Disastrous moving day/week, anyone ever successfully claimed anything back?!

[thisrocknrolllife76]

At the end of my rope here! Meant to move last Friday, then Monday then told definitely not Tuesday so walked to work, partner rang at 9am said oh yes the estate agent said it's going ahead today so I rushed home only for the solicitor to call saying no it's unlikely to be today... keep stalling the removals team... keep telling my work can't come in... the others in the chain are also at their wits end and have been in the estate agents crying and pleading for news!
Basically six in the chain, somewhere at the bottom the lender and solicitor kept having 'enquiries' to work on and monies weren't released when we were told they would be for exchange, so all trying to exchange and complete on same day here which is proving a nightmare. Who gets the blame here for the stress/the extra finances incurred?! Our sellers are living in a hotel, we luckily stayed at friends last night as half our home is packed in the van, which is now back outside ours waiting with us for news 😟
Our buyers staying with in laws who they can't stand apparently! This is the agent telling us all this, I feel like I want to form a support group with each other and try and sue whichever solicitor is responsible for this mess! Is there such a thing?! And my poor DS aged five was off school yesterday due to strike action so he had to witness his mummy having a breakdown when told all off again and nowhere to go 🤦‍♀️
If this is moving home in the UK then good grief why does anyone bother? My last property was a small flat I sold a year ago and it was empty at the time and when I bought it in 2006 so I didn't know the joys of a chain...
Please tell me there will be light at the end of this tunnel 🙏🏻 thank you and good luck out there if you are in a similar position x

It sounds a bit odd - are you trying to exchange and complete on the same day?

It is stressful to the max, no doubt about it.

But basically you need a gap between exchange and completion. Exchange sets the date as part of the contract, so you can be sure of moving date. Even if there is only 2 or 3 days between the two.

It’s frustrating but no, you can’t blame and claim as part of the process.

Sounds to me not abnormal for a long chain OP
And I can’t see anyone actually to blame

We are in a similar though not so bad position. We are going to ask our solicitor if we can break the chain, put our stuff in storage and at least get the people who are ready to exchange moved. But if your issue is the bottom of the chain maybe you are more stuck (our issue is at the top)

I think same day exchange and completion sounds mega stressful!

And my poor DS aged five was off school yesterday due to strike action so he had to witness his mummy having a breakdown when told all off again and nowhere to go

well how about you focus on dealing with how you manage stress Op.

It would be much less stressful if you didn't exchange and complete the same day, so I would ask for a gap - even a short one would help. Without exchanging, I can't see you claiming anything back as nothing has been breached.

I very much doubt there is anything to claim. Nothing has exchanged, so there is a actually no requirement (in a legal sense, morally is totally different) for anyone to move house.

Exchanging and completing interviews same day won't be helping, but it sounds like several of you have already moved out?? Can you perhaps aim to move (say) next Friday, but exchange ASAP.

We split the chain - bought upwards before completing the sale. Took 2 attempts to exchange on purchase - and that ended up simultaneous exchange and completion 3 weeks after intended completion.
Our sale took about 2 weeks of attempted exchanges. It was horrific, and we didn't have the stress of trying to move at the same time.

It is yet another example of how unfit for purpose the house moving system is in England.

Deep breaths. If you are not holding up the chain in any way, there is probably very little you can do except put pressure on others. Very easy to say, exceptionally hard to do, but you are just going to have to roll with it.
Hope it all resolves soon, and you are in your new house as quickly as possible, with minimal extra stress.

The issue is no one has exchanged. Until exchange anyone can pull out. I’m really shocked it got to this stage where everyone was trying to exchange and complete on same day

I'm in the situation of having no home of my own as I sold first (thinking, and still believing, that this was the right course of action in my circumstances) and I'm now waiting for one, single piece of paper in order to complete on my purchase. Nowhere near as complex as your chain, OP but extraordinarily stressful. I probably will exchange and complete on the same day but simply because there's vacant possession and no chain. But the inability to organise the simplest aspects of life during this uncertainty threatens to do my head in. And I'm not a novice to the process as I've bought and sold houses for donkey's years. So I'm hearing you and sympathise!

I'd strongly advise trying for an exchange first even if completion comes 24/48 hours later. As soon as you've exchanged you have a certain certainty and a set completion date.

Ultimately, I can't believe that the English system continues to stagger on, unchanged, producing the endless chaos that permeates even the simplest conveyance.

Why don't you insist on exchanging first?

Conveyancer here. A simultaneous exchange and completion on a chain over two should always be avoided for this very reason. Is there a specific legal reason why the sim is needed? If not you must insist on an exchange even just a day before just to give everyone some certainty. Your agent needs to ascertain exactly what is holding things up, if conveyancers have requested/need to request or are holding mortgage monies they should all be able to confirm what is happening and timescales.

I think same day exchange and completion sounds mega stressful!

The only circumstances where a simultaneous exchange/completion should be considered is when the buyer isn't selling anywhere and the property being bought is already empty.

Otherwise it really, really isn't advisable.

Why n earth is a chain of six trying to exchange and complete on the same day??!! That was always going to be a disaster - not that people aren't sympathetic to your plight OP but whoever decided this was a good idea was mad!

Our completion was delayed due to a solicitor/bank cock-up somewhere along the way. We were compensated for the extra expense of hotel for the weekend and extra storage/removal fees (don't ever complete on a Friday) but we had already exchanged the week before so probably clearer cut.

I just don't understand why people put themselves under such pressure?! A minimum of 2 weeks makes the whole thing easier to deal with.

Sorry can't understand why a chain that big are trying to exchange and complete on the same day. It's utter madness and a recipe for chaos as you are seeing.

Nobody to blame but all of you who agreed to this fiasco.

Exactly

but now floundering around looking for someone to blame and get compensation and even looking to blame her “breakdown” in front of her child.

Yours and others in chain’s decision to make it incredibly tight
it could have worked out
it didn’t

Keep your stress away from your poor 5 year old. And why didn’t you book the whole day off to start with? I’ve exchanged and completed on the same day but that was a chain of 3 and we were fully prepared for it to be a total nightmare, which it obviously was.

To have your movers waiting outside your house before you’ve exchanged? Baffling

At this stage don’t listen to the estate agent,listen to your solicitor