to be royally pissed off

[angereverywhere]

OK so I know AIBU really but I just feel so upset

DP and I were buying a new house. We had sold our flat to first time buyers and had spent ages finding the perfect house. We put straight in at asking the day it went up, they accepted, we were always shown round by the owners so were always kind, bought their son a little birthday gift as they mentioned his first birthday when we viewed..

So they are buying a bigger house a few miles away in the same town. Those home owners were looking to buy a property but were outbid. We waited for them, no moans from us, and they found a newbuild to be completed in November 2019.
They said they will move in with parents to not disrupt the train.
The owners we're buying from are in no need to move, the house they're in is big enough, no work issues, so delaying a few weeks wouldn't be an issue...

Day before exchange our buyers pulled out (relationship broke down). We were distraught, rallied for new buyers, but the owners of the house we were buying put it on the market and of course have now resold to someone else.

We had paid for surveys, mortgage valuations, mortgage fees, lawyers fees, and time! They didn't care. I'm pissed off they didn't give us a chance, we're still way further down the chain. Additionally, our survey pulled up over £15k of immediate work and we didn't even try to negotiate costs like they did with who they are buying from (which we waited around for!).

Anyway, I needed to rant. Words of advice / wisdom appreciated!

That’s just house buying I’m afraid.

It’s an arms length transaction so you owe each other nothing bar the contract sums.

our survey pulled up over £15k of immediate work
This may prove a stumbling block with the new buyers. However, if there’s so much wrong, consider whether you really want it or just got drawn along by excitement at finding a place you liked.

YANBU to be annoyed however it is all part and parcel of the fun that is buying a home! Sorry it didn't work out for you. Hopefully something even better will come along.

That’s life why are they going to wait around for you? They wanted their house sold.... yes they had time to do that but in current climate you take a buyer when there is one. Just move on.

You hadn't exchanged, you didn't have a contract. That's house buying.

In England (Scotland is different) nothing is binding about either buying or selling a house until contracts are exchanged.

• If you're selling never take a property off the market until exchange.
• If you're buying never assume it will go through until exchange.

You may not see an immediate issue with delaying things, but have you considered that the vendor may be working to a timetable with buying the new build? They may have a pressing need to release equity to meet stage payments that you may not be aware of.

Similar thing happened to us years ago. We were really angry and upset at the time and couldn’t get over the fact that the seller simply put the house back on the market to see if she could get more money for it. Didn’t bother to contact us to let us know after we’d paid £600 for the survey... BUT it is what it is, we were expecting a baby and had to move on from that and we quickly found another, much nicer house in a better area.

It’s a horrible feeling but may end up being a blessing in disguise.