Completion Fell Through

elsien

I think I completed then went on holiday the next day. Not ideal, but circumstances dictated. 

geoffc2020

eddddy said:

geoffc2020 said:

The property involved was inherited from my late mother and with delays due to covid (finding original paperwork etc.,) and then probate I've now been dealing with this for two and a half years. 

Just to be clear - are you living in the property or is it empty? 

If you're living in it, are you selling it and buying another property to move into on the same day?

geoffc2020 said:

we're due to go on holiday in a few weeks time I'm worried about dealing with matters then.

If you're not living in the property and it's empty - your holiday makes no difference.

Exchange and/or completion can happen while you're on holiday. Normally, the solicitor would give you a final quick phone call to say "Shall I go ahead?".  But you can tell the solicitor in advance that they don't need to make that call, if you want.


If you're living in the property, and buying another - exchange can happen while you're on holiday, but not completion.

If that's the case, tell the estate agent (and your solicitor) the dates of your holiday asap, so that they can pass the info to others in the chain - and everyone can agree a new completion date which doesn't clash with your holiday.

No I'm not living in the property, the proceeds will be used to put towards a new home in due course. The contracts are signed so there's nothing physically for me to do - everything is out of the house and keys were handed in the day before we hoped to exchange and complete last week. tbh I think things will be sorted before we go away just would prefer not to have deal with things then but it could all be sorted by phone/email anyway.

GDB2222

geoffc2020 said:

eddddy said:

geoffc2020 said:

The property involved was inherited from my late mother and with delays due to covid (finding original paperwork etc.,) and then probate I've now been dealing with this for two and a half years. 

Just to be clear - are you living in the property or is it empty? 

If you're living in it, are you selling it and buying another property to move into on the same day?

geoffc2020 said:

we're due to go on holiday in a few weeks time I'm worried about dealing with matters then.

If you're not living in the property and it's empty - your holiday makes no difference.

Exchange and/or completion can happen while you're on holiday. Normally, the solicitor would give you a final quick phone call to say "Shall I go ahead?".  But you can tell the solicitor in advance that they don't need to make that call, if you want.


If you're living in the property, and buying another - exchange can happen while you're on holiday, but not completion.

If that's the case, tell the estate agent (and your solicitor) the dates of your holiday asap, so that they can pass the info to others in the chain - and everyone can agree a new completion date which doesn't clash with your holiday.

No I'm not living in the property, the proceeds will be used to put towards a new home in due course. The contracts are signed so there's nothing physically for me to do - everything is out of the house and keys were handed in the day before we hoped to exchange and complete last week. tbh I think things will be sorted before we go away just would prefer not to have deal with things then but it could all be sorted by phone/email anyway.

Sorry, when I posted above, I assumed that you were living in the property, in which case you could not really complete whilst on holiday.

diystarter7

We completed on one property and did not even look at it until a few weeks later as we had family weddings, holidays, etc, etc and we lived some distance away ie with parents as we had already sold but did not want to delay completion. We told the EA to ensure the property was secure, water/etc turned off.

Section62

canaldumidi said:

Woolsery said:

Most septic tanks will be reasonably constructed and compliant with regulations, but a few may still exist where an inspection will lead to a need for remedial work before the property may be sold.. This is unlikely to be quick or cheap.

Hmm. .....

I have no statistics but I suspect there are 000s of STs in rural areas that are extremely old and hence of dubious condition. Owners tend not to check them, just keep using them.

As for 'compliant', with the new regs I suspect there are also 000s of now non-compliant STs. Or STs that might originally have complied (even with current regs) but which would no longer comply due to degridation of original drainage field -something else that owners tend not to check till they either sell or things get sobad raw sawage starts popping up in the field......

100% agree with this analysis.  The worst ones will be those nobody is aware are there.... until there is a problem.

Megaross

Almost this exact situation happened to me last year, it's actually a bit eerie.

Due to complete around June 16th 2021, septic tank issue appeared out of the woodwork on sellers onward purchase. It turned out an environment agency permit was required under new regs which took months to submit, even longer to come back - so long that the cottage owners pulled out and broke the chain 8 months later. 2 weeks before the permit was due back.

Currently been living out of boxes for over 12 months, sleeping in a sofa with my life in storage for 5 of those.

Tread lightly - if it's affected by the 2020 regs it could take a long time to resolve.

Woolsery

Section62 said:

canaldumidi said:

Woolsery said:

Most septic tanks will be reasonably constructed and compliant with regulations, but a few may still exist where an inspection will lead to a need for remedial work before the property may be sold.. This is unlikely to be quick or cheap.

Hmm. .....

I have no statistics but I suspect there are 000s of STs in rural areas that are extremely old and hence of dubious condition. Owners tend not to check them, just keep using them.

As for 'compliant', with the new regs I suspect there are also 000s of now non-compliant STs. Or STs that might originally have complied (even with current regs) but which would no longer comply due to degridation of original drainage field -something else that owners tend not to check till they either sell or things get sobad raw sawage starts popping up in the field......

100% agree with this analysis.  The worst ones will be those nobody is aware are there.... until there is a problem.

I was putting an optimistic slant on the situation, while acknowleging there could be also be a problem. Such issues aren't unknown to me.

For example, there's an old cottage nearby that has its drainage field on our land by reason of precriptive easement. Being historic, nothing exists on paper or was said about this when we purchased. As the route the tank's outlet pipe takes is unknown and the cottage owners couldn't or wouldn't enlighten us, we've planted trees in the area and we have plans to add fast-growing willows for firewood there soon.

The cottage recently came to market, so we expected to discuss the easement, but that didn't happen. We presume there was no full survey, or that someone entered false information in answer to questions. Currently, we're waiting to see what the new owners expectations are, but it's likely to be much easier for them to install a treatment plant than attempt an amendment of the drainage field, close to a stream in wet land now heavily tree-covered and unsuitable. One winter they will suddenly need to find north of £10k to keep their house habitable.....or, of course,  it could be sooner if they misbehave!

geoffc2020

Just an update.

My buyer has re-advertised their property and had an offer which they are considering, however the issue of the septic tank property won't go away! They have managed to sell their property via an auction house however there is some confusion with myself and my buyer as to how long a sale via an auction takes to complete. 

Does anyone have any experience of selling/buying property via this method?

Also my estate agent is pushing me to re-advertise my own property if my buyer doesn't accept their new offer very soon.

Any thoughts?

chanz4

geoffc2020 said:

Just an update.

My buyer has re-advertised their property and had an offer which they are considering, however the issue of the septic tank property won't go away! They have managed to sell their property via an auction house however there is some confusion with myself and my buyer as to how long a sale via an auction takes to complete. 

Does anyone have any experience of selling/buying property via this method?

Also my estate agent is pushing me to re-advertise my own property if my buyer doesn't accept their new offer very soon.

Any thoughts?

be very fast under a month

knightstyle

before any of us can answer your question we need to know if it was an auction or was it an agent selling under the 'modern auction' scam?