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.

I don't really understand why the whole process takes so long anyway - even when there's no chain.
My DS is a FTB. He offered on a house at the start of September. Offer accepted. Mortgage offer sorted. Survey done. Searches done. Vendor moving in with someone else, so no chain either end. He's been told they'll "try" and get it through before Christmas. That's 3 months with no apparent reason. No wonder chains take so long to complete. The longer the delay the more time that gives people to change their minds.

100% I would if I was in my buyers shoes and I'm not just saying that because I'm on the other side, I'd expect to and be surprised that if not that I could just walk away having caused so much trouble for other people ( to put it very lightly ) without having to do anything to accept responsibility for my part in it. When my first buyer pulled out because her mum fell ill I'd not want her to pay a fine and I was very much of the mindset that it was devastating for her to have such a positive event ( first new home, seemed to love it, offered over the asking price ) ruined by such sad circumstances. I think about her a lot and did when we found the new buyers that have fucked everything up and how sad it was that she was missing out. Basically, I'm trying to say not everyone deserves to pay a fine but these two certainly do. You'd sue for loss of time and money in so many other circumstances, why does our system make exceptions when it comes to something as huge and life changing as moving home?

You can pull out in the Scottish system without penalty as long as it’s before missives have been concluded (which hasn’t happened until a few days before completion the last two times we’ve bought here). We pulled out of a purchase after months of being messed around by the sellers staggeringly incompetent solicitors.

Having sold houses in the UK and overseas, the UK system needs an overhaul. We're in aus, in our state you have 2 weeks from having an offer accepted to pay your deposit and make the sale unconditional - the two weeks are to get your finance sorted and get surveys done, plus anything else checked that you've put as a condition of sale (it is possible to ask for an extension if there's a genuine delay). Once the deposits paid, you choose a settlement date, usually 30/60 or 90 days away and that's it. We've bought 3 times here, sold twice and have never had any stress or complications.

I would have Scottish law apply, much better system. Unless someone could do better.

We're about to go on the market, and our estate agent has just been telling me that there is insurance you can take out in case your buyer pulls out. On the strength of this thread, I've just asked him to send me details. Sounds v sensible as we have been bitten in the past too. It's heartbreaking, but you will move forward and get past this . . .

Been in property buying and selling for decades. With respect op you are selling to strangers and you know what the system is here. So you are shocked when they pulled out, when everyone knows it was entirely foreseeable. You acted as if the buyers had morals Why?
In future don’t take a sale as done until exchange, spend the absolute minimum you have to and have no thoughts about making it nice for them.
you are involved in a business transaction with people you don’t know and will never see again.
The property market is a shark pool and must be very devastating for you, but take it as a hard lesson, anticipate the worst and you won’t be as shocked if it goes wrong. Good luck op, hope your next buyers are not scumbags.

We threw out the British system. In our system, all titles are on a register. Once the contract is unconditional, you're buying and selling. The contact may well be unconditional from the start and the deposit is paid up front. If the buyer doesn't settle the seller keeps the deposit. The seller cannot back out either. The more conditional the offer the less likely it is to be entertained. We offered unconditionally on our current house within a week of seeing it which meant getting the house inspected, the title checked and finance arranged. Chains are not common. There is no failing to settle except in extremely unlikely and rare circumstances.

Unfortunately your call for fines cannot be on condition of whether you want people to pay them on not. The fine you are suggesting for both purchasers and vendors is if they pull out of a sale prior to exchange they pay a fine. You example of your previous purchasers reasons highlights why it is not a good idea.

You can sue someone for breach of contract, so for houses that means post exchange of contracts. There are already regulations and financial penalties in place should a breach happen.

I understand how annoying and upsetting it is, but sadly it is what it is, you do not know the reason for your purchasers actions, that is their business. You just have to do everything you can to get a new buyer to hold the chain together, spend your energy on that, not getting annoyed at your purchasers sadly it doesn't achieve anything other than making you feel worse than you already do!

There should be a fee payable of a few thousand once you have had surveys / searches done then if you pull out you lose xxx amount
also everyone should take out house buying insurance cost 60 -100 but will cover a large percentage of the cost

So sorry this has happened to you. I agree - it has a devastating impact on people and yet some buyers treat it all so casually. This far in the process, people are heavily invested. Not just financially with surveys and legal fees but they researching schools, applying for jobs in the area etc. To be so cowardly and offer no reason is awful.

Buyers should have to repay any fees incurred by a seller if they drop out like this.

Fuckers. Sorry to hear this OP

OP, you could ask your agent to contact your original buyer and say the house is unexpectedly back on the market, and would she like first refusal? The dust might have settled on the situation with her mum by now. That's if it was genuine - you've no way of really knowing why either of your buyers pulled out, so it is a bit pointless expending energy on hating one and feeling sorry for the other.

I agree the UK system is crap and I think that more of the stuff like survey and pre-contract questionnaires should be done upfront and paid for by the seller, so as to reduce the time between offer and exchange. You'd have to make sure that they were done independently, though, so that the buyer nd lenders could rely on them, otherwise buyers would just want to fund their own surveys as well and nothing would change.

