The Law Society has issued advice to anyone either buying a property or who has exchanged contracts on a sale or purchase. Solicitors have raised questions which include;
- requests for properties being decontaminated
- refusal to vacate on completion because seller in isolation
- failure or disruption to parts of the banking system (such as CHAPS)
- inability to obtain search results if people are not available to carry out the searches
- reluctance on the part of removal company employees to enter properties
- difficulties in obtaining witnesses
- issues in mortgage lending surveys physical valuations
Common sense and ‘good will’ seem to be what most of this is going to come down to but what everyone wants to understand (and ideally control) is who bears the risk in various situations.
Inevitably, there will be one or more of the parties in a transaction who insists on taking a stand to gain an unfair advantage. Dealing with them may take some skill and patience.