Delays and Costs - Who should pay?

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vincentgav

Registered User
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Our vendor has caused us some delays. We've already drawn down and closing has been delayed, due to delays caused by the vendor.
Nothing to do with us.

We've now had to pay another month's rent, while we were waiting to get another closing date. So in addition to the first mortgage payment that's come up, we now have paid rent for the next month.

Absolutely raging... money we needed for the house, down the drain of rent.

Do we have to pay for that now? Should we not be able to seek those costs back for a month seeing as we weren't the ones causing it?
 
There is an 8% interest amount in there.

The solicitor perhaps just wants to close the sale and is fobbing me off.
 
vincentgav said:
There is an 8% interest amount in there.
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I don't understand that you mean.
But if there's a penalty clause then instruct your solicitor to invoke it if you feel it necessary.
But if binding contracts have not yet been exchanged/signed then that could put the kibosh on the whole transaction I presume?
 
There's an 8% interest amount in the contract for delays.

We've already missed the closing date, the funds are drawn down and it's because the vendor has delayed.

I've asked my solicitor about speaking to the other solicitor re: our costs incurred on the delay. We've had to pay another €2k in rent, while waiting for the vendor and his solicitor to respond. Then we've a mortgage to pay.

We're contracts exchanged months at this stage, we're way beyond that.

We have paid a €2k deposit to the estate agent, is that what the solicitor means? Talk to them about getting this back?
 
So you need to instruct your solicitor to invoke the penalty clause I guess? Solicitors advise, clients instruct.
 
vincentgav said:
There's an 8% interest amount in the contract for delays.
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vincentgav said:
We've already missed the closing date, the funds are drawn down and it's because the vendor has delayed.
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What was the reason given by your Solicitor for not acting on this?

vincentgav said:
He's told me to speak to the estate agent..
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I wouldn't accept that response. Id want to know why, having engaged you to act on my behalf to purchase this property, steps have not been taken to secure same.
 
IF contracts are signed, and your side of things is solid, is it possible to move in, even pay a small rent? Till the problem is solved?
 
vincentgav said:
We have paid a €2k deposit to the estate agent, is that what the solicitor means? Talk to them about getting this back?
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You can ask the EA for the €2k back, but that means you're withdrawing from the sale.

There is no mechanism by which you can recover costs from an estate agent. They make no guarantee whatsoever about closing dates, etc.. The only potential here is to enforce the 8% clause, I haven't heard of that being done and the fact that your solicitor doesn't seem keen might suggest it's not quite straightforward.
 
Gsxr100 said:
IF contracts are signed, and your side of things is solid, is it possible to move in, even pay a small rent? Till the problem is solved?
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Can't move in, vendor won't move out until he's 100% ready, which is the cause of the delay.
 
Ok, the mortgage monies are drawn down 3 weeks at this stage, sitting in the solicitors bank account.

Will the solicitors account be gaining interest on our money and is that our money that we're entitled to?

We were meant to close 3 weeks ago, then the vendor said he was buying something else and would close quickly. (insane, but he was sale agreed on TWO places at the same time)

My issue is that this delay and change of plan has cost me another €2000 rent, on the back of the vendor changing his mind. I have to pay for that, and apparently 'it's not the vendor's fault', but it's mine...?

I'm here ready to go, he's delayed, I think the vendor should cough up the €2000 or my solicitor should chat to his solicitor and take the money off the balance for an expense that I've had to incur. Another €2k this **** has cost me and I'm the one who has to swallow it.

It's getting seriously heated on our side.
 
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Get your Solicitor to serve a completion notice. It gives the other side 28 days to close and if they don’t, you can invoke the various rights under the contract eg rescind the contract.
 
vincentgav said:
Will the solicitors account be gaining interest on our money and is that our money that we're entitled to?
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In theory, yes. But we’re moving into negative interest rates territory (if we’re not there already) so there will be no interest accruing to the Solicitor. In fact, the opposite is likely, namely that s/he will be charged interest on the client account if it goes over a certain threshold.
 
Your solicitor must have drawn down the funds because he had assurances from the vendors solicitor that they were ready to close. I know anytime, I have had a closing date, I have known in advance if it is going to close or not on a particular day because the solicitors checked in advance for any outstanding issues. And that was only if there was a day or two delay. It sounds here like the Vendor was never in a position to close so did your solicitor check before he drew down the mortgage? I know the bank will also not be happy that a mortgage cheque was issued three weeks ago and they have no security.

As said above, you need to issue the completion notion at this stage. It has gone past estate agents. As Clubman says, you need to tell your solicitor what you want.
 
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