It was nine days before Christmas and Kate Ross and her young family were on the road from London to their new home in Worthing, West Sussex. But instead of moving in, a banking error left them in limbo with a baby, a toddler, a cat and a dog and two removal lorries. Four days passed before they eventually obtained the keys, during which time they racked up storage and transport costs of £3,600.
Ross’s saga is extreme, but not unusual. A processing glitch meant that the funds transferred by her buyer did not reach her solicitor’s account until four days after completion day, with four households in the property chain stuck in expensive purgatory.
