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Original poster

Why don't they change the awful way properties are bought/sold in the UK?

121 replies

wereonthemarket · 19/09/2023 07:27

Surely it isn't in anyone's interests to have such a flakey, stressful system in place.

People view. They make an offer which doesn't really mean a lot. Buyer accepts. Survey is done. Buyer renegotiates offer.

Then at any point - even after each party has spent potentially thousands either one can pull out or completely change the offer?!

Why isn't the insane system streamlined? Buyer lists property and pays for survey, searches etc which are shown to potential buyers. An offer is made with the seller paying 10% deposit. And surely then everything moves faster, is less stressful and stops so many sales falling through?

OP posts:
FiloPasty · 19/09/2023 07:29

I agree, the current system is a shit show. We paid thousands only for the sellers of the house we wanted to have a “change of heart”

Tontostitis · 19/09/2023 07:34

Because on the whole it works. Yes it's shit when things fall apart but seller can't be forced to commit before they find an onward purchase and buyers can't be forced to commit until they are ready.

Oakbeam · 19/09/2023 07:36

Move to Scotland, also part of the UK. There is a different system that you may like more.

hdbs17 · 19/09/2023 07:42

Tontostitis · 19/09/2023 07:34

Because on the whole it works. Yes it's shit when things fall apart but seller can't be forced to commit before they find an onward purchase and buyers can't be forced to commit until they are ready.

This.

If we were locked in once our offer was accepted then god knows how long we would have had to wait for our vendors to find an onward purchase. If we didn't have the threat of pulling out (which we would have happily done knowing that we wouldn't lose much if they didn't hurry up - we had a school admissions deadline) then I think we would have had to wait a hell of a lot longer than the 9 months that we did.

Motheranddaughter · 19/09/2023 07:44

The Scottish system is currently not that much different

Silvercandlesticks · 19/09/2023 07:45

I agree, my buyer just pulled out, no reason given at all. Now, after months of surveys, searches and queries I have to find another buyer and the market has got a lot tougher in this short time.

Cattenberg · 19/09/2023 07:45

I was stuck at the end of a chain of four which eventually collapsed. The sellers at the top of the chain kept us waiting for months as they had probate issues (I think they shouldn’t have been allowed to put their property on the market until probate had been granted). They then pulled out as they’d decided to sell the property to a relative instead!

In the meantime, interest rates rose sharply. My sellers found another property and I bought theirs as agreed, but our new mortgage agreements were much more expensive than the old ones. The time between the sellers accepting my offer and completion was 15 months. My Romanian and Lithuanian colleagues couldn’t believe it. A Romanian lady told me that in her country, you can buy a property in an afternoon!

Anyway, I’d like to support a campaign to change the process. If England were brought in line with Scotland, then that would be a start.

midgemadgemodge · 19/09/2023 07:55

Just to observe that the uk doesn't all have the same system

The Scottish system isn't perfect but has a far lower rate of problems

Heyhoherewegoagain · 19/09/2023 07:58

It’s not a UK issue, it’s an English issue.

The Scottish system is way better and quicker.
All 3 times we’ve bought and sold houses the process has been between 4-8 weeks from beginning to end.

MinnieMouse0 · 19/09/2023 07:59

The Scottish system is better, although the ‘offers over’ thing is annoying.

BitOutOfPractice · 19/09/2023 08:02

Heyhoherewegoagain · 19/09/2023 07:58

It’s not a UK issue, it’s an English issue.

The Scottish system is way better and quicker.
All 3 times we’ve bought and sold houses the process has been between 4-8 weeks from beginning to end.

This made me laugh a bit. As I suspected the thread is full of Scot’s quite rightly saying their system is better and being slightly chippy about Scotland v uk…then you say “it’s an English problem” forgetting the other parts of Britain uk. Let alone Northern Ireland! If you’re going to get snippy about it, get it right!

Heyhoherewegoagain · 19/09/2023 08:04

BitOutOfPractice · 19/09/2023 08:02

This made me laugh a bit. As I suspected the thread is full of Scot’s quite rightly saying their system is better and being slightly chippy about Scotland v uk…then you say “it’s an English problem” forgetting the other parts of Britain uk. Let alone Northern Ireland! If you’re going to get snippy about it, get it right!

Edited
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I’m glad you feel better about yourself now

Goodornot · 19/09/2023 08:07

MinnieMouse0 · 19/09/2023 07:59

The Scottish system is better, although the ‘offers over’ thing is annoying.

