To confront sellers who pulled out last minute

This happened to us so I fully sympathise. Like you, they had been the ones pushing the move and then disappeared on day of exchange and gave no reason to why they pulled out. I was 7 months pregnant and so stressed!

I thought at first that it was part of some type of strategy and they’d be back after the weekend demanding more money but no. Just walked away from a property chain.

I was tempted to confront too but after spending a weekend seething and in shock, put my energy into keeping our buyers and finding a new house to buy. Amazingly we moved somewhere new within 2 months just before the baby arrived so it worked out alright in the end.

sorry that you have nowhere to go. That’s awful but you will be in a good position to buy somewhere else. The lesson I took and doubtless you will too is not to change anything about your current set up until exchange has happened.

I don’t know how these people sleep at night though!

I’m so sorry op - the same thing happened to me. It’s truly awful behaviour.
unfortunately there isn’t anything you can do- and the buyers insurance also wouldn’t have covered you for this - sellers can pull out and not pay any compensation to the buyer- whereas if it was the other way round the buyer would have to pay the seller comp if they pulled out at this stage. It’s a really fucked up system and it is the people at the bottom of the chain in rented accomodation who have the least to start with who are really screwed over.
my advice is to let yourself be sad/angry and feel whatever emotions you are feeling at this stage. don’t let others lessen your feelings by saying ‘it’s just a house - another one will come along’. Whilst that is true it’s not particularly helpful at this point when your grief is so raw. The house you were going to buy likely wasn’t just a house - that was your future home which you did everything to buy and now you have lost that on top on the money and time spent buying it. Try and find a short term lease or ask your landlord if you can stay there whilst it’s on the market- don’t rush into buying another house (unless the absolute dream comes up) until you’ve got over this.

Circumstances change. We put our house on the market due to financial reasons. I was able to secure a much higher paid job a week before exchange. We withdrew from the process as we loved our house. I spoke to the buyers and explained the situation. They were obviously upset/annoyed but did kind of understand. They own a lovely house now.

It sucks, but you have no legal recourse for people pulling out for whatever reason they like. You'll just have to find an alternative and move on so it's best to concentrate on that rather than any fruitless attempt to get anything from flakey buyers.

So sorry OP, same thing happened to us exactly 3 years ago on the day of exchange. Went through months of delays and stress from the buyers. Their excuse was 'were not keen on the front door'. On the plus side, you've done all the paperwork on your end so that doesn't need to be done again. We didn't have to pay any more to the solicitor.

Told our sellers immediately. They were gutted, sent flowers and promised we would do everything to keep deal alive. Spoke to estate agent and gave very specific requirement for the buyers we would consider, e.g. no one in a chain, mortgage in place to move quickly etc. Also they needed to have a proper solicitor and not the conveyabelt £250 services our buyers used which wasted so much of everyone's time. Reduced starting price and relisted, 3 views, 3 offers on first day, everyone gave their best final offer and sold at over asking which was same as original offer from stupid buyers.

It's 3 years to the day we moved into this new house and in the end we only about 1 month behind original schedule. It's not impossible and your sellers will understand if you explain you will take steps to keep deal going.

is buying the flat off your landlord an option?

Could you write to your mp and ask them to lobby for a change in law in Parliament? Not what you asked but might make you feel slightly better to do something (that won't get you into trouble)

of course!

its early

It's the vendor of the place they were trying to purchase that have pulled out - assuming the vendors live in the property she was trying to buy.

Whilst other posters are correct to say they haven't done anything legally wrong, they have nevertheless been extremely impolite and disrespectful (to say the least) on a purely social level, and there is nothing in English law to say you can't complain to people who have treated you badly.

We've just sold and bought a house. It's taken 6 months for a 2 house chain because we had a tricky vendor. Our buyers were moving from rented and eventually they put their stuff in storage and moved in with family. They were moving to get their daughter into a school in the catchment area and had to be in by December.

We took out insurance and hoped for the best but if our vendor had pulled out we 100% would have pulled out of our sale as well (nothing else suitable on the market at the time). Of course we would have felt terrible for our buyers but not so bad as to sell a house we loved (just had outgrown but could have done loft conversion).

Ultimately you don't know why the sellers pulled out and there could be a very good reason for it. You just need to let it go.

Sadly not. Nothing is set in stone until exchange happens and anyone can pull out without penalty. What an awful situation for you. Fingers crossed for you.

Yeah again that was really crappy and they shouldn’t have done it but legally haven’t done anything wrong. There are loads of very stupid things on Facebook but it isn’t its own law.

Horrible for you OP, but I dont agree with other posts here, personally I would always want the option to pull out before purchase on such a significant and expensive purchase

How do you know where they live by the way?

So sorry to read this OP. My best friend had the same happen to her. Luckily, new buyers came along really quickly and bought the searches off the previous buyers so they didn't have to do conveyancing again - they moved very quickly after that!

Turning up on their doorstep demanding money is a terrible idea - please don't do it.

I would almost certainly go round in the middle of the night and smash a few windows though 😇

This is the system OP, welcome to it !! It’s shit but what they did is allowed and you have no comeback - confronting them will only get you into trouble. You might get a bit of comfort knowing that the silly sods will still have to pay their own solicitors and estate agent fees, with nothing to show for it.

Quietly hoping this isn't part of my chain as I'm due to exchange and complete on those dates 😱🤮 And it has been a rocky two year ride!

Been there, wanted to go straight round to them immediately. 2 years later sat here in the beautiful home we ended up with instead, I'm so glad I didn't. I would have felt so awful afterwards for going round and having it out with them, I kept my dignity no matter how tempting it was at the time. Onwards and upwards for you. It's shit right now but I hope in two years you'll also be sat in your dream home

Everybody talking about the joke they posted on Facebook: OP didn't say it was specifically about the house sale, did they?
@Lemonyslice what was said joke about?

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

The system never changes because no one lobbies their MP about this and there isn't a concerted campaign. We all just cross our fingers and hope for better luck next time.

We had a very similar thread quite recently - within the last few months, I think. It's driving me mad that I can't find it!

Sorry OP - it’s absolutely infuriating. You aren’t in Dumfries are you?

I only ask as my MIL had the same with the house she was selling, it was a 3 house chain with MIL at the top and her buyer suddenly pulled out also completing on the 6th December! They kept wanting more and more money off for ridiculous reasons and trying to renegotiate and then pulled out over not being given an additional £1k. She only chose them as they promised they would complete before the end of the year.

Speak to your rental and see if there is any possibility to have longer? I would write something on Facebook under their ‘joke’ 🤭

No of course not, you don't know their situation- maybe they're going through a tough time too, something unexpected happened maybe.
I'm sorry for your situation because it's so stressful but you are better off using your time and energy to find a temporary place to live or asking your landlord if they would consider giving you a few months longer

The minute they joked about it on Facebook they certainly did do something wrong.