To confront sellers who pulled out last minute

[Lemonyslice]

We were meant to exchange tomorrow, completing next Friday 6th, but the sellers pulled out last minute. "Changed their minds" apparently. The full story of this purchase is long and pretty wild, the sellers have been chaos from the day we put in our offer.

We need to leave our rented flat at the end of December as our tenancy is ending and our landlord wants to sell in the New Year. So we now have nowhere to live, and have wasted a ton of money on surveys and a solicitor.

Can I go round to theirs and ask for some contribution towards the costs of their "changed minds?"

of course!

its early

Could you write to your mp and ask them to lobby for a change in law in Parliament? Not what you asked but might make you feel slightly better to do something (that won't get you into trouble)

is buying the flat off your landlord an option?

So sorry OP, same thing happened to us exactly 3 years ago on the day of exchange. Went through months of delays and stress from the buyers. Their excuse was 'were not keen on the front door'. On the plus side, you've done all the paperwork on your end so that doesn't need to be done again. We didn't have to pay any more to the solicitor.

Told our sellers immediately. They were gutted, sent flowers and promised we would do everything to keep deal alive. Spoke to estate agent and gave very specific requirement for the buyers we would consider, e.g. no one in a chain, mortgage in place to move quickly etc. Also they needed to have a proper solicitor and not the conveyabelt £250 services our buyers used which wasted so much of everyone's time. Reduced starting price and relisted, 3 views, 3 offers on first day, everyone gave their best final offer and sold at over asking which was same as original offer from stupid buyers.

It's 3 years to the day we moved into this new house and in the end we only about 1 month behind original schedule. It's not impossible and your sellers will understand if you explain you will take steps to keep deal going.

It sucks, but you have no legal recourse for people pulling out for whatever reason they like. You'll just have to find an alternative and move on so it's best to concentrate on that rather than any fruitless attempt to get anything from flakey buyers.

Circumstances change. We put our house on the market due to financial reasons. I was able to secure a much higher paid job a week before exchange. We withdrew from the process as we loved our house. I spoke to the buyers and explained the situation. They were obviously upset/annoyed but did kind of understand. They own a lovely house now.

I’m so sorry op - the same thing happened to me. It’s truly awful behaviour.
unfortunately there isn’t anything you can do- and the buyers insurance also wouldn’t have covered you for this - sellers can pull out and not pay any compensation to the buyer- whereas if it was the other way round the buyer would have to pay the seller comp if they pulled out at this stage. It’s a really fucked up system and it is the people at the bottom of the chain in rented accomodation who have the least to start with who are really screwed over.
my advice is to let yourself be sad/angry and feel whatever emotions you are feeling at this stage. don’t let others lessen your feelings by saying ‘it’s just a house - another one will come along’. Whilst that is true it’s not particularly helpful at this point when your grief is so raw. The house you were going to buy likely wasn’t just a house - that was your future home which you did everything to buy and now you have lost that on top on the money and time spent buying it. Try and find a short term lease or ask your landlord if you can stay there whilst it’s on the market- don’t rush into buying another house (unless the absolute dream comes up) until you’ve got over this.

This happened to us so I fully sympathise. Like you, they had been the ones pushing the move and then disappeared on day of exchange and gave no reason to why they pulled out. I was 7 months pregnant and so stressed!

I thought at first that it was part of some type of strategy and they’d be back after the weekend demanding more money but no. Just walked away from a property chain.

I was tempted to confront too but after spending a weekend seething and in shock, put my energy into keeping our buyers and finding a new house to buy. Amazingly we moved somewhere new within 2 months just before the baby arrived so it worked out alright in the end.

sorry that you have nowhere to go. That’s awful but you will be in a good position to buy somewhere else. The lesson I took and doubtless you will too is not to change anything about your current set up until exchange has happened.

I don’t know how these people sleep at night though!

Yep. This. If you pull out after exchange you can be held responsible for the expenses of others involved. It should be the same once a sale has been agreed and is proceeding, unless there’s a valid reason.

It's a shit situation, but as buyers you should always buy insurance protection even if the agreement is on a hand shake. Losing ££s is gut wrenching but you should always have the full protection just in case.
I don't trust anyone so am 100% wary of committing to anything that would mean I would potentially lose money that I'm not prepared to spend.

