Sellers failing to complete

JustACourtesyCall

Hi,

We are in a bit of a tough situation.

We had finally got our vendors to agree, in November, to a longstop date of 29th April or 10 working days notice - whatever was earliest.

We are now 10 working days away of the longstop date and have not received notice. Solicitors have said that they must provide this.
We have agreed to move out of our rented accommodation and a new family are moving in on the 30th so we have to move out.

The vendors are buying a new build which was meant to be completed in Feb, but after several excuses later its dragged on.

What is our recourse? What can we do in this situation?

Thanks

user1977

JustACourtesyCall said:

What is our recourse? What can we do in this situation?

What does your contract say happens at the longstop date?

dimbo61

Not alot you can do !
Why did you give notice on your rental before you exchanged on your new home ?
Can you stay with family and out your belongings into storage.

Thrugelmir

Threaten to pull out. Which gives them a major headache to resolve. 

JustACourtesyCall

dimbo61 said:

Not alot you can do !
Why did you give notice on your rental before you exchanged on your new home ?
Can you stay with family and out your belongings into storage.

We exchanged contracts with the understanding it'd be completed in February with the April long stop date. We gave notice when we exchanged thinking that we would have 2 month overlap.

Unfortunately not, if we have to store personal belongings and arrange accommodation, can we charge this to the vendor on the basis they are in breach of contract for failing to complete.

Unfortunately we do not have a copy of the full contract but they explained that it was under the standard conditions of sale.

JustACourtesyCall

Thrugelmir said:

Threaten to pull out. Which gives them a major headache to resolve. 

That's my preferred option. Not sure of the legal consequences around this.
 Looks like we may need to to get in contact with the solicitors....!

dimbo61

Phone your solicitor ASAP

TBagpuss

Talk to your solicitors and get them to give the required notice / remind the vendors of the deadline.

If you have exchanged and have a contract which requires completion on 29th April or upon 10 days notice then make clear that you expect completion to take place on 29th,  and if that means that they can't move into their new property then they will need to find alternative accommodation. 
But check with your solicitors on exactly what the contract says and what the implications are if they don't complete - it may be that you wind up in a hotel at their expense, for example, but you need to know. 

pinkteapot

I thought a long-stop date just gave you the right to pull out (even though you’ve exchanged) on that date, with no penalty. I don’t think it means you can start claiming compensation from them - but check with your solicitor.

Find out when the new build is now due to be ready - get the EA to check with the vendor. 

Assuming it won’t be ready by the long-stop date, then either:

1. You need temporary accommodation, or 
2. You persuade your vendor to complete and they need temporary accommodation 

To pull off #2, you will need to convince your vendor that you really will pull out if they don’t complete with you. 

The question is though, would you go through with it? Do you want to be in temporary accommodation and back to square one with house-hunting? They’ll know the answer is probably ‘no’. 

Again though, first questions are what rights the long-stop gives you, and when the new build is now meant to be ready. 

TBagpuss

I think that may be true as between OPs vendors and the developer, but OPs contract is with their own venfor, not with the developer. But they need to clarify with their solicitor whether they can simply prepare to issue notice to complete or whether it is more complicated that that. 

user1977

If the idea was that completion must happeon on 29 April (or earlier if they give notice) I'm confused about why the vendor needs to serve notice to complete - as surely you'd just expect completion to happen on 29 April in the absence of any notice? Are you sure it isn't simply a longstop allowing you to walk away if completion hasn't happened by 29 April?