68 thoughts on “Delayed completion? That’s going to cost me a fortune!”
Hi
We were told our buyers (agreed to sell to in mid April) would break the chain before 30th of June so there would be no risk to complete on the 28th July as we’d requested.
We needed to move for a job starting in August and children starting a new school hundreds of miles away
On (approx) 25th June we were told their buyer’s solicitor and mortgage co had just found out there was an increase in ground rent scheduled in 13 years time so our buyers would need to get a deed of variation to fix it.
Since then we’ve realised our buyer’s buyer’s solicitor keeps asking questions that should have been asked months ago… Eg building insurance costs and fire risk assessments which is delaying. And there’s always just one more thing that could always have been added to the question before.
As a result we’re having to rent, and are likely to miss the 30th September stamp duty deadline (our vendors had agreed to a family commitment for 3 weeks from next week so missing their deadline before they go and can empty). I know 6500 (for rent and SD) is small fry in the grand scheme of things, but is there anything that can be done about our buyer’s buyer’s solicitor and his/her inability to ask for information in a timely process that has meant our buyers couldn’t break the chain or even complete 2 months after the promised date.
These seem like really basic questions that weren’t asked at the outset and is costing us a lot of money.
Thank you for your comment. Until exchange of contracts there is no legally enforceable contract in place and not really any basis to claim any losses arising.
However, as no contract has been agreed you may wish to renegotiate the purchase price to take account of the additional losses that you are incurring.
Hi, We had our remortgage completion date set for 1st of August, our new remortgage funds were ready and all paperwork sent and completed ready for 1st of august. However solicitors had to obtain new redemption figure resulting further 6 days delay (at no charge from our previous lender) but without any reason solicitors delegates for additional 6 days resulting 6 day interest charge from previous lender. Are we entitled to claim this back due to no fault of our own or out new morgage leader? Thanks Chris
Whether or not a solicitor can be held liable for negligence will depend on a large number of factors. In any professional negligence claim, the two most important factors to consider from the outset are the professional’s retainer and what occurred in practice and why; there could be a number of mitigating points to consider. For a professional negligence claim to be successful, it must be shown that the professional had a duty of care to do something and that this duty of care was breached, causing a loss.
A solicitor’s retainer (sometimes called a client care letter) would normally be sent before or as soon as is reasonably practicable after the initial instruction. This would contain details of what the solicitor agreed to do. If the retainer is silent on things such as time limits for making payments, then whether or not the solicitor can be said to have complied with its duty of care will depend heavily on the circumstances. There is no specific law which states that a 6 day delay is automatically negligent. The relevant standard of care for a solicitor is that of a “reasonably competent solicitor”. Again, there is no statutory definition of this, which means whether or not your solicitor acted as a reasonably competent solicitor would depends on the factual circumstances of the matter and whether or not another solicitor in the same position would have behaved in the same way.
Hi, is it possible for a seller to delay the agreed completion date after we exchanged the contract? so if I am not afraid the seller to pull out the sell, it is better to exchange and completion on the same day? Thanks
The arrangements for exchange and completion are contractually agreed on completion, but the parties can, if they both agree, vary this. However, if one party does not wish to do this and wants to complete on the agreed day for completion, they should consider serving a notice to complete. This is a question that you should certainly raise with your conveyancing solicitor, as much would depend on what you want to achieve from the situation.
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Hi
We were told our buyers (agreed to sell to in mid April) would break the chain before 30th of June so there would be no risk to complete on the 28th July as we’d requested.
We needed to move for a job starting in August and children starting a new school hundreds of miles away
On (approx) 25th June we were told their buyer’s solicitor and mortgage co had just found out there was an increase in ground rent scheduled in 13 years time so our buyers would need to get a deed of variation to fix it.
Since then we’ve realised our buyer’s buyer’s solicitor keeps asking questions that should have been asked months ago… Eg building insurance costs and fire risk assessments which is delaying. And there’s always just one more thing that could always have been added to the question before.
As a result we’re having to rent, and are likely to miss the 30th September stamp duty deadline (our vendors had agreed to a family commitment for 3 weeks from next week so missing their deadline before they go and can empty). I know 6500 (for rent and SD) is small fry in the grand scheme of things, but is there anything that can be done about our buyer’s buyer’s solicitor and his/her inability to ask for information in a timely process that has meant our buyers couldn’t break the chain or even complete 2 months after the promised date.
These seem like really basic questions that weren’t asked at the outset and is costing us a lot of money.
Thank you for your comment. Until exchange of contracts there is no legally enforceable contract in place and not really any basis to claim any losses arising.
However, as no contract has been agreed you may wish to renegotiate the purchase price to take account of the additional losses that you are incurring.
Hi,
We had our remortgage completion date set for 1st of August, our new remortgage funds were ready and all paperwork sent and completed ready for 1st of august. However solicitors had to obtain new redemption figure resulting further 6 days delay (at no charge from our previous lender) but without any reason solicitors delegates for additional 6 days resulting 6 day interest charge from previous lender. Are we entitled to claim this back due to no fault of our own or out new morgage leader? Thanks Chris
Thank you for your enquiry.
Whether or not a solicitor can be held liable for negligence will depend on a large number of factors. In any professional negligence claim, the two most important factors to consider from the outset are the professional’s retainer and what occurred in practice and why; there could be a number of mitigating points to consider. For a professional negligence claim to be successful, it must be shown that the professional had a duty of care to do something and that this duty of care was breached, causing a loss.
A solicitor’s retainer (sometimes called a client care letter) would normally be sent before or as soon as is reasonably practicable after the initial instruction. This would contain details of what the solicitor agreed to do. If the retainer is silent on things such as time limits for making payments, then whether or not the solicitor can be said to have complied with its duty of care will depend heavily on the circumstances. There is no specific law which states that a 6 day delay is automatically negligent. The relevant standard of care for a solicitor is that of a “reasonably competent solicitor”. Again, there is no statutory definition of this, which means whether or not your solicitor acted as a reasonably competent solicitor would depends on the factual circumstances of the matter and whether or not another solicitor in the same position would have behaved in the same way.
Hi, is it possible for a seller to delay the agreed completion date after we exchanged the contract? so if I am not afraid the seller to pull out the sell, it is better to exchange and completion on the same day? Thanks
Thank you for your comment.
The arrangements for exchange and completion are contractually agreed on completion, but the parties can, if they both agree, vary this. However, if one party does not wish to do this and wants to complete on the agreed day for completion, they should consider serving a notice to complete. This is a question that you should certainly raise with your conveyancing solicitor, as much would depend on what you want to achieve from the situation.