Solicitor has to give how many days notice before a closing date?

Sunny_Dublin

Hiya

moving from one house to another (selling the old one, buying a new one). pointed out to the solicitor that i cant move before the 1st of september, solicitor did not listen and agreed with both the vendor and the purchaser on a closing date of the 25th of august. this was only communicated to me on the 17th of august and was explained to me as "but we can change that, it should not be a problem". yesterday it turns out the 25th cannot be changed by the other two involved parties but under no circumstances can i close on the 25th.
the solicitor now says "he can't understand how the wires got crossed" and that it said on the contracts that the closing date will be the 25th of august.

is it common practise that a closing date is communicated a few days before the agreed date? is is also common practise that a solicitor agrees a closing date without checking this with the client first? and is it normal that when signing the contracts we were told to not be worried about the 25th of august as closing date as this is subject to changes anyways?

i can hardly believe the answers to above questions will be "yes" and would appreciate your opinions.

thanks for your help!!

pajos55

(a) yes - often a closing date would be agreed last minute due to unpredictable factors like getting mortgage funds sorted, when you may not be able to get a firm date for cheque issue until maybe a day or two before. All parties might aim towards a particular date but this often gets pushed out due to unforseen logistical matters and your solicitor should take a practical view of this.
(b) no - normal practice would be to try and find a date that suits everybody. he should definitely have consulted with you and agreed on a date that suited you, then tried to coordinate with your vendor and purchaser.
(c) yes - closing date is often subject to change from that on the contract where it is practical to do so, and where it suits everyone from a logistical point of view. Your own availability to close should have been the first consideration here.

Sunny_Dublin

Thanks for this!!
so do you think I (being the one who wants to push the date for a week) can be held liable for any costs arising for the other two parties?
am still furious about the fact that the solicitor never communicated a date to us and even agreed on a date which we told him well in advance will not suit....

pajos55

There is more than likely a clause in your contract which allows for interest to be payable where the matter goes past the closing date, but the other side would have to serve you with a completion notice giving you a certain amount of time to complete (2 weeks i think) before they can start charging interest. Therefore by the time they could start charging, you would have closed (presuming you only want to push it out for a week).

I would certainly go back to your solicitor and explain that it is logistically impossible for you to close on that date, especially considering you let him know this from the outset. I would insist that he goes back to the vendor and purchaser and lets them know that you will not be in a position to close and that a new closing date will have to be arranged (this is not unusual, happens all the time but they will probably throw a bit of a tantrum, obviously they will have made arrangements for movers etc but this is not your fault, it's your solicitors). Highly unlikely that you would be liable for costs, they might threaten but it would cost them more to pursue it than it would be worth.

Usual caveats, i'm not giving you legal advice...just a general opinion...

Good luck!

Sunny_Dublin

you're a star, thanks. your opinion (and i take it as such according to the charter of this forum ) helps a lot and backs up what i thought.
the solicitor at the moment is working on pushing the date out for a week which is all i need. that man is certainly the best example for crap communication with a client.

thanks a mil!!!

hullaballoo

Please read the forum charter and stickies before you post here again. Sorry about this, but it really has to be enforced.