Estate agent lost house keys

user1977

fourmarks said:

canaldumidi said:

Errr... is everyone not missing a key (sorry!) point?

My house completed a couple of weeks ago. However I have not yet been able to get into the property

Complitiion takes place when the buyer hands over the money and the seller hands over vacant possession of the property (assuming VP is in the contract ie not a BTL with tenants in situ).

In this case the sellers have failed to hand over the property so Completion has not happened. The sellers are in breach of their contract.

On the day in question, or the next day at the latest, OP should have been on to their solicitor to say they'd not been granted access to the property, and the solicitor should have issued a 'Notice To Complete' along with a list of the OP's consequential costs (eg hotel due to being homeless, whatever).

OK I get the picture. So the poor old vendor, enjoying an ice cold G & T by the pool, is, through no practical fault of his/her own, now presented with this fresh disaster courtesy of the bumbling inefficiency of his professional agent. Does he then in turn threaten to sue the bejesus out of the EA for every penny that he may lose, Plus compensation for the stress and anxiety now coursing through his body?

Or more pragmatically, the buyer sorts it out via locksmiths (or with a size 10 boot and a trip to B&Q...), sends bill to vendor, and the vendor decides whether or not they wish in turn to recover the cost from the EA.

canaldumidi

fourmarks said:

canaldumidi said:

Errr... is everyone not missing a key (sorry!) point?

My house completed a couple of weeks ago. However I have not yet been able to get into the property

Complitiion takes place when the buyer hands over the money and the seller hands over vacant possession of the property (assuming VP is in the contract ie not a BTL with tenants in situ).

In this case the sellers have failed to hand over the property so Completion has not happened. The sellers are in breach of their contract.

On the day in question, or the next day at the latest, OP should have been on to their solicitor to say they'd not been granted access to the property, and the solicitor should have issued a 'Notice To Complete' along with a list of the OP's consequential costs (eg hotel due to being homeless, whatever).

OK I get the picture. So the poor old vendor, enjoying an ice cold G & T by the pool, is, through no practical fault of his/her own, now presented with this fresh disaster courtesy of the bumbling inefficiency of his professional agent. Does he then in turn threaten to sue the bejesus out of the EA for every penny that he may lose, Plus compensation for the stress and anxiety now coursing through his body?

Yes. It is the seller's responsiblity to ensure the property is handed over. Ensuring his chosen agent has done as instructed is down to the seller. But suing may not be necessary. He will likely owe the agent several £000s for finding the buyer and this is normally paid by the seller's solicitor from the sale proceeds, before the balance is given to the seller.

The seller could therefore instruct his solicitor not to pay the agent as the agent has not done his job. Unfortunately in this case, as the OP (buyer) has delayed matters by two weeks, for almost inconceivable reasons, the seller's solicitor has probably by now paid the agent........

PS Is this one of your key posts that you can now update?

No. Unfortunately it's a cryptic signiture which only those who have followed me around will fully understand.......

Slithery

fourmarks said:

canaldumidi said:

Errr... is everyone not missing a key (sorry!) point?

My house completed a couple of weeks ago. However I have not yet been able to get into the property

Complitiion takes place when the buyer hands over the money and the seller hands over vacant possession of the property (assuming VP is in the contract ie not a BTL with tenants in situ).

In this case the sellers have failed to hand over the property so Completion has not happened. The sellers are in breach of their contract.

On the day in question, or the next day at the latest, OP should have been on to their solicitor to say they'd not been granted access to the property, and the solicitor should have issued a 'Notice To Complete' along with a list of the OP's consequential costs (eg hotel due to being homeless, whatever).

OK I get the picture. So the poor old vendor, enjoying an ice cold G & T by the pool, is, through no practical fault of his/her own, now presented with this fresh disaster courtesy of the bumbling inefficiency of his professional agent. Does he then in turn threaten to sue the bejesus out of the EA for every penny that he may lose...

Correct.

fourmarks said:

Plus compensation for the stress and anxiety now coursing through his body?

You can't claim compensation for 'stress and anxiety' - only quantifiable material losses

fourmarks

May I ask, out of pure ignorance, if I had left all the doors unlocked in this scenario, would I be deemed to have fulfilled the requirement of vacant possession, and would the subsequent loss of keys by the EA not be my problem.

I suspect there is another clause to cover this. 

TripleH

Yes, technically but if someone had walked in and practiced their sledge hammer throwing you'd fail in your obligation to handvover the house in the condition it was in at exchange assuming noone went and changed the locks.

To add to Slithery's point you'd have to show you made an effort to minimise any losses you incurred. It would be expected that the seller would have been chased up asap when you couldn't get access.

JGB1955

fourmarks said:

OK I get the picture. So the poor old vendor, enjoying an ice cold G & T by the pool, is, through no practical fault of his/her own, now presented with this fresh disaster courtesy of the bumbling inefficiency of his professional agent. Does he then in turn threaten to sue the bejesus out of the EA for every penny that he may lose, Plus compensation for the stress and anxiety now coursing through his body?

PS Is this one of your key posts that you can now update?

Poor old vendor?  He's paid a (probably reduced) fee to his (online) estate agent and is totally responsible (in the first circumstance) for not providing the keys.  The rest is up to him...  Of course he should chase his agent...  that's what he paid them for.

user1977

JGB1955 said:

fourmarks said:

OK I get the picture. So the poor old vendor, enjoying an ice cold G & T by the pool, is, through no practical fault of his/her own, now presented with this fresh disaster courtesy of the bumbling inefficiency of his professional agent. Does he then in turn threaten to sue the bejesus out of the EA for every penny that he may lose, Plus compensation for the stress and anxiety now coursing through his body?

PS Is this one of your key posts that you can now update?

Poor old vendor?  He's paid a (probably reduced) fee to his (online) estate agent and is totally responsible (in the first circumstance) for not providing the keys.  The rest is up to him...  Of course he should chase his agent...  that's what he paid them for.

Hopefully he didn't pay much to his solicitor either, who appears to have failed to explain the contract to him.

jonnydeppiwish!

I’m pretty sure that it’s the vendor and vendors solicitors that need to sort this out for you surely?