Our house sale has fallen through...

[MrsArchieTheInventor]

...and I'm so annoyed that I could throttle the little shitheads! A couple of snotnosed little boys playing grown ups cum property developers who have been evading the estate agent's phone calls and who didn't even have the decency to tell the estate agents or their own solicitors for that matter. The estate agent finally contacted one of the buyers' mothers and she said that they'd pulled out of the sale! We're close to completing on the house we really really really want to buy in the village where dp grew up in (and where ds is going to school) and we needed the sale of this house to go through before we can complete on the other one.

When dp phoned me and told me that it had fallen through I was so angry and upset that I was physically shaking. I've calmed down a bit now but I'm still very, very angry that the buyers have pulled out and acted in the way they have. For the record, this is the second time the house sale has fallen through, and the first time I was disappointed but the buyers told us straight away and explained that they'd found a house closer to where one of their parents lived and that's why they pulled out, and that didn't feel so bad, but these two idiots didn't even have the balls to tell their own fucking solicitor and got their mum to do the talking for them.

When ours fell through we found otu otu fo the blue too. They'd measured up a week or two before and then went silent.

poor you

The survey has been done and it needs a bit of work and we'd agreed to split the cost and the searches have come back too so it all seems like such an awful waste of time, money and effort. I only hope that they're going to lose out financially because of it because I know we certainly are.

Are your agents on the case to get another buyer?Did anyone else offer when they did?Maybe they can get back to other people who viewed it.It is a nightmare when that happens

how annoying - this happened to me twice.

I'm so shocked at the state of English house selling! When property is THE hot topic and involves such vast sums of cash! This 'going cold' and 'silently pulling out' business would frankly be illegal in Queensland, Australia where I've done my house selling and buying. I mean, yes, you CAN collapse deals but you pay increasingly substantial penalties if you do.

The way it works is you put your house on the market, someone wants it, you haggle a price (all via an estate agent- you never see your buyer!- as an aside, why the hell isn't the agent showing people around the house? Isn't that what he's paid to do?) and some terms and conditions but you also SET A DATE to complete as in 'hand over the keys and get the cash'. It's often 3 months, and the thing is, barring a disastrous search or building inspection (which all have to be completed in a given, shortish time), that's the day you sell! How simple is that? I tell English friends and they quaver, saying 'What if you can't find somewhere to buy in that time?' but what they usually mean is 'I've just had 4 (whatever) potential house purchases fall through and we've been at this a year now', WELL, the thing is, under Qld rules, they DON'T fall through! The first one you agree a price and terms on is the one you end up living in! None of this stupid 'chain' malarkey. It's up to the person you're buying off to be out of the house on the day you buy it, but he will be because the people HE'S buying off have also vacated their property! etc etc!

Why doesn't this happen here? I have a theory and that's because the people who have it within their power to enact change are the same people who are financially benefiting from the endless solicitors' bills/inspection reports fees that go into these endless collapsible chains.

miljee - I completely agree! The only people profiting from all of this are the surveyors and solicitors. There have now been 2 surveys on our house and 2 lots of searches done, all completely pointless. Even if we had a HIP the searches would still have to be done by the buyers' mortgate company, same with the survey, or else we'd do it for a quick sale. The house needs modernisation and it's priced about 10k less than other houses in the area with the same basic design and layout. That's the unique selling point - it needs work doing to it (double glazing, new bathroom) but that's why it's the price it is!

The estate agents were searching their database straight away but it's doubtful that a buyer will come forward in time for us to keep going with the house that we want to buy.

It's all a big mess.