The closing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, 4pm. Because of some delays caused both by some tardy information from our attorney relating to the final payment due and the last minute work we had to do on the budgets, the wire transfers weren’t put in until Monday morning. Our financial guy Doug checked with the bank who was handling our euro account and said we should be all set. The money should be in the accounts in Italy by Wednesday.
Then, Tuesday afternoon, Chicago time, Anne gets a call saying the transfers had been held up. They said she needed to confirm that she understood that the receiving bank might deduct a fee, so the amounts might be short. Why that was their concern I don’t know.
So I now hear, about midnight Tuesday in Italy, that the transfers due Wednesday afternoon might not have been made.
So my timing now is this: closing at 4pm in Italy, which is 9am in Chicago. Was I going to get the funds on time? If not, then what? The appointment with the notaio, who handles the closing, had been made a week or ten days before. Had I gone over to Italy for a closing that wasn’t going to happen?
We were texting back and forth madly, up to 4pm and beyond, to check whether we could get verification of the transfers. Doug sent me confirmation numbers, but when the seller and the notaio checked with their bank, there were no funds.
While all this is happening, everyone is trying to move the process along. Our translator, a woman from Milwaukee married to an Italian, was, as required by law, reading the contract out loud in English. (I also had to certify that I know English.) I’m following along, but there are some gaps in the documents, related to facts about the sellers and the transfers.
Once that step was done, we had hit the roadblock. There was no more we could do without confirmation that the transfers were received. But the money wasn’t there.
Our attorney proposed an option: we could sign all the documents, but make the final filing contingent on the receipt of the funds. The notaio and the seller didn’t like this option. But then the notaio saved the day.
He said he’d make himself available at some time on Thursday or Friday or even Saturday (!) to give the money time to arrive.
So I left the notaio’s office empty handed, but hopeful.
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