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 that in England too.

It's just that both parties would have to agree to it rather than it being imposed on you by law.

That's your problem not his. He wanted to buy your house quickly why sell your house if you're not prepared?

Next time listen to your buyer not his solicitor he has the money to make things move. His solicitor would have completed by the end of May.

Lobby your MP. If they are Labour, point out that their housing policy will not fully achieve its aims whilst the spivs charter remains for England and Wales. Suggest that the quickest change would be to apply the same principles as in Scottish law.

Do you think he might be playing you?

Because given how close you are, the alternative (renting...? buying elsewhere...?) are all going to be longer.

Maybe he will come back and say... 'OK, I'll buy but for X-y rather than X'.

I'd double check with your solicitor that the buyer is 100% gone.

Alternatively, if it's going to risk your next house going, would you drop the price to entice him? Depends what you situation is, how much it will cost you not to move etc etc

I agree that our system isn't great, and it is VERY stressful.

But did your estate agent not talk to you about your buyers' position? When we moved recently our estate agent was clear with us about when our buyers' were hoping to move. Likewise we were clear with the agents selling the house we were buying. Once we were nearly done with all the paperwork, our solicitors started talking about completion dates and we got that pencilled in while we waited for the final bits to come in. Once all the paperwork was sorted we exchanged straight away and firmed up our completion date.

So it seems odd to me that you didn't have an idea already about when your buyer was hoping to get things completed, and if you were in a position to exchange, why you didn't just do that and agree to a later completion date that worked for all parties? If, as others have suggested, to him this was a 'this date or I pull out' I would have expected the estate agent/solicitors to have been making that clear.

Of course, its entirely possible its not for any of those reasons, or that the estate agent or solicitors aren't very good, or had no idea.

Hopefully you can get another offer in place quickly and it won't delay things for you too much. But lesson learnt, until exchange happens, don't do anything!

So you were allowed to delay things for your own convenience, but when they did something for theirs "it shouldn't be allowed". Have you consdiered that your own refusal to exchange could be behind this - perhaps in that time they found somewhere else, circumstances changed, they got cold feet about the house....

These situations could be so easily avoided! In Spain you sign a "intent to buy agreement" and pay a deposit. If buyer pulls out they lose the deposit. If the sellers pull out they have to return double the deposit. Works easily enough over here!

Before or after a survey?

Also worth adding as you don't know what their circumstances are, and it could be unavoidable/painful you could really annoy them by contacting them. It's possible whatever issue they had could resolve and they could be back on in the future so don't shoot yourself in the foot. This is the reason that they tell you it's one of the most stressful things you can do. Good luck with everything. Sometimes as painful as it is better things come when other things fall away.

Last year my seller pulled out day before exchange. Long 4.5 month process and she decided day before she didn’t really want to sell at all! She had been thinking it for at least two months but couldn’t be arsed to actually say anything. Fucking nightmare and I lost a good four figure sum.

I felt so annoyed and wanted to confront her as she lived nearby (I’m not an angry or confrontational person at all but the situation made me see red). I didn’t obviously but can remember that upset easily. I saw her not long after whilst walking the dog and she scuttled off the second she saw me.

It made me rage at the English buying system.

No advice from me but can commiserate. Hopefully you’ll get new buyers soon.

I think people have very unrealistic ideas about how quickly house sales are going through at the moment. We sold first week of January and moved at the end of April. We were held up by incompetent conveyancers at the bottom of the chain which cost us thousands in stamp duty (everyone else was ready mid-March). We were moving a long way so had to give notice at one nursery (2 months due to funding) and secure a new one well before completion. If you’re moving any distance then you can’t leave it until the sale has gone through!
I agree with others. It’s not unreasonable to want to send an angry email but it’s for the best that you’ve decided not to! I hope you sell quickly.

The buyer dropped out on 27th May. Were you still abroad then, OP?

Personally I wouldn't have been going abroad towards the end of a house sale process, when everyone is waiting for an exchange/completion date, but it's done now.

Don’t send an angry email. It won’t achieve anything.

If you do want to write an email write obe to your MP asking if the laws can be changed so that when an offer is accepted, they are legally obliged to buy your house.

Its far too easy in England for either side to pull out.

You got hit on the 1st April. I sold my house at the end of March because the buyer was insistent he wanted to complete before the 1st April. I reckon he would have pulled out if he had to pay thousands more in stamp duty fees.

The sad truth is everything could fall through until the moment of exchange, and you've got to be prepared for that - it's an annoying system, isn't it!

We found a buyer mid January and completed on the 28th March. The buyer wasn't messing around he wanted to complete quickly.

It sounds like he felt he'd been messed about with you not even exchanging after 3 months. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that the buyer feels you'll spin it out indefintely and starts looking around again.

Next time you'll have your deeds and contracts ready to go for the new buyer.

Obviously I knew about the stamp duty deadline and our buyer assured us he wasn’t in a chain so would be ready, but we were misled and because conveyancing is basically the Wild West there’s no recourse. All I was saying is that I think all the people acting like OP has caused some unconscionable delay are being unfair. 3-4 months is pretty normal.

And he threw a strop and will restart the process all over including searching for a new house, spending more money on solicitors and inspection etc because he didn’t want to wait one week, how does that make sense?

And OP was only made aware of the potential completion date at short notice which means they wouldn’t be able to move out so instead a reasonable and normal person to wait a week he throws a tantrum and walks to start all over and spend more money, very smart.

As I’ve said the whole system is a mess. I’ve bought houses in other countries and when the offer is accepted and you sign the contact you’re locked in and the contact has a target completion date agreed not the English system where they can dictate a date at short notice and walk if you can’t make it. if you walk not only will you lose the initial deposit you made but the other party can pursue you for the whole amount and force the sale.

And don’t get me started with how long it takes solicitors to complete searches in England.

You were very lucky then. 12 weeks is the average and that includes auction sales which must conclude within 4 weeks, when you take those out of the equation then it rises to 16 week average, which Feb - May is in.

But back to the OP, YABU - if you had a sudden change in circumstances then I'm sure your decision to pull out wouldn't include possible implications to your sellers.

You need to be clear with your EA and solicitor from the start what you will and won't consider. Most people Exchange and then the sale is Completed along with the move a week later. I've never heard of Exchanging and Completing/Moving on the same day, but not saying you can't. Our EA tried to pressurise us into moving out of our house, so our Buyer could move in, even though we wouldn't have been able to move into our new house! They were told where to go with that idea!! Your Buyer should have stipulated what his intentions were from the start, then you could have said no, and no one's time would have been wasted. There's no point in sending an email, it won't change anything.

I don't understand this concept of exchange and Complete on the same day.
How on earth can anyone make arrangements re removals etc.
When people say the English system is broken, it seems to mean that in other places they 'exchange' contracts early (ie binding).whereas here we wait until mortgage, survey, etc.

YANBU I think the system in the UK is mad and not fit for purpose! It’s so stressful it’s a wonder anyone manages to sell/complete/move!