Delayed completion with over £2,000 costs incured and emotional distress.

Natrov83

I was hoping someone would be able to give me some advice, we was due to complete on the 21st September after the most stressful journey, we exchanged on the 20th, we completely packed all of mine, my husbands and 2 daughter possesions in to the removal companies trucks ready to move into our new house, we waited all day and at 4.30pm I had a phone call off my buyer to say that their buyers solicitor had not requested his deposit in time, his deposit was £60k, he only had a limit of £20k a day that he could pay out, his solicitor did not request this until the day we had agreed to complete, and due to him having an Islamic mortgage because we did not complete that day they had to send his funds back the same day, long story short we did not complete until 4.45pm on the 23rd September, to add extra stress to this our mortgage offer was due to end on the 26th September, and as we had signed contracts we was legally binding, all solicitors in the chain including the one who was incompetent enough to ask for his clients deposit to late was well aware, he let us all exchange knowing his client would be unable to complete, we was in the worst position we had nothing, every possession we owned was in the trucks, which had to go back to the removal companies yard over 20 miles away, we was left stranded with 2 children and 3 dogs, all my solicitor could say was "book in to a hotel' we only had the clothes on our backs, we told our solicitor that we would not exchange contracts and we would pull out if we had to renew our mortgage offer as it would have been increasing significantly if we had to renew, any agin every solicitor in the chain was aware of this and the estate agents, we exchanged contracts with the, not once did my solicitor advise me not too, they gave me know valuable advise, and when i asked where i stood after exchange in I pulled out due to our mortgage offer ending she said you could be sued, so it was either go for another mortgage offer which would take a number of weeks which we would be getting penalties for plus over £18k extra over the fixed term or be sued, the emotional destress was so terrible, for us all, we did complete with 15 minutes to go before our mortgage funds would have had to be sent back but the removals company charged us an extra £2100 for storing our items and being on stand by and that's without having to buy clothes, food extra. All my solicitors are saying is take your buyers to a small claims court. I am so angry and upset by the whole ordeal, it has massively affected my youngest daughter as well, she has been having nightmares.

Emmia

Could you pop some paragraphs in? It's difficult to read the massive block of text...

I'm not sure you'll be able to get anything other than via the small claims route, (if you're seeking financial compensation). You managed to complete before your mortgage expired, so you aren't suffering a penalty from an increased interest rate.

Emotional distress / bad dreams isn't something you'll be able to get compensation for.

Buying, selling and moving is hugely stressful, and there are many, many tales of woe (from both buyers and sellers) on these boards - I'm sorry you've had this experience, but you're in the house now, and hopefully enjoying your new home?

diego_94

You are very dramatic, lots of the information in your post is irrelevant.

Basically the OP's chain failed to complete on competition day, their buyers solicitor did not ask for the deposit in time. Completion occurred 2 days later. As a result, the moving company charged £2k for storage of all the belongings.

Keep the receipt and start a claim against your buyers (you know their address!) What has your solicitor said about the whole thing?

DullGreyGuy

Have to say without paragraphs it is hard to read and a little incoherent in parts.

You can only sue for what did happen not what might have happened so the whole thing about your mortgage offer nearly expiring etc is irrelevant because it didnt expire. 

Your solicitors advice is correct, the counterparty to your contract breached the terms and so you are entitled to sue them for your losses which is the removal costs and hotel. Given the values it falls into the small track of the court system which prohibits solicitors costs from being recovered in all but exceptional cases and so you should write a letter before action to your buyer and file with money claim online if they dont pay up within the timeframe you set in your letter.

Not sure why the other party didnt do a CHAPS payment if their FasterPay is capped to £20k/day 

Flugelhorn

You can claim for reasonable expenses, hotel, storage etc and claim it off your buyers. Are your sellers claiming against you for not completing?

penners324

Your buyer didn't complete on the day they should have. They are liable for the storage costs and your hotel bill.

Your mortgage company would not have pulled the mortgage due to delayed completion so you're massively over reacting on that.

Tiglet2

Natrov83 said:

