Help! Seller pulled out at last minute

Alison8_2

Hi,

Wondering if anyone can give me any advice here...
Myself and my parents were due to buy a house (they are buying and I am renting off them as no chance of getting on the property ladder myself!)
So we found a house, made and offer, was accepted etc
The contacts have been signed, HIPS/fittings and fixtures lists received deposits payed...more money spent on soliciters fees, have had regular contact with the vendor and all seemed to be going very well untill I get a call this morning from the estate agent saying the vendor can no longer sell due to 'personal circumstances'. I am furious, we had a completion date for 3 weeks time, I actually feel like going and hammering on their door and punching someone...but anyway...
Do we have any legal rights in this situation...to claim money back that we have spent on fees etc?
Any advice much apprecaited, this is a nightmare!!!:mad:
Thanks
Alison

HH62

You said deposits paid. Signed contracts. But have you actually exchanged contracts