Advice on house completion

[jazzhands44]

We have been in the incredibly long process of buying a house since September. Everything is now done and we have agreed on this coming Wednesday as a completion date. I am still waiting on one final email document from our solicitor which is the completion statement (not really sure what this is). However we have had no information about the monies being transferred. Our deposit money is in a joint account with the bank who are providing our mortgage so will they just go in and transfer it on the chosen day or do they need instruction?

We literally haven't heard a thing and with it being so close I'm panicking a bit now as we have removal vans booked.

There are no estate agents involved as it's a private sale and waiting to hear back from solicitors is so annoying. If anyone else has been in this situation recently I would love to know how the process ended for you at this stage?

We were in a similar situation, I was worried too. Your solicitor will handle the instructions and then the bank does just take the money. It was strange it being there one minute and gone the next. If you have online banking you should also see your mortgage account appear.

It a just happened. But that is what you are paying your solicitor for.

England?

The completion statement details all monies - e.g. amount of mortgage, solicitors fees, deposit required from you, monies you've paid on account.

So the money will automatically be transferred to the seller on Wednesday then? That's a relief!

@Andithoughtiwasspecial yes sorry we are in England.

The completion statement confirms the financials of the case, so all costs and disbursements and all moneys coming in (sale proceeds and mortgage monies) it will also confirm if there are any balance funds due from you.
Your solicitor will draw down your mortgage funds.
If there is a balance of funds due from you in order to complete (in simpler terms, a shortfall between your sale proceeds+mortgage monies = purchase price) your solicitor will ask for these monies to be transferred to the solicitor client bank account. These funds must be cleared before completion. If there are (the shortfall) funds due from you I would telephone your solicitor tomorrow to chase the completion statement so you can transfer the funds tomorrow so as not to delay completion on Wednesday.

Also, if things like this ever go wrong - you can do a same day CHAPS payment at a bank easily enough, they cost twenty quid or something but it is for situations where you need to move a large sum immediately

Just call your solicitor tomorrow it will take 2 mins to confirm

OK. The Conveyancer will order the mortgage funds from your lender to their client account. They will ask you to transfer the balance ( your deposit fees disbursements) to them less any money you have already paid/ sent to them. They handle transfer of the purchase price to the sellers Conveyancer. The sellers Conveyancer handles paying the seller once they have paid any fees/ existing mortgages off. Completion takes place once monies have been received by their Conveyancer from yours X

Thank you, I'm guessing all this transfer of funds can happen instantly? At the click of a button? We may also need to specify with the bank which account the money is coming out of since we have a few with the same branch.

I'm just hoping that it all happens quite quickly on Wednesday so that I can then make arrangements with the seller to collect the keys.

@jazzhands44

Thank you, I'm guessing all this transfer of funds can happen instantly? At the click of a button? We may also need to specify with the bank which account the money is coming out of since we have a few with the same branch.

I'm just hoping that it all happens quite quickly on Wednesday so that I can then make arrangements with the seller to collect the keys.

Reasonably instantly - as I mentioned above you can do a same day payment using CHAPS if needed, there is no upper limit. There is a fee but negligible compared to the potentially six figure sum you are transferring for a deposit

This is standard practice so nothing to be concerned about. If you are unclear about the specific bank account just ping your solicitor on Monday to confirm as you should need to fill out a form on or before Wednesday to provide the details

Last Tuesday our solicitor ordered the funds from our mortgage lender, on Friday we received the completion statement and transferred the deposit and fees to our solicitor, we complete on Tuesday so I presume the deposit and mortgage funds will be transferred to the vendor and then that's it.

We've been waiting since early October so I understand how frustrating it is waiting for these final bits, I'm wishing the days away!

It really is frustrating and I feel like we haven't really been told what (if anything) we need to do. I'm hoping at this stage the solicitors will just liaise with the mortgage lenders and sort the money between them because we haven't been told to do anything and there's now only 2 full days to go. Obviously the seller will want the money in her account before handing over the keys and I just want to have them by Wednesday so that the removals I've arranged for Thursday can all go ahead. The annoying thing is that I've been chasing this for weeks and have continually been told that we are on track for the specified date so if there are any hiccups or delays now I'll be really annoyed.

How much is your deposit? Have you arranged for the money to be transferred to your solicitor with the bank? Are you completing or exchanging Wednesday? Your solicitor needs to have the money to complete otherwise it won't happen.

I'm surprised your solicitor hasn't told you this.

We have a sizeable deposit - about a third of the cost of the property. The rest is coming from the mortgage lender. The deposit money is within an account at the bank who are providing the mortgage.

We haven't been told or advised to move any money or do anything. I am still awaiting the completion statement by email which I'm anticipating coming tomorrow. All along I have been told we are on track for completion on Wednesday which I took to mean monies would be transferred and we could arrange to collect the keys the same day. But the level of communication has been so poor I'm starting to think it might not happen.

Any funds that you are putting into the purchase (I.e. not mortgage) you need to transfer to the solicitor. You need to know the amount and the correct bank details - call the sols to confirm these before sending anything. You can send monies by faster payment or CHAPS, bear in mind some banks have limits on what you send by faster payment each day. It can also take longer to show in the other account once transferred, theoretically as it's only guaranteed by end of working day. In practice faster payments show up quickly. CHAPS payments are more secure and guaranteed within around 2 hours. You usually have to pay a small fee for this type of payment (£20ish).

The solicitor will request the mortgage funds directly from the lender. If you haven't exchanged contracts yet though the completion date is not fixed, it could be delayed. I'd be chasing sols for exchange of contracts as well as the completion statement.

@Blahtastic I think we have exchanged contracts. Sorry I must sound really stupid but this is the first time I've bought a house. We definitely signed contacts and returned them by post a few weeks ago and as far as I'm aware the last thing I'm due to receive is the completion statement.

You are PAYING your solicitor for their expertise and advice during the purchase ; whatever questions you have or need to know about the proceedings, just ask them.

Believe me I have tried and it's almost impossible to get hold of them on the phone. When I email them I get quick responses of about two lines that essentially say that the completion date is on track. I will be contacting them first thing tomorrow though to find out if we need to do anything else.

We might be paying them but we haven't received a particularly good service.

Are you sure you’ve exchanged? You usually transfer the deposit to the solicitor at the point of exchange.

You sending back contracts doesn’t mean you’ve exchanged, unfortunately.
I’d try and push to exchange in advance of completion, if you can, as then it’s not likely to go wrong/fall apart on completion.

Did your solicitor discuss exchange and completion on the same day?

The solicitor should take your authority to exchange contracts by phone - you give permission for them to proceed and 'put you under contract', meaning the contract between you and the seller is legally binding. The sols should be holding signed contract and deposit at the time of exchange. You can exchange and complete on the same day, there are pros and cons for doing this, cons are due to the risk of it not going ahead on the day. It doesn't sound like you have exchanged as the sols should have confirmed to you when it was done. Try the sols first thing tomorrow for a thorough update.

If you haven't paid over any money for the deposit you won't have exchanged contracts.

I don't think the solicitor can just order the money from your bank even if it is the bank providing the mortgage. Those are two separate transactions, probably involving separate departments, and I'm sure you are the ones who have to instruct your bank how much to send to your solicitor.

Thank you all, it's extremely confusing and I'm annoyed with myself that it's got to this point without me fully knowing what's going on. I have been chasing for weeks and have continually been told that we are on track for the 23rd for completion, but I feel I should have asked more questions.

I will contact them first thing tomorrow and ask if we need to action anything with the money.

The completion statement will include the deposit funds + solicitor fees that you need to pay before you can exchange,plus you need to have buildings insurance in place.