Late closing - what happens?

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stresshead

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What can I say, currently buying my first place and everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Anyway, we have signed contracts and are due to close in 2 and a half weeks. I know for a fact that the cheque from the bank will not be issued on time – there are numerous delays which I won’t go into now.

My question is: what happens if we are late closing? I have heard talk of penalties etc. I’d imagine we wouldn’t be more than a week late (hopefully!)

Any help would be appreciated, I am completely clueless about this! And stressed!
 
your solicitor will advise, who caused the delays and why/when ???
 
Basically our solicitor is gone on holidays and by the time he gets back we only have a week to tie up a LOT of loose ends
 
The very worst case scenario is the vendor can pull out of the deal if you have breached the terms of your contract in relation to closing within a certain time period of receiving a completion notice ( in the case of a new build ) or going over a set date in the contracts for a sale ( in relation to a second hand house ). Penalties - if any other than the stopping of the sale itself would be contained in the contract you signed which hopefully the solicitor gave you a copy off.

That said it is extremely rare that this occurs as a high proportion of sales hit delays and snags along the way.
 
Hi,
I'm in a similar bind. We signed contracts under ferocious pressure in April and the vendor put down a closing date of 19 May. However as we hadn't sorted out our Life assurance our solicitor crossed off the closing date advising us not to state one. Well now our vendor is dragging her heels and we are homeless from 19th June and furniture will be arriving in next couple of weeks. What can we do! Stressed out!



Deisce
 
cheers! I can't imagine anyone pulling out of a sale over a delay of a week?! I know I wouldn't...
 
If there was no closing date in the contract ( which I gather there's not as your solicitor crosses it out ) and both of you signed then you can do very little if the vendor starts dragging heels.
 
The fear just won't leave me, people keep telling me that if things run late (which they will) the vendors will scream and shout but not much else. They really want this to close too because their first buyer dropped out - I'm sure they won't do anything drastic over a few days delay.

This is the 3rd house we've sale agreed this year and the first that we managed to get to the stage of signing of contracts - I thought I'd relax once that was done, but I can't! If we ever move into this place (and then get the roof fixed - arrgggh) I will stay there FOREVER! And ever. Don't think I could go through this again!
 
You are not alone. We have more or less same problems.
We've signed the contracts about 4 weeks ago, only to find out that the solicitors never sent them back to the vendor, not sure why, until exactly 21 days after contracts were issued.
Yesterday we've got a phone call from the bank that our life insurance doesn't cover the whole amount (short of less than 300Euro..).
Now we have to meet the bank rep on Monday and see what could be done, but I expect the cheque won't be issued on time for closing...
 
Same here. Just under 2 weeks to move out and nowhere to go. Again life cover (not even for the buyer but for the guarantor!) was the problem. Also cowboy mortgage broker who also went off on holidays as soon as the s**t hit the fan. . . from our experience a lot of the problems were down to a lot of unprofessionalism from many of the so-called "professionals" involved, with the exception of the solictor, who has been excellent.
 
Sorry for the bump...

It's been 11 days since my last post and since then I have been trying and failing to get in touch with my solicitor. We are supposed to close the sale in 1 week and there is absolutely no chance of that now - the cheque req and some other paperwork need to go to the bank, not to mention another transfer of funds he's supposed to be taking care of.

I ring at least twice a day, leave detailed messages, this morning I was nearly in tears with the poor secretary who to be honest sounds quite embarassed by the situation. I'm seriously considering driving over there today except that I would have to take time off work which would be difficult - and damn it I shouldn't have to anyway!

Anyone got any tips or advice? I've reached the end of my patience, we are 5 months into this purchase during which time it's fallen through twice due to the vendor, I actually can't imagine ever being free of this hassle!
 
Sister in law had similar prob with Solicitor would not return calls etc and almost lost her house over it. The only way she got things sorted was to go to his office and tell him she wasn't leaving until things were sorted! He got things tidied up fairly fast when he had an angry staring at him over his desk!
Good luck hope all works out for you :)
 
Jeez, I thought it was just my solictor that took the p*** completely when it came to phonecalls, seems I'm not alone. I don't really know what advice to offer on it, it really is appalling that they can treat people like that. There seems to be some decent solictors so here so maybe one can help you out with advice. I hope you get it sorted soon.
 
I rang every half hour yesterday, after around 10 calls he finally gave in and rang me back,

him - "what do you want. I did call you back and leave a message. Do you have a message minder?"
me - "well if you left a message I must have?! And I didn't get any message"
him - "Oh, it must have been someone else then."
me - "em...ok....well what I need you to do is....blah blah blah"
him - "grumble grumble grumble moan moan moan...is that everything sorted then?! Will that be it finished?"

he's the bleedin' solicitor, I'm the FTB! this whole thing would have fallen through if it wasn't for the fact that I have a friend in the bank who's telling me exactly what I need and waht to ask for!

grrrr...how annoying.
 
stresshead said:
I rang every half hour yesterday, after around 10 calls he finally gave in and rang me back,

him - "what do you want. I did call you back and leave a message. Do you have a message minder?"
me - "well if you left a message I must have?! And I didn't get any message"
him - "Oh, it must have been someone else then."
me - "em...ok....well what I need you to do is....blah blah blah"
him - "grumble grumble grumble moan moan moan...is that everything sorted then?! Will that be it finished?"

he's the bleedin' solicitor, I'm the FTB! this whole thing would have fallen through if it wasn't for the fact that I have a friend in the bank who's telling me exactly what I need and waht to ask for!

grrrr...how annoying.
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I've a funny feeling we might have the same solicitor! Mine was exactly like that, like I was suppose to have the answers (when I finally got to speak to him that is!) and that I was wasting his time with my questions!
 
Hi Stresshead,
Any further update today? Make sure you keep on at your solicitor afterall you are the one paying him for a service!
Good luck ;)
 
Right, the update is that he still hasn't faxed the necessary documents into the bank, I'm so mad right now that I think I might explode!

Do you know what really annoys me? When my boyf rings/emails he's all nicey nice to him and promises him the world, naturally he doesn't deliver any better results though!
 
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