Unfortunately, never is the old adage "buyer beware" truer than when you're buying a house.
We found a house, offered the asking price, which was accepted and then paid for a homebuyers survey. On top of that we then had to pay for a couple of specialist reports recommended as a result.
The b*ards then gazumped us ........ around 9 weeks down the line by accepting a higher offer ! What made it even worse was that the slime estate agent, who was obviously in on this (with an eye on his commission no doubt) "told" us what had happened after the event, by effing voicemail. He didn't even have the guts to speak to us, nor check beforehand if we could meet the higher offer.
We never got to the bottom of what happened at all. Maybe the new buyer was a cash buyer or something I don't know.
But the whole system stinks when the sale breaks down through no fault of your own and yet you are left out of pocket to the tune of almost a £1000 (I think in total we paid £800 ish).
I'm not totally up with it but I think the system in Scotland may offer more protection - to both buyers and sellers.
At the time I felt utterly murderous towards the vendors. Did they really think we had £800 to throw down the drain ?