to think the English house buying process is deliberately designed to cause maximum stress

[Diplomum]

Finally exchanged on our sale and purchase yesterday but the roller-coaster to get here has been ridiculous, with buyers nearly pulling out at the last minute. Every stage has been fraught. Why can’t we have a sensible system more like the Scottish or Scandinavian ones?!

I real feel for you. I bought a house in Scotland same time my cousin bought one in England and her process was so much more stressful and uncertain.

Congrats on exchanging though! Hopefully the worst is over now

Hope it's all sorted now! I'm always agog at the English system; it seems so stressful. I've bought and sold three times in Scotland and each one we have moved into our new house within three months of our first viewing and it's been smooth as anything. The Scottish system makes gazumping/gazundering far less of an issue. I'd dread buying/selling in England! I've heard such awful things from friends who have lost their dream home really far down the line and after months and months of back and forth.

It's by no means without its faults, but no system is perfect. Not familiar with the Scandinavian systems, but I believe a buyer can still pull out after a sale has been agreed under the Scottish system.

Perhaps it's the people involved that cause the stress, rather than the system itself.

Although I do agree, there is definitely room for improvement.

Trouble is the Scottish system is now heading down the same road as the English system. You don't have a binding contract until you've exchanged missives. That used to happen really quickly but is getting longer and longer. Buyers can pull out with impunity at any time before then, and they are now doing so in ever greater numbers. I'm not saying its as tortuous as the English system yet, but it's a slippery slope.

Congratulations on your exchange though.

How does the Scottish system work in practice ie if you are committed to a house when your offer is accepted, does that mean that you already have to have sold your house? If so, what happens if you've sold your house and don't find anywhere?!

'If so, what happens if you've sold your house and don't find anywhere?!'

Then it's tough. They're treated as separate transactions that don't hinge on any kind of chain. If you can't find another house to buy, then you have to move into rented/with family etc. This stops huge long chains that can fall apart and also things where you're waiting 6-8 months to move into your new house. Most sales in Scotland are wrapped up pretty quickly. We bought a house last year: we made an offer at the start of October and were in by the last week of November.

You aren't committed when an offer is accepted, only when you sign the missives (which in most cases happens fairly quickly). The big deterrent to gazumping is that if a buyer accepts an offer, they can't then accept another offer without changing their solicitors.

GU24 Mum You basically decide if you want to risk offering for a property before you've sold yours. You can usually negotiate with things like the entry date in the missives and so on. When my sister bought last year she ended up moving in with our mother for 6 months because her seller's new house wasn't available earlier. Her willingness to accept a long entry date was one of the things that swayed them into accepting her offer rather than others. Both she and I would have been prepared to rent if necessary to bridge a gap.

DH and I bought two years ago but our buyer tried to pull out right at the last minute (by Scottish standards - 8 weeks after we'd accepted their offer, having spent those eight weeks saying that there wasn't a problem, they'd conclude missives soon) We bribed them back, (£10k off the purchase price on condition they completed missives immediately) but were very worried that we might have to try and bridge in order to buy the flat we'd offered on.

You're right. The system is crappy. I would tell you the saga of our move but it would take too long. We're never moving again.

I agree. I have only ever bought and sold in Norway. Seller does the survey and it is available with the prospectus. Buyer puts in bid. Bid cannot be made without funding already agreed on by bank. Bid is legally binding. When bid is accepted, sale is legally binding. Job done.

I´m not sure I could stand the strain or buying and selling in the UK.

Thanks noneveronever - I'd wondered how it worked and suspected it might be like that. So I guess with the English system there's no risk of ending up with no house - but no guarantee til the ink is on the contract that the deal will go through. Perhaps we need a third option though not sure in reality what that could be!

Have said for years how ridiculous the system is.
I don't know what the answer is, but it's got to be better than what we have today.

Congratulations. We also exchanged yesterday, but this was our third property. The first property we made an offer on we found had no planning permission on the substantial extensions, despite assurances from EA. Three weeks wasted there. The second property, we found the substantial extension did not have completed building regulations. Vendor refused to approach the council to get the completion certificate as had been advised by their solicitor that all they needed to do was provide indemnity insurance to cover lack of building regulations and that we were being difficult by not just accepting this. Lost four months on that one.

We definitely need a system whereby a house should not even be put on the market without any required and completed planning/building regs paperwork.

Forget the Scottish system: compare the system in NZ and Australia. It's based on merchant shipping registers and was developed in the 1870s. Basically, if your named as the owner on the register, you own the land. No chain of deeds to check or defects to remedy. Rarely any encroachment issues because the land is surveyed and pegged, and can't be lost through adverse possession. Normally, the vendor and purchaser contract right at the start, subject to certain conditions, making gazumping a very unwise proposition. Lawyers' fees for a standard house conveyance can be as low as £250.

NZ and Aus are both common law countries so it wouldn't be hard for England to adopt the system. There's surely no reason why it couldn't adopt the contracting-up-front system right now.