Property Purchase : Failure to acheive Notice To Complete

[Kaloo20]

Looking for conveyancing specialist

I'm desperately looking for some advice about what happens next if I fail to complete after notification to complete is served. Do I lose everything or only loses incurred by the vendor because I failed to complete? Is there any legislation about this or previous cases to refer to?

Also I will be able to exchange/complete on this property within 10 working days of notice expiry date, is there anything I can do.

Vendors solicitors are not very flexible. Vendors property is end of chain, handled by executor (in nursing home) + solicitors

sad bump - it's happening this wednesday

any advice ?

I assume you have actually excahnged and that the date for completion has passed. Do you have a solicitor acting for you? Is there an estate agent involved? IIRC you will forfeit the deposit paid and pay any damages.

Get in touch with the other side and tell them you'll be able to complete within 2 weeks (if you can) and see if they'll give you some leeway.

Yes have exchanged and missed completion and now about to miss Notice to complete.

I have a solicitor (f) who is on holiday this week and has handed it to colleague also (f) to pick up tomorrow when she is next in the office. But I am worried this colleague will not be firm enough with vendors solicitors.

I thought I had read somewhere that although a 10% deposit (40k) was paid that the vendors are only able to keep enough to cover costs (currently solicitors fees + 2 weeks nursing home fees). Am already paying nearly £100 interest on non completion amount.

First buyer pulled out day before exchange on my property but have been lucky to get another buyer within 48 hours who are working as quickly as they can to purchase. Their survey is done and they are simply waiting for mortgage offer to generate. Searches done as well.

Not sure if vendors will give me time and I was wondering if there is any court action I have bring to allow me to have time to complete. If I lose property I could re-buy for £40k less and complete within a week if they'd let me, in which case surely they could wait now ...

However if they don't let me and keep my deposit and start again would I have enough to start a different court case when I can demonstrate I could complete faster than putting back onto open market

agghhh stupid self inflicted situation

what as I to do

help and advice sought

thanks

desperate bump

Think they have to sue you for costs etc but you lose your deposit anyway. Chances are the executors would still want to go ahead with the sale rather than start again, unless they have an alternative purchaser. How come your solicitor let you exchange knowing you coudl nto meet the commitment financially , sounds like poor practice tbh. Could you bridge short term ?

as far as i am aware (but dont take me 100% on this) you will lose your deposit regardless.

was it your buyer who pulled out day before exchange? if so, why did you go ahead and exchange on a property you werent in a position to purchase?

Not having a go at all, just trying to understand exactly what has happened here.

Can you speak direct to the purchaser? - I did this with my first purchase because the estate agent and my solicitor were useless waste of space.

Also work on the assumption that most solicitors are a useless, disorganised waste of space (ex-solicitor speaking) and hassle them big time. If they say they are going to do something then call back and check they have done it.

I was in a contracts race, the vendor (executor) accepted two offers and said first to exchange ... hence my stupid drastic action

I have hand written a letter to the executor (old lady in home in Trowbridge) humbling asking for her not to close the contract and allow me until 10th October. I will courier it to her in the morning - sod the cost, I'm desperate

Can't afford to bridge, estimated cost of £9000 for one month is more than I gross in 6 weeks.

Absolutely gutted and just to cap my day - nanny handed her notice in today

I just want to curl up and all this mess to go away

omg kaloo, i dont know what to say

Bloody vendor saying that ffs. unfortunately it could be a hard lesson learnt but i hope not. i hope you can somehow turn this all around as it turns like a bloody nightmare.

Good luck hope you get the house.

Ok, well hopefully the other solicitor is back in the office now and helping you sort this out.

A colleague was buying a flat and the vendor changed his mind after exchange and before completion...in the end completion did happen, but was delayed, and my cololeague was only able to claim expenses incurrred, not the whole deposit - and I think that would have been the case had he not completed at all. Although i understood that the deposit was forfeited if no completion. Completion was delayed by about 3 weeks or a month and he claimed various expenses - extra legal, extra rent, etc etc.

Is there anything more you can do to assist your buyers to speed up?

Our last house sale someone down the chain failed to complete on said day and they incurred expenses for all in chain. However, they only took about 10 extra days to do so.

I have spoken to my solicitor this mornng who has laid out a very grim picture this morning.

I have spoken to the Estate Agents who have suggested I try and tick as many boxes as possible for tomorrow including getting my purchasers to lodge a deposit with their solicitor today. All this is now in place, I can only sit back and wait until tomorrow and see what happens

What is in the grim picture?
is the solicitor in contact with the vendor's solicitor and trying to get them to see that holding on is thier best chance of getting an early completion?

I assume that your solicitor gave all the warnings and disclaimers when you exchanged without having exchanged on your house? Having acted on your behalf in the exchange, the solicitor should be pulling out all the stops to protect your interests as much as possible...do you fel confident of that?

