Settlement has been delayed by bank - who should pay interest to seller?

[kaz]

hi all,

I'm new here, and i need some advice!
my husband and i are in the process of purchasing a home. we put a holding deposit on the house on the 14th September and settlement was set for the 19th October.

Settlement was delayed because the bank was waiting on a letter to arrive, which was fair enough. they received the letter on the afternoon of the business day before settlement was meant to go through, so it was too late to book settlement for the next day. It then took them 3 days to read the letter, when they then realised that the letter was stating that something was wrong and they had to evaluate the entire loan again (it almost fell through) and my husband and i had to re-sign all the paperwork. We signed the paperwork on the Wednesday, and it is now Monday - 1 week after the settlement was meant to go through.

the sellers didn't charge interest for the first 2 days it was delayed because they thought it was only 2 days, but seeing that it had to be delayed another week, they have decided to charge interest from the Wednesday on - and as you may know, weekends count.

we were promised last Wednesday that the paperwork will be ready by Thursday so settlement can be booked for Friday, but that didn't happen. Friday we were promised that they will be ready so settlement can be Monday, but didn't happen again. Today i have been told the same thing for tomorrow, but i honestly am not holding my breath.

We are almost up to $500 in interest... and we are absolutely fed up with waiting!!!

Is there anyway that we can make the bank pay that interest for taking so long to get organised with everything, not to mention having stuffed up all the paperwork over 6 weeks ago and only realising when settlement was meant to go through???


Any advice or help would be much appreciated.


Thanks!

-kaz.

[awg]

1) have you got a solicitor acting for you on the transaction?

2) do you have the name and phone number of the bank person who is responsible for processing the paperwork.?

3) I doubt the bank will reimburse, unless they have stuffed up, but it might be worth asking for a waiver of some fee component if there is any that is discretionary

[joeyr46]

You could try the small claims court costs about $80 dollars which you add on to what your claiming and if the bank is in the wrong they may get it awarded against them. also no solicitors allowed to represent either party and the magistrates decision can not be appealed, but make sure you've got all the paperwork in order