What are the most common reason for buyers pulling out?

[jensaa]

Just accept an offer on our house for the 3rd TIME! First two buyers pulled out without giving a reason (nothing wrong with survey) so although I hope this is 3rd time lucky I’m curious what are the reasons buyers pull out so often?

I think very often there are shaky finances that can be made to work but only if the purchase goes through quickly. And I also think, especially in a hot market, people accept compromises with a property but keep looking and pull out if they find somewhere they're happier with.

But I often think you never find out the real reason. I had a buyer pull out once supposedly because her daughter had had a miscarriage, which didn't seem to be that relevant. I pulled out of a purchase last year because a voice in my head said to me loudly one afternoon, "Don't buy the house." It was obviously a gut feeling I hadn't admitted to myself (and was the right decision) but it's not what I told the agent. I blamed the survey, which genuinely was quite problematic but personally I don't think surveys hold that many surprises usually. Mostly you get them because you already know a house has problems and want some further detail. But they're a convenient smokescreen if you change your mind for reasons that are less easy to explain.

We pulled out because the owner refused to accept a reduction despite the survey being awful. He lost his first buyers for the same reason.

All of our buyers pulled out due to lack of progression in the chain, sometimes we couldn't find an onward and last time our onward couldn't find.

I know our house buying system is problematic but people.lose sight that the price tag is eye-watering. Almost always over a quarter of a million and more often very much higher.

It's has to take time. One way or another. People have to have the ability to pull out until they know everything is in order - financially and legally, and that timelag will mean some people choose less significant reasons for pulling out.

Any change in process won't change the need to have legals and financials all lined up. All I can see is that some.of this work will need to be prepared earlier.

Maybe an independent prepurchase survey paid for by the owner (although I suspect it won't stop surveys still being instructed by buyers and mortage companies).

Mortgages in principle based on proper applications with just the individual property valuation to go when an offer is made. (Although I'm not entirely sure this would save much time my DD and DSs mortgages were both agreed within 2 weeks of offer - this isn't the thing that's been slow).

Some sort of national digital search system that is immediately updated and more quickly accessible.

A conveyancer code of conduct agreed within the industry and to also identify where bottlenecks exist and to try and improve them.

A conveyancer code of conduct agreed within the industry

This does already exist, to be fair. www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/property/conveyancing-protocol

see a better &/or cheaper house.

We had one lot pull out because of the survey but honestly I now have that survey and I just don’t think they know how to read them and got spooked,

people always say this 😆

Reason that hasn't been mentioned above is that buyers lose patience with sellers messing around

When buying my current house I did start looking at other houses because owners were taking forever to find something. Nothing came up that I liked better or was a better buy but I would have switched if it did.

Yes, I think this gets to the heart of how it could be improved. We need more front-loading of the pieces of work that drag the process out. Those items when multiplied by 3, 4 or 5 conspire to make conveyancing times several months long. Also, a lot of life stuff can happen in that period - people lose jobs, bereavement, split up - the longer the conveyancing goes on, the more likely a life event will cause a chain to collapse.

To expedite the process, you need home surveys done ahead of listing (happens in Scotland), database of search documents (as mentioned by the PP), commitment from solicitors on timeframes (I think I read on here recently that this happens in Australia), vendors to be required to have all documentation on works up to date prior to listing (we were actually asked for this by our EA), proper finance checks (it's too easy to fluff right now), offers legally binding (as per Scotland). All this would still give room for buyers to pull out if something genuine comes up, but would ensure they are committed at offer and less likely to need to pull out before completion.

I don't really understand why it's so hard to implement, seeing as most of these things are done in other countries.

Exactly this. I had to pull out of a purchase before Christmas. It was gutting but the searches and survey turned up all sorts of work where they hadn’t got planning permission or buildings sign off. Then they were really awkward about remedying any of this stuff. Did they think I wouldn’t find out?! After that I wouldn’t have proceeded anyway because they had blatantly withheld information so the dishonesty left a really bad taste.

