Gazumped on day of exchange

[Bushyandbright]

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!

Someones telling lies here.
Either the vendor or agent ,because if its true that the vendor has exchanged contracts with the first buyers the vendor cant have told the first buyer shed missed her opportunity.
Awful situation for your friend .

This
The system in Scotland now is no better than the English system,and in some ways is worse
Why people keep saying this can’t happen in Scotland I have no idea
In Scotland in the OPs circumstances the seller’s solicitor would probably have to withdraw from acting ,but the seller can change their mind until Missives are concluded ( like exchange in England )

Contract races are legal but there is a transparency requirement that doesn't seem to have done in your friends case!

It's in Cheshire.
It's possible I've misunderstood where she was in the school application. She was applying for an in-year transfer end of last week and the primary school had confirmed that there was 1 space available in the year group. In her tearful rambling I thought she said that she's been accepted but I haven't gone into detail about the specifics of that.

You can if all the work is already done or if you are buying cash and forgo the searches with indemnity insurance in place for any issues.

If the estate agent is telling the truth and did not know about it, the vendor has tried to avoid paying their commission too by bypassing them.

If the school has space you don't need to be in catchment. It sounds like they had a spare space to fill. Your poor friend. A good lesson not to count your chickens...

Yep you can a decent estate agent wouldn’t allow it though

You are correct.

Don’t know much but worked in the housing market for 14 years so it’s my best skill set haha

Yes, I imagine you're right.
my friend is the most organised, diligent person on the planet and was trying to line up timings. The sofa is a 16-week delivery. In hindsight they should have waited. But this is their first time selling-buying and it's been over 10 years since they bought their first home. So putting it down to a combination of nativity and lack of experience. Now we know.

This too. Estate agents are mostly horrific liars with little or no conscience ime. All chasing their commission and most have no clue how a conveyancing transaction works eg the stages, apart from exchange and completion. That’s both from personally me buying and selling and working in conveyancing.

A friend of mine sold her house, offer, exchange and completion in 2weeks.
She had been letting it and the tenant asked if she could buy the house, the tenant’s father was a solicitor and with my friend’s solicitor on board they made it happen.
This was in the late 90’s too.
It made me realise that house purchases don’t need to take 3 months.

You’re not “shudder” an estate agent are you?!

That’s a super quick turnaround though. Most conveyancing transactions take 8-12 weeks providing no issues. And use a good solicitor never a cheap conveyancing shop. Ime.

It doesn’t. It’s illegal in Scotland.

This.

House purchases don’t have to take months. I saw a house and was living in it exactly a month later. Probate sale, I was a cash buyer, didn’t bother with a survey (not worth the paper they are written on and I wasn’t going to play silly games over using it to get a better price) and insisted on exchange and completion on the same day.

Yes, nothing is guaranteed until the missives are signed, but once a written offer is accepted, the seller cannot just accept a different offer and complete on it. It’s a breach of contract and would cost them thousands. Of course they can withdraw from the sale but they can’t just sell to someone else while the property is under offer.

Yes they would. All they care about is making money.

This happened to me in the day of exchange. We had packed the house and given up our jobs. We were moving 250 miles away and supposed to complete 3 days later. The vendors simply changed their minds after a 6 month process.

It was the absolute best thing that could have happened to us as the house had hidden structural issues that a survey couldn't have uncovered. We also found a much better house, across the road from the first house.

Sorry for your friend OP, that’s really devastating. I also get why she’d order the sofa so close to exchange even though it’s not advised, because the alternative of not having a sofa for a few months isn’t fun either IME.

I agree with your advice about looking to rent now. I also think, once things are calmer, she should consider writing to her MP. The only way we’ll stop hearing stories like this is if the whole system is reformed, and that’ll only happen if enough MPs are bothered about it.

Goodness how was it living across the road from the original vendors who shafted you?

Yes, it’s also because offers and acceptances have to be done via solicitors so in Scotland the vendor’s solicitor would need to withdraw if the vendor tried this stunt

By then they had sold the house to someone else, as it took us a year to move into the house we bought.

When they decided to sell again they had the nerve to ask us if we wanted to buy it!