I do not know what exactly the terms are in your SPA but what I can tell you is that in normal practice, the vendor is given 14 days from the date of request for same by the purchaser's financier's solicitors to procure the redemption statement. The period exceeding 14 days until the date of receipt of the redemption statement shall not be considered as part of the completion date. As such, the completion date would be extended automatically.

Example:

Date of request by purc's financier's sol - 1/11/2011
Last day for vendor to procure from his financier - 15/11/2011
Date of receipt of redemption statement - 30/11/2011.

Delay 16/11-30/11 - 15 days

Completion date (example) - 12/12/11
By virtue of the delay from the vendor's side - the completion date would be extended by 15 days - 27/12/2011
(assuming that there are no other delays from either side)

Look for such a clause in your SPA. There has to be such a clause as it would count as a delay on the part of the vendor, and as such, it would be wrong to punish you for such delay. Sometimes it may be 14 working days, sometimes 21 days. It differs. But a timeframe must be given to the vendor to obtain the redemption statement.

The vendor's financier only needs a letter of autorisation from the vendor but that is always provided to the financier at the same time when requesting for the redemption statement - so in essence, all the bank needs to do is to print out the redemption statement. No further check or consent of the vendor is needed anymore.