I was hoping someone would be able to give me some advice, we was due to complete on the 21st September after the most stressful journey, we exchanged on the 20th, we completely packed all of mine, my husbands and 2 daughter possesions in to the removal companies trucks ready to move into our new house, we waited all day and at 4.30pm I had a phone call off my buyer to say that their buyers solicitor had not requested his deposit in time, his deposit was £60k, he only had a limit of £20k a day that he could pay out, his solicitor did not request this until the day we had agreed to complete, and due to him having an Islamic mortgage because we did not complete that day they had to send his funds back the same day, long story short we did not complete until 4.45pm on the 23rd September, to add extra stress to this mortgage offer was due to end on the 26th September, and as we had signed contracts we was legally binding, all solicitors in the chain including the one who was incompetent enough to ask for his clients deposit to late was well aware, he let us all exchange knowing his client would be unable to complete, we was in the worst position we had nothing, every possession we owned was in the trucks, which had to go back to the removal companies yard over 20 miles away, we was left stranded with 2 children and 3 dogs, all my solicitor could say was "book in to a hotel' we only had the clothes on our backs, we told our solicitor that we would not exchange contracts and we would pull out if we had to renew our mortgage offer as it would have been increasing significantly if we had to renew, any agin every solicitor in the chain was aware of this and the estate agents, we exchanged contracts with the, not once did my solicitor advise me not too, they gave me know valuable advise, and when i asked where i stood after exchange in I pulled out due to our mortgage offer ending she said you could be sued, so it was either go for another mortgage offer which would take a number of weeks which we would be getting penalties for plus over £18k extra over the fixed term or be sued, the emotional destress was so terrible, for us all, we did complete with 15 minutes to go before our mortgage funds would have had to be sent back but the removals company charged us an extra £2100 for storing our items and being on stand by and that's without having to buy clothes, food extra. All my solicitors are saying is take your buyers to a small claims court. I am so angry and upset by the whole ordeal, it has massively affected my youngest daughter as well, she has been having nightmares.

Send copies to your solicitor of all the receipts for overnight hotel, food and clothes expenses, as well as evidence that the removal company have charged you extra for storing your house contents.  Be aware that the "expenses" need to be reasonable, i.e. not necessarily staying at the best 5* hotel you could find, nor expecting to be reimbursed for a michelin starred restaurant bill.   Your solicitor will send the receipts to the buyer's solicitor who, in turn, will send to their buyer's solicitor, i.e. the defaulting party.  It will take some time to sort out, so you need to allow them the time to deal with it.  

If you are not successful in obtaining a refund, you will have to take your buyer (who, in turn, will take their buyers) to the small claims court to have any chance of recovering your financial losses.  Your solicitor will not be able to help you here, as conveyancing doesn't cover this kind of claim.  

Now to the bits I've put in bold:

It is the buyer who needs to ensure that their deposit is with the solicitor in good time.  It is not the job of the solicitor to monitor or action how or when the buyer transfers the deposit to the solicitor.   The mistake here is purely down to your buyers' buyer for not doing this in good time.  The solicitor possibly was waiting for the deposit to arrive, but it didn't, therefore they could not complete.

As you had already exchanged, the contract was now binding.  In any case, if completion fails on the agreed date, a notice to complete is served and there are a further 10 working days for completion to occur.  You completed on 23rd September, two working days after the original agreed completion date. 

As your mortgage offer was good until 26th September, I am not sure why you have written all the additional stuff about pulling out after exchange (therefore in breach of contract) and having to renew your offer and the extra £18k you might have had to pay over the term of the loan.  The point here is that it didn't happen and you didn't need to get a new offer or pull out, so it's all irrelevant.

I am sure it must have been very stressful, but unfortunately these matters do happen occasionally.  Yours was put right two days later so, while not perfect, it wasn't too bad in the end.

You will eventually be compensated for your financial losses, but don't expect compensation for "stress" and "nightmares".

DullGreyGuy

Tiglet2 said:
If you are not successful in obtaining a refund from the buyer's buyer, you will have to take them to the small claims court to have any chance of recovering your financial losses.  Your solicitor will not be able to help you here, as conveyancing doesn't cover this kind of claim.  

You'd take your buyer to court as they are the ones you have a contract with and they are the ones that failed to complete their contractual obligations resulting in the losses.

The buyer may in turn either counter sue their buyer or bring their buyer as co-defendants but the buyers buyer had no duty towards the OP.

Tiglet2

DullGreyGuy said:

Tiglet2 said:
If you are not successful in obtaining a refund from the buyer's buyer, you will have to take them to the small claims court to have any chance of recovering your financial losses.  Your solicitor will not be able to help you here, as conveyancing doesn't cover this kind of claim.  

You'd take your buyer to court as they are the ones you have a contract with and they are the ones that failed to complete their contractual obligations resulting in the losses.

The buyer may in turn either counter sue their buyer or bring their buyer as co-defendants but the buyers buyer had no duty towards the OP.

Yes, you're absolutely right of course - apologies, I will edit my post.

[Deleted User]

The emotional stuff can only be claimed for if it cost you money, i.e. you needed mental health treatment that wasn't available on the NHS (or had a very long waiting list), or if you had to take time off work or transport to get there etc.

GDB2222

Natrov83 said:

"book in to a hotel' we only had the clothes on our backs, 

it has massively affected my youngest daughter as well, she has been having nightmares.

You have my sympathy. Our house burnt down, and we too ended up with just the clothes on our backs. We bought clothes, and made an insurance claim.

You can claim all your expenses, including what you have to pay to settle any claims from your buyers/sellers.