Reasons for house sale to fall through

[Girlmum89]

DH and I are in the process of selling our current house and buying a new one. We have a relatively short chain: our buyer has a first time buyer, and our seller is happy to move in to rented.

We’ve all instructed our solicitors. Our solicitors are through to the searches stage and we have just booked in a survey. It all seems to be progressing smoothly so far.

I just keep hearing stories of sales falling through and wondering what are the most common reasons for this? In our situation I could only imagine it falling through following a poor survey report or the seller not being able to find a rental / changing their minds. I’m assuming there’s loads of other reasons though!

We’ve had 3 fall through since October!

1st sellers said they would go into rented, then they couldn’t find anywhere to buy so pulled out. Second house had structural issues including loft conversion with no regs and Barclays pulled our mortgage offer. Third house, the top of the chain said they would rent but then changed their mind and couldn’t find a place to buy. We pulled out instead of waiting for them and I’ve seen the property be taken off the market since then. Oh, and we lost a buyer somewhere too, they were FTB and couldn’t get a mortgage as one of them was self employed and had used the grants for Covid.

We are due to complete on fourth house on Tuesday but I won’t relax until we have keys!

Your seller sounds like the biggest issue. Presume the house she is buying has a chain? If she is getting divorced she’s unlikely to not sell but it could be a long wait for the chain to form.

In Scotland we have Home Reports so everyone can see the survey before offering. Sometimes even specialist surveys are down beforehand and shared if there is something specific like a new roof needed. We also have a system of missives which makes it a lot harder to pull out after a few weeks. We still seem to be having a lot more sales falling through than usual. I am assuming it's related to inflated prices and a fast market meaning people are making decisions they then regret or can't actually afford.

We pulled out of a sale following a survey and realising the disruption that would be caused by there being no direct access to the back of the house for the works needed. It included substantial work that the vendor wouldn't shift on price over plus they had said they'd go into rented, then put an offer in that went on to fall through. We just fell out of love for that house and changed our minds. Glad we did as we've noticed that the massive tree in their garden is dieing and will have to be felled and all carted through the house.

Our first chain fell through because of similar reasons to others - estate agents fudging the truth about people’s willingness to go into rented or offers made on chain free properties. Our vendor didn’t really want to move unless it was to about one bloody property in the whole town. But we’re now on our second buyers and second property for us and it’s all looking more secure.

But I’m with you OP, all I hear about is awful surveys and chains falling apart and I can’t quite imagine this is all actually going to happen at some point!

We had to pull out a purchase because of stuff that came up in the searches that couldn't be resolved

We lost our buyer because they randomly jumped the gun and gave notice on their rental house well before exchange of contracts, then ran into problems when we had delays.

Probate sale - one of the beneficiaries changed their mind two days before exchange to buy out his family and use the place as a rental. Although we think he'd been planning it for a while. I still resent that one - not even an apology for wasted time and money.

Many more issues on survey that were apparent on viewing in a house advertised as "in need of some updating." It was more like a complete rebuild.

Leasehold issues that couldn't be overcome.

Those are the three that happened to me, anyway.

We had it happen twice to us.
First time, all ready to exchange then buyer moved to France. He didn't tell anyone. Only found out when our estate agent finally managed to get hold of him and he said he was not proceeding. He has seen a home in France and is going with that instead.
Second time, our buyer was going for two properties at the same time. He tried to get both prices reduced, the other house did, we didn't so he pulled out. Found out from estate agent that he pulled out from the other one afterwards too. Both properties were with the same agent.

We have recently pulled out due to survey results. The house had already been down valued by one mortgage lender so we just felt it was rather overpriced for something that was actually in quite poor condition. Seller fairly delusional though and insisted the house was in lovely condition 🙄

@Thisisanartattack, I read your post with interest. I've just pulled out of a purchase which also had illegal loft conversion. Was causing me sleepless nights. We didn't even refer to lender, just decided not to proceed after speaking with various people. In my case the EA argue that they don't advertise as a bedroom (as no building regs) but at no point did anyone say it was not habitable and for storage only. This was only apparent during the legal enquiries. Also it has fixed stairs, heating etc and they were arguing it wasn't habitable. My offer was based on it being habitable and EA kept saying it's not a "room" because it doesn't have a door. Anyway, I didn't want it to be my problem when I came to sell so pulled out only a week before exchange. The seller also got advice from Council so the illegal conversion is now known to Council. I have learnt A LOT about building regulations, ha ha and I have learnt that a three bedroom house plus illegal loft conversion is worth less than just a three bedroom house.
I complete on my Sale on Monday, and moving in with folks for a while whilst starting house hunt again. What a waste of time given my offer was made in April. Oh well!

