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Original poster

Anyone had a seller decide they don't actually want to sell?

28 replies

feelingdeflated · 09/09/2017 20:10

Just needing a moan really, I know there's nothing anyone can say that's going to change the situation.

We had our offer accepted on a house a month ago. Been looking for about 6 months, put offers in on a few but this was the first offer we got accepted in that time. A month after accepting the offer, the seller has decided she doesn't actually want to move after all. Solicitors been working away on stuff, mortgage application in final stages of review. It feels like it's taken us so long to get here and now we're back to square one. Feel so deflated and can't face starting house hunting again now as second baby is due quite soon. Never mind the financial implications for us.

Do people not realise how much of an effect those sort of decisions have on others? Why accept our offer and send us down this road if you're not serious about it? We've lost a whole month of looking for other potential houses. So annoyed with it all.

OP posts:
BarchesterFlowers · 09/09/2017 20:22

No I haven't but I really sympathise.

We have been looking for a few months, saw a house recently that was in a fantastic location but needed a lot of work on it (price did not reflect that), we were half considering it but the fact that the agent couldn't confirm what the chain situation would be and kept talking about 'circumstances' put us off.

I didn't want to commit funds to something unless I had concrete answers and despite phoning and emailing the agent couldn't answer - so we crossed it off our list and carried on looking.

The system needs reviewing.

We have spent £1200 on surveys and searches plus legal time and we are only in week three.

You must be so disappointed, I would be. Flaky sellers, the last thing someone needs.

LadyWithLapdog · 09/09/2017 20:29

I sympathise. We were three days before exchange when the sellers decided they didn't want to sell. We'd spent thousands. We checked online a year later and they'd sold it for about 100k more than they'd asked before (prices were still going up at the time).

DancingLedge · 09/09/2017 20:47

Yep, frustrating and lost money on legal costs and survey.

But what can you do? That's the system.
Resolved to think that it would all be for the best in the end: and it was- ended up with a much better house a few months later.
Hope that's the case for you too.

Original poster
feelingdeflated · 09/09/2017 21:06

Thanks. Trying to convince myself it's a blessing in disguise and that there would have been issues with that house if we had got it, or we're going to find something better. But that's not much consolation at the moment! It's just rubbish that it's so easy for someone to do that.

OP posts:
RandomUsernameHere · 09/09/2017 21:22

Sorry to hear this OP, it is such a rubbish system. We actually pulled out of a sale ourselves, but only because the house we were buying burned down (literally, down to the ground) and we couldn't find another house to buy. Felt terrible for our buyer though as we were close to exchanging.
I'm quite a believer that everything works out for the best, so hopefully it will for you.

Justasec · 09/09/2017 21:24

Yep, lost about £3k a a result. But we ended up with a far better house as a result. Just trust another even better one will come along...

Original poster
feelingdeflated · 09/09/2017 21:28

Liking the positive stories, it gives me hope. Can't believe the house you were buying actually burnt down @RandomUsernameHere, that's unbelievable. And I thought things were bad for me!

OP posts:
ShesNoNormanPace · 09/09/2017 21:29

Yep. Lost about £1500. Was fuming as my solicitor who wrote a "you have cost my client a lot of money you complete idiots, would you like to contribute to her costs" type letter.

However, with hindsight it was a shite house with crap parking and the next time I moved was with a company relocation package so I didn't pay for surveys or conveyancing.

lindylove14 · 09/09/2017 23:37

This happened to us years ago. Offer accepted, solicitors proceeding, mortgage applied for... then when we tried to arrange a date for the survey, the vendor went incommunicado. It took her about two weeks to reappear before she finally admitted that she had changed her mind about selling - argghhh!
Like you we had a deadline - our wedding - and I desperately wanted to be out of our old flat before then. We lost money too, not loads but a few hundred pounds.
We ended up desperately seeking an alternative, viewing everything that came on, desperate not to lose our buyer. It was a very stressful few weeks.
But we did find something; not as quirky perhaps, but a bigger house in better condition and in a better regarded location. It was the same price but had three proper bedrooms, where the original house had a tiny box room and an awkwardly shaped 2nd bedroom. We did manage to get in before the wedding (just!), and have had nearly 20 happy years and two children here (where I think we would have outgrown the original property much more quickly). This was a much better buy - I still love my house.
Don't despair.... honestly. These things happen for a reason.
Interestingly, the original house has been on the market a couple of times since, at vastly inflated prices, but I don't think it has ever sold and I'm pretty sure the vendor still Iives there.

Clayhead · 09/09/2017 23:46

Yes!

Very, VERY frustrating. Angry

MrBennOfFestiveRoad · 09/09/2017 23:49

It happened to us too. We had paid for survey, etc., thought that exchange was finally close, after the vendor had messed us around for months, then the estate agent called to say that the vendor had decided that they didn't want to sell anymore for "personal reasons". We were devastated and then really angry but it worked out well in the end, we got a cheaper, much better house and a better mortgage deal.

Original poster
feelingdeflated · 10/09/2017 10:52

I keep bursting into tears every time I think about the whole situation. Doesn't help being heavily pregnant. I really didn't want to still be in this house when baby number 2 arrived as we're running out of space already but that's inevitable now. Need to pull myself together.

