House closing delayed - outstanding interest on title deeds

pete4130

I'm meant to be closing on my house this Tuesday 17th July. I just got a call from my solicitors saying that the vendors solicitor has noticed thee is an outstanding mortgage interest on the deeds from the previous owners of the propertly to the people we are buying from.
What exactly does this mean in real terms. Does it mean that there is more to be paid on the house than our purchase price as in to buy out that outstanding interest or would it simply be a clerical/admin error where the deeds had not been amended after the last sale of the property?

Any help and advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Pete.

cormy

Pete, two points:

a) Your solicitor should have performed a full search on the property to ensure that just this issue doesn't arise and - that being the case - I am a bit confused why the vendor's solicitor has brought it up.

b) As a general point I've been meaning to make when I see queries such as this: Really it is your solicitor from whom you should be getting the answer to your question. S/he isn't doing their job if they don't explain the consequences of something like this cropping up. I'm going to presume that you haven't directly asked this question of your Solicitor. Remember you are paying them for a service - they are best placed (and it is their job) to give you this information. Boards is great IMHO for gleaning advice and tips in many situations but when there's a lot at stake (i.e. house sale), bear in mind the fact that boards.ie members are anonymous, unpaid non-experts (albeit enthusiastic and well meaning) in 99% of the cases.

Rant over, and by the way the thrust of point b is not aimed at you in particular, pete - it's just something I've wanted to get off my chest.

Good luck with it and I hope this snag doesn't hold you up too long!!

pete4130

Cormy,

Thanks for the advice, I knwo the rant wasn't aimed at me. I was just asking on here in case it ever happened to someone else.
The story with my situation is that the vendors are on honeymoon and due back the day before closing (which is odd in itself), and apparantly their solicitor left the firm he was working for and another solicitor picked up the file to carry on with it and noticed the problem. It could be stalling tactics until the vendors get back from honeymoon. I'll know more tomorrow whenI harrass solicitors to get their act together.

Thanks agaion for the input.

Pete

pete4130

Ok, managed to get this resolved today after alot of calling around my solicitor (Solicitor A). What should happened was this:

The outstanding interest charged in the deeds was from the previous owners to the current vendors. This should have been vacated from the deeds when the current vendors obtained title by their solicitors (Solicitor as the previous owners solicitors (solicitor C) should have had it vacated from the deeds so there would be clean title.

What actually happened was this: *be warned it gets complicated and convoluted and is an accurate description as I can make out from what I was told*

"Solicitors C" got ANOTHER solicitor (Solicitor D) to carry out the work to vacate the interest from the deed and a letter of undertaking was written to guarantee this. "Solicitors C" transferred the deeds to "Solicitors B" (the current vendors solicitors) who had the letter of undertaking promising the outstanding interest would be removed from title. "Solicitor D" mever actually submitted anything to the Land reg for whatever reasons so the outstanding interest was showing up on the deeds.
This was spotted by our solicitors (Solicitors A) a few months ago and they obtained a letter of undertaking from the vendors solicitors (Solicitor to ensure the interest would be vacated. In the mean time the vendors solicitor had left eh practice and another solicitor took on the file and wasn't willing to stand over the other solicitors letter of undertaking....which is where the problems arose.
My solicitor (Solicitor A) was sent a letter from the vendors solicotor explaining why they couldn't/wouldn't release the deeds as there was this outstanding interest. This letter referred to the previous owners solicitors (Solicitor C). "Solicitor C" was contacted by my solicitor who was then told that "Solicitor D" had been instructed to carry out the job to vacate the interest from the deed.
The vendors solicitor (Solicitor then carried out this small investigation and received a letter of undertaking from "Solicitor D" that the title would be vacated which in turn allowed the vendors solicitor to write a letter of undertaking to my solicitor assuring that the title was a clean title with no outstanding interests on it, thus resolving the problem.

In short, a breakdown of communication & someone forgetting to follow through on something they were supposed to caused alot of stress and hassle. All this happenning 3 working days before closing isn't what I wanted to hear after already being delayed closing since January!

Thankfully its sorted *fingers crossed I don't get a call on Monday!*

Thanks for the advice and input everyone.

Pete