74 thoughts on “Delayed completion? Your Costs, Compensation & Legal Remedies”
We are selling to first time buyers and buying a property with no onward chain. We were due to complete on 17th November (a date suggested by our buyer’s solicitor and subsequently agreed by all parties). On the morning of 17th our solicitor advised we could not complete as buyers funds not available, by this point we had removal van on site and this cost us £750. They then advised that a date of 21st November has been agreed, but still as of 19th can not confirm buyers have funds in place. I have since been accidentally privy to emails between ours and our buyers solicitor and on 13th November the buyers solicitor requested a delay to 21st, however our solicitor did nothing in response to this and did not inform us. One of the emails also states the buyer will not have their deposit until 21st so I find it unlikely we will be able to complete. I have advised our solicitor we now know this. I don’t know what our next steps are? Both myself and husband have lost days off work and cannot lose anymore. Can we sue our solicitor for negligence, do we serve a notice to complete?
Thank you for contacting Cunningtons and we are sorry to hear the problems you are having with your move date, especially at such a late stage.
It appears from what you have said, that exchange of Contracts (legally binding Agreements) has not taken place, so the parties can change the Completion date at any time until this happens. Obviously without the full facts we can’t offer any specific advice but it may be that your solicitor could have communicated more effectively with you when they knew about the potential change in Completion dates to try and avoid some of the costs you have incurred.
We cannot comment on whether this is negligence or just an oversight in their communication with you, but you may have cause to raise a complaint with their customer relations representative. They should provide you with their complains procedure upon request.
If we are correct and you have not exchanged Contracts, then you cannot serve Notice to Complete. This would only be served when there is a legally binding Contract in place and one party is in breach of it by failing to complete on the Contractual date. We hope matters are resolved for you soon.
I was due to complete by 7th November as agreed with the buyer of my property as per the Property Sales
Agreement which we both signed. The buyer paid the seller 5000 pounds deposit which is non refundable. The buyers Solicitor is delaying everything. They have had the paperwork from my Solicitors for 6 weeks and despite constantly chasing the buyers Solicitors they have been lapse in responding. They have had plenty of time to peruse the contract but they are delaying this till next wek which isnt good enough. The buyers also changed mortgage provider as well.
We originally agreed a date of 31st October but I allowed it to go till 7th November which was when the searches ran out. It is a week later and nothing further has progressed. What can i do?
It appears from what you have said that you have not yet exchanged binding contracts with a fixed completion date with your buyer. Your own solicitor and selling agent are best placed to advise you of your options at this stage as they have the full facts to hand.
Ultimately, either party can withdraw prior to formal exchange of Contracts and timescales leading up to that point can change depending on the parties circumstances. You should therefore liaise with your current conveyancing solicitor as to your options. We hope you manage to resolve matters.
We were due to exchange and complete on 13th October (as agreed by all parties on 7th October). We are in the centre of a chain of three and the person we are buying from has already moved out using a bridging loan on the property. Our solicitor let us know at lunchtime on the day of exchange/completion that the OS1 had come back with a charge on the property we were buying so completion could no longer happen that day (the charge is the bridging loan). Our solicitoor claims that the vendors solicitor did not know about this charge but surely they will have done if another property has been purchased using it?!
Our removals company had already packed up almost all of our property and we have incurred costs of around £1000 (plus lost work days) to put it on hold until we get a new completion day. The land registry says that OS1 should only take 1 to 2 days so does this mean my solicitor asked for this too late as it would have been received before completion had it been requesed on the 7th… are we entitled to compensation for malpractice? for info, we have many other complaints against this solicitor but this is the first that has caused financial detriment and left two OAPs in a dangerous living situation (daily nurses and GPs had already been informed oof the move date).
Thank you for getting in contact, and we’re sorry to hear about the problems you’ve experienced with your exchange and completion. From what you have said, there was no formal contract in place because exchange and completion were due to take place at the same time, so if that’s the case, as we suspect your own solicitor may have, or should have, advised there is likely no claim against your seller.
As to whether you may have a claim against your own solicitor, the first question would then be whether your own solicitor could or should have carried out their final search at Land Registry before the completion date so that this issue may have been discovered sooner. Obviously we cannot comment regarding your solicitors conduct as we are not party to the full facts but given you seem to have been aware of the seller’s bridging finance, then if your solicitor was also aware then they should have sought undertakings from your seller’s solicitor before completion to discharge the bridging finance on completion.
Professionally speaking we are unable to comment much further without all the facts, and there may be extenuating circumstances of which we are not aware, but it would seem you may have cause to raise a formal complaint with your solicitor, which they are obliged to address. We hope your transaction is brought to a successful conclusion.
