Will our system of buying and selling houses ever change?

[BarbequeBetty]

Why hasn't it?

Is there a way of voicing our opinion about wanting it to change? How do laws get changed?

I read an article about suggesting a mix of both the French and Scottish systems. Along the lines of an offer being binding but there being a 10 day cooling off period.

The way we buy and sell houses is archaic and stressful and allows for both buyers and sellers to behave in an unfair and unreasonable manner to each other (gazumping, gazundering, offers being made and withdrawn leaving others out of pocket for solicitor's fees, surveyors fees etc).

Is there anything that can be done? I don't know a single person who has bought or sold a house in the UK who thinks our system is good.

Any thoughts?

[Sooverthis]

We accepted an offer then the house we were buying fell through and it took us three months to find another house, despite repeatedly telling our buyers we couldn't guarantee that we would find anywhere and a very fast moving market in the SE we still had to say sorry we are stopping looking for now. We then found dream house three bastard weeks later and resold our house in two days for thirty thousand more. We offered it back to original buyers and offered to split the difference as a good will gesture they refused. Should I have been forced to sell at original price five months later when our target house and our own had shot up? We would just have stayed put there was no reason for us to move I just wanted a garden. It was a horrific and very stressful period and really opened my eyes to both sides of this argument the Scottish system isn't really that much different and the truth is shit happens sometimes it works in your favour sometimes it doesn't.

[YelloDraw]

Before you put in an offer you have to have your mortgage offer and have instructed a solicitor.

But you can't have an actual offer until the bank has done its valuation etc on the house. You can have your decision in principle, but not actual offer.

Instructing solicitors takes all of about 24 hours so not a major hold up.

[SquinkiesRule]

We bought our first UK house a couple of years ago, before that we had only bought and sold in the US. California to be exact, there are no chains, and the offer is a contract, you can put it subject to satisfactory survey, and mortgage offer etc.
Also a lot of sellers will buy an independent basic termite report and survey of sorts so many buyers don't need to buy as it's on file with the agent.
The whole thing take 30 days, and you're done. We requested 45 days to complete on the last one we sold due to moving back to UK and needed to ships the household stuff and sell furniture.
Anything attached to the house- lights, curtain rods, appliances like gas cookers are all included in the price.
It's stressful but a whole lot better than the English system which takes far too long and is subject to gazumping.

[BarbequeBetty]

That sounds much better Squinkies. Is there a cooling off period and what happens if your circumstances change or you want to pull out?

Yello - agreed, instructing solicitors should only take 24 hrs but not getting on with it is another way of delaying for buyers who aren't sure or who want to keep looking .
Not sure about the mortgage side of things - you have to have your mortgage agreement in principle according to this website

For all the people who don't like the idea of being tied to a property by offering - why offer if you aren't serious about a house? That's the whole problem with our system, you don't have to be serious about buying a house to put in an offer. Being tied to a property by offering (maybe with a 10 day cooling off period) would mean you really want to buy it - have done your research about the area/planning etc beforehand. The financial penalty for dropping in and out of offers should be significant enough to make you think twice but not so prohibitive that you couldn't pull out if you really needed to. Maybe a few thousand pounds? Interested to hear what others think though.

[caroldecker]

Satisfactory survey could mean anything. All it means is longer before an offer is put in, not that the whole process is quicker or people can pull out earlier.
As a vendor you can keep a property on the market even if you have accepted an offer.
As I said upthread, in all these systems you can pull out before the legals/survey are completed. If one party does so, the costs for the other side have still been spent.

[SquinkiesRule]

Satisfactory survey to us and the estate agents, meant it wasn't flagging up any issues we didn't know of that would cost a lot of money or stop you getting a mortgage.
Theres something called a Multiple listings system in CA, and other states too, so you look at houses with one agent that you like and hopefully trust, they have access to everything for sale, the listing agent if they are lucky will sell the house and get all the commission for that house, if a different agent sells then they have to split the commission fee 50/50. So huge incentive to get houses moved quickly before outside agent move in on it, they also have to list it with the MLS within 24 hours of it going live, so they can't try to hog the great listing to themselves to make all the money. Ours sold within a few hours of going onto MLS only one day after we put it on the market, no time to even get a sign up.

[Flippertygib]

Over the years I've

bought 2 properties in Scotland. Both painless and transacted within weeks to please both parties.

Sold 3 properties in Scotland. All 3 transacted without any issues within weeks.

Bought 1 property in England. We were cash buyers. It was a bloody nightmare and a lot of stress. Took about 5 months and we were totally messed about.

It would take a lot for us to buy anywhere else in England (where we now live; we'll be staying put)