@areyouhavingagiraffe This attic room wasn’t described as a bedroom either although it did have fixed stairs, proper radiators etc to make it a real room. As it wasn’t advertised as a bedroom we didn’t think it would be an issue especially as we have a good deposit, but our conveyancer had to inform the lender. First they revalued the house which was fine but then would not proceed and release the money to us without a full structural survey on the loft. This would require lifting carpets etc and the vendors wouldn’t agree to it as it was more intrusive. It would also have cost us in the region of £1k. As this was going on, we also discovered there were no regs for the garage conversion, a wall taken down through the kitchen and a new boiler, so we decided to pull out as like you say it would make resale difficult.

We were the fourth set of buyers to pull out although they had given us (what seemed like) valid reasons for the others I suspect they were probably lying. I saw the house go SSTC after we pulled out then a month or so later it was removed from rightmove and the properties in their onward chain were back for sale so I presume the next buyer also pulled out. It’s not on the market any more.

The vendor of the house I'm in the process of buying is over 80, and moving into sheltered accommodation, which they are buying as a probate sale. The vendor is currently healthy, however if anything happened to them before completion, it would cause my purchase to fall through.

Omg @Thisisanartattack. I did wonder whether I had overreacted since it wasn't a bedroom but your situation mirrors mine exactly. Only difference is that I raised it with solicitor (they took the "storage" response from Sellers at face value). I'm glad I didn't even bother referring it to the Lender. I've had a few "what if the Lender would be okay with it" etc over the last few days but reading your post has honestly given me so much comfort. In a few years that could be us in the same position, with Lenders pulling offers.
Funnily enough the house went back on Rightmove and was SSTC within 48hrs (I imagine the EA called the other people who offered back in April and someone reinstated offer).
The Seller did cooperate by pulling back carpets and taking some plaster off walls but since they approached local building control they were not willing to negotiate on price. It was a lovely house and I was thinking "it needs no work", but actually that was a false economy as the loft would probably have cost a lost of money to get correct paperwork. So glad I walked away.

Most complete I think. We pulled out of two in the last year though due to lack of building regs on huge new remodelling, vendor withheld information until last minute. And then the second was neighbour disputes with police involved. Third time all was smooth though.

Had a purchase fall through earlier this year as it came to light during enquiries that there was a charge against the property which meant the sellers couldn't afford to move. Was also no building regs on some significant changes to the property.

My first buyer of my favourite house pulled out due to a change in their financial circumstances.

I wish I had pulled out of the next house. The survey was damning, the seller was a man child and the EA was unhinged and aggressive.

Our sale fell through due to a change of circumstance with our buyer. Very small chain. They were selling to a FTB and we were going into a new build.

Then it very nearly fell through with our second buyer due to an issue with their mortgage application after having their valuation (they didn't get a survey of our house. Thank god)

We've bought and sold quite a lot (3 sales, 5 purchases) in the past 15 years. We've only had things fall through twice (on the same property) - when we were selling. The first buyers pulled out because they changed their minds (after three months, right when we were getting ready to exchange, arseholes), the second buyer pulled out after about 3 weeks (allegedly because he couldn't sort his mortgage, but I think something fishy was going on and that was an excuse). We then sold very quickly to a third buyer (went from offer to completion in about 2.5 weeks). It was all pretty stressful! Although the person we were buying from was lovely and waited for us throughout, so it was all ok in the end.

My house has been on the market 12 months. I'm currently on the 4th buyer!!
First one put an offer in and just before we exchanged (7 months later!!!) she changed her mind.
2nd one decided he believed his mate when he said it looked liked it had subsidence (it doesn't)
While accepting his mate "wasn't an expert"
3rd all was progressing well until he lost his job
Now onto the 4th!!! Keeping fingers crossed (and toes, legs, arms, eyes ...)

Two on our last property: An elderly man who was a little confused, his daughter did all the talking when viewing....after the weekend he or someone else decided it would be "too much work".
The second: Were "really thrilled" to have their offer accepted, went quiet for a bit and then heard on the car phone some way from home en route to view properties that they'd pulled out. They had their own business and the story was that their accountant had told them that if they waited for their end of year figures, they could get a much bigger mortgage. Lesson was to be wary of self-employed buyers in the future.