House purchase fell through. I want seller to pay my legal costs

[robusttoday]

We were buying a house, and we were quite near exchange.
Then, out of the blue, the seller decided not to sell.
I've incurred costs. AIBU to expect the seller to re-imburse my costs.
I think I'm probably entitled .....?

thanks PP. That's life. Good to know about the insurance

Some solicitors will offer a no complete no fee option. Ours did for about £30 I think. Unfortunately you will still be out of pocket for the lawyers out of pocket expenses (searches and the like) however they are generally less than £50.

Scotland is different but assuming is not there then unfortunately you are responsible for all costs to date unless you agreed differently with anyone.

What I have done in the past is send an itemised but meaningless lawyer's letter to the seller, so they have a good old bout of diarrhea at the prospect of having to pay me £x before they find out/pay for legal advice to find out that I have no grounds. However I am a lawyer, and professionally we're not supposed to do things like that.

Poor you. Same thing happened to us on the morning of exchange completion (when all our stuff was in the moving van), and we'd given notice on our rented flat so had to sofa surf for 6 months. It's crap, but all too common. Karma will get them and you'll find another (much better house). We did :)

My sister and her husband were facing this a couple of weeks back, luckily their seller came to his senses (actually we think his son gave him a bollocking!) but it would have cost them nearly £3k.

I do think that there should be a pre-exchange contract in place whereby all parties agree that the sale is going ahead before paying out any money and if either pulls out they cover the costs of wasted surveys etc.

My friends parents did this to someone, except they did it on the day of exchange. They got to the solictors to sign when the wife said that she had never wanted to move and didnt want to sign . I cannot imagine how the buyers must have felt. But they could do it because the majority of presale costs fall on the buyer and cant be claimed back.

I agree that it is a major issue with house buying in the UK and I can see why many people prefer to buy new builds to avoid situations like this.

I wish that buyers did have to pay. My mil keeps doing this to people.

Sadly, it is a MASSIVE flaw with the English system of buying and selling.
It happens (both ways - buyers pull out probably more than sellers) ALL the time. Apart from the expense, the stress and emotional impact is huge. Even, in some cases like Alpanini, on the day

I ment sellers

Scribblegirl I only found out after paying surveyors and solicitors, which you means you can't get it. I don't understand why it is not better advertised!

Either insurance, or go with a 'no completion no fee' solicitor next time. Obvs you wouldn't get back search or survey fees, but our solicitor doesn't bill us their fee if it falls through. It's a fixed price too. We went through a broker called CMS conveyancing.

Pyong it's only a problem with English Law in Scotland they would be responsible for your expenses gazumping is not unknown in Scotland but it would have to be 10s of thousands over the original price to be worthwhile.

However I am a lawyer, and professionally we're not supposed to do things like that.

So three engineers die and are supposed to go to heaven, but due to a celestial cockup they end up in Hades by mistake. They protest for a bit but then, realising it's pointless, they decide to make the most of it since they're going to be down there for quite some time.

A few months later, God is doing the books and realises that something doesn't add up. He gets on the phone to Satan and asks him how things are going.

"Oh, it's brilliant!" Satan says. "Since those engineers arrived, everything's been working and running smooth as a nut. It's great. The machinery hasn't been working this well for millennia."

"I knew it!" God shouts. "You've got my engineers. They're supposed to be up here. Send them this way at once."

"Are you kidding?" Satan snorts. "And have everything down here go to pot again? No way, I'm keeping them."

"You what?" God splutters. "You've got no right. Send them up here right now or I'll sue."

"Oh yeah?" laughs Satan. "And where are you going to find a lawyer?"

Have had this happen several times, only way round it is to use the conveyancing firm with the estate agent who work on no sale no fee. I did have someone pull out AFTER exchange of contract once, (great way to loose weight with the worry) it was a big firm buying to re-house someone whose property they were demolishing, we couldnt afford to sue for breach of conract, had to let it go.

Ok, sorry. England and Wales then.

Scotland - you have to be sure you are going to buy and get your survey done and paid for before the offer I believe so that is not necessarily a better system. Pros and cons. On balance I prefer English law but the insurance policies sound like a good idea.

Some old friends of ours did this (we rarely see them anymore) and ended up having to pay the estate agents fee I seem to recall as it was close to exchange (4 days), they'd half packed and everything but suddenly realised it wasn't the right thing for them.

Unfortunately no. And it works both ways.

Happened to us on day of exchange except it was our buyers pulled out and as we were buying a new build the developer pulled out on us so we lost thousands and the house we were buying. I was 7 months pregnant with twins, we were relocating & DH was already working 150 miles away, sleeping on his sisters sofa. Utter nightmare. Despicable people.

Scotland - you have to be sure you are going to buy and get your survey done and paid for before the offer I believe so that is not necessarily a better system

That's true - but we still have to legally have a home report in order to sell on the open market, which includes a survey. Before that there might be several surveys done on one house, but it's not such a big deal (unless you want to get the full survey first)

7461Mary18, in Scotland the vendor of the property must supply (free to interested parties) a homebuyers report, which includes a basic survey amongst other things. The buyer may do another survey (possibly for mortgage co, it's years since I bought and not under the current system) but it's unlikey to show anything serious and not mentioned on the home report.

Home reports are often available online via eg Rightmove, or the selling solicitor's property website, so you have an idea of condition before you even look at at.

Unfortunately they can back out whenever they want to, up until you exchange contracts.
Feel really sorry for you.

Years ago I was offered insurance against the vendor pulling out. The insurance policy I was offered was rubbish IMHO. It would cover most of the costs, but the caveat was that the next (replacement) house purchase had to use their legal team, their mortgage advisors etc.

IANAL, but it seemed to be too lop sided against what I was after (IMHO)

Go with a fixed fee, 'no completion no fee' solicitor then