Missives not yet concluded 2 days before move

[Packedandwaiting]

Feeling stressed and looking for advice please. We had an offer accepted on a house in January and accepted an offer on ours in Feb. We were all working towards 5th of April but our buyer was waiting on his mortgage offer so the date was changed to 12th April.

Mortgage offer etc is all sorted but now with 2 days to go, missives still aren’t concluded. Our solicitor said they are still waiting on a formal letter from our buyers solicitor, which will in turn allow us to progress with our onward purchase. She chased the buyers solicitor on Monday and as of this morning still hadn’t heard.

I’m so stressed!!! Currently heavily pregnant and as I’m unable to do heavy lifting and cleaning due to medical issues, we arranged for the removals company to come tomorrow and empty the house and keep it overnight, allowing my partner to clean our house on Friday morning before the move.

Does anyone have any advice please? We absolutely need to know by tonight, so that we know whether the removals company can empty the house tomorrow. So stressful!

Your solicitor ness to chase and chase again. Sometimes but not often missives don’t conclude until the actual day of the move. It’s not ideal but for everything to go through on Friday, funds need to be ordered from lenders. If that’s not done, no one will be moving - assuming everyone is using a mortgage.

When we last moved about 15 years ago I am sure the missives were exchanged about 6 weeks before the move.
A big deal was always made about how the Scottish system was better as you couldn’t pull out (without being sued) once the missives were concluded.

We recently moved and our buyer pulled out a week before exchange with no consequence to them. We quickly found another buyer and thankfully everything worked out, but again the missives weren’t done until a few days before so I was on tenterhooks I case it all fell through again.

I hope everything goes well for you, it’s so stressful

Pretty standard at the moment,it will almost certainly be fine

Ours was either the day of or the day before, can’t quite remember but very very close! I wasn’t expecting it to be like that.

Edited for spelling and to add that this was just last month.

Friends of ours moved recently and their missives concluded on day of entry. It was fine, but not ideal for stress levels at all. I hope it goes smoothly for you!

I've bought four properties in the last 6-7 years. Each time the missives concluded day of, or day before. It's a myth IME that Scotland has this somehow superior system to England. It's certainly not the case anymore and it's always super stressful. It's a nightmare, but completely normal. You have my sympathy, hope all goes well.

Thanks all, super stressful indeed.

There was a further development yesterday. Our buyers solicitor sent the final letter allowing us to complete the sale, we thought we were good to go. However another issue arose.

The house at the top of the chain (the one our sellers are moving in to) was a matrimonial home of a couple who have now separated. The ex wife had to sign a document signing over her occupancy rights, which apparently has been done but cannot be located. She is on holiday and unable to sign another before Friday. There’s also an issue where the solicitor acting for the same people can’t locate a document relating to consents for alterations.

Why they wouldn’t make sure they had these docs way before now is beyond me. So it’s still a waiting game but not looking good!

The matrimonial things sounds a bit odd,the alterations thing sounds fixable
I assume you held of concluding on your sale ?

@Motheranddaughter yes our solicitor is keen to conclude our sale and purchase at the same time. Such a pain as we were meant to get all of our belongings loaded by the removals company today but now could be waiting until tomorrow to even hear if this is going ahead!

Good
It will probably be ok 🤞

Good luck op. Dont forget that you need to be sure your sale will conclude before buying the new place or you will need to pay second property tax.

Hi all, sale and purchase isn’t going ahead tomorrow. The sellers solicitor and the solicitor of the home they are purchasing cannot locate the renunciation of occupancy rights document and also documentation to do with planning consents.

Absolutely horrified that they would leave it this late in the day to ensure they had the appropriate documentation.

Fingers crossed we get a new date urgently and that the new date goes ahead without any problems

Sorry to hear that
Have you been given any idea of when it might settle

Solicitors are often over-relaxed in getting all the necessary paperwork together before the completion date. When we bought a house a few years ago, it was apparent that the deeds were incorrect, as flagged up by our solicitor. However, the seller and his solicitor did not respond in time so that the date of sale was missed. Only because I made a fuss, our solicitor arranged for us to rent the new property until it was settled.

When buying another house recently, the sellers refused to exchange until they had confirmation of insurance. They asked for this at 4.30pm when we should have got the keys at 12 noon. We couldn’t provide this until the following day so we spent a very uncomfortable night in a hotel without nightwear, toiletries, medicines etc. Luckily our removal company had the flexibility to deliver everything the next day.

Almost everyone has a moving house story to tell.

Wow @Honeysuckle16 that sounds awful! I wish there was something more we can do to push for this to be sorted or to get compensation for the money we have lost. I’m just shocked at how laid back the solicitors are being. Our solicitor has been fantastic and there’s only so much she can do I suppose!

@Packedandwaiting, amazing how it’s all quickly forgotten once you’re enjoying your new house. I do think that solicitors and estate agents could be a lot more responsive to their client’s welfare. The client is expected to absorb it all and put up with the stress, inconvenience and financial loss.

Absolutely, they really couldn’t care less. We are currently sitting at £500 lost plus two annual leave days each. I will be raising a third party complaint via the Scottish legal complaints commission. They can order the solicitor at fault to pay compensation if the investigation finds in our favour. Whilst it doesn’t resolve the issue or change the outcome, it would soften the blow!

Has there been any progress

We received an update on Friday afternoon that all parties are hoping to move on 18 April. We have agreed to go ahead with this however we are anxious that it won’t go ahead again.

The solicitor at the top of the chain is still awaiting a replacement renunciation of occupancy rights document being signed (apparently being done today) and documentation regarding an NHBC guarantee etc.

We had no option but to book the removals company again, and if it doesn’t go ahead on Thursday that’ll be another £500 lost. The removals company were more or less fully booked for 18th so squeezed us in so we felt we couldn’t leave it any later to book them!

Fingers crossed

I hope it all happened on Friday!