Buyers Pulled out just before exchange of contracts

[Willowcat77]

So after stringing us along for 4 months, my so-called buyers pulled out, just days before we were supposed to exchange contracts 😕 No legitimate excuse given, just that they changed their minds due to the expense 🤔 As the sale was almost complete we have now been landed with a bill of £940 from our solicitor.

Luckily we have just had a new offer from another buyer, 3 days after our sale fell through. But I'm terrified it might happen again though - how common is this and is there anything we can do do to prevent it from happening again?

Also, will any of the legal work we paid for be able to be re-used for the new sale? Still feel sick about having to pay nearly £1000 for nothing 🙁

we had a buyer pull out on the day of exchange a few years ago and I don't know if the solicitor used any of the work he had done again for our new buyer, but I should imagine there would be some stuff like searches and enquiries that he has given your supposed buyer that will speed up next sale we were lucky the next buyer went through with the purchase, and like you I was fuming and gutted

Thanks @issy Why do people do this? I just don't get it. It's as if they have no idea their flakiness and time wasting has devastating consequences for the other party 🙁

Commiserations. People who do this are arseholes. We moved earlier this year - our first lot of buyers pulled out after 3 months for no good reason (fuckers). Got a new offer quickly but then they pulled out too after a few weeks (total fuckers). Sold again quickly and that one went through smoothly and v. quickly. We didn't incur any additional solicitor's fees because she just resent the same paperwork to each set of buyers. Fingers crossed it goes through for you this time. It really is so stressful.

We had one fall through earlier this year and have another buyer now but I am terrified it’ll all fall apart again.

I don’t know why people do this. Why go to all that effort and expense just to change your mind? We’re buyers waiting to exchange and we live in a general state of worry that the vendor will pull out at any moment.

I imagine the buyers invested some money into this process too but felt unable to proceed. It's rare for the house to be completely perfect in buyers eyes in terms of location, layout and space, there's typically a compromise to be had somewhere and if the buyers aren't 100% about that weak point then that's what can potentially surface at a late stage when the reality of commitment truly sets in.

As an example, we are considering a house that's within our budget, good layout for us, good commute but on the edge of a rough area. I'm inclined to take the risk, my hubby is not so keen. If we view this house, make an offer and proceed, this whole process will be dependent on my hubby not pulling out last minute. We are actually not doing it. But it's tempting.

Other potential reasons may be seeing a better house at a better price, change of personal circumstances (divorce, illness and the like), kids being against the move. It can happen. It's a rubbish situation to find yourselves in but I wouldn't rush to label anyone involved...

Good luck with your next buyer.

We had buyers who pulled out on the day of exchange and we lost the house we really wanted. I still drive past the one we lost and wish we'd managed to buy it (12years later!). We had to panic buy something else in order to be in by schools deadlines, and I was 7 months pregnant.....I hope karma came back to bite them.

We did find new buyers and it went smoothly second time round - good luck with your new buyers.

This is where they need to change the English law. You can’t do this in Scotland. I never understand why people do it. Unless they find something out rather shouldn’t be allowed to or if the do they should be made to pay the other persons fees.

So sorry this happened to you.

I am afraid that the Scottish system is now very similar to the English system

:( I'm currently deciding on proceeding or pulling out, as the buyer I'm into this for over £1500 now, however the vendor is trying to ask for an extra 15k this would have to be cash funded as the banks value won't cover it. I have no intention of paying it, just seems stupid to lose your 3 buyer over greed.

We pulled out of a house purchase earlier this year. We weren’t at the point of exchange but had paid for all of the searches etc so lost money on legal fees. Whilst I felt terrible about messing the sellers around, our personal circumstances significantly changed and we couldn’t go ahead with the move.

We pulled out of a sale (as buyers) but it was because something major came to light in a survey. I did feel for the vendors; the house had been on the market for ages, but it was such a major problem for us there was no way we could proceed. We did lose some money with the solicitors but used the same solicitors when we finally did buy and I think there was some reduction on the total cost because we'd used them again, if that makes sense?

The solicitors we used for each of our purchases and sales had an insurance scheme so if anyone pulled out (maybe not every circumstance, but still), you had your fees covered.