During that time between offer and exchanged a buyer can always get gazumped, too, so it's not like all the power is in the buyer's hands. It's stressful for both parties because it's designed to be a hard-nosed, adversarial negotiation but it's over people's homes, which they have an emotional attachment to.

I agree. There should be another one for sellers not meeting agreed standards of handover when they sell.

I think part of the problem is the recent custom of a very short period between exchange and completion. When I started buying houses many years ago, it was standard to have 4 weeks or more. This meant you had time to plan your life if things went wrong-once exchange had happened you knew everyone was committed. Our recent purchase was exchange and completion on the same day-very stressful for all involved and a nightmare trying to arrange planning of services in case someone pulled out. You have my deepest sympathy OP, it’s a horrible thing to happen to you and if other countries can have a more rigorous system, why can’t we?

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 in Scotland. Don't think it's legal here (thank fuck!) I can't understand how this is allowed.

This happened to my DP when he was selling. The buyers had 2 different houses in 2 chains, and had decided to go with whichever one was completed first (their solicitor was in on it) so although they had paid for 2 surveys etc, they just pulled out last minute and bought the other house!

Sounds pretty similar to the English system to me :

"We threw out the British system. In our system, all titles are on a register."

So are the vast majority in England. There is some unregistered land still, but it gets registered when a transaction is made. Over time all land will become registered.

"Once the contract is unconditional, you're buying and selling."

Same as in England. People can pull out after exchange of contracts, but the contract normally stipulates a massive penalty. How much can vary with the contract as per the wishes of the buyer/seller.

"The contact may well be unconditional from the start and the deposit is paid up front. If the buyer doesn't settle the seller keeps the deposit."

Can happen in England if both the buyer and seller are willing to have it.

"The more conditional the offer the less likely it is to be entertained."

Sellers in England have exactly the same choice - who they choose to sell their house to and on what terms/basis. Buyers have a choice whether or not they want to buy on those terms.

"We offered unconditionally on our current house within a week of seeing it which meant getting the house inspected, the title checked and finance arranged. Chains are not common. There is no failing to settle except in extremely unlikely and rare circumstances."

I think this is the difference in England, that this process can take some time. However it doesn't have to, you can make it take a shorter amount of time, and demand a buyer does it in that time as a seller. It adds to the cost of course, and reduces the number of potential buyers who will proceed on that basis.

"There is no failing to settle except in extremely unlikely and rare circumstances."

Same as in England. Once contracts are signed it is very rare for the process not to go through to completion, as the financial penalty is large.

I get it’s been a long slog and you’ve improved the property but surely that means you can get another buyer, and maybe a little higher offer? So it isn’t all doom and gloom!

@BrokenCookies it's the most expensive purchase you make in your life, so if your buyers aren't happy, then it's best not to go ahead, even if that's really annoying.

Don't forget your buyer will also have paid out for solicitors fees, searches etc... so will also be losing quite a bit of money (£2k - £3k), so it's not like they will pull out for no reason. There will be some reason they've stopped the sale.

A friend of mine pulled out of their house purchase just days before exchange because the company she worked for made her redundant very suddenly. Their mortgage company would not lend and her DH didn't earn enough to raise the mortgage on just his salary.

I has the same occur, suddenly disappeared about 3 weeks before eoc. My solicitor was very wise as their solicitor stopped responding, so she contacted the solicitor found out that they were not answering him and immediately warned the chain.
What I guess I'm saying is that unfortunately it does happen and it's a sign to watch out for.
Calling them children isn't fair on children. Calling them sociopathic twats is much fairer. I don't know of any child who would break a promise or want people to be upset.

Just want to say thank you so much to everyone for your lovely replies. I've been on mumsnet lurking for years and this is the sort of thing it's great for. I have calmed down a bit now, it's just a total shock and horrible but at some point today I'm going to have to accept it to get things sorted.

I was friends with someone who pulled out day of exchange. Baby was born prematurely and they were due to move 2 weeks later but instead pulled out. Even worse they were buying from a friend. Baby was low weight but fine. I could understand delaying but I never saw them the same. Everything with that woman was a drama and me, me, me.

Your solicitor sounds excellent, mine has been great too go be fair. He was very sympathetic which helps as I was worried it would be really transactional and matter of fact, which of course it is but it still doesn't take away from the fact I was planning to give birth at a hospital five minutes from my new house and now 1.5 hours away. All stuff that can be sorted it's just crap as an adult how you seemingly aren't allowed to ever simply be happy and love something or things go smoothly. My sister has moved recently and it went so well for her. I've had to put my phone on do not disturb for a bit as I don't think it's always good to keep hearing everyone's opinions on what you want to do, especially when being compared to someone whose process has gone well. They mean well but it doesn't help at all.

That is horrific. I don't blame you for not seeing them the same, it's a horrible thing to do.