68 thoughts on “Delayed completion? That’s going to cost me a fortune!”
Hi, I am currently in a position where my remortgage completion has been delayed due to the new lenders not transferring funds to the current lenders on the date agreed. As a result, we have now paid to our current lenders at the standard variable rate as we didn’t want to risk defaulting on a mortgage. As it stands, we have not been informed of when completion will take place. Do we stand to gain any compensation from this due to being forced on to this standard variable rate? Our remortgage has been painfully slow, with no contact from the new lenders themselves. Thank you
Whether or not there is a basis of claim will depend heavily on what was promised in terms of completion dates and agreed contractually. There is no automatic right in these circumstances. You would have to show that either you entered into a contract with a particular lender based on their promise to complete by a particular date, that there was a contractual obligation for them to complete by a certain date, or that they owed you a duty of care which they breached.
Hi there. I’m currently selling a shared ownership property part-owned by a housing association, in which I no longer live as I have moved city. The buyer was agreed in April and we have still not exchanged.
Both the buyer’s and my solicitors have been slow to communicate all the way through, with issues with paperwork (e.g. my ID needing to be electronically verified rather than through the certified copies I was told were adequate) only brought to my alert *months* after I first provided it. The buyer’s solicitor first raised an unprecedented issue with the contract in August about parking. Months have passed since then. The buyer and I both signed the transfer deed in September and the buyer’s solicitor (without their client’s knowledge) intervened before it was signed by the housing association to once again raise this parking issue. They are now pursuing a deed of variation which will delay the property sale even further.
Since this issue was first raised in August and it has taken till October to even request a deed of variation to the lease, do I have grounds to take action against any of the parties in the sale or is it not possible because exchange has not taken place? I am losing over £1k a month on a flat that is sitting empty.
Before exchange of contracts, there is no contract in existence between a buyer and a seller that can form the basis of any claim.
As for your solicitor, you will have a contract in place with your solicitor (called a retainer) and so far as there is a breach of that, or they have not undertaken their work with the reasonable care and skill expected of a reasonable conveyancing solicitor, there may be a claim in negligence. Professional negligence claims are, however, always complicated and normally the arguments turn on what the position would have been (i.e. what the client would not have lost financially) had the right steps been taken at the right time.
We would, however, seek some advice from your solicitor on the issue of the TR1/transfer you and the buyer signed. It would not be unusual for a buyer and seller to sign separate transfers and send these back to their respective solicitors, undated, to hold on file pending completion. We are not sure what you and the buyer have agreed directly but there is a reason why solicitors are generally instructed in respect of legal matters and this is to protect their clients from esoteric and other issues which might not be easy for a layperson to spot. It is unlikely to be something to worry about or to have occurred to any of the parties, but a transfer is a legally binding document and it is this that transfers ownership in a property. If what you have done directly with the buyer is to create a legally binding contract for the sale of land, equitable ownership in the property may have transferred (if that was the intention), notwithstanding that the buyer might struggle to register themselves as the legal owner because of things like the requirement to obtain consent from the housing association. As mentioned, it is unlikely to be an issue but possibly worth double checking with your solicitor in case, particularly if relations between the parties are souring.
We exchanged on Tuesday and completed on Friday @11:30 but the sellers did not move out we gave them extra time after 2pm but still not moved. Then they had until 4pm but still nothing. Served them notice at 5pm .. what does that mean for us? Do they start being charged interest immediately? Our after 24 hrs ? Confused.
Thank you for your comment. While we are not able to give specific advice as to the substance of your transaction, as we have not seen the contract of sale or similar, the general rule is that a failure to complete can result in several different heads of loss for the seller. Firstly, there is interest as you identify and your entitlement to interest will depend on the precise terms of the contract so you would first be advised to consider that. Secondly, if you have undergone other losses of and occasioned by the failure to complete on their part, then you may be entitled to this also.
Exactly what your legal rights regarding their occupation of the property are, however, will depend also on the contract and also on what exactly was done by the sellers. Please feel free to contact the Litigation team at our Braintree office for a confidential discussion on this.
