Mortgage drawndown but deal not completed

[LucyN]

We are currently in the process of buying our first home but are having a few difficulties and just looking for some opinions on what we should do. In December we paid a deposit. The bank transferred mortgage to our solicitors bank account and we signed contracts. However the solicitor then advised that before the deal was completed he wanted to check that all was in orders with the builders tax affairs etc. It then turned out that the builders are no longer a registered company but advise that they are working to sort this out. Our solicitor told us that the deal cannot be completed until the builders are registered as a company, yet the mortgage is drawdown since September, sitting in solicitors bank account and we are paying for it each month. This effectively means that we have and are paying a mortgage for a house that we do not own and now we are advised it could be another 6 weeks before builders company registration difficulties are fixed. We are becoming concerned that the issue will never be sorted but yet as we have signed a contact and drawdown a mortgage we cannot pull out. We are very inexperienced in these matters and can only go on the advise we are getting from solicitor - any opinions on what options we have, if any?

 

[moneygrower]

should you talk to another solicitor immediately?

 

[mf1]

should you talk to another solicitor immediately?

Why?

From the very limited information available...........
Looks like there are delays. Could take a while. Perhaps should have returned mortgage funds as soon as realised there was a problem BUT sometimes unexpected issues do arise at the last possible moment. Sometimes they do get resolved very quickly and so it makes more sense to have the funds available. Could redeem mortgage now BUT then have to re-apply which may take forever.

I'd say stick with their own solicitor unless they doubt that persons ability.


mf

 

[MOB]

"The bank transferred mortgage to our solicitors bank account"

I have said this before, but it is worth saying again anyway: the loan cheque is a far better way of dealing with a mortgage, particularly if it is with BOI, AIB, EBS or any of the other lenders who only charge interest from when the cheque is cashed. The solicitor can get the cheque a few days ahead of when it is needed, and the client only pays interest from the day they take the keys.

There are security issues with loan cheques going astray in the post, but this is easily solved by having them issued from\collected at the local branch (as I think happens with NIB - though I think they charge interest from date of issue; open to correction on this)

 

[LucyN]

The solicitor has admitted that he should have notified the bank that the deal had not gone through but that if it hadn't gone through by end of Feb he would have to notify them - but has still not. However I spoke to someone in the bank who advised that it wouldn't really be a major issue for them as long as we were paying mortgage- which didn't really make sense to me as the mortgage is secured against a proprty which we do not own! Is there anyway we can get out of this if we have contract signed - is it not the case that the builders are defaulting on their part of the contract as the contract is between us and xxxx Ltd but xxxxltd is not a registered company?