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Original poster

Pulling out of house purchase… WWYD?

79 replies

MadHatter36 · 01/06/2022 16:49

Hi everyone,

I’m in the process of purchasing a home for me and my husband to move into. We aren’t first time buyers - we are renting out our residential home and moving into this house we are purchasing.

The home we are buying was up for £395k, it had a lot of offers. We put an offer in or £400k, we wasn’t accepted. Few weeks later we got a call back saying the vendor now wanted to go with us as the person who they accepted couldn’t get the funds together but their offer was £410k!! I said we would agree at £403,000. Anyway, fast forward nearly 4 months, we are supposed to be exchanging this Monday.

Yesterday, my dream property came back on to the market (we viewed this 6 months ago, put an offer in, but someone went higher us - it’s now fell through and back on the market). I really really want this property after being rejected 6 months ago, so I called up the estate agents and put another offer in without another viewing. They’ve already got 8 offers on it. It’s a probate home being sold by solicitors. Anyway, I’ve put an offer in, but don’t find out until Monday / Tuesday whether they have been accepted. It was up for £525k, we’ve offered £545k. 20k over. In the meantime I’m supposed to be exchanging contracts Monday !! If we don’t get this dream home, I still want to complete on the property we are in the process we are purchasing. I’m thinking of every excuse under the sun to get out of signing the contracts on Monday as I want to know whether I’ve been accepted on my dream home.

my question is - if I pull out of my current purchase, what would happen? Will I owe the vendors any money? I’ll feel guilty, but my dream home has came back onto the market !

OP posts:

bilbodog · 01/06/2022 16:52

As long as you pull out before exchange of contracts you can do it. After exchange you will have to pay a percentage of the purchase price to the sellers but im not sure how much.

CloseYourEyesAndSee · 01/06/2022 16:52

Don't be an arse
complete the purchase you're in the middle of buying.
you say both exchange and complete - if you've exchanged you'll lose your deposit, if you haven't yet then you'll only be an arse and lose all the money you've spent on conveyancing.

MulberryBush700 · 01/06/2022 16:56

You won't owe the vendors anything if you pull out before exchange but I really don't think I could risk pulling out so close to the finish line for something totally uncertain.

Mosaic123 · 01/06/2022 17:01

You need to speak to the estate agent of the new place and try asking him if you are likely to get it.

Also find out if probate has gone through as they won't be able to sell if it hasn't.

It sounds like you are not that keen on the first one so maybe pull out anyway.

Ask yourself the question, If I didn't get the cheaper house because I'd pulled out at the last minute, and then I didn't get the higher priced one how upset would I be? Devastated about the first one or only devastated about the probate house?

Original poster

MadHatter36 · 01/06/2022 17:25

Sorry just to be clear; we have not exchanged yet. Exchange is set for next week when we go in and sign the paperwork.

OP posts:

Theforest · 01/06/2022 17:28

Jeees, it is things like this that put me off moving. Awful thing to do

Blankscreen · 01/06/2022 17:29

Just say something has come up and rearrange the appointment for weds/Thurs.

You might find you are in a bidding ear in the other house and it might take a few days to resolve.

toastofthetown · 01/06/2022 17:32

Do you know why the sale fell though? Did the survey throw up huge amounts of very expensive work? Is the property un-mortgageable for some reason? Were the vendors obstructive? Pulling out of a sale now would be a massive dick move (speaking as someone whose vendor pulled out last minute) and it’s not for a sure thing. You’ve be in your rights to though, before contract exchange and you’d owe them nothing.

Original poster

MadHatter36 · 01/06/2022 17:38

I don’t know why the sale fell through previously.. well, I did ask the question and their response was that the purchasers were self employed and couldn’t afford it. The sale of this house is being dealt with by solicitors as they are the executors, so I presume they will be going with the highest price. The house I really want requires ALOT of work, but it’s the perfect area. If we didn’t get my dream home, I would still want to move as we are desperate and have been searching since November 2021.

OP posts:

Mamette · 01/06/2022 17:41

Do what you like it’s dog eat dog and “agreements” don’t hold until the contract is signed. So just say you can’t attend until x day and then see whether your offer is accepted.

Then you’re back on the merry go round of waiting to sign a contract and as pp says anything could come up between offer acceptance and contract signing, whoever had their offer accepted initially has now had the sale fall through, and there will have been a reason for that. Whether that reason will also affect you is yet unknown.

