No idea what's going on!

[Sisteractheart]

Hi all,

Could anyone explain briefly what happens when a house sale collapses? We are currently in a chain of 3 and our buyer (ftb) has now gone utterly cold, 4 months into process. Owner of house we are buying is livid as our stuff all ready to go for weeks.

I think our house buyer will pull out in a matter of days and if this is the case we will have no choice other than to pull out of our purchase also. What happens then? Any idea of what costs we will owe?

This should have been so simple but has gone on so long now that I don't even know if I want to move anymore, feet are officially cold!! Had too long to think about it all!

In a horrible way I'm actually hoping it will collapse so I don't have this stress anymore. But will costs be high? Anyone had experience of this? Please help! (No exchanges done by the way.)

This is where Estate agents should really be earning their fee and doing their best to keep the chain together. Communication is key at this point.

If your buyer pulls out it doesn't automatically mean that you'll have to pull out of your onward purchase too. The sellers of your home may be willing to wait for you to secure another buyer seeing as all the paperwork is already done. Otherwise they are potentially stepping back to square one too with also having to find another buyer themselves.

In terms of costs, it depends on your solicitors. Some are no sale no fee. Others will charge you for any work they have done to date, including searches and such (If you didn't have to pay for this in advance) which can be not far off the full fee you'd have paid anyway.

Again, your estate agents should really be stepping in, taking over and earning their fee at this point to either keep the chain together or ensure a good outcome.

Thank you, I think I need to check whether my solicitors are no sale no fee. I should have checked this before really!

I will definitely speak to the EA. Very stressful house buying!

My solicitor charges 50% of their fee. I know this because I just had to pay it as the vendor of the house I should have been buying backed out just before exchange. I have lost nearly 2k in fees, searches and surveys. It’s galling but nothing I can do. The system here needs an overhaul. Good luck!

Ours maybe about to collapse for similar reasons though we are vendor at top. It depends what t&cs you signed - we don't have to pay estate agent but will have to pay solicitors fees which may be around £1000. If you've sold via Purplebricks or similar think they charge in full but look what you signed.

Our buyer pulled out a couple of days before exchange.

The man we were buying from gave us 6 weeks to find a new buyer and then said he'd put back on the open market. It was the start of January and nothing was moving. We couldn't find a buyer in 6 weeks, our estate agent was rubbish and I ended up ill with the stress of it all and took our house off the market.

We had to pay our solicitor 50% of fees I think, we'd already spent out on searches and surveys etc.

It put me off moving (or trying to) ever again.

My sellers pulled out just before exchange too and I had already paid £400 for a survey, all searches and in the end about £2k in all. But your solicitors are obliged to explain their fees up front, so check your paperwork- you should have signed something at the beginning.

Wow this is horrible, poor rest of the chain, messing up people’s life’s.

Thank you all, I'm sorry you've all had to experience this too. It's incredibly stressful, very hard to take and expensive.

I will check with solicitors and estate agents, think we will end up being around £2000 down.