Estate Agent Miscommunication

[BrinjalPickle]

I had an offer accepted on a house in September, they were struggling to find somewhere to buy but I was told via email from the Estate Agent that they had in December found an onward purchase. I had already paused my home buyers survey due to them not being in a position to move so after Christmas informed my surveyors that they could go ahead.

The Estate Agent rang me yesterday to see what my position was as my buyer wants to move things forward (understandable but they had an initial sale fall through and their current buyers only came on board mid December). In the course of the phone call I’m informed that my purchase haven’t found anywhere to move to yet!

Obviously I’m not impressed by the Estate Agent or the seller but do I have any recourse to recoup my survey fees from the Estate Agent? I foolishly didn’t get any home buying insurance and am selling as part of the divorce process so it’s a pretty stressful time all round.

I am also now looking at other properties as I feel my sellers are not really serious about moving.

Its annoying but I dont think you'd have much recourse- they could have just as easily found somewhere but it fell through after you'd spent on surveys. Its just part of the house buying process annoyingly.

There’s no redress for any kind of compensation before exchange. The sellers may well have had an offer accepted in December which has since fallen through, or which their mortgage valuation returned as unsuitable - this is sometimes just how things go. You can give them a deadline and say you’ll withdraw from the sale if they haven’t found anything by then (and be prepared to stick to it) and keep an eye on the market for other properties in the meantime.

I think it would be reasonable for the EA to give you a little more information about what has happened, e.g. did their purchase fall through.

Other than that, it's just part of the 'joy' of property chains. I would keep checking for updates so they know you won't wait around forever. You could start looking at other properties, but be aware that it won't necessarily prove any quicker as you've still a long way to go and lots could happen as you progress through the conveyancing.

Before you spend any more money on conveyancing, ensure your vendor has a memorandum of sale for any property they are purchasing and that the upwards chain is complete.

It seems there isn't, I looked into this too but it seems England just has an attitude of 'too bad, so sad' even if your the victim who was 'mis-sold' and did nothing wrong.

We had this issue with a property but with a worse outcome overall. We weren't told there was a ongoing court issue with the properties ownership and the EA have even admitted they should have informed us to hold off on surveys but forgot.

House ended up getting repossessed and the person who had listed it for sale had never actually even owned it.

I was sure EA must have had some responsibility as they 'sold' us a house that couldn't be sold but apparently not, people don't even have to prove they own a house to list it for sale which is mental.

I wish I had bought home buyers insurance, £60 would have refunded the £600 on survey and money on searches etc... luckily we haven't been charged a fee by the solicitor as we put a hold on it as soon as we found out.

That was the second house that fell through on us but luckily the lost money on the first was negligible (just a few documents for £5 here and £10 there etc...) but loosing hundreds/thousands on a property really does stick bitterly.