After a very disrupted day, a call comes in that takes priority. If you missed what happened earlier, catch up with parts one, two and three.
2.30pm: A level of calm descends as staff settle down to work. All completions are done; we hope that all buyers have collected their keys without any issues and we can move onto what needs to be done.
My phone rings.
“Hello, this is Mrs Bates [shaky voice].”
“Hello Mrs Bates, how are you? Did you manage to collect your keys after I called you at 10 o’clock this morning to say I’d heard from the seller’s solicitor that she’d received the funds and keys were being released to you?”
“Well… [stifled sob]. There’s a problem.”
“Oh dear. [Me, resembling the ‘horrified face’ emoji, with head in hands]. Tell me…”
“Well… [ a less stifled sob]. We didn’t get the keys until about half an hour ago. The sellers are still moving out and they’ve said that it will take them until at least five o’clock. I don’t know what to do. Our removal company charges by the hour from three o’clock and they’ve told us that if they haven’t been able to unload the vans by five, then our belongings will have to go into storage and the earliest that they can redeliver our stuff is next week. [Loud, unstifled sob.] What do I do?”
“Ok, well let’s see what we can do. Are the sellers moving themselves?”
“Yes – and the problem is that even though they got the keys to their new home at 10.30, their van isn’t big enough and they have to take the items, unload and then come back for the next load. [Starts to openly cry.] I have to pick the children up from school and it’s going to be chaos! How can this happen? How did they get their keys but we’re still waiting?”
[I don’t really want to get into a discussion about legal and practical completion – that will not help, but I have such sympathy with her on this point.]
“Let me speak with the seller’s solicitor and see what we can arrange. Can you go and check if the sellers will empty as much of the property as possible so you can get your furniture in? I’ll explain to their solicitor and then let’s check in with each other again after we have a little more information to see if we can resolve this. OK?”
And that is my afternoon. Forget about the emails piling up, forget about the contract reports I needed to do, forget about the phone calls on other matters – my main aim now has to be to restore Mrs Bates’ confidence in the home moving process.
This is written by a real high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous. Read more in Today’s Conveyancer every week.
