To think there should be a fine for vendors pulling out of a property buy/sell process last minute?

[BrokenCookies]

Just had this happen. Pregnant, strung along for months, collapsed a sizable chain because a couple of immature children think it's acceptable to pull out the day of exchange. I'm broken hearted, wasted all my money and savings and I have never felt so much hatred for two strangers. From speaking to the agent they have no genuine reason, just playing a bit of a game with us all I guess. How is this legal? It is the cruelest thing anyone has ever done to my family and I don't want to start it all again but now I have to with way less money. We had spent months getting our house ready for them as their first home, deep cleaning, painting, repairing.. turns out they never deserved any of it. It's really knocked me and I have no faith in anything now or people but I have to just get on with it :(

Yanbu - there should be a fine to stop this from being possible after a certain point.
Yabu - it's okay for people to do this.

…. Of fixing up a house but I’ve stopped, as it is too stressful.

Very best wishes for a quick sale now and the coming DC

It should be implemented. Honeatly. Buying and sellimg in England was so much more traumatic than buying and selling in my native country.

It doesn’t matter how close exchange is to completion, the money is the same because the work is the same. All the surveys, mortgage reports and solicitor’s documents need to be completed in order to exchange.

When we bought our first house and then our 2nd in the 80s it was usual to have 4 week period between exchange snd completion but that seems to have condensed to a day or 2 now which is a nightmare. At least with 4 weeks you can pack etc after exchange. We actually exchanged and completed on our first house same day but it was really unusual and only happened because there was an issue at Land Registry that needed sorting first and they were on strike and by then the vendors had emigrated so the house was already empty.

Thanks, genuinely didn't know. So fairly limited scenarios then, which is good for the vendor!

i was selling my dads house when he died the buyers were not pleasant,the house i was buying was a slow sale they moaned it really wasnt my fault then on exchange day their buyer pulled out ,i coulnt believe it, they never evan said sorry, they got a new buyer and it went ahead few months later . good luck

Scottish system is much quicker so there is less time for it to all fall apart. However the searches are non existent it seems. I used to work for a search company in England. There was no option to run searches on our home in Scotland.

Maybe forget calling it a fine then, but a fee of the process that at least falls on the party causing the issue?

Or a listed set of fees that are held by the conveyancing solicitor that is held and retained in the event of a collapsed chain.

It wouldn't cover everything, but could mitigate the issue.

Perhaps even a form of insurance would be helpful.

There should be a cut off point. The day of exchange is past the point of taking the piss. I think they should be made to cover everyone’s fees if they pull out that late.

This. About the missives at least. Home report surveys are imo so basic that they are a bit of a waste of time and money.
I do with people such as @Fisharenotfoods would stop peddling this bs about the Scottish system. The missives were concluded (exchange of contract in England and Wales) on the day I moved on the agreed date. The buyers could have pulled out without penalty up until that point.

I'm sorry what happened to you @BrokenCookies I guess the only upside is that you might get a bit more for it now thanks to your hard work and property prices might have gone up a bit by the spring which might be the best time to put it back on the market (circumstances dependent of course).

I know that! My point is the point of (almost) no return is far too close to the endgame

Ah - I see the insurance exists: https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-buying/homebuyer-protection-insurance/

I’m so sorry OP. Your frustration is totally warranted

It sounds like OP is the vendor in this situation anyway so it's not the vendor pulling out as per the thread title.

Isn’t that just because it’s a different system and database? Sellers in Scotland have to provide a lot of the info they buyers in England need to pay for and take it upon themselves to look into.

Yes they should be fined! This is awful. I'd speak or message them directly, how dare they.

They do - that point is exchange of contract.

In Scotland btw the offer is binding as I understand it.

I think there should be a buffer time to allow them to get a survey (but it should be a set time, rather than just "until a survey is done" and it's on the buyer if they don't get one done in time).

But why would anyone commit before having all the information?
The only way for the commitment to come earlier is if all the information is made available up front to the buyer. A full through structural survey should be the seller’s responsibility really.
Why would you legally commit hundreds of thousands on a property only for the information to come back and state that the “seller” has no legal right to sell it?
Or that there are restrictive covenants on the property giving access you aren’t happy with?
Or that the roof is falling apart?
Or there is significant subsidence?
Or the work has no planning permission?
Or illegal electrics?
It makes absolutely no sense for a buyer to be legally committed before having all this information.

YABU to say children and you know it.

But yes shit situation.

Please try to understand things better before you post.
Some of us have had very stressful selling experiences in Scotland and it grinds our gears (might just be mine) to see this bs posted all the fricking time!

How is that unreasonable? Their behaviour has been totally disgusting and immature. I certainly don't 'know it', I'd never treat anyone how they've treated us. I can only assume you think their behaviour is okay?

This happened the other way round.
We were due to exchange on a bungalow.
4 hours before the appointment to sign
the seller changed her mind.
It then came to light she had done that
once before.
We did go on to get a better positioned
bungalow and she is still in the one she
was trying to sell. This was 15 years ago.

What… if you discover during the lengthy conveyancing process that an abattoir is due to be built over the road, or that there is death watch beetle in the loft, or the interest rates change drastically?

Can you imagine the legal costs of arguing whether pulling out was reasonable or not?

A house isn’t sold until the contracts is … a contract.

Unfortunately the Scottish system is now going down the road of the English system. It is much easier now to back out. Personal experience of 2 lots of friends who were in a chain which collapsed after approximately 5 months and the other after 6 months. They had to start the whole process of selling again.