Don't forget that the Law Society take a very very dim view of contract races. There was talk of outlawing them altogether but instead there are a huge number of restrictions on them. That has to be helpful to you in your bargaining position - these people haven't exactly acted honourably.

I'm not sure that you are getting the best advice from your solicitor tbh - he/she should be so much more aggressive with the other side and securing a deal for you.

Message withdrawn

Thanks for your advice LisaLisa, Piggy et al, yes my solicitor made me sign a document saying I was acting against professional advice. This my own doing.

Yesterdays deadline for the Notice to Complete came and went, the vendors solicitor was in a meeting all day and not available to talk to my solicitor or the selling estate agents.

What I can establish is that he will be in the same meeting all day today so we are not expecting to hear until tomorrow. Also he has not (yet) instructed for the property to be re-marketed. And the other people in the original contracts race have now offered on something else.

I am now only 7 days from exchange and 10 days from completion on my house .... so in 10 days I should be able to complete on new property

I wrote a letter to the executor asking for more time and explaining why I couldn't get a bridging loan, sent recorded delivery. I can only appeal to her sense of fainess after allowing the contracts race to start with.

I can't give the vendors more money everything I have left is tied up in current house or new mortgage which I can't redeem whilst I still am on current joint mortgage.

I guess I'm just playing the waiting game now

EWll, it's good news that the house is not re-marketed and the other buyers are busy elsewhere, so i am keeping my fingers crossed for you and tghat the vendors do play fair and are noy greedy or punitive. As you say, if they demand money you haven't got, you will have to pull out altogether.

Late Thursday I heard that vendors wanted to take deposit and remarket - giving me first chice.

Friday my solicitor replied that in doing this I would have to renegotiate my mortgage and start again causing further delay.

Expecting to hear again on Monday

Today (Sat) my buyers have rung and finalised details on which curtains I'm leaving and cooker. They think they will be able to exchange this Wednesday (but I don't think their paperwork will be ready that quickly ... maybe next Friday

I feel more positive that I have for days that this will still go ahead

I'll keep you posted

How's it going, Kaloo?

OMG at long last a number of breakthroughs today after an ill timed postal strike keeping mortgage offers delayed for days.

On my selling side, I am signing my exchange papers on the house in the morning ... So are other party ... that just leaves soon to be ex husband to sign (still locked in financial negotiating issues between matrimonial solicitors - but hoping to agree tomorrow ) and he will hopefully sign Monday. Looking at completing next Friday.

Solicitors for my failure to complete purchase have been tactfully playing a slow negotiating game with my purchasing solicitors swapping faxes at snails pace to slow the discussion down allowing me to proceed with my sale. Today agreed a flat fee of £10K over asking price (in cash) to include £4K interest for failing to complete + their extra expenses (and a little sweetener, as my solicitor calls it). I've agreed as they could have closed down on me and I'd have lost £40K + expenses.

What with the final stages of a emotionally fraught divorce, a failure to complete hanging over me and possible loss of £40K, mounting solicitors fees every way I look + having my Nanny quit work via a text message yesterday evening (for own personal reasons + she was 3 weeks into a 5 week notice period) leaving me with no childcare until 25th October (agghh), I am feeling very run down stressed and utterly exhausted. I am just putting one foot in front of another at the moment towards that mythical light at the end of tunnel. I also hold down full time demanding career in city and am in ongoing battle for maintenance - which is little and sporadic - at the moment, (have just had to issue Schedule A).

When this is done, I promise I am never moving again

Kaloo20 sounds like a lot of stress for you. Hope it all gets better soon and you get settled in your new house

I've signed my exchange papers on current house this morning and buyers have signed their exchange papers on my house ...ex dh now refusing to sign and wants to renegotiate (again) divorce settlement to get a bigger cash payment up front before he will exchange. Each additional £1K he takes of my cash means less money to get the new house renovated. I can't sleep tonight I'm so stressed that after all this he has refused to sign.

Feeling totally stressed out and frankly close to breaking point.

does xdh know you have to exchange on the other house asap or lose pot loads of cash? If he doesn't could you threaten that YOU will pull out unless he signs as discussed - the prospect of significant delay might be enough to make him think on a bit?

End of Monday and ex dh still not signed exchange papers. Hiding behind "I have to talk to my solicitors" facade. Purchasers are waiting, I am waiting, he is in control and is being ultra calm and deliberating with me, nothing needs to be hurried in his opinion, he will take solicitors advice WHEN THEY PHONE HIM and will not ring them.

The sooner his is ex dh the better.

He knows he is costing me £100 a day and doesn't care. House sale/purchase solicitor doesn't even want to speak to him, prefers to chase me, as they are so fed up with his messing around after all the juggling that has been done to hang onto the house that I have twice missed the purchase date on ...

I am now seriously questioning, how would I know if I have had a breakdown? / am having one? Does someone tell you, is it when you physically can't get out of bed or when you do something silly and need professional help? I am hardly functioning at work or home and can't sleep.