I had to do this to someone. Circumstances beyond my control. I did feel awful about it!

My buyer was horrible and harassed me with letters and emails. It made me not want to pay anything towards their costs (I also lost my onward costs so didn’t skip away free from it all!)

I would chalk it up to bad experience as legally without insurance you won’t get anywhere. I hope you find something else asap!

This. Focus your efforts on finding a new place to rent. It’s not a bad time of year to do this as lots of other renters don’t chose to move in December . So landlords with a vacancy will be keen to have you.

I've been in this exact situation and it's just awful. They pulled out the day of exchange with completion set to be 3 days later. We had packed up the house and given up our jobs. We were moving 250 miles away. It felt like the end of the world and we lost £7000.

I cannot tell you how much I am glad this happened. Its the best thing that ever happened to me. We live on the same road in a much better house and walk past that house every day. It suffered terrible structural problems only uncovered when the new owners started doing it up. It had to be demolished and rebuilt.

I wanted to stove the sellers heads in when they pulled out but honestly it was worth £7k not to buy that house. And either way, the house we bought is much much better in every way.

When we sold a property in Spain the buyers had to put down a deposit of 20% of the value, if they pulled out we kept it and if we pulled out we had to give them double back!!!
Much better system

I doubt the landlord would want to extend the lease. It's very difficult to sell with tenants in situ. You have no control over how the property is presented for a viewing and most buyers won't consider it as they worry that the tenants won't vacate. So you achieve a lower sale price.

I would contact them to ask them how they feel about pulling out and costing you £x amount of money, This happened to us, we lost £2k. And I would pursue them for the money too.

Not in England/Wales
Scotland has some mechanisms including enforced return of deposit plus interest
Although you could ask your solicitor to ask their solicitor for a contribution towards costs, don't get your hopes up
And you can't take them to small claims as before exchanging, they have not breached any contract
It's just tough luck, I'm afraid
In the past, we refused to proceed to exchange after some sellers were a nightmare

Pursue how? And on what grounds?

Phoned solicitors to confirm exchange and she said "i ve just put the phone down to their solicitor, they ve pulled the sale"

There is zero you can do, you can hardly expect them to continue with the purchase if they no longer want to sell the house? perhaps their chain fell through - not read all the thread.

Shit happens and if your tenancy agreement ends say 31st December, so long as you pay rent, there is little the LL can do, other than evict you via the courts... yes shitty but what else can you do?
So long as he knows its a very short term issue, he may well be understanding.

" if it was the other way round the buyer would have to pay the seller comp if they pulled out at this stage. "
No they wouldn't
Before exchange there are no contracts, no deposits, either side can pull out with no repercussions
Unless you're in Scotland

@Lemonyslice
"We need to leave our rented flat at the end of December as our tenancy is ending and our landlord wants to sell in the New Year."

Is your tenancy actually ending, or is it the fixed term that is ending? Have you given your landlord notice to end the tenancy? Has your landlord sent you a section 21 notice?

Your tenancy doesn't necessarily end just because the fixed term ends. If the tenancy is not ended or renewed, it automatically becomes periodic. The tenancy won't end until you give notice or until the landlord gets a possession order, which I assume they haven't done.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/options_when_your_fixed_term_tenancy_ends

You have no idea what happened to the sellers
Judgemental comments like yours don't help anyone

Scotland isn't quite as legally binding either as people think, you can still pull out penalty-free until the missives are concluded.
However it's a much quicker process to get to that point, and as everything goes via your solicitor from day one when you submit your offer, it feels a bit more official so people tend to mess about less.
I think having home reports done up front by the seller also helps. I'd imagine a lot of sales in England and Wales all through at the point that the buyers get the survey back.

Urgh, the conveyancing system in this country is a huge, steaming pile of bumholes, isn’t it?! You have my sympathies on this, OP. Our last house sale was painful.

However, please don’t act on impulse based on your current state of emotions. You won’t get anywhere with this, and you’ll only serve to make yourself look like you need a grippy sock vacation.

Morally this is vile and I'm so sorry for you OP. Legally? No recourse.