I'm writing this post on behalf of a friend who is distraught this evening. Her and her husband had their offer accepted on a house in January that had come back on the market following a collapse in a chain. An offer was made an accepted on their property too at the same time; their buyers are living with family and the house they were buying was empty, so a small chain.
Today she received a call from the vendor's solicitor to say that the house has now been sold (and contracts exchanged) with the previous buyer, despite my friend's solicitor now having completed searches and ready to exchange. It turns out that the previous buyer went back to the agent to say that she was now in a position to proceed with the purchase, but the agent told her it was days away from exchange. Having previously corresponded with the vendor's solicitor, she then spoke to them and the vendor accepted her offer and exchanged immediately. Presumably she had already done searches etc in order to be in this position - we don't know.
I'm just so angry for my friend and her husband - they had just accepted a place at the local primary school for their daughter. They've ordered a new sofa. They've literally packed up their house ready to go this week. How can anyone be so selfish to go out of their way to do this, and what absolutely bell* of a vendor!