Friday
I was quite excited about today – I had three completions, all purchases of empty properties. What a busy day!
However, only two completed. The third proved to be difficult. The reason was somewhat unusual but usual for the times in which we live! I had submitted the Certificate of Title fourteen days ago, in order to make sure that there were no delays with the release of mortgage funds. The monies had not arrived on Friday morning as I had hoped so I called the lender, and after holding in a queue for over forty five minutes, I finally managed to talk to someone. He was very helpful but the reason given made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.
He told me that it said on the case notes that the Certificate of title had been received but that the case handler could not decipher the date (!) and therefore would just wait to see if anyone called about the monies not being released. So, the case handler knew that monies were required but it was easier for them to wait to see if they really were required rather than him calling me to check the dates. I understood this logic to some extent – which is understandable in itself in these times – in that as we are only exchanging and completing on a simultaneous basis, who would really know if it was going to complete? The chap in the service centre told me to re-fax it and then they would release the funds, and then call them back. I duly did as I had been told, and called back an hour later, having steeled myself for the long wait to speak to someone, only then to be told that I should email the Certificate as they did not have the new Certificate lodged on their system.
On a busy day, I would have been very cross, but although I was annoyed, I was not full out cross. I knew that my client would complete on Monday, the house was empty, there was no breach of contract as we had not exchanged contracts, but even so, it was frustrating.
So my message is – check about release of mortgage funds – who knows what the thinking is at the other end of the fax machine!
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change
The article is written by a high street conveyancer who wishes to remain anonymous.
