To want to send an angry email to our house buyer after he pulled out days before exchange

[Parkingbird]

We sold our house in late Feb and we were so close to getting a date to exchange - we were looking at early June. Buyer wanted an earlier date in late May, but we were out of town so it wasn't possible. Then we received news that he pulled out yesterday. I'm devastated as it took us a long while to sell and also we may now lose our dream house - no word if our seller is willing to wait for us.

We have never communicated with our buyer but a quick Google search turns his company profile up and I'm this close to sending him an angry email asking why he chose to pull out and how he has wasted our time and money, and all the effort involved to change my toddler's preschool and activities etc, not to mention the risk of losing our new home!!! I know this changes nothing but I want him to know what his actions have done to us.

This system is so broken. Why can't a deposit be made so that nobody can back out as and when they like???

You can do it quicker. People just don't though because they pay the bare minimum for solicitor/conveyancing and then are shocked when it turns out to be slow as.

Most of the period between offer and exchange is taken up with buyer checks to protect the buyer. If you are buying with a mortgage these checks are compulsary to ensure the house is worth what the bank is paying for it.

If you are buying cash you can forgo all the checks at your own risk, and make things go a lot faster. Or you can pay money for rapid conveyancing to move things along (although sellers can confound that by being slow to respond to buyers questions, often through their own useless bargain basement solicitors).

There is also a lot of additional regulation being added in all the time, which slows down the purchase process as often sellers do not have the proper documentation in place for things like building regs, planning permission etc. In addition to sensible recommendations there are also some solicitors who ask frankly ludicrous questions which doesn't help speed the process up either (maybe some of these are from the buyers, some asked to protect the solicitor from prior experience).

There is no "system" but one way that the process could be improved would be to have a national database for searches that has to be updated with any information so that buyers can get hold of this information quickly. Another alternative would be for sellers to have all building regs documents ready in a buyers pack before sale which would speed up the process rather than having a 6 week back and forth in the hope it will be neglected and that ends with "we can't find that".

It is actually possible to "screen" properties before purchase with a variety of online tools that can basically give you advance warning if a property is going to throw up various issues, but few people seem to do this.

Is this a standard agreement or a custom one?

Surely one can always find a reason on the survey to pull out?

I am trying to remember... I think I managed to complete in something like 10 or 12 days (including two weekends) once - cash buyer, happy to take a chance on condition because the price was good, etc.

If people are serious about selling (and buying) then a damn good start is to ensure that the property is in good order, all paperwork in places as you say, maybe get your own survey done and point out the problems to buyers before they offer (or get ready to have them chip the price down post-survey). And get your own mortgage in principle, solicitor lined up etc etc.

Last year, we sold in the first week of August and moved in the second week of November.

House sales don't happen until completion. Until then, you've just accepted an offer, then maybe exchanged.

The job thing can also happen a month after completion . Then what?

Then you’re fucked.

Thank Christ when I was in a shit situation, it happened before exchange so we could pull out.

Not sure what your point is?

@surreygirl1987 No. And I hope one day the law changes to prevent shitty behaviour like that.

So you went out of town, during the sale of your house which was extremely crucial to you, but then feel done by when it didn't suit the buyer? Talk about hypocrisy in this world. Did you apologize, did you offer to compensate for unnecessary delay due to your leisure, my guess would be not.