Cancelled house sale- fees?

[maneandfeathers]

I am presuming my house sale is now screwed due to corvid19.

Has anyone had a house sale fall through previously who could tell me the likely costs?

I presume I will have to pay solicitors still at a cost of about £3k for the purchase and sale work?

Estate agent wise do I still have to pay the 2k fee? Technically it is us pulling out due to mortgage issues so they have fulfilled their part of the deal as they did sell ours?

So could I end up about 5k down and no way to pay it?

You'll pay for the work the solicitors did. Likely no fee on agent as you wont complete check contract

Can’t you hold on ?

There should be a schedule of charges from your solicitor. My solicitor charges 2/3rds of fees if cancelled at point of exchange. If prior to exchange it depends on how much work has been done.

Has your buyer/seller actually pulled out?

We are in the middle of a purchase and at the moment we are all happy to continue - house moving is still allowed assuming social distancing is adhered to. We have just arranged for a survey to take place, the property just has to be empty and the owner not vulnerable in any way.

We are holding on at the moment changed however we have not had our surveys done yet and can’t get a surveyor out obviously but our mortgage offer is almost expired.
We only have 5% deposit and all of these mortgages have been pulled so we cannot reapply and would have to apply for a new one but the only mortgage I can apply for is 40% deposit as the lower LTV mortgages have gone. We cannot have an extension and need to complete ASAP but can’t because of the surveys/valuation not being done. We are on hold with the mortgage company at the moment.
The mortgage company won’t accept a virtual or remote valuation either.

We also have been told they are now down valuing the house so may not even be able to get it anyway so are thinking worst case scenario.

All in all it’s a bit of a nightmare.

Check the terms you signed with your solicitor. Our recent one was only paid if the deal went ahead. For a cancellation before completion, we just had to pay costs incurred like searches etc.

Similarly I’m sure we only paid the EA if the sale completed.

My buyers pulled out last week. I gave my tenant notice at their request (to do another indie toon and survey) so I was (and still am for the foreseeable future) paying rent and mortgage and now they've pulled out. No compensation at all. Fuming!!

*inspection

I feel totally stuck at the moment.
We can’t complete until we have the mortgage valuation signed off.
We can’t have the mortgage because of the survey not being completed and also because valuations are up in the air.
My buyer wants to buy but can’t because we can’t move. If we can’t get the mortgage then we can’t complete because we wouldn’t have anywhere to live.
We can’t afford to pay the solicitor or estate agent because all of our money is tied up in equity, so we can’t actually pay the cancellation unless we sell.

Stressed isn’t coming close

Not sure what we can realistically do!

When my sale fell through for my flat only fee I had to pay was £100 to solicitor when sale finally went through, no estate agent fee as no completion. Obviously depends on solicitor and how far you've got.

Have you tried ringing a few brokers or looking on comparison sites? Some lenders are still lending. We were going to use TSB but have switched to a broker who applied for us to HSBC. Apparently they can do remote valuations although we are waiting for this to happen at the moment so time will tell! Mortgage broker seems confident it will be ok.

Alternatively can you sell and go into rented, and try again in a while?

Our new mortgage provider has confirmed they are extending mortgage offers by 6 months, that's with NatWest if that helps?

I paid nearly £1k when my purchase fell through just before exchange.

Solicitor you would pay abortive cost of purchase/sale but sale work depends if you plan to proceed eventually and can potentially reuse it. EA will depend on your contract. Some charge upfront for photos and marketing, others only on successful completion.

Thankyou all.

Estate agents are currently closed so I’m
Unsure if we still have to pay them.

My mortgage broker has suggested it’s probably not the best time to reapply. We are risky due to a high LTV and have just had 2 hard searches so I don’t fancy another on there. I have not heard from my solicitor in weeks and weeks but the main stalling point is the mortgage valuation being unable to be performed so the mortgage can’t be signed off.
Even if I could get a valuer out, who knows what either house will be valued at when this is over