Completion with no keys!

user1977

martindow said:

where_is_my_mind said:

Surely if you received a phone call at 5.30 to say you had completed you could have just broken in/ got a locksmith out. The seller can’t complain about you entering your property as after completion it had nothing to do with her. 

Not ideal of course but better to pay an emergency locksmith than the huge costs you seem to have paid?

Would a locksmith break in for someone who said they were buying a house and had just had a phone call to say it had gone through?

Probably, given my last locksmith encounter involved them breaking into a house on the basis of a phone call saying my stepdaughter required to get in...

MartiMcfly

Thanks for the advice from all. Due to one solicitor not being on the panel for a mortgage deal for my new place, I ended up with 2 solicitors.
Looking back, I should have just broken in and dumped my stuff and gone to a hotel.

I did call a locksmith, showed him the emails from my solictor and he saw the removal men, thieves generally don't break in with removal vans , and he was happy to break in for me. In the end, my tearful wife and child made me change my mind- who wants to start their new home by breaking in like some criminal ?? And at that point I didn't know if the vendor would come down and kick off with her family, I wasn't going to put my family through that.

I have contacted the legal ombudsman, but given their backlog, (up to 14 months I've heard) I don't expect a reply anytime soon. My only real glint of light is my solicitor really, I've found out a paralegal was handling my purchase and her work wasn't authorised till past 2pm and money wired at 3pm. I knew none of this on the day, when I moved out my flat I sold, and called them around 3pm , they said the money had been transferred  and they were waiting for other side. No mention If they gave me a heads up that completion could be delayed, I could have mitigated my loss by getting my stuff into storage at that time , would have cost me a few hundred quid rather than a few thousand.

Moral of the story, never use two different solicitors for buying and selling, never do it on the same day, if you've completed and the seller wont hand over keys, break in, let them call the police, the law is on your side.

Carrot007

MartiMcfly said:

I did call a locksmith, showed him the emails from my solictor and he saw the removal men, thieves generally don't break in with removal vans , and he was happy to break in for me. In the end, my tearful wife and child made me change my mind- who wants to start their new home by breaking in like some criminal ?? And at that point I didn't know if the vendor would come down and kick off with her family, I wasn't going to put my family through that.

Would have solved the problem and should be the limit of the amount anyone gives you for "compo". You would have changed the locks anyway (if not may as well just leave the doors open and fit no new lock ;-) ).

TBagpuss

I'm sorry that you had such a difficult time.

It sounds as though the issue was primarily with your seller's solicitor not communicating with her or the agents, and with your seller not releasing the keys (normally, thee are left with the agents with them having confirmation from the solicitors once completion has taken place that they can release them, but it's usually set out in the paperwork how the keys will be handed over. What did your paperwork say? 

Obviously your solicitor should have notified them that the funds had been sent , but I agree with the previous poster that as you had completed, the house was yours and your obvious course of action was to get a locksmith and get in that way - better a couple of hundred pounds than a couple of thousand, and nothing to stop you your wife spending the night in a hotel or B&B if you wanted to or hadn't had time to unpack..

It's very common to buy and sell on the same day and, this kind of issue is unusual. 

I'm glad you are not in your new home.

Tokmon

MartiMcfly said:

Thanks for the advice from all. Due to one solicitor not being on the panel for a mortgage deal for my new place, I ended up with 2 solicitors.
Looking back, I should have just broken in and dumped my stuff and gone to a hotel.

I did call a locksmith, showed him the emails from my solictor and he saw the removal men, thieves generally don't break in with removal vans , and he was happy to break in for me. In the end, my tearful wife and child made me change my mind- who wants to start their new home by breaking in like some criminal ?? And at that point I didn't know if the vendor would come down and kick off with her family, I wasn't going to put my family through that.

I have contacted the legal ombudsman, but given their backlog, (up to 14 months I've heard) I don't expect a reply anytime soon. My only real glint of light is my solicitor really, I've found out a paralegal was handling my purchase and her work wasn't authorised till past 2pm and money wired at 3pm. I knew none of this on the day, when I moved out my flat I sold, and called them around 3pm , they said the money had been transferred  and they were waiting for other side. No mention If they gave me a heads up that completion could be delayed, I could have mitigated my loss by getting my stuff into storage at that time , would have cost me a few hundred quid rather than a few thousand.

Moral of the story, never use two different solicitors for buying and selling, never do it on the same day, if you've completed and the seller wont hand over keys, break in, let them call the police, the law is on your side.

It's not breaking in if it's your house, you would just be getting a locksmith to open the door for you and let you in. I have no idea why you wouldn't do this when it would have been far cheaper and you had a legal right to be in there. 
What happens if you lose all your keys one day and needed a locksmith to get in I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate to go in and this situation isn't really much different. 
But at least you have acknowledged how you were wrong here.

Just to add most people buy and sell on the same day without issues and using two competent solicitors there shouldn't have been any issues.

saajan_12

MartiMcfly said:

Thanks for the advice from all. Due to one solicitor not being on the panel for a mortgage deal for my new place, I ended up with 2 solicitors.
Looking back, I should have just broken in and dumped my stuff and gone to a hotel. - or just stayed there too, why the hotel? If you choose a hotel to be more comfortable, that's up to you but wouldn't be compensable

I did call a locksmith, showed him the emails from my solictor and he saw the removal men, thieves generally don't break in with removal vans , and he was happy to break in for me. In the end, my tearful wife and child made me change my mind- who wants to start their new home by breaking in like some criminal ?? And at that point I didn't know if the vendor would come down and kick off with her family, I wasn't going to put my family through that. - that's then a choice you made to feel warm and fuzzy. Legally you had the ability to get in that day, avoid the storage, extra removals and hotel, just for the cost of an emergency locksmith, so anything beyond that wouldn't be compensable. 

I have contacted the legal ombudsman, but given their backlog, (up to 14 months I've heard) I don't expect a reply anytime soon. - well you'd have to go through the solicitor's complaints first, so the ombudsman wouldn't reply yet. My only real glint of light is my solicitor really, I've found out a paralegal was handling my purchase and her work wasn't authorised till past 2pm and money wired at 3pm. I knew none of this on the day, when I moved out my flat I sold, and called them around 3pm , they said the money had been transferred  and they were waiting for other side. No mention If they gave me a heads up that completion could be delayed, I could have mitigated my loss by getting my stuff into storage at that time , would have cost me a few hundred quid rather than a few thousand. - well presumably they expected to send the money at 3pm, other side receive it and release keys by 5pm, so no real delay. If it was just a potential delay, then would you really have done anything at that point - eg sending stuff into storage only to find out you get keys at 5:30?

Moral of the story, never use two different solicitors for buying and selling, never do it on the same day, if you've completed and the seller wont hand over keys, break in, let them call the police, the law is on your side. - well using 2 solicitors means the money is tranferring through 1 more link, same as if there was 1 more house in the chain, ie not a show stopper. 

The 2 solicitors didn't help, but  it would have been the same if your solicitor on your sale was working for an additional link the the chain - the longer the chain, the more things need to work perfectly, but shouldn't inherently be an issue. 

Bottom line, it was a series of small contributing factors for your additional costs
- solicitor 1 says they released funds at 10am, but who knows
- solicitor 2 released funds at 3pm which was late
- seller's solicitor acknowledged funds at 5:30pm only
- seller only finding out about exchange / releasing keys at 8pm
- you choosing to go nuclear with the storage + hotel instead of getting a locksmith 

The sum of the first 4 points cost ~£400 (locksmith + couple of extra hours of time with removals van).