So frustrated with completion date not confirmed!

[Deleted User]

KaratePigeon said:

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?

So glad you're finally in! Fairly sure you've got a good case to be raised against the solicitor here though. They should never have exchanged contracts on Friday if they weren't certain they could do immediate completion after. That seems to be insanity that they willingly exchanged contracts on a same day exchange/complete when they were actually missing paperwork! And really bad practice and service to be completely ignoring calls on this when completion has failed, you're in breach of contract and incurring fees.