The poster asked for advice.
I don't think comments like:
are being helpful.
I don't agree - I think these comments are very helpful. Its coming up to Christmas, the most expensive time of the year, missnaughty is buying a house, its a hugely expensive thing to do, she is short of the money to complete, she is hard pressed to find the money ( and to a lot of people 3K is not a huge amount ) and far better to take a long hard look at the reality than to try and ignore it in the hope that it will all somehow be magically fine. Trying to close a transaction on December 20th is enormously stressful for the Vendor, the purchaser and both sets of solicitors. Because of the time of year, there is no margin for error, lack of funds, dodgy searches, papers going astray etc.,etc and people need to know that. Suppose the vendors are trying to close in a chain on the same day and this collapses the chain? What if everyone is trying to actually move over Christmas and this causes a delay until January.
Solicitors should not close deals without ( at least) all the purchase funds, registration fees and stamp duty funds in place. Their undertaking to the lender is to complete the registration which means the Deed/ Mortgage must be stamped/ registered.You can't do that without the funds. If you don't get the funds, you ( solicitor) have to fund it yourself. Technically, stamp duty is payable within 30 days of completion. In reality, once a purchaser has closed, they rarely care what happens after and if they have not paid the stamp duty in advance, they are quite likely to spend any money on essential items for the new house.
Equally with fees, we have what is called the "scale of client gratitude" - it peaks the day before closing and rapidly tails off after. Yes, all of us will let fees go for a week or so with our good clients, people we've done business with before or where there is an ongoing relationship but with new clients solicitors should be paid in advance.
MrMans solution is really the best. Put it off until the funds are available - if the vendors will agree. Otherwise, borrow the funds, if possible. And if not possible, well.............
mf