OP posts:
insancerre · 10/09/2017 10:58

Yes, it happened to us
we had paid for the survey and were negotiating over the findings. The bay window wasn't supported properly so we suggested patio doors with both parties paying half towards the cost. The vendor decided this was unacceptable and took the house off the market

pullingmyhairout1 · 10/09/2017 11:07

I've got a panic on that it's just about to happen to me. Been nearly 3 weeks since offer and although they have instructed solucitors and memorandum of sale has been sent out my solicitor has not received draft contracts yet.

Worried because I have a son that needs to be accepted into a college and he has been refused enrolment here because we are relocating.

Also moving in with partner.

My survey has been done and mortgage offer is out!

Going to call EA tomorrow because I need to get things moving or find another property.

Alonglongway · 10/09/2017 11:23

I moved last year to get near my parents. Saw a nice house very close to them. Couple had split - one wanted to sell and one didn't. They had briefed the estate agents to say the sale would need to be based on how long it took them both to find new homes and also sorted the kids' schools. No estimate of timings. Unsurprisingly, I'm over a year in my new house and they are still on the market. They occasionally ask my parents if I'm still interested.....

2014newme · 10/09/2017 11:25

Yes it's very common.

Alwaysfrank · 10/09/2017 11:34

I was distraught when this happened to us. Cried a lot. We even re-offered more money than the asking price to try to persuade them to sell.

The house we ended up buying was much better in the end - right side of town for our journeys to work, and we have been able to expand it with our family which we couldn't have done with the original one. No regrets at all - feel actually it was a narrow escape.

All the best to you.

GrockleBocs · 10/09/2017 11:35

Yes but fortunately within a couple of days. She then had the cheek to come back a few weeks later to say actually she'd changed her mind again and would we like to proceed.
Obviously we didn't trust her at all so no and anyway we'd found a house we loved far more than hers.

FetchezLaVache · 10/09/2017 11:59

This has just happened to some good friends - twice in quick succession! It's unbelievably shit luck:

First house - offer accepted and house off the market - vendors announced they hadn't managed to find a property to suit their requirements (3 bed at a budget of £150K in a v. naice area Hmm ). Friends weren't 100% in love with the house, so took it as a Sign, and went on to have an offer accepted on...

Second house - vendors have just announced that as they didn't manage to get their child into their preferred school in the catchment area of the house they were going to buy, they've pulled out of that purchase and if they don't find somewhere else by Christmas, they'll be staying put.

Friends sold their house months ago and are getting pretty fed up of renting until they can find someone who actually wants to sell them a house! It's a bollocks system, really.

Original poster
feelingdeflated · 10/09/2017 12:56

@pullingmyhairout1 I hope all works out ok for you, it sounds like you're doing quite well for 3 weeks in so fingers crossed. We were a month in and just about to get survey done, but we had lost a week in the mortgage application process due to some admin issues.

It really is a rubbish system. Guess I was lucky when I bought my current house that it all went smoothly. Can see why people say this is one of the most stressful things in life!

OP posts:
pullingmyhairout1 · 12/09/2017 20:11

Thankfully found out today that my solicitor has finally received the draft contracts. They are requesting searches tomorrow. I have told them in no uncertain terms that they are to make sure I get in that house by a specific date in October. I don't think I could bear being away from my babies longer! Of course, I might have to be. Partner is giving notice on his place tomorrrow. He is intending on moving in with family if necessary in the short term. All whilst I'm sleeping on my mates sofa ... ffs. Why am I doing this to myself?

sall74 · 13/09/2017 13:27

I remember back in about 1988 my parents were looking to move and found their ideal home, the vendors seemed nice if a little odd (carpeted garage floor for example)

Anyway, even though the house was very dated and needed everything doing they immediately offered full asking price, which was accepted, but from then onward everything seemed to go very quiet and no progress appeared to be being made and they couldn't get any answers from the EA's or solicitors about the cause of the delay.

My dad then bumped into the vendors at the local garden centre and very politely asked them if they had any idea what the delay was?
Their response... ''We've decided not to sell and even if we were still selling we wouldn't sell to you if you were the last people on earth'' !!!

mayhew · 13/09/2017 17:08

Yes me! I was so cross, I couldn't walk down that road for years.. He wanted to sell, she didn't. It was, at the time, my dream house.

Recently I was back in the road at a nearby house and told my sorry tale, how they strung us along for 9 months and just stopped answering the phone. It would appear they are still there, 21 years later!

loveka · 14/09/2017 13:55

Yes. They pulled out as exchange was actually happening in the chain.

We have lost thousands. So much that we now can't afford to move.

We were exchanging and completing within 3 days, due to solicitor cock ups and tbe person who was buying ours saying she would pull out if we tried to move completion.

Our house was all packed up. We were moving to start a new life 250 miles away.

The emotional cost has been huge too. Last week they changed their minds AGAIN and asked if we wanted to buy it.

I love the house but I can't trust them. They have been so glib about the whole thing. It has had such a massive impact on us, it really beggars belief that they don't seem to see that.

OVienna · 14/09/2017 14:58

I was this seller, I'm afraid.

We accepted an offer in December but said we had to hear about schools and didn't let them spend any money on things like surveyor's etc before we knew the outcome. They agreed to wait.

We got a much better school offer than we expected (like better than in our wildest dreams) in mid-Feb and it then economically didn't make sense whatsoever to move. By that point, I was already exhausted from TRYING to move to the other location (having been used as a stalking horse for one house, knocked back on two others, probate nightmare) I was very relieved to put it behind me.

But - we were very frank and upfront with the buyers who also negotiated hard on price (which therefore had a knock on effect of what we would have been able to purchase in the new location.)

Very different scenario from the ones described here.

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