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Hi, I am currently in a position where my remortgage completion has been delayed due to the new lenders not transferring funds to the current lenders on the date agreed. As a result, we have now paid to our current lenders at the standard variable rate as we didn’t want to risk defaulting on a mortgage. As it stands, we have not been informed of when completion will take place. Do we stand to gain any compensation from this due to being forced on to this standard variable rate? Our remortgage has been painfully slow, with no contact from the new lenders themselves. Thank you
Whether or not there is a basis of claim will depend heavily on what was promised in terms of completion dates and agreed contractually. There is no automatic right in these circumstances. You would have to show that either you entered into a contract with a particular lender based on their promise to complete by a particular date, that there was a contractual obligation for them to complete by a certain date, or that they owed you a duty of care which they breached.
Hi there. I’m currently selling a shared ownership property part-owned by a housing association, in which I no longer live as I have moved city. The buyer was agreed in April and we have still not exchanged.
Both the buyer’s and my solicitors have been slow to communicate all the way through, with issues with paperwork (e.g. my ID needing to be electronically verified rather than through the certified copies I was told were adequate) only brought to my alert *months* after I first provided it. The buyer’s solicitor first raised an unprecedented issue with the contract in August about parking. Months have passed since then. The buyer and I both signed the transfer deed in September and the buyer’s solicitor (without their client’s knowledge) intervened before it was signed by the housing association to once again raise this parking issue. They are now pursuing a deed of variation which will delay the property sale even further.
Since this issue was first raised in August and it has taken till October to even request a deed of variation to the lease, do I have grounds to take action against any of the parties in the sale or is it not possible because exchange has not taken place? I am losing over £1k a month on a flat that is sitting empty.
Before exchange of contracts, there is no contract in existence between a buyer and a seller that can form the basis of any claim.
As for your solicitor, you will have a contract in place with your solicitor (called a retainer) and so far as there is a breach of that, or they have not undertaken their work with the reasonable care and skill expected of a reasonable conveyancing solicitor, there may be a claim in negligence. Professional negligence claims are, however, always complicated and normally the arguments turn on what the position would have been (i.e. what the client would not have lost financially) had the right steps been taken at the right time.
We would, however, seek some advice from your solicitor on the issue of the TR1/transfer you and the buyer signed. It would not be unusual for a buyer and seller to sign separate transfers and send these back to their respective solicitors, undated, to hold on file pending completion. We are not sure what you and the buyer have agreed directly but there is a reason why solicitors are generally instructed in respect of legal matters and this is to protect their clients from esoteric and other issues which might not be easy for a layperson to spot. It is unlikely to be something to worry about or to have occurred to any of the parties, but a transfer is a legally binding document and it is this that transfers ownership in a property. If what you have done directly with the buyer is to create a legally binding contract for the sale of land, equitable ownership in the property may have transferred (if that was the intention), notwithstanding that the buyer might struggle to register themselves as the legal owner because of things like the requirement to obtain consent from the housing association. As mentioned, it is unlikely to be an issue but possibly worth double checking with your solicitor in case, particularly if relations between the parties are souring.
We exchanged on Tuesday and completed on Friday @11:30 but the sellers did not move out we gave them extra time after 2pm but still not moved. Then they had until 4pm but still nothing. Served them notice at 5pm .. what does that mean for us? Do they start being charged interest immediately? Our after 24 hrs ? Confused.
Thank you for your comment. While we are not able to give specific advice as to the substance of your transaction, as we have not seen the contract of sale or similar, the general rule is that a failure to complete can result in several different heads of loss for the seller. Firstly, there is interest as you identify and your entitlement to interest will depend on the precise terms of the contract so you would first be advised to consider that. Secondly, if you have undergone other losses of and occasioned by the failure to complete on their part, then you may be entitled to this also.
Exactly what your legal rights regarding their occupation of the property are, however, will depend also on the contract and also on what exactly was done by the sellers. Please feel free to contact the Litigation team at our Braintree office for a confidential discussion on this.