Our buyer pulls out the sale of shared ownership flat just before the exchange of contract!

[Hayden2012]

Hi there!
Please advise on this dreadful matter. We’ve been just told that our buyer wants to withdraw the sale of our shared ownership flat after 4months(!) since she made an offer to purchase back in February. The problem is that we are also in the process of buying another shared ownership flat, which will complete in a month and we are ready to move. We don’t want to pull out just because our sale has fallen through. Fortunately we don’t have money issue here. We just want to go ahead to buy another bigger shared ownership flat. We’d need to find a new buyer for our current flat as soon as possible. So here is a big question. Would there be a problem for us to pursue another shared ownership flat before selling ours? We certainly do not intend to hold two properties for a long term.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Best

I’d be surprised if the housing association would let you own two HA properties as obviously they are more for people who can’t afford the open market. You’d also have to convert your mortgage on your current property to a buy to let and I’m not convinced you’ll find a broker that’ll do that on a shared ownership property

I really dont think you can. You need to get your EA to be really proactive and start viewings really soon.

Yes, that’s what we need to do immediately to find another buyer via EA. And as we’ve passed the financial assessment from HA, it has now moved on to the conveyancing stage. As long as we have enough fund to pay for the share of the property, I hope HA won’t notice at this stage. After all, no one wants to break the chain of the sale process. We were told yesterday that our vendor also needed to move out as soon as possible.
It’s really a nighttime I can’t believe our buyer has changed her mind out of the blue! So frustrating!!

You can only do shared ownership once, how does this work?

I thought shared ownership was for first time buyers?

Hi Misty,
No, you can still move on to another shared ownership property if you wish, depending on your situation. But you’d have to sell your existing one first,before moving on to another. We have one bed flat currently, but since my son was born and growing bigger, we definitely need more space, but we still can’t afford to buy 2beds flat without a shared ownership scheme. We’ve been really looking forward to moving in a bigger place until our buyer now pulls out at this stage. Devastating!

Flat prices re plummeting. Your buyer is probably hoping to be able to buy something without the need for shared ownership. Very disappointing for you.