I think they tried to change it - that's where the EPC requirement came from and is about the only thing that actually survived the change! Even that seems to be a bit of a joke. They last 10 years so one house my DS looked at was using one from before a garage conversion that relies on electric heating! Another had EPC applied for.

I dont recall why the proposal all fell apart when it started to be implemented but I think it.might have been the lack of independence so everything was essentially done again, so it didn't save time and only added to the costs for sellers.

If they tried and it failed, I think the systems themselves need to change so they are quicker (like searches) or independent (like surveys which presumably they are in Scotland?). That might need some industry input but shouldn't be beyond the intelligence of a professional industry and using digital tools.

But, ultimately, it will always take a while. Its the biggest ticket purchase anyone will make.

My daughter is trying to buy a flat at the moment and she may have to pull out for exactly this reason.

The flat is in a big old Victorian house and there is no Building Regs approval for the removal of beams in the roof. Her solicitor has asked them to get a report from a structural engineer to check it out. The vendors' conveyancers are questioning why that is necessary, on the grounds that the work was done many years ago.

As my daughter will not get a mortgage for the property without it, she will have no choice but to pull out of this isn't resolved.

The surprising thing is that the current owners have only had the flat for a few years so it seems odd that this wasn't an issue when they bought it. I wouldn't have thought they'd have been cash buyers.

Either way, they are unlikely to be able to sell it to anyone else who needs a mortgage.

I knew someone would mention Scotland. It's actually a myth that offers are legally binding for buyers, but once an offer is accepted that's legally binding for the seller, who can't continue to market the property, which means there's no risk of being gazumped at least.

Ah right - understood.

We pulled out because 2 months after our offer had been accepted our sellers STILL hadn't found a place to move to and so were still viewing properties. As a result, we decided to do the same and found something better.

Pulled out when the seller told us that they wanted £1500 for the ( fitted) stair carpet. It was old and worn, so I said, okay, just take it with you. They went berserk.

we went elsewhere.

We have only had one chain collapse and it was because we had to pull out of our purchase for legal reasons and our buyers didn’t want to wait for us to find something else.

Had to pull out of the purchase with one property due to anti-money laundering requirements where we had several bank accounts with the deposit in below the fscs limit, then found out that national savings and Investments don't have a limit of £85k per account but NS&I are the only institution that has one million pounds protection in the UK. Unfortunately we had closed the other accounts and couldn't provide a paper trail going back six months.
The second property we were after, after a level three survey and structural engineer and scaffolding and roof investigation by a professional roofer turned out to require around £75,000 of work required within the next two to three years. The vendors had only bought it four years before and didn't have a survey. As soon as we said we'd like to negotiate the price, they put it straight back on the market. 🤷‍♂️ (It had been on the market for a year before we made an offer). Grade 2 listed chapel conversion. Potential money pit.

Had many recently. Fed up with it!

First changed her mind as couldn’t afford to do what she wanted to do as it wouldn’t add value to the house - she just wanted a different style but it was going to cost her £40k and she decided she couldn’t waste that.

Second lost their buyer due to bad survey. Their house had taken 18 months to sell and seems to still be on market.

Third chain collapsed at bottom due to survey. The day of exchange with completion due the week after! The survey had been done two months prior but they tried a last minute negotiation.

Fourth (same person as third buyer) they lost their buyer but not sure why. They are still on market.

Fifth was our buyer pull out as they were worried about survey but didn’t share what in the survey put them off, or try to renegotiate. The surveyor actually said to me you’ve got a good property there is nothing of concern in the report when he left, and it was also the fourth survey on the house as all the other buyers had one too and none of them had raised any concerns so who knows.

Very fed up and feel like we’ll never sell at this rate. Meanwhile we are ready to exchange on our purchase… our sellers will lose patience at some point (it’s vacant as went into nursing home, end of chain, they said they can wait a few more months before they need funds)