You’ve found your dream home. The survey’s done. Your solicitor has the searches back. Everyone’s ready to exchange contracts. And then someone in the chain pulls out. In our earlier article on delayed completion, we looked at what happens when things go wrong after contracts are exchanged. But what about when the chain breaks before […]
Delayed completion: what are your options when someone in your chain of property transactions is late? With a group of strangers all working toward completing on the same date, it's a wonder it ever works out on time.
We are selling to first time buyers and buying a property with no onward chain. We were due to complete on 17th November (a date suggested by our buyer’s solicitor and subsequently agreed by all parties). On the morning of 17th our solicitor advised we could not complete as buyers funds not available, by this point we had removal van on site and this cost us £750. They then advised that a date of 21st November has been agreed, but still as of 19th can not confirm buyers have funds in place. I have since been accidentally privy to emails between ours and our buyers solicitor and on 13th November the buyers solicitor requested a delay to 21st, however our solicitor did nothing in response to this and did not inform us. One of the emails also states the buyer will not have their deposit until 21st so I find it unlikely we will be able to complete. I have advised our solicitor we now know this. I don’t know what our next steps are? Both myself and husband have lost days off work and cannot lose anymore. Can we sue our solicitor for negligence, do we serve a notice to complete?
Thank you for contacting Cunningtons and we are sorry to hear the problems you are having with your move date, especially at such a late stage.
It appears from what you have said, that exchange of Contracts (legally binding Agreements) has not taken place, so the parties can change the Completion date at any time until this happens. Obviously without the full facts we can’t offer any specific advice but it may be that your solicitor could have communicated more effectively with you when they knew about the potential change in Completion dates to try and avoid some of the costs you have incurred.
We cannot comment on whether this is negligence or just an oversight in their communication with you, but you may have cause to raise a complaint with their customer relations representative. They should provide you with their complains procedure upon request.
If we are correct and you have not exchanged Contracts, then you cannot serve Notice to Complete. This would only be served when there is a legally binding Contract in place and one party is in breach of it by failing to complete on the Contractual date. We hope matters are resolved for you soon.
I was due to complete by 7th November as agreed with the buyer of my property as per the Property Sales
Agreement which we both signed. The buyer paid the seller 5000 pounds deposit which is non refundable. The buyers Solicitor is delaying everything. They have had the paperwork from my Solicitors for 6 weeks and despite constantly chasing the buyers Solicitors they have been lapse in responding. They have had plenty of time to peruse the contract but they are delaying this till next wek which isnt good enough. The buyers also changed mortgage provider as well.
We originally agreed a date of 31st October but I allowed it to go till 7th November which was when the searches ran out. It is a week later and nothing further has progressed. What can i do?
Thank you for contacting Cunningtons.
It appears from what you have said that you have not yet exchanged binding contracts with a fixed completion date with your buyer. Your own solicitor and selling agent are best placed to advise you of your options at this stage as they have the full facts to hand.
Ultimately, either party can withdraw prior to formal exchange of Contracts and timescales leading up to that point can change depending on the parties circumstances. You should therefore liaise with your current conveyancing solicitor as to your options. We hope you manage to resolve matters.
We were due to exchange and complete on 13th October (as agreed by all parties on 7th October). We are in the centre of a chain of three and the person we are buying from has already moved out using a bridging loan on the property. Our solicitor let us know at lunchtime on the day of exchange/completion that the OS1 had come back with a charge on the property we were buying so completion could no longer happen that day (the charge is the bridging loan). Our solicitoor claims that the vendors solicitor did not know about this charge but surely they will have done if another property has been purchased using it?!
Our removals company had already packed up almost all of our property and we have incurred costs of around £1000 (plus lost work days) to put it on hold until we get a new completion day. The land registry says that OS1 should only take 1 to 2 days so does this mean my solicitor asked for this too late as it would have been received before completion had it been requesed on the 7th… are we entitled to compensation for malpractice? for info, we have many other complaints against this solicitor but this is the first that has caused financial detriment and left two OAPs in a dangerous living situation (daily nurses and GPs had already been informed oof the move date).
Thank you for getting in contact, and we’re sorry to hear about the problems you’ve experienced with your exchange and completion. From what you have said, there was no formal contract in place because exchange and completion were due to take place at the same time, so if that’s the case, as we suspect your own solicitor may have, or should have, advised there is likely no claim against your seller.
As to whether you may have a claim against your own solicitor, the first question would then be whether your own solicitor could or should have carried out their final search at Land Registry before the completion date so that this issue may have been discovered sooner. Obviously we cannot comment regarding your solicitors conduct as we are not party to the full facts but given you seem to have been aware of the seller’s bridging finance, then if your solicitor was also aware then they should have sought undertakings from your seller’s solicitor before completion to discharge the bridging finance on completion.
Professionally speaking we are unable to comment much further without all the facts, and there may be extenuating circumstances of which we are not aware, but it would seem you may have cause to raise a formal complaint with your solicitor, which they are obliged to address. We hope your transaction is brought to a successful conclusion.