So frustrated with completion date not confirmed!

HRH_MUngo

I am so glad we have never had a chain.  We have bought three houses and sold two. 

 Our first house, the seller had already moved out and we were first-time buyers who were renting.

The second one, in Spain, it was a Spanish family's holiday home so they just moved their stuff out.  We were not selling, so just moved ours in some weeks later.

We sold the Spanish house to another British couple  who had nothing to sell, we did not need to buy, having not sold our house in the UK.  We sold it fully furnished, so didn't even need to move the furniture out  .  

We sold our family home in the UK to first-time-buyers and the bungalow we bought was already empty as the old lady who'd lived in it had died and it was being sold by her relatives.  

We have also had a couple of BTL properties, one was empty when we bought it and we sold it empty to an investor; and the second one (which we still have) was owned by a young man who was moving in with his girlfriend.

Sorry for the spiel; it just made me realise how lucky we have been!

I do hope the OP manages to complete soon.  It sounds a complete nightmare!

TripleH

When my wife and I have bought, we have exchanged and completed on the same day but we have only ever had 1 property in the chain (new build / refurbishment / ex-rental) and we've come from home / rental so had no issues if there was a delay.

My mother had a month between exchange and completion on the sale of her home. She had that condition from the start (needed to find a rental) and stuck to it even when bottom of the chain FTB were wanting to do same day.

When in a chain, it's best to plan for delays.

KaratePigeon

Still haven't got the keys, feel sick at the £100/hour my removal guys are charging to sit on the driveway. My solicitor won't answer the phone to anyone and it's all stuck with him 😞

My buyer is also in the same situation and begging me to give him a key 😭

climbthatwallseegar

KaratePigeon said:

Still haven't got the keys, feel sick at the £100/hour my removal guys are charging to sit on the driveway. My solicitor won't answer the phone to anyone and it's all stuck with him 😞

My buyer is also in the same situation and begging me to give him a key 😭

This is awful. Are you in a position to go to the Solicitor’s office in person?  Were you informed you’d definitely Complete today?

RM_2013

@KaratePigeon hope you manage to complete today

sheramber

Many years ago we moved from Scotland TO  Buckinghamshire

After many delays we were due to complete on the Thursday. 

Our vendors already had the keys to their new house.

Our furniture set out in the journey on Monday to arrive Thursday.

Wednesday at 4pm  our vendor contacted us to asl if our solicitor had been in touch 0 no.

It transpired that at the last minute the vendors lender had discovered their was a covenant on the ground that the hose they were moving into , that prevented any building on the site. The covenant was100 years old and nobody who owned it, The bungalow had been there for many years.

The lender agreed to proceed if an indemnity policy was signed, which was done but the delay meant the money would not be released until Friday.

The vendor offered to travel to London to pick up the cheque but the solicitor said he would go.

Meantime our furniture was enroute.

Our vendor offered to give us the keys as they had by now moved out, so we met them at the house on Friday morning and moved in.

Solicitors were not pleased when they found out.

We signed the completion documents one month later.

Brewerspride

@KaratePigeon Really hope you've managed to complete today.

KaratePigeon

Thanks all, finally got they keys about 2pm yesterday. Turns out the solicitor was still waiting for some bits (like the mortgage redemption certificate) and needed written confirmation from me about the procedes of the sale. so it seems like it was never going to happen on Friday - we are wondering why he left everyone working late like it was going to?

I do feel like the fault was with my solicitor unfortunately, the estate agent rang him 42 times yesterday (logged) and he just wasn't answering his phone. I also tried ringing him (it's an online thing and you just get put on hold or get to talk to admin - they couldn't tell me why he wasn't answering and it was even suggested it was escalated to his manager which I agreed to!) When myself and my buyer were incurring rapidly escalating costs from the removal companies I don't think it's appropriate for him to just ignore his phone calls for hours. 

He did ring me at 12.30 to say I could give keys to my buyer so I did. Then at 2pm he called the estate agent to say they could release my key. Apparently the gap between this should be minutes rather than over an hour? The estate agent told me he shouldn't have told me to hand over my key at 12.30 because completion hadn't actually been finalised until nearer 2pm.

One of the estate agents lower down the chain has also admitted making a mistake as she shouldn't have given out my buyers keys on Friday as completion hadn't actually happened yet. 

I'm just happy it's all done and not looking to make a profit but I would like to reclaim some of the removal costs if possible, and also to make a complaint about the solicitor if he's incompetent as I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that?

Titus_Wadd

OP I'm so glad to read you're finally in your hew home.  A calm and reasoned complaint about solicitor (and maybe EA) can be sorted in the near future, but first of all, give yourself time to settle in and don't let it spoil your enjoyment of your home and your first Xmas there!

tooldle

KaratePigeon said:

He did ring me at 12.30 to say I could give keys to my buyer so I did. Then at 2pm he called the estate agent to say they could release my key. Apparently the gap between this should be minutes rather than over an hour? The estate agent told me he shouldn't have told me to hand over my key at 12.30 because completion hadn't actually been finalised until nearer 2pm.

In my experience there is often a gap between the solicitor / conveyancer calling me and their word reaching the agent. People take lunch breaks, phone lines are busy etc. The solicitor is ultimately responsible should they instruct you to hand over the key without receiving the funds first. The estate agent has no oversight of the transaction.