House sale fallen through and 8 months pregnant

[Pepperwand]

Posting for traffic as really need some perspective.

We were in a chain of three, with us in the middle. We accepted the offer on our house within a week of it going on the market back in January and were due to exchange this week. Our buyer has just pulled out on advice from her solicitor at the eleventh hour as we can't provide the FENSA paperwork for when the windows were replaced in our current house. This is because they were done by the previous owners, about 15 years ago and we don't have any access to that paperwork. Our solicitor is hopping mad and says we wouldn't be obliged to provide it anyway and that she basically thinks our buyer's solicitors have scared our buyer off.
The house we're buying is a new build in the same area we currently live and is due to be completed next month, right when I go on maternity leave. I can't see them holding on for us to start the house selling process all over again and I'm just so upset. I'm 8 months pregnant and have just been crying all morning about this.

I suppose I'm asking what you would do in this situation or if anyone had had similar happen and can tell me there is light at the end of the tunnel? We're fortunate in that our current house isn't something that we feel forced out of, we do have a bedroom for the baby and a garden if we stay so it's lot like we're in some poky 1 bed flat but I suppose I've just been dreaming about the bigger house and better schools in the area of town we were moving to.

I'm so torn as to whether to put our house back on the market immediately as it sold so quickly originally and pray that the new build developers hold on for us or we can find something else or just forget the whole thing, concentrate on baby and think about it further down the line.

Sorry for the brain dump, I've been a bit of a mess this morning and needed to vent!

[PoppyHxx]

My partner , me & baby live in a poky flat so could be better ?

[GPatz]

What about providing indemnity insurance for the windows?

[GreenTulips]

Depends because I doubt the builder have loads of others lined up

Put it back on the market and give it two weeks and then decide what to do

Say you want a 6 week completion to force the solicitors to act quicker

[PlainSpeakingStraightTalking]

Your solicitor needs to do his job and talk to the other solicitor.

@PoppyH - your life style choice

[Romax]

It’s all fine by the sounds of it
Not ideal, but what you wanted but once you get head around situation you’ll see that all good

[lightlypoached]

get onto the agent and get them to talk to the buyers and talk sense into them. the EA has incentive - their comission. get them working for you.

[Pepperwand]

Sorry, I didn't mean that as a slur on 1 bed flats....I suppose I'm just upset but trying to remind myself that we're in a better situation than some others to keep some perspective.

[CookPassBabtridge]

That's nuts, we couldn't probide paperwork for any of the changes on our property because it was done by previous owners. No issue. I would first ask your solicitor to have a word. If no good then get it back on the market and ask builder if he'll wait.

[DorisDances]

Really sorry to hear your news - virtual hug from me. Try and calm your thoughts. It's really disappointing but not the end of the world. Indemnity insurance might be an option for the windows. Are you using an estate agent? If so, were there other interested parties that you could offer a quick sale to? I would tend to think getting it back on the market whilst your new build is still a possibility. You could rethink if that gets sold to someone else. Good luck.

[GrubbyHipsterBeard]

I second indemnity insurance - offer to buy it? Ours was about £100 I think.

Or could you negotiate on the price? Not ideal but if it gets the move through.

This is so shit OP. Hope you get it sorted and good luck with the impending arrival!

[ILoveBray]

I would stay put now until you've had the baby and are recovered and a bit more settled.

We sold our house and moved during my last month of pregnancy and it was a hellish experience.

If you are comfortable and there are no real urgent reasons to move now then I would wait.

You don't need to worry about another bedroom for a while, and you've got about 4 years until schools are an issue.

[NicoAndTheNiners]

That's crazy. Can the estate agent talk to the buyer and reassure them how bonkers it is to pull out over this. Make them earn their fee.

[Newyearnewunicorn]

As others have said indemnity insurance, it’s standard for this sort of thing. Just offer to buy the £100 policy if they exchange buy a certain date.

[WhiteVixen]

Is there any scope for the company building the new builds to buy your house as a part exchange? I know some friends of mine have done this. Depends on your budget as I know they don’t always give the top price but it will help secure the sale for them, so might be worth exploring if they do that.

[TrixieFranklin]

Ridiculous reason to pull out or poor explanation to your buyers by their solicitors on the severity of this - this happens a lot just arrange indemnity insurance for the windows and carry on as you were.

[hartof]

We've just sold our house and completed, we had to pay for an indemnity as we also didn't have the FENSA certificates. Was around £30.

[SEsofty]

Indemnity insurance. About hundred Quid, offer to pay.

I’d also get your estate agent to push hard, is it really this or does the buyer want to just pull out anyway. The estate agent doesn’t get paid unless you sell and they work for you. So put them to work

[NicoAndTheNiners]

The buyer's solicitor tried something similar for a house I was selling years ago about a building control cert for a chimney breast removal. Which I hadn't removed. I'd only bought the house 18 months previously and it hadn't been raised as an issue when I bought it.

I pointed out house was 100years old and chimney breast could have been removed b4 building control was a thing.

Never heard back about it and sale went ahead.

[Pepperwand]

Thanks everyone, the estate agent is trying to speak to our buyer directly but so far is getting put straight to voicemail. That's a good idea about indemnity insurance though.

Funnily enough we cancelled other viewings and accepted a lower offer from this buyer precisely because he was renting and said could move quickly. That seems like it was a stupid decision now but with being pregnant and wanting to be in a new place before baby arrived it seemed like a good idea at the time!

[TrixieFranklin]

Are you sure they weren't already looking for a reason not to proceed?

[hartof]

I would speak to the EA ask them to speak to your buyer and talk some sense into them, pay for the indemnity insurance. Also speak to the developer let them know whats happened, they will probably wait for you if it is close to completion.

[Fightthebear]

www.fensa.org.uk/fensa-certificate

Can you get your fensa certificate now?

It’s a truly ridiculous reason to pull out though, your buyers may have got cold feet and be using it as an excuse.

It’s really stressful, much sympathy to you.

[CallMeRachel]

This is a load of balls.

How come you managed to buy it then without the paperwork?

Your solicitor needs to get their shit together and send emails. They need to be told the property was bought without the paperwork by you and that it's no reason to justify pulling out of a purchase.

I'd be instructing my solicitor to pursue them for your costs if they pull out. Will you lose your deposit the new build?

[Disfordarkchocolate]

I had to get my Fensa certificate year's after the windows were fitted, it was very easy. If your buyers were put off by that they must be easily deterred.

[Pepperwand]

The estate agent does seem to think that the buyer has been having wobbles already and is using this as an excuse but don't really know at the moment. Worst case scenario if our onward purchase fell through we'd lose around £2k in money we've paid out for reservation fee as well as to solicitor for searches and our mortgage application fee.