Exchanging tomorrow. Buyers just pulled out

[Newhousename]

It’s not about money apparently . They just went off the house. The night before. After five viewings and months of paperwork. &@£$**>%€

anyway. Trying to be practical. Does anyone have experience of those we buy any house type organisations? Please. Or any other thought that could help.

I don't think posters in other countries realise that in England and Wales there is no contract until exchange, and after that point there are financial penalties. Prior to that there is no contract. The difference is how long it might take to get to that point.

I'm always amazed when I hear that people book moving companies, pack up houses etc. prior to even exchanging.

@larkstar, either your buyers paid the deposit outside the usual system or you actually had no legal right to that money until exchange - the buyers just sent it through to show they were in earnest about buying (but could have taken it back if they pulled out)

The new potential buyers can buy the searches from the old ones. Which will speed up the next sell

It can still happen in Scotland.

we put in an offer in a property, but seller opted to go with another buyer. We carried on with life and forgot about it.

roll on two months later, our solicitor called and asked if we were still interested in the property as the first buyer had pulled out. We were still interested, and seven weeks later we moved in.

so, OP, go back and see if any previous viewers are still interested.

Oh no! How awful. 😔

When DH and I bought our current home we were called by the estate agent saying they had a house that hadn't even been put on the market yet and would we like to view. We did and they told us the previous buyers had pulled out less than a week before exchanging and were desperate to sell. The house was out of our price range by about £25K but they assured us to put in an offer anyway.

We put in an offer not thinking we would be accepted and was immediately accepted as they were all ready to move into their next home. We had the keys within a couple months.

We were very lucky, the sellers not so much. I'm so sorry this has happened to you. I would definitely try and get it back on the market asap. You may find someone super quickly if you are open to a price drop (perhaps not 25K but you know what I mean).

Sometimes you don’t have much choice though. I’ve exchanged and completed on the same day and with 2 days between. If you’re self packing you have to take a leap of faith. The system really needs reform.

Really hoping you can find a quick sale soon, OP.

We're one of those couples who pulled out just before exchange. Obviously some people can just change their mind/have unexpected financial setbacks, but my advice to you is to make sure everything that would need to be double checked is revealed at an early stage, ie things that might cause a problem for mortgage companies, need an indemnity, unusual covenants. We struggled to get a mortgage on our house (house not us), then when we did, had to get a specific survey done. I was a bit nervous, but DH loved property and we decided to proceed. A few days before exchange another deed was revealed with covenants we couldn't even risk and we both immediately changed our mind. We had buyers lined up for both of our hard to sell flats, so it wasn't an easy decision to make.

We fell in love with our house as soon as we viewed it but it was at our maximum price. We were gutted to be outbid. A week later we were offered it because the highest bidder pulled out. We were over the moon, and still very happy here. The sellers just went to the next highest offer on the list and everything moved pretty quickly after that. Good luck.

So sorry 😞 our buyer also pulled out the week we were due to exchange (back in July this year). It felt like I’d been hit in the stomach and all our plans were broken.
Get back on the market ASAP before trying the rip-off house buying companies. Ask your EA to contact everyone on their database who matches up with your property. If you’re buying, let the other EA know - the seller will often wait.
good luck with it all x

I pulled out when selling my house a couple of years ago. My wife was diagnosed with cancer and we felt we couldn't cope with the move and her illness at the same time. She died 2 weeks later and I'm still in the same house

Sometimes people have good reasons for a sudden change of mind; nevertheless I know it must have been very difficult for the buyers

People are allowed to change their mind

Also the market is shit. I’ve seen big reductions left right and centre. Even new builds - who for the last 10 years seem to have operated on the assumption that you add 5-10% onto the price of the same design house at each phase of a development - now suddenly selling the same style properties for £30k less than spring last year.

I wouldn’t be keen to exchange right now for something negotiated in the Spring, I’d be very tempted to stay put.

It happens OP. Happened to us recently.

Had they done the searches and a survey? With our first house the previous buyers pulled out (mortgage got declined). The previous owners relisted we came along and managed to buy the searches and everything off the people who were going to buy. Saved us weeks and weeks and we were in our first house in about 7 weeks.

All that needed to happen was the previous seller had to hand details over of the solicitor they used to our solicitor. The solicitors took care of everything else. We just made a payment.

Same thing happened to us. Our buyer got a new job mid purchase so couldn't get a mortgage. The owners of the property we were going to buy very nasty, said we could carry on buying but we now had to pay more.

I was seven months pregnant at the time as well.

For us it took ages to get new buyer new house ect and because we were part buy part rent it was so hard to get all the paper work sorted.

