Property industry prepares for completion delays amid...

Property professionals have been pondering the impact of the sudden Bank Holiday scheduled next Monday for the Queen’s state funeral.

It creates a challenge for agents, conveyancers and removal companies for clients who had arranged to complete on a property purchase that day.

Rob Hailstone, chief executive of conveyancing membership network the Bold Legal Group said the national holiday may create problems as exchanges will have already taken place for completions set on 19 September.

He said: “Banks will be closed as will most, if not all law firms and estate agents etc. Completions due to take place on the 19 will have to be moved. Ideally everyone involved will understand that the situation that has arisen could not be foreseen and will react in cooperative and flexible way.”

Hailstone predicted that a Monday three weeks into September will not be one of the busiest moving days of the year, but added: “There will be completions and some of those will be in chains, agreeing a new moving date, that suits all parties, could be very complicated in some cases.

“Removal companies will no doubt be inundated with calls and some might find it difficult to accommodate the requests that are being made.

"If you are at the bottom of the chain and can’t complete, will you be in breach of contract?

“If you are at the top of the chain selling an empty property, in theory you could still complete if the purchase money reached you, but if you have a mortgage to redeem maybe you couldn’t actually complete, because you will be unable to redeem that mortgage on the day of completion.”

Bold Legal Group members have also been posting their thoughts on the network’s forum.

One said: “If the parties can’t agree I think it would be quite easy to suggest the contract has been frustrated, as an unforeseen event has made performance of the contract for the contracted date impossible, and who could actually serve notice to complete in any event …”

Another posted: “Common sense says all parties need to speak to one another the try and look at amending completion date as it is not just law firms and banks but agents and removal companies etc. common sense and calm needs to be had.”

The unprecedented event has implications for all parts of the industry including board providers.

One provider, SPE Property Signs, has already tweeted any orders for completion prior to the Bank Holiday will need to be received by 3pm this Thursday.

The Land Registry has also automatically extended all notice periods and official search priority periods that began before but expire after 19 September 2022 by one working day.

It said: "Any affected cancellation dates will also be extended. Notices and search certificates issued before 19 September that include an expiry date will not reflect the automatic extension. For example, a notice issued on 12 September that states that it expires on 3 October will actually not expire until 4 October. You may wish to amend your records to avoid any confusion.

"Our Business e-services, Search for Land and Property Information and GOV.UK will be available but our Customer Contact Centre and technical support teams will not be available on Monday 19 September. Normal service will resume at 8am Tuesday 20 September."

Mike Staton, director at Staton Mortgages, added: “Unfortunately, this is completely out of the estate agents and mortgage adviser’s hands.

“Many conveyancers will not be open or the banks in order to transfer funds.

“This is a one off situation, the likes we have never seen before. I think buyers should be sympathetic in the knowledge that this is no fault of the estate agents and as an unprecedented event, should be treated as such. Sometimes there are bigger things in Life than completion day, this happens to be one of them.”