Abidude

I am selling my French Property and the Buyer has obtained a mortgage ..
but still not completed, well past the contract completion date ..
The Buyer is awaiting the Funds from the Bank..
it’s been 7 Months now .,
The Notaire suggesting COVID as the reason for the delay.
is this delay reasonable?
Do I have any legal recourse?

Jerseygirl

Hello and welcome to BE

I have move your thread over to our France forum. No doubt someone will be along shortly to help you

EuroTrash

Hello Abidude and welcome to the forum
I don't know your situation but I would probably feel this is unreasonable, especially if I had been hoping for a quick sale.
You say the buyer "obtained a mortgage", do you mean he obtained an agreement in principle or that he has a firm offer of a loan on this particular property? The two are different things.
Covid has caused a lot of delays, but equally I am sure it has been used as an excuse for delays caused by other factors that were unrelated or only distantly related. I would try to find out more precisely why Covid is being blamed - is it just that the bank is being slow with the processing? or has the buyer been put on chômage partielle or something and the bank is waiting to see whether they will still have a job to go back to?
Difficult to advise what to do next since we don't know what you have done already. It looks as if you have raised this with your notaire and asked why the delay. Have you actually told him you find it unreasonable and asked him what options you have to expedite the process? Maybe he could add a clause to the compromis stating that the sale must be completed by xx/xx/2021?t would have been a good idea to include such a clause right from the start, many people do, and I don't know whether it can be added retrospectively but it's worth asking.

Either way, unless you're in direct contact with the buyer you need to be pushing your notaire. He's the one handling the sale and nless you actually want to put in a complaint about him, he is your point of contact and I guess any legal steps you may wish to take will have to go through him.

dmu

I agree that 7 months is a long time and your suggested clause should be added to the Compromis, if this is possible retrospectively. It's quite possible that the buyer's bank is hesitating because the buyer has been made redundant due to Covid and at present can't guarantee repayment of the loan.
Because of delays due to Covid, my nephew waited six months, just to acquire a garage.
I doubt that the Notaire is at fault, but the OP should hassle him, as being the competent lawman to hassle the buyer.
P.S. If the buyer required a bank loan, I would have thought that a clause suspensive would already have been included in the Compromis, stating that the sale would only go through if the bank loan was granted.

EuroTrash

I think ideally you have a clause suspensive that includes a deadline. Then if the buyer hasn't obtained a loan by that deadline, in order to withdraw from the purchase without penalty under the clause suspensive they must provide justificatifs proving they tried in good faith to obtain a loan but they were unsuccessful.
What happens if they have a letter from the bank offering them a loan but the loan has simply not materialised, I have no idea but I don't see how this is tenable. Surely a bank can't make a firm offer and then not give you the money. There must be follow up paperwork that clarifies the reason for the delay.

Listen Very Carefully

Liaise with the notaire but do not give them grief otherwise your paperwork goes to the bottom of the pile ....

Abidude

Hello ,
Thank you all for your replies,

the Buyer has received the mortgage and the Notaire has all the paperwork..

the issue appears to be with the Bank delay in releasing the funds ..

There was a clause for penalties if the Buyer failed to complete by 31 October, with a final date of the
15 November 2020..
also , another clause which refer to obtaining the mortgage ..

dmu

If the Notaire has all the paperwork and there are clauses suspensives in the Compromis, then it's your decision to instruct him to take steps to terminate the contract. If you're anxious to sell to this particular buyer, then wait until the bank has officially released the funds (presumably to the Notaire's special account?), although you won't receive the money until the final Acte de Propriété has been signed.
Whatever, speak to your Notaire and discuss your concerns.... As said, don't give him grief, I meant "hassle" in the sense of "chase up".

Tweedpipe

With over 75k Covid related deaths in the UK, I know for a fact that public notaries and banks there are currently stretched to their limits dealing with the pandemic aftermath.
And if that wasn't bad enough, now with the UK under further lockdown, dealing with administrative affairs will no doubt become chaotic.
I have an issue with my UK bank, and called 2 different numbers. The private one I have direct into my branch just kept on ringing without an answer. I tried this 4 times yesterday at different times of the day and it just kept ringing. Then tried the main national number for the same bank. Eventually obtained a recorded message that they were inundated with calls and not to continue unless it was of extreme urgency. Even on-line banking gave an alert message that they were only dealing with extremely urgent issues.
The good news is - we're not in the USA..........

EuroTrash

Put in a complaint, Tweedie
I lost my rag with my UK bank just before Christmas when they blocked an online payment. Fair dues, it was an uncharacteristically large transaction so I appreciate their diligence. But, they didn't contact me to check whether the transaction was genuine, and they made it very difficult for me to contact them. Then to cap it all, having spent slightly more than an hour on the phone and been assured it was sorted, the block had been removed and I could make the transaction, I tried again and it was promptly blocked again. I saw red and fired off a strongly-worded complaint to the bank, along the lines of You've had the best part of a year to adapt to this situation, you've even announced publicly that you plan to continue having staff work from home after the pandemic is over because it works so well for you, so what exactly is your excuse for not providing an acceptable service?. Then I calmed down and made the purchase on a different credit card. A couple of days later the first bank rang me and left a message because I missed the call, and not wanting to be waste any more time talking to them I sent another email saying Forget about my complaint, I made other arrangements and it doesn't matter any more. Next time I looked at my account I found a message saying they agreed with my complaint and they had given me £80.
Add that to the compensation I got the same month from HMRC for messing my account up yet again, and it's a nice little earner. I'm thinking I might take up writing complaints for a living..