To be ABSOLUTELY FUMING

[NYC23]

Due to exchange contracts on a house sale and purchase on Friday and our buyer, in the last 10 mins, has pulled out!

I know they are within their rights to do so, but my god I am disappointed!!!!!

Won't they have to pay any loss/expenses you incur? Have they had to pay a deposit for security on your property, if so it will be lost to them and will be yours. It does happen, experienced the same selling a house years ago.

As you were to exchange on Friday there could be a claim for kids. The intent to purchase can surely be demonstrated e.g. instructions to solicitors and estate agent. Even in England the "intent"if demonstrated can mean they can be liable. Having bought and sold in both England and Scotland I am aware of responsibilities, and in both places if you can show "intent being demonstrated" then you can ask for expenses incurred.

Wankers. It's just hideous, a really horrible feeling, you have my utmost sympathy.
It happened to us two years ago, I was devastated as really wanted to sell our last house. The excuse was 'we lost our nerve' - nerve over what? Wankers. We ended up selling to another family who are far more pleasant, didn't dick about and love living there. We ended up buying another house which I'd posted on Facebook a year before saying I'd love to buy something like that, so am over the moon it happened now.
We also had our sellers pull out a day before exchange years ago. We also ended up with a way better house then too.
Don't despair basically, something good might come out of this. People said that to me two years ago and I didn't believe them, but it was absolutely true.

buying a house is so nerve-wracking we were first time buyers the guy we were buying off was moving to a totally new town and he was buying off an old man going into a home but who was on off on off about selling his family home (which is understandable) and even though it was just a 3 person chain it was sooooo nerve wracking

It's not comparable but I am just about to pull out of a property purchase (commercial) because new information has emerged that will make our pension investment worth much less than the agreed price. But a home is much more personal and I feel for you. Very sorry about your dashed hopes, and hope another buyer is around the corner.

We had this when my mum had a house left to her in a will and we helped her sell it. Buyer pulled out at 10:30pm the night before we were supposed to sign the contracts and didn't give a reason (we later found out it was because they had an offer accepted on their first choice). Luckily we were able to offer it to a lovely couple who had offered us a bit less and they accepted immediately. Glad we did really, they've been there 15 years and it's a lovely family home now.

It is infuriating though. I think it's morally wrong as well unless there's been some major catastrophe that interferes with the purchase.

Happened to us when buying our first house. Sellers removed house day of exchange (they had been awful all way through). Cost us 3k. V stressful. About 6 months later bought a better house in amazing location. Just been contacted by them saying ready to sell now if we still interested (2 years later) . Dh was practical and just wrote a polite message back saying thank you for thinking of us but we purchased a house now, good luck with the sale. I wasnt allowed to send what i wanted to say. Dh is sensible. Hope you resell quickly.

Vendor of house we were purchasing pulled out at last minute after months and months of messing us around. Dreadful weekend thinking we were going to be homeless but thankfully our purchasers agreed to hold on, we found a much better house and this purchase went through in weeks.
It's such a shitty thing to do but I'm sure you'll find someone else, it's still a buoyant market and hopefully this one will whizz through. Have a drink and a good swear about them and next time it'll be better I'm sure

We had buyers pull out on the day of exchange - was wondering why oh hadn't happened and solicitor called at 4 ish. Was a good size chain too. Devastating at the time.

Sounds like it happens a lot!

Thought I would update you - she spoke to us earlier and told us the estate agent had not passed on all neccessary information.

She had a buyer for one of her places who visited for a final time and they pulled out of the sale on her property. She therefore had no choice but to pull out of buying ours! She was very apologetic.

Would have been helpful to have had all of this info at the time!

The property she was selling wasn't where she was living... as in she had said this house was an investment but not sure why we weren't made aware of the fact that she was selling to buy. Anyway, not her fault in the slightest!

It's still an incredibly annoying situation but I am no longer angry with her! She's in an awful situation too!

Spoke to new home developer who won't do a part exchange but have offered an extension on time to exchange of a few weeks and after this point they will review on a week to week basis!

All hope is not yet lost!

Fingers crossed someone wants to buy our place!

I'm glad that people have been through this all seem to be saying something better was round the corner 😊 I am pleased it worked out for you all!

Same happened to me.
Due to exchange last week and buyers had delay with mortgage days before agreed moving date. They said all ok and would complete shortly.
I waited and waited and found out today they don't have a mortgage at all.
Gutted and back to square 1 again......
So disappointing. I feel your pain OP

We sold our terrace and bought a semi. The bloke in the couple selling us the semi got himself in a complete state as the sale approached. Every day he threatened to take the house off the market for irrational reasons- he loved his shed, he thought the pedestrianised street they were moving to would be 'too busy', the whole thing was giving him a headache, he was fed up. We got phone calls every day for about 3 weeks with one threat after another - all of which had me really worried but DH was calmer. The bloke's wife was great and she would ring me and say just ignore him, she had it under control. Then buyer of our terrace suddenly announced, 4 days before exchange, that she could not raise the money she had offered and needed to drop her offer by £8000. We were furious but in the end negotiated it down to £5000 and it all went through on time. We have not regretted it ever but I still think she pulled a fast one on us.
The last time we bought and sold was a doddle.

