Monday, November 24, 2003
To err is human...
...but to really screw up you need a lawyer. Thanks to all Briefs (I wonder what a collective of Briefs should be called?) concerned not being able to just talk to each other, the whole chain is back in danger.
Whilst in Cambridge on a work visit last Wednesday, I got a call from my Briefs saying that they were awaiting confirmation that my buyers, Paul G and Katy D, had paid the deposit on my house. So the next day I emailed Paul and mentioned this, and asked what the deposit situation was. He wrote that he'd coughed up, by Banker's Draft so there'd be no cheque clearing period, on the Wednesday. So I figured that the completion/moving date everyone's agreed on, 28th November, is fine, and went ahead and booked a removal firm and paid them up front as required, near £700. I then arranged to take this week off work to sort everything out for the move.
Then this evening I get a phone call from Tracey, saying that her and Richard's Brief had told them that he was awaiting confirmation of the deposit being paid, and that he'd tried to ring my Briefs, Lockings of Hedon, a number of times, and had been told each time that someone would call back, and of course no-one every did. Nikki, of the Halifax Estate Agents who's worked like a Trojan on my behalf, also tried to get in touch with Lockings last week and today, and was similarly fobbed off. A common thread is emerging...
Anyway, the upshot is that, if confirmation of the deposit being paid doesn't reach the Taylor's Brief tomorrow, then they say that he said that exchanging contracts before Friday wouldn't be possible, and that the move would be off. If the completion date were pushed beyond the 28th then it's increasingly likely that the whole chain would collapse, as even if I kept my patience, which is stretched very thin, my buyers may well lose theirs, and the Taylor's mortgage offer runs out in mid-December so they'd no longer have the money to buy the place they want to move to.
Yet there are no outstanding problems - the dosh is all there, all parties have agreed to move on a particular date, and there are no legal obstacles. The only problem appears to be that the Briefs are simply unable to communicate with each other, and that this incompetence could well collapse the chain and cost everyone, apart from the Briefs who'd be swift off the mark to demand fees for the work they haven't done, a packet.
I've just now emailed Lockings to give them grief and stick some ginger up their legal arse, and will try to phone them tomorrow. Things aren't looking good, though. If this sale/purchase falls through, then I'll be stuck here until way past Xmas, and I may even have to give up my job in Nottingham due to spiralling accommodation costs - either that, or pay through the nose to rent in Nottingham and continue to pay the mortgage in Hull. And that's just the financial side - living out of a suitcase is pretty fucking bad for your personal life, in terms of both mental and physical health, and I doubt I could put up with yet another 2+ months of it.
Whilst in Cambridge on a work visit last Wednesday, I got a call from my Briefs saying that they were awaiting confirmation that my buyers, Paul G and Katy D, had paid the deposit on my house. So the next day I emailed Paul and mentioned this, and asked what the deposit situation was. He wrote that he'd coughed up, by Banker's Draft so there'd be no cheque clearing period, on the Wednesday. So I figured that the completion/moving date everyone's agreed on, 28th November, is fine, and went ahead and booked a removal firm and paid them up front as required, near £700. I then arranged to take this week off work to sort everything out for the move.
Then this evening I get a phone call from Tracey, saying that her and Richard's Brief had told them that he was awaiting confirmation of the deposit being paid, and that he'd tried to ring my Briefs, Lockings of Hedon, a number of times, and had been told each time that someone would call back, and of course no-one every did. Nikki, of the Halifax Estate Agents who's worked like a Trojan on my behalf, also tried to get in touch with Lockings last week and today, and was similarly fobbed off. A common thread is emerging...
Anyway, the upshot is that, if confirmation of the deposit being paid doesn't reach the Taylor's Brief tomorrow, then they say that he said that exchanging contracts before Friday wouldn't be possible, and that the move would be off. If the completion date were pushed beyond the 28th then it's increasingly likely that the whole chain would collapse, as even if I kept my patience, which is stretched very thin, my buyers may well lose theirs, and the Taylor's mortgage offer runs out in mid-December so they'd no longer have the money to buy the place they want to move to.
Yet there are no outstanding problems - the dosh is all there, all parties have agreed to move on a particular date, and there are no legal obstacles. The only problem appears to be that the Briefs are simply unable to communicate with each other, and that this incompetence could well collapse the chain and cost everyone, apart from the Briefs who'd be swift off the mark to demand fees for the work they haven't done, a packet.
I've just now emailed Lockings to give them grief and stick some ginger up their legal arse, and will try to phone them tomorrow. Things aren't looking good, though. If this sale/purchase falls through, then I'll be stuck here until way past Xmas, and I may even have to give up my job in Nottingham due to spiralling accommodation costs - either that, or pay through the nose to rent in Nottingham and continue to pay the mortgage in Hull. And that's just the financial side - living out of a suitcase is pretty fucking bad for your personal life, in terms of both mental and physical health, and I doubt I could put up with yet another 2+ months of it.