I hope you have an easier time.

I’ve pulled out of purchase when my survey results came back saying they couldn’t even value the house due to something the buyer didn’t reveal to me. Just before exchange though is awful, as everything should be in place then!

I agree that this is shit and there should be penalties.

I also recall many threads where someone is really not wanting to move and in a panic, or has moved and hates the new house. I also know that feeling of wanting to pull out, not doing so and having to live somewhere you hate for many years when you are living somewhere you really love in the first place.

Going through with a house purchase when your gut tells you it's wrong doesn't work out (from experience) unless you are planning on moving on fairly quckly. Maybe that has happened and they really can't face living in your house or have discovered something they didn't know about before or that wasn't evident, like a new mast or a council waste facility being proposed that wasn't before.

Or just want to stay in a home they love, which is crap for everyone else involved but their choice to be happy.

20 minutes

I mean - you have to wonder what happened to change someone's mind with so little time to go but that's completely nuts.

I hope it all worked out well for you in the end?

DS completed last week on his latest house, four in the chain. His sale and purchase are period properties and there were a lot of solicitor’s enquiries at both ends, retrospective regularisation certificates and council visits to confirm attic rooms didn’t need building regs because they were original to the house. Historic rights of way and indemnity policies to cover flying freeholds. None of these things were apparent at viewing and offer stage.

how does this work in Australia for example? I know there are lots of Victorian houses in Melbourne.

I'm so sorry. I didn't sell via we but any house companies but I know I was quoted a ridiculously low price.

Did you have a second interested party that your EA could approach? As well as Rightmove spread the word via neighborhood Facebook pages?

When I sold my last house I told everyone I was selling.

I hope you get a new buyer very soon.

@BitOutOfPractice - 20 minutes! My god ...

"what happens if the survey brings something up?"

In countries that have a system whereby the potential purchaser has to pay a deposit at the point of making an offer, either:

• The property has to have had a survey before being listed, paid for by the seller (rather like the "Seller's Pack" that was attempted in England), or
• The seller buys an indemnity insurance policy that covers any additional costs of rectifying anything uncovered by the survey (in practice, the insurance company will undertake a survey before accepting the risk).

Where I live in Europe, there is a one-page document, the Purchase Offer (Person A offers to buy Property X from Person B for the sum of €X,000, with a handover date of XX/XX). Once both parties have signed this document, and the purchaser has paid a 10% deposit, it constitutes a binding contract. The conveyancing part of the deal is just the paperwork (change of ownership registration, re-assignment of any debts and mortgages, CGT, etc) catching up with the facts.

Sometimes people have good reasons for a sudden change of mind; nevertheless I know it must have been very difficult for the buyers

this is true

The property has to have had a survey before being listed, paid for by the seller (rather like the "Seller's Pack" that was attempted in England), or

I thought this was a great idea & would really speed up the process but people were against it 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Where I live in Europe, there is a one-page document, the Purchase Offer (Person A offers to buy Property X from Person B for the sum of €X,000, with a handover date of XX/XX). Once both parties have signed this document, and the purchaser has paid a 10% deposit, it constitutes a binding contract.

People would go for that because although gazundering is hated, gazumping is more acceptable. I lost a house that the sellers took a late, higher offer on.

When I bought three years ago when our offer was accepted in mid-December/ the seller's agent and our broker agreed we would have six weeks to complete, which was quite a push as we were heading off on holiday the next day. We signed a document saying we would pay 10% penalty if we pulled out, subject to us obtaining a mortgage and the survey being satisfactory. The seller had to pay us the same if they pulled out. If our mortgage didn't clear or the survey showed something bad we were free to pull out with no penalty, but we were already preapproved. If anyone just changed their mind, you have to pay up. The mortgage took two weeks to be rubber-stamped as it was over the Xmas hols, we had a survey the first week in January and got all the searches etc back over the next few weeks and moved in start of Feb.

I don’t think it was that people ‘were against it’ so much as the surveying professional bodies and solicitors pointed out that it would be very difficult under current laws to have recourse against the surveying company if an issue came to light after purchase

I think the issue and sticking point was that if the vendor commissioned the survey for the sellers pack, they hold the contract with the surveyor and only they can sue them if it turns out they missed something.

So the survey included in a sellers pack would only be advisory, and the buyer would still have to do their own if they wanted something with recourse later on, and therefore you’re back to square one other than the seller has a bigger up front cost to list it

And it wasn’t possible to have a survey that was legally transferable to the buyer without significantly altering big parts of existing contract law which would have consequences for other industries/sectors