The day we moved to the semi we discovered the bloke had taken lots of fittings: light fittings, towel rail, mirror and loo roll holder etc.
We were 'FFS' but couldn't be bothered to be bothered. The next morning at 8am there was a knock on the front door - it was the wife with all of the fittings, absolutely furious with her husband. He was 'attached' to them apparently. We said to keep them but she said he was just being pathetic and their new house had a towel rail, light fittings etc. When we opened the boxes there was a bottle of wine as an apology.

Yes, I've been through this as well - a nightmare and you have my total sympathy, OP.

However, in my fuming state I sat down and thought about the whole process we'd been through since putting the house in the hands of the estate agent - and realised how useless they'd been. So I marched into their office and withdrew the house completely (they'd had sole agency). In over a year they'd only sent three prospective buyers round, and the third couple were the ones who pulled out.

I listed the house myself online, at a higher price - and within four days I had a waiting list! Two people turned up on the doorstep (rural area and they'd both come quite a distance) and begged to be allowed to buy the house - before even looking round.

Within a couple of weeks of our buyer pulling out we had exchanged contracts. As we had a waiting list we were far more relaxed about the whole thing - and we were selling for a significantly higher price. This buyer completed (and is still in the house, over sixteen years on, now with a family).

So don't despair, OP - it could be all for the best as other posters have said. The best of luck!

Oh god, it's awful but we once did this. ( don't hurt me Mumsnet)
We were desperate to move before school start so had offered and been accepted on a house. Then a couple of weeks later the dream house came back on the market. Their buyer had pulled out!
It's just part of the horrible stress that is moving house.

We had the opposite experience; bid on a property in negative equity, told that bank had given approval for sale. Five months of screwing around plus surveyors, assessors fees etc Eventually knocked on sellers door to be told EA lied, request to bank had only been made three weeks earlier and declined that day. In the meantime property in the area had gone up almost 20% Their bullshit cost us a fortune while they tried to use us as a bargaining chip to get a debt write down with their bank

If it's legally binding when the offer is made in Scotland, what happens about all the searches, checks and surveys? What if they come up with a problem?

OP. Make sure you've got really good solicitors. When I sold my first property and moved to second house, we used cheap internet solicitors who were pretty hopeless looking back and made no effort to form a relationship with the estate agents.
When we sold that house and bought our present house we had a bit more money so I paid for really good solicitors. The difference was amazing. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the estate agents- KFH. Absolutely appalling. I wish I'd been able to use a local chain.

We had buyers pull out and the estate agent hid it from us for ages. Nearly lost our house as a result but sellers held on. Changed agent, sold again 2 weeks later and now we live in our lovely house. 6 months from offer to moving and a whole heap of stress but worth it to be here.

Ps. Never. Moving. Again.

My DS and DIL have just been through hell for 14 months, with a series of 4 chains falling through - nothing to do with the flat they were selling, one woman who decided to change mortgagor half way through the process and then there was an issue, one buyer on the day they were due to exchange pulling out for NO bloody reason at all and one buyer whose solicitor was basically arguing the toss with the other 4 solicitors involved over the legality of a document for weeks.
They finally made it and managed to move into a house this week but the whole experience has left my DS with a stress-related illness and the broken chains have cost them hundreds extra!

The whole system is ridiculous. And people should pay a penalty for messing others about with no valid reason - illness, redundancy or similar.

Why we don't use the Scottish system I really don't know. It would be so much better.

Ffs what a complete and utter twunt

NoPressure- Name and shame the estate agents. It feels good!

My sympathies. This happened to me. My buyer didn't pull out but theirs did. They hadn't even paid for searches but no-one even told me so I was plodding on paying for all sorts of things. He then pulled out the week before I expected us to exchange.
Now both me and my buyer are back to square 1 and houses back on the market.
Its a disgrace this is allowed. The system in Scotland is much fairer !!

I'd go and unleash a nest of vipers through their letterbox. What a bunch of time wasters.

We had the seller take off the market shortly before the agreed completion and exchange date because he and his wife weren't happy for us to have a full structural survey done of the property. It was a Grade II listed building... 🙄 Two years on, the property is still on the market. And we moved into our dream home earlier this year. 😁 Things definitely turned out for the better for us. 👍🏻
Good luck OP with your sale and purchase 🍀