Hello all,

the next installment in my purchase which is turning out to be "the flat purchase from hell".

Today we were due to complete after exchanging 2 weeks ago and setting the date of the 14th - however at 4pm yesterday I got a phone call from my solicitor saying there were problems.....

Apparently the guy at the top of the chain who is moving abroad did not get his deposit money through in time for him to be able to book shipping for his belongings (confused about this as am wondering why he has access to these funds before completion anyway) but now he says he cannot move until the 21st (a week later than planned) however he did not ask our permission to do this or consult anyone in the chain - just let us all know with a day to go before moving.

Has anyone ever been in a similar situation?

Our solicitor advised us the only thing we could do was stick by the agreed contract ourselves and send the money over as planned - then serve them with 10 days notice to vacate the property.

There is a question mark over compensation as to whether we can claim back for our expenses etc from this....

Has anyone been in a similar position to this - or solicitors on here who can give me some advice?

Thanks!

Similar but different. Our purchasers did not release the money on Friday on completion. Apparently their solicitor had the funds but 'had gone home for the afternoon'. Anyway completion did not take place until the following Monday and we were compensated two days interest at 2% above Bank of England base rate. We were at the top of the chain and as we were moving to my Dads we had actually already vacated the property so we weren't too affected (apart from the worry). But the other people in the chain were not happy. Everyone in the chain eventually moved on the Wednesday.

But different situation.

How bloody exasperating! I cannot believe guys who do this and let down a long line of other people. Why didn't he complete, move out and store his stuff for one week in Big Yellow or something? But then again, he sounds like the sort of person who doesn't have friends to put him up for the week before his container is available. Just be thankful he's leaving the country

I am just exhausted with it all now - it has been fruaght with problems and now this - I am at the point where I wish we could just take our money and go start again - but we're stuck for the time being!

Me and my partner have worked so hard and saved like crazy for years to be able to buy our first place and this is what we get in return - we are both so disillusioned by it all.

what a complete tosser! you could threaten to get him thru small claims but if he's leaving the country i suspect he won't care

the good news is, once your in your lovely new flat you will forget all the hardship encountered getting there, bit like childbirth

g

What a nightmare for you. A week is not so very bad though... it could have been much longer. Go with whatever your Solicitor advises... the guy did sign a contract agreeing an exchange date? but it may not be worth forcing him to move for the sake of a single week... though you should be able to claim compensation for being charged for a cancelled move and interest on your money, stuff like that. Your Solicitor should be able to advise. He will have handled situations like this before and know how it works.

Good luck!

Ary.

Well really we were forced to send the completion money as planned and serve them with the ten days notice - otherwise next week he could have done the same thing again. am feeling so down about it all now had taken a week off of work to be settling in and waiting for new furniture to arrive and now I will have a week of sitting in amongst boxes worrying.