Fallen through on completion day

[catpoooffender]

Absolutely devastated. We're in the middle of a three house chain. Today we are supposed to complete and our buyers lenders have decided to do some compliance checks that may take up to nine working days. Removals company have just finished packing up the van. Cats are at cattery. Post redirected. We paid for the packing service. I hired an additional van to clear some stuff. I can't believe this can happen.

[Endlessmizzle]

Omg whattttttt?

I have just had a sale fall through and previously I had a purchase fall through when my removal vans were on the road. You poor, poor thing. Wtf are the lenders thinking at this late stage?

[roboticaw]

I don't know the legal position on this at all, but I would expect all my expenses paid- removal van, hotel accommodation, Cattery.

What possessed their solicitor to think this was professional or even allowed? Surely all due diligence should have been in place well before today. I'd be complaining to the law society, to estate agents, to anyone who will listen

[CaroleFuckingBaskin]

Omg. You poor people. That is horrendous!

[Mildura]

Have you exchanged?

[CaroleFuckingBaskin]

Had you already exchanged contracts or were you doing it all on one day?

[TokyoSushi]

Oh that's awful OP, have you exchanged?

[Fallulah]

Are you in England? This shouldn’t be able to happen without you being able to sue for all costs if you’ve already exchanged.

Don’t exchange and complete on the same day!

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Please tell me you've already exchanged?

[Taikoo]

[eurochick]

You poor things! I assume this is simultaneous exchange and completion? Nightmare!

[catpoooffender]

We haven't exchanged. Our solicitor strongly advised us to do simultaneous. We suggested exchange yesterday and complete today. The exchange didn't go through yesterday because the buyers funds hadn't come through.

I strongly suspect that their mortgage offer will be withdrawn because they previously had an offer withdrawn after valuation. But I guess we are in limbo now until we have confirmation of that.

I don't know who I would ask for compensation? Especially as we hadn't exchanged.

[eurochick]

I can't see that you will get anything without having exchanged.

[Mildura]

Our solicitor strongly advised us to do simultaneous

That's crazy! I'm so, so sorry for you. I really don't think your solicitor has advised you well here.

I don't know who I would ask for compensation?

There isn't going to be any compensation here I'm afraid. Prior to exchange anything can happen.

[jay55]

Your solicitor is an arse.
I really hope it works out for you.

[Bells3032]

I don't understand why the lawyers would suggest simultanous exchange and completion. unless no one is moving (Eg. for a buy to let) this is a very very bad idea - means you have to pack up and pay for movers with no guarentee it will go ahead.. You won't be able to sue for any costs if you haven't exchanged yet so they haven't signed any contract with you yet.

I feel very very bad for you though. Hope it all works you

[notheragain4]

Oh op I am so sorry, that's bloody awful. I would be having words with your solicitor about their advice too, why did they think exchange and completion simultaneously was appropriate? Shouldn't the buyer's solicitor have been aware about this a few days ago, isn't there a lead time for requesting mortgage funds?

[catpoooffender]

The worst thing is how long this has been going on. We agreed the sale and purchase in nov/dec. We should have completed before lockdown but the buyers mortgage broker wasted a few weeks not telling us that their original mortgage offer had been withdrawn. Then they got another offer and lockdown happened. They're now on their third lender because the second got twitchy about a change in financial circumstances during lockdown. Pretty sure the third will also pull the plug.

[BruceAndNosh]

I cannot understand why a solicitor would recommend exhnage and completion on same day. I know people do it but it's mad

[ChicCroissant]

I'm sorry to hear this OP - this is exactly the reason that exchange and completion on the same day is not recommended by so many people. Unfortunately, I doubt there is any compensation either.

[Blueeyedpixie]

@catpoooffender this happened to us too.

Exchange and completion was recommended (or was a few weeks / months ago) to be same day due to anyone in the chain catching coronavirus after exchange and being unable to complete due to self isolation.

Your buyers can’t get a mortgage now, surely? I thought each mortgage application would require a credit check. And too many searches would make you less likely to obtain a mortgage?

I’m so sorry op :(

PS life is better since it all fell through. You never know what your bad luck had saved you from sending good vibes.

[BrowncoatWaffles]

I am so very sorry to read this (and it makes me feel a bit sick - we just agreed to SSTC yesterday so I'm hyper aware we've got all this nonsense to look forward to).

At this point I would seriously be contacting my agent to ask how quickly they could put us back on the market,

[sergeilavrov]

I think your solicitor gave bad advice here: exchange and complete on the same day (unless they are cash buyers) is not advisable at all. I suspect that the other solicitor requested this, and he has convinced you. That is not his role - his role is to give you advice to achieve your goals and protect you during the process. If that’s the case, he failed you.

If he failed to inform you of the risks of E&C in a single day, and didn’t do due diligence in checking if they had done this before, you have the ability to make a complaint and seek some compensation. First, do so through his own firm’s complaints procedure; and if (when) it isn’t resolved - via the legal ombudsman office. You may want to speak to a negligence specialist, especially if you want to seize all communication records between the solicitors themselves to determine if this negligence was actually purposeful.

Above all though, I’m so sorry this happened to you. I hope you can get things sorted and then get a new solicitor

[Blueeyedpixie]

When it happened to us our solicitor defended her advice to exchange & complete on the same day because apparently it was what The Law Society had recommended- she was right at the time. I checked.

But not sure this is still recommended

[TheRealHousewife]

TBH I’d remarket your property. Doesn’t sound good and you need to move forward from this. In the mean time if they get their mortgage offer through exchange and complete simultaneous days.

[HooseDilemma]

@sergeilavrov sameday exchange and completion is advised by the law society at present due to the risk of anyone in the chain catching covid post exchange and then being unable to complete due to being in isolation. So I doubt OP's solicitor failed them