Buyers pulled out just before exchange- is there anything we can do???

[biscuit13]

Long story short, we currently own a 2 bed flat which we did help to buy, we want to use help to buy again to buy a house so need to complete before end of march next year.
We put out flat up for sale in August and got an offer after just 10 days, cash buyers. Everything was proceeding so we reserved our new house and started legal proceedings with that.
After 2 months the buyers decide they don't like the fact they have to pay ground rent, which was on the original advert and is only £250 a year. They asked for a deed of variation to change the lease otherwise they would pull out!?, after some back and forth we got a response from the people who own the building that a deed of variation would not be necessary because of government regulations already in place. Perfect answer!.....
Buyers then still decide to pull out of the sale, 9 weeks into it.
So we are left desperately trying to find a new buyer.
Weve been given just over 1 week otherwise we will lose our new house, and also be left with about £4k worth of legal fees to still pay, all for nothing.

Is there anything we can do?! We are about to lose everything because our buyers screwed us over for no reason whatsoever. its causing ALOT of stress and we also have our 1st baby due in 5 days!! So this house stuff is the last thing we need to be starting again with now! We thought we would atleast have exchanged by the time baby came.

You have been the victim of time wasters and sadly there's nothing you can do. I'm so sorry. We had similar many years ago. It's shit.

Sadly no you could also have pulled out of the sale. Until exchange there is no recourse unless you put a pre exchange deposit into a contract which a. Highly unusual, b, very difficult to find a solicitor who will do this and c. Often put people off.

30% of all agreed sales fall through unfortunately

Thats awful, we would never dream of doing that to another person.
I cant believe there's no protection for us as sellers or either party for that matter. Its really unfair :(
In a week we have 1 viewing booked so we are crossing everything that they will want to give us an offer.

No

When it happened to us I wrote to our 'buyers' and basically told them exactly what I thought of them and what their decision meant for us and our family. I was calm and measured and didn't swear, but I felt it was important they knew the consequences of they had done to us. They replied saying they were taking legal advice for libel which made me laugh as everything I said was true. I was kind of disappointed when it went no further.

OP does the ground rent increase over the period of the lease? Can you go back to the freeholder and get the deed of variation or you might come up against other buyers pulling out?

You poor poor thing, I went through this this summer, it is gutting and really screws your life up (ours wasn’t even for sale! An estate agent we knew approached us on buyers behalf! She didn’t even tell him or anyone, just instructed solicitor to stop work on the deal, he really off handedly mentioned it to our solicitor! Buyer has now bought a house down the street and is my neighbour, is also in my industry and tweets constantly about how brave and honest and true a person she is and how hard a process this has been for her . She has just now tweeted about how lonely she is without many friends in touch - I WONDER WHY.

@Africa2go so the lease states that the ground rent is reviewed every 10 years and increases with rate of inflation. They weren't happy with that so we instructed our solicitor to explore the deed of variation and the company who own the building said a deed of variation would be a 'waste of time and money' and said that since the lease was drawn up there was now a government regulation to prevent the ground rate increasing above what it already is. So basically it said they don't need a deed of variation, but if they wanted something they could take out some indemnity insurance? Which we even offered to pay for! And they still said no.

Sorry my rant wasn’t very clear... duplicitous buyer wanted to buy on my street, the agent she worked with for a year approached us as he’d known we were thinking of renting the house out as co-locating. buyer begged us to let her buy it for near what would have been the asking price, we ended up agreeing and (sobs) cancelling all our building work that we had been going to do (cannot get another available builder now for love nor money), then she pulled out without telling anyone weeks and weeks later, a few weeks before we thought we’d complete.

Now she’s my neighbour. Yay!

@Searchesforhipbones we are just at a loss of what to do if we don't find a buyer. All of this started out as a "put it up on the market and see if we get any interest" and now its going to cost us nearly all of our savings. Which I wouldnt mind if we were actually getting something with it. Weve already had to pay out for extra valuations, I just don't think they realise the major repercussions for us.
Ugh I dont know how you are putting up with seeing her tbh, must make your blood boil.

If you were in Scotland there is protection against this sort of thing. Not in England though. Sorry.

@biscuit13 I believe the law only applies to new leases? Its not retroactive. I would clear this up with your solicitor to avoid any other issues. The £250 ground rent depending on the wording of the increase could prove to be an issue with lenders (I cant remember exactly why, but it would eventually become unaffordable)

Unless you are in London, your ground rent is a big issue

@Dazedandconfused10 ok I will look into this and get it clarified.
The annoying thing was they were cash buyers and didn't need a mortgage :/ so a lender wasn't an issue for them.
They wanted the ground rent to be changed to peppercorn, so they just didn't want to pay anything.

@Japanesejazz how do you mean? And information is going to help us with any further potential buyers

I am so sorry for you, it is just so gutting. I have no real advice as these people are just so apparently oblivious to the absolute life havoc they cause!

Although a lender wasnt needed if they sought advice I believe they would be advised of the issues. I will have a look tomorrow see if I can find exactly what it is but £250 ground rent really is high.

Are you in London

OP you need to get legal advice on your lease - an indemnity insurance policy wouldn't help a buyer. There's quite a lot of publicity surrounding leasehold property with RPI /inflation linked leases. I'm not saying this to alarm you but just to save you problems with other potential buyers.

@Dazedandconfused10 £250 per year is high? I thought it wasn't that bad.

@Japanesejazz no we are outside of London, south east in Kent.

@Africa2go our solicitor has been dealing with all of it so far and they said there shouldn't be an issue as its leases that contain the word "doubling" that are causing issues.
What kind of advice do we need to look in to? I do appreciate everyone's help by the way.

This is so crappy!

Will the developer for the new house do any sort of part exchange?

Your ground rent and review term are not agreeable to most mortgage lenders
You can take out indemnity for the amount but not the term it’s too short
Even though your buyer was cash this would have presented problems should they have ever wished to sell the property
I am a property lawyer who specialises in leasehold properties but I’m sure some other posters will be along who know far more than me!

There are legal implications for you (future buyers) where the ground rent exceeds £250 outside of London (or £1000 in London). As your ground rent is already £250, any increase takes you over that threshold. It is not just the doubling ground rent leases that are problematic. I think you need to ask your solicitor to research this as they don't sound as if they're completely up to speed.