for instructions to be received by 1pm. Banks then have until to 2pm to process. Receiving bank then has to process and notify the receipient. 

The use of two solicitors will have pushed the second CHAPS towards the back of the queue. Transactions being dealt with on a first come first served basis. 

MartiMcfly

Thrugelmir said:

The funds transfer is normal. Fault lies elsewhere.  When was the EA informed that completion had taken place? 

EA was informed by the seller who rang me in the morning very sheepishly. She arranged for a relative to hand the keys to the EA (who didn't have the keys) and the EA met me and gave the keys. EA is one of those shoddy internet EA's...

Thrugelmir

MartiMcfly said:

Thrugelmir said:

The funds transfer is normal. Fault lies elsewhere.  When was the EA informed that completion had taken place? 

EA was informed by the seller who rang me in the morning very sheepishly. She arranged for a relative to hand the keys to the EA (who didn't have the keys) and the EA met me and gave the keys. EA is one of those shoddy internet EA's...

If the EA wasn't given the keys by the vendor then there's no justification to paint them as being shoddy.  I'm surprised that the vendor didn't receive an email until 8.30pm. Something is amiss.