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.

The whole system we have with anything to do with property is not fit for purpose. I have moved a lot and had this happen many many times.
The red tape and hoops we have to jump through is designed to lengthen the process and any new legislation that is supposed to quicken the sale just adds expense and ends up lengthening the process.

And then you have the buyers who can pull out without any recourse at any point up to exchange. They cost the seller not just money but months of their lives whilst they decide whether to go ahead with the transaction or not

I know NZ and the US and I am sure other countries have a process where the buyer when their offer has been accepted they sign immediately a contract and put down a substantial non refundable deposit. The vendor has already done a survey and searches and only if when the buyers does their searches and surveys and significant issues that they weren’t made aware of come to light are they able to pull out. Otherwise they are committed to buy or lose their deposit whether they have changed their minds or decided they have found somewhere better

The US system can push through a sale from offer to moving in within 30-45 days.
Apparently the average in the UK is 125 days

My last house sale the buyers had to redo their mortgage documents as it took so long for the mortgage company to process them that the 6 months they were valid for expired and they had to start again. In total that took 208 days and it would have been longer if we hadn’t exchanged and completed on the same day

I'm so sorry to hear this. That's so shit. Sending sympathy.

(And if 'we buy any house' is anything like 'we buy any car', they will offer a fraction of what your house is worth.)

TerfTalking

A flying freehold should have been obvious when viewing.

We viewed a town house that had been built with a double garage on the ground floor.

At some point one of the garages had been sold to the adjoining neighbour. I must admit that it appeared to be complete news to the estate agent that the house was now worth less than it’s neighbours because of it having not just 1 less garage but a flying freehold and all the issues they bring as well

The Scottish system does seem more favourable, however, I have seen Scots on here before saying it has it's own pitfalls. The sealed bids I wouldn't be keen on for a start.

I don't think there's an easy solution. When chains are involved, so many things can go wrong and I can't think there's a way where nobody would lose money, or only the unreasonable people would.

What's a sealed bid?

winterfire2021*

In Australia you pay a 10% deposit when the initial contracts are signed, but they are usually 'subject to a building inspection' and sometimes 'subject to finance'. If the building inspection reveals a significant issue, or the buyers can't get the finance they need, they can pull out without penalty. But for just a change of mind, etc, they forfeit the 10% deposit to the vendors, which given Australian house prices is a hefty sum

The problem was nether UK is the banks can take 6 months + rubber stamping paperwork before making an offer or non offer. Surveyors can also value a house at £0 if there is a small tree within the garden. (Happened to me)

The problem is in the UK

Where buyers put their maximum offer in and hope theirs is the highest. I think it happens a lot in Scotland. It happened during property boom in UK too.

My only thought involves things that are illegal. A good job we have gun control in the UK.

A practical step would be to lobby your MP if you have an adequate one.

The sealed bid is where you write down your offer with what position you are in and out it in a sealed envelope. Then on a certain day at a certain time all the envelopes are opened and who ever bids the most/in the best position to proceed gets the property.

Scottish Law is better than that in England and Wales for house sale, applying the same would not be perfect but be better than the spivs charter we have.

Thankyou everyone for taking the time to reply and send positive thoughts. Clearly other countries do it better than England and Wales, which is interesting if not helpful in my own case sadly. Especially to those of you who have been here yourselves and had a happy ending. This morning, in between cleaning the house ready to start showing AGAIN, I am trying to be positive and think i will have a new cash buyer in days for a similar price. They can buy the searches and exchange in a fortnight.... Its not great, obviously, and I did not sleep last night thinking about finances, but at the end of the day am trying to keep perspective. It's a house. Not life and death of a loved one. If I'm still unsold in a month I dont think I will manage to be so sanguine.

I’m so sorry OP. I feel your pain as I enter the fourth week of hoping the base buyer in our chain will decide whether she wants to proceed. She’s already gazundered our buyer and the whole chain contributed to getting her the price reduction she asked for on the promise that she would exchange promptly. Of course the change in purchase price has led to mortgage offers and contracts needing to be revised. We’re just sitting here like lame ducks waiting on her to give the green light to exchange. And of course the irony is that the property market where we all are continues to be buoyant at all levels and rents are also going up. Little supply is keeping prices up and there is lots of interest from OS buyers - who frankly would be a much better option given they don’t have this mindset that it’s ok to pull out if you simply change your mind.

I feel for you, this is a crappy thing to have happen, however :
You need to be realistic, your house may not be worth what it was months ago when you originally listed it and agreed an offer. I suggest if you really want to move then have an honest conversation with your agent about setting a price that's certain to attract attention. Particularly if you are hoping for a fast completion.

Still trying to get my jaw back up from the floor after reading this!

@AllTheChaos I know right?. It was one of those "I remember where I was when it happened" moments! I found my buyer on facebook and was tempted to message her but restrained myself!

Hope you get a new cash buyer very soon! I know for my part, the stories from other people about how other countries do it were a form of commiseration -- we think the way the system works sucks and is unfair! Any, all the best moving forward!

I'm so sorry this has happened. Unless something major turned up on searches, or it is the money really, I'd say there's no excuse for this.

It's stressful enough without all of this.

If you have a cash buyer who may be interested, hopefully you won't lose your onward purchase.

I do wonder if it is the money though, and they just don't want to admit to that? Maybe they've started looking at prices for utilities etc and realised the whole thing is unaffordable?

I really hope you get a new buyer soon. Moving house is stressful enough without this bullshit!

The same happened to me literally on the day we were meant to be exchanging, 3 days before completion. Our sellers just changed their minds. The whole chain collapsed.

It's literally the best thing that ever happened to me, long story ( the house we were meant to be buying fell down. Yes, fell down.) but you never know what's round the corner. It took us over a year to actually move but the house we are in now is way better than the 'dream house'.

We had this around Christmas/New year with my late parents house. Had another buyer come along, he strung us along for a few months then when we put pressure on he pulled out too☹️. Horrendous at the time although different to your situation. Then dream buyers came along, offered FAP and the sale went through in 5 weeks.

I think you need to hang on in there, one of those we buy any house places won't give you full value.

Incidentally original buyer subsequently regretted his decision and was trying to come up with weird and wonderful ways of acquiring our house up to the point of the good buyer starting searches etc. I got a lot of satisfaction out of telling him it was sold and for more than he had offered.

"In Australia you pay a 10% deposit when the initial contracts are signed, but they are usually 'subject to a building inspection' and sometimes 'subject to finance'. "
In the UK (England and Wales) , you would also forfeit the deposit, usually 10% of the price) once contracts are signed. The difference is that the searches, survey and mortgage are done BEFORE the contracts are signed. After all, how can you sign a contract if you do not know any pitfalls associated with the house?
It is just in the OP, the contracts were not yet signed!
By signing, I mean exchange of contract, as you can sign a bit of peper, but until it is given to the otherside, it is not valid. We refer to this as exchange of contracts - usually done by the solicitor. Someone can pull out any time up to this point.
One should point out that a buyer would still forfeit the costs they have incurred in engaging a solicitor, searches, surveys, etc. It is actually worse if the seller pulls out, as the buyer will have incurred those costs for nothing, and it is not their fault.

I'm sorry. It's so shit. Similar happened to me, except I was the buyer and the seller (who had no chain above him) pulled out at the last minute... Or more precisely they just stopped responding to anyone's calls (including their own estate agent and solicitor). We lost thousands on the survey, searches etc.
People are absolute bastards.

Good on you, OP. Things always seem hopeless in the dead of night!

I really hope you find a committed buyer quickly and keep your onward sale. Good luck!

Purchase, not sale!