Paying for new house - funds paid no keys

My solicitor has paid over the purchase monies for the second hand property we are buying but has not received the keys as " the vendors had a problem with the removals etc and need a few more days"

Am I right in saying it's a bit rich of my solicitor to have handed over the funds before getting the keys - though he maintains the vendors solicitor is holding the funds in trust I suspect the vendors have the funds for purchasing their new property.

I would be under the impression, no keys, no money. Your solicitor needs a good kicking. Any place I bought it was always keys handed over on the day of funds transfer. Maybe some solicitors operate different

start charging them rent

This is actually supposed to be a closing? That's appalling. What possible comeback to you have if they leave the place in rag order? On the basis of what you've said, it sounds to me as though your solicitor is out of order, and you *must* carry out a final inspection when they leave and ensure that any junk left / unacceptable state is fully dealt with.

Having spent the entirety of this weekend cleaning our "new" house so that I'm no longer afraid to touch anything without a bio-hazard suit, I can't sufficiently stress the importance of final inspection (we did get a minor rebate, though nothing compared to the Augean stables state they left the place in), and if the final inspection is post-closing, then the funds must still not be released from trust until *you* say so.

The Law Society recommended method of closing is that when the Vendors solicitor confirms to teh purchasers solicitor that she has the requisite closing documents and undertakes to hand them over on receipt of purchase monies, that the purchasers solicitor hands over the money. Then they requisition their searches and closing takes place. Until the purchasers solicitor is sure that the purchasers can go into occupation, the Vendors solicitor HAS to hold the funds on trust. I can assure you that there is absolutely no chance ( unless the Vendors solicitor is appallingly negligent, and why would they put their neck on the line?) that they have released the funds to their client.

Thanks Vanilla, getting the keys this afternoon so I'll see what state the house is in!

Is there a time limit for this situation, can the vendors hold out indefinitly with the keys e.g. if they are waiting to move into a new place or leave the country? Could podgerodge not pull out of contract or charge some kind of penalty on the vendors for delaying?

I got my keys and everything fine, i guess they just needed an extra day to move out. So I'm not bothered. Dunno what the story is if they didn't want to leave though! I have to assume their solicitor held the funds as Vanilla stated until keys were taken by us.

I got my keys last Friday but it turned out due to a genuine mistake the vendors had given their solicitors the wrong keys so we couldn't get in. I made a quick call to my solicitor who went beserk and she called me back less than 10 minutes later to tell me that she had a courier arranged to collect the keys from the vendors in Kilkenny and they were delivered to my door in Dublin less than 2 hours later, this would have cost a few quid and was charged to the vendors...

A good solicitor makes a huge difference for a FTB, if anybody is looking for a recommendation in South Dublin just PM me and I'll be glad to send on their details - I've absolutely no affiliation with them but they were so helpful it took a bit of stress off buying!