Well yeah. How much over the price listed to they want. Impossible to gauge sometimes

BitOutOfPractice · 19/09/2023 08:09

Hard to say if I do or not @Heyhoherewegoagain Just thought I’d make the point, like every Scot quite rightly has, that the uk isn’t just England.

The “offers in excess of” is creeping into England too.

Gameoflifecareer · 19/09/2023 08:11

I agree OP. It's embarrassing. Fancy having a system in 2023 built for the 1800s or whatever it was.

My neighbour studied law abroad and they used the English conveyancing system as a "what not to do" module.... 🙈

Mammillaria · 19/09/2023 08:14

The French system seems to work much better.

Sellers signs an agreement to honour the offer. Buyer locks themselves in shortly thereafter. Then the whole thing is handed to one solicitor who completes the sale.

Elfidela1980 · 19/09/2023 08:21

as has been said, it’s a bit tighter in Scotland, when it all proceeds correctly, though we seem to be moving by stealth towards a more shambolic way of doing things (missives not being concluded til just before settlement date (argh) purchasers using lack of a concluded contract to their advantage, trying to hold sellers to ransom and drop their offers at a late stage for no good reason). Doesn’t happen habitually though.

Not sure what the problem with o/o is, it’s just like sealed bids, means people have to decide definitively what they can afford/ what any given house is worth to them, to do that they’ll have their solicitor’s advice on what the market is doing in their area and the survey value to guide em on what sort of mortgage they can get.

What happens in Wales/NI?

shivawn · 19/09/2023 08:22

Why isn't the insane system streamlined? Buyer lists property and pays for survey, searches etc which are shown to potential buyers.

Not all structural engineers are equal though so I'm not sure I'd trust a sellers own survey. We're buying a large old 1950's property at the moment and shelling out for the best engineer in the city to do the survey because it's very important to us. He costs almost twice what the cheapest companies are charging but we had a terrible engineer when buying our first house who missed the most basic obvious things.

blobby10 · 19/09/2023 09:06

It always amazes me that for every offer on every house, even if they are next door, every buyer has to pay for the same surveys to be done over and over. Obviously its a money making scheme for councils/solicitors etc but it would make much more sense for agents to get a survey of the area done on a regular basis then sellers can pay for it when the house goes on the market. One survey covering a certain number of square miles, easily accessible by anyone who needs it!

Oneearthtwoparts · 19/09/2023 09:09

The good thing about the Scottish system is that it's generally quicker and you can't gazunder/gazump due to offers being done via solicitors. Also, the seller commissions the home report which is available for anyone to download, so no need to pay for that as a buyer.

However, I think the English system is more thorough - which is why more sales fall through. You have more opportunity to view the property (in Scotland after offer is submitted no more viewings allowed) and can request as many surveys etc as you want to pay for. In Scotland you just have a vague home report you didn't commission (and therefore don't benefit from speaking to the surveyor 'off the record' so to speak). Enquiries are basically non existent in Scotland also - it's very much buyer beware.

I felt a lot more confident about what I was actually buying in England versus Scotland.

WickedSerious · 19/09/2023 09:13

BitOutOfPractice · 19/09/2023 08:09

Hard to say if I do or not @Heyhoherewegoagain Just thought I’d make the point, like every Scot quite rightly has, that the uk isn’t just England.

The “offers in excess of” is creeping into England too.

We're in Wales and most of the properties for sale in our area are on at 'offers in excess of'

lljkk · 19/09/2023 09:24

Area where I'm staying, eastern England, everything is listed as 'offers over' too. Why couldn't the English adopt the Scottish system instead? People can still pull out, but are incentivised to move quickly.

Seeingadistance · 19/09/2023 09:39

Oakbeam · 19/09/2023 07:36

Move to Scotland, also part of the UK. There is a different system that you may like more.

This.

Pootles34 · 19/09/2023 09:47

Because you don't want to trust a survey paid for by the seller - the seller is the customer, so the surveyor wouldn't be 'on your side'. Also, you want to sign up to buy something before your solicitor has sorted out any problems with dodgy boundaries, rights of way, extensions done without building regs?

whyisitallsohard · 19/09/2023 09:55

Couldn’t agree more. Scotland have a better system imo. I also think sellers should be the ones to prove they have a quality safe product for purchase, like with everything else we buy like cars, cookers, anything electrical, even rice cookers come with safety labels etc, but a lot falls on buyers and theres a huge element of risk. It’s not a wonder that with the over inflated, over priced house prices we are seeing, buyers are demanding for more, or bigger price drops. So they should

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