It's bloody well happened again on eve of exchange

[Ruralbliss]

Buyers buyer has pulled out. All geared up to exchange all week with a completion date agreed for 23rd. All my nice 50th birthday plans cancelled in readiness to hump boxes & orchestrate a two-day removal & relocation.

In Oct it was my buyers who pulled out on the eve of exchange then I lost my onwards purchase as they couldn't wait for me to find a new buyer after two weeks. Miraculously it got re-offered to me at Christmas but now I'm back to possibly losing it a second time.

This sodding system is unbearable the risk & uncertainty after months of legal work costing £££

Thanks for letting me rant!

Oh how frustrating! The system is awful and needs to be fixed. I'm so sorry you're going through this.

I’m so sorry I know it makes no difference but what possible reason if they offered

That's so shitty I'm sorry. Why have they pulled out? Is it beyond rescue? All the EAs need to be working hard now to rescue the chain.

I'm so sorry, for your ruined hopes, expectations and disrupted plans. The system is a joke. It took me a year and a half to move (Sellers taking forever to find somewhere, several lockdowns and covid, followed by 8 months of unexpected probate). OK, so I stayed in one chain the entire time, but believe me I wanted to scream at everyone, I cried, I was depressed, I thought I would NEVER move. I did, and you will. Wherever your new home is, it will be more perfect.

In the meantime, RANT on.

OP that's shit. Weve had some really hairy house buying/selling things over the years and I can still remember the upset/anger/reeling from last time 8years ago.

On that occasion DH met me at the station and we walked into the pub and had two very fast drinks before I had a little cry and we went home for dinner (small people left at home with an emergency babysitter).

It really is an awful system.

I hope you get some better news tomorrow xx

Thanks guys. The only glimmer of hope is that my (extremely lovely) buyers were originally allegedly chain free as they showed my estate agent proof of funds independent of selling their house even though theirs was on the market. Hence going with them. A nice short chain less risky.
Their 'related sale' only started being mentioned at the end of Feb and I was completely 'Wtf? why do I have to wait for these new people to catch up when you said you didn't NEED to sell your place to buy ours?'
Soooo have strongly insisted they speedily revisit the chain free finance option (I understand they were poised to cash in pension pots to cover the value of our house) but probably do need to be spending this weekend yet again transforming a fully packed huge house back to a viewable property offering.

I keep thinking how I bet 100% of Ukrainian would think of my woes as insignificant which is helping me remain zen.

And tales here of how awful the house selling/buying process is in England but one day I should be on the other side.

OP I lost two buyers one was the most awful time waster
The other got to nearly exchange then lost his job
Both times caused me to lose out on houses I loved

I’m now sitting in my “new” house still unable to believe it really happened. Keep going.

Can you break the chain, we ended up in with my parents and having to force our vender into taking indemnity insurance to keep it moving.

Since leaving a horrid relationship, I've since discovered the joys of a manic property market, and really feel for you.

This happened to me a few weeks ago OP. My offer was accepted in July 2021, conveyancing completed with no issues, then vendor pulls out February 2022, the day of proposed exchange, a week before the planned completion date. To date I have not had any explanation for this.

It's so difficult when you've metaphorically moved on in your head, not to mention the thousands you would have spent in anticipation of the finalisation.

However, you have to find a way to move on. If your buyers aren't prepared to continue with the no chain option you'll need to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get house hunting again! You will find another amazing house, but this time you'll be so much more resilient. Good luck!

The sad fact is that house prices have risen considerably in the area I'm buying since my offer was accepted in Jun 21 and there's very little coming in the market. Those that do don't meet our needs, and are more than I'd be willing to pay and get snapped up immediately with offers over asking price.

Que sera sera. I'll see what happens this coming week with my buyers who are apparently beside themselves and desperate to buy our house...

I'll have to assume I'll be continuing to do the 3 hours of school run driving for some time & factor in steep petrol prices.

The system in the uk is terrible!! I feel for you, OP. I hope your buyers manage to sort out their finances so they don’t have to sell to buy yours.

Been there too. Such a helpless feeling. The limbo. The not knowing.

How would this system ever change? How could people achieve that? People say its awful and unfair, why hasn't it been changed?

So sorry, OP, that's just shit .

The system really is terrible in this country. Where I'm from, whoever pulls out must compensate you with the deposit back and the same again. And you put your deposit down pretty much on day one, legally binding.

We had a house fall through on the day of exchange and completion (vacant house). Huge financial losses all round, people left with nowhere to go. Seller simply changed his mind 6 months after our offer and got away scot free. In the meantime, prices went up hugely and we were priced out of the type of house we wanted.

House came back on the market after a few months when we had our offer accepted on a different, more expensive but worse, house. Considered offering again on original house, but (1) could not stomach giving that bastard any money or (2) trusting him with a bargepole. Went for the worse house instead, really torn, felt like idiots.
Good call though - the house sold fast but he pulled out again!!

Will never understand how he is not liable for anything ang gets away with it. Again!

The system needs an overall. I’m so annoyed for you OP. My parents had similar in 2013 - silly young couple changed their minds about buying their house many weeks after offering. It worked out in the end but it was stressful.

Oh OP how horribly stressful. My friend is at the bottom of the chain and has had to pull out recently. Issues with cladding on the flat meant his lenders refused to lend. At the time of offering he was assured they had all the right paperwork for the cladding and it wouldn't be an issue. It was the leasehold company who lied to the owner rather than the owner herself. He's devastated for himself and the seller. Also very annoyed with the leaseholders as he's lost several hundred pounds with nothing to show for it. Back to building up his deposit and hoping the market doesn't move too quickly for him to catch up.

Sitting on the fringes of property there are issues with the buying process on both sides. Liars, people with eyes bigger than their stomachs with regard to what they can afford.

The sort of things I have seen are:

Someone stating that they don’t need a mortgage (they did)
Someone who wouldn’t give ID or proof of purchase but offered the highest price. We cautioned against going with this person but the sellers wanted to... it all fell apart
Someone who pestered the life out of the seller and wouldn’t leave them alone despite being told to go through the EA. The seller was elderly and didn’t want to tell the buyer to stop calling them
Someone who drip fed what they wanted to the last moment and then said if the seller didn’t drop by £10k they would not exchange the next day.

People who highly talk up their circumstances and waste time once it’s proved they are liars a few weeks could have passed.

Sellers who try and hide known issues and then are outraged when it comes out in the survey as a problem.

The system in the uk is terrible!

It’s not the U.K. system that is crap.
Scots law is quite different and this sort of thing is incredibly rare.

OP I'm so sorry, what a horrible stressful ordeal. I hope it can be salvaged.

Grrrr all these tales of similar woes!

How do laws get changed or made? Something to do with MPs and House of Commons so in turn people badgering their MPs to help change?

A change to English law will never be driven by solicitors as they profit hugely from sales and purchases collapsing.