As an aside, I’m struck by your flexible budget! Does the first house need a lot of work?

pumpkinmash · 01/06/2022 17:48

You don't usually exchange contracts on the day you sign them - for our three or four recent purchases signing has happened weeks before everything's ready to go. Your solicitor holds onto them until everything's in place then the calls start up and down the chain to exchange. Are you sure exchange is actually planned for Monday?

TimeTravelSickness · 01/06/2022 17:50

Make your excuses for Monday and wait to hear about your other offer. Yes it’s a bit shitty but this is your future home. There no loyalty in house buying which is both good and bad.

berksandbeyond · 01/06/2022 17:51

I think that's a really immoral thing to do. You're playing with peoples lives here. Karma may come around. We bought our house nearly a year ago and I am still recovering from the stress, and that was without someone like you involved!

Original poster

MadHatter36 · 01/06/2022 17:57

Ive completed and exchanged in the same day before. I guess I could attend on Monday to sign the paperwork, but tell my solicitor NOT to exchange until Wednesday when we have an answer. The estate agents said I should have an answer by Tuesday latest.

OP posts:

LividLaVidaLoca · 01/06/2022 18:00

There are potentially other families in your chain who will be MASSIVELY impacted by this.

I would’ve lost thousands and probably all my mental health if someone in my chain had pulled this last minute.

It’s legal, but it’s not right and karma will bite you.

Original poster

MadHatter36 · 01/06/2022 18:01

First house requires no work at all, but is 2 miles out from the house we really want. The house we really want is in a better area , hence the price difference.

OP posts:

Original poster

MadHatter36 · 01/06/2022 18:16

Sorry to drip feed , it’s not a big chain (not that it makes it any better). I do feel really guilty. The chain is us, the vendor; and the vendor is purchasing a property that is empty. So 3 of us.

OP posts:

Candleabra · 01/06/2022 18:24

A bird in the hand….
Your dream home isn’t a certainty by any stretch. Even if you offer and it’s accepted, the survey could be dodgy, could be down valued by the mortgage company, or your sellers could pull out at any time.

If you’re determined to go for your dream house (and it’s pretty shitty to destroy a purchase at this late stage) then you have to be willing to take the chance you could end up with no house.

ps estate agents talk… you’d have a pretty bad rep if you did what you intend to, and if I was the seller of the ‘dream house’ I’d get a bad vibe and wouldn’t entertain you as a purchaser

Bubblesandsqueak1 · 01/06/2022 18:26

Tell them you have xovid gives you 5 days at least to sort it out

Hurstlandshome · 01/06/2022 18:31

Delay the meeting until you know for sure what's happening with the dream house. It is a pretty shitty thing to do, but you already know that. Consider how upset you'd be if the dream house flops and you lose the current one. Would you be devastated? Unlikely solicitors would renege once an offer was made, but surveys could throw up something awful.

Whinge · 01/06/2022 18:32

Your post has a lot of I, but you're not buying it alone. What does your husband think? Does he want to risk having no house, or go ahead and complete on the current property.

Zeus44 · 01/06/2022 18:34

No. You don’t owe them a penny unless you’ve exchanged. Delay exchange for a few days, quote money hasn’t arrived yet.

CrystalBollocks · 01/06/2022 18:38

It’s legal, but it’s not right and karma will bite you

No it won't. Karma is superstitious crap.

The only thing that might bother you in this situation is your own conscience, but at the same time, you can't go ahead and purchase a house you don't really want. It would be like going ahead and marrying someone you don't really love, with an OM who's the true love of your life waiting in the wings.

It's shit for the vendors (I've been the vendor in this situation), but things mostly work themselves out in the end.

If you exchange and then pull out, OP, I believe the 'penalty' is 10% of the purchase price.

Hunkydory99 · 01/06/2022 18:39

I’d be very wary. A house doesn’t come back on the market after 6 months because it turns out the other purchases couldn’t afford it - that would become apparent very quickly and if it’s as popular as you say it would be right back on the market the next day. I would assume there’s something much bigger going on. I think a frank and honest chat is necessary here, either with the estate agents or the owners. Probably the former.

Namechanger355 · 01/06/2022 18:45

Why waste someone else’s time for this long if you didn’t actually, truly want the house

its a shitty shitty thing to do - seller has lost time and money planning a sale to you and will now need to relist and may not sell for another year

estate agents won’t touch you with a barge pole going forwards if you lose out on your dream one - and let’s be honest even if your offer on that is accepted there could be anything wrong with it such as the lender not sure wanting to lend on it

It’s people like you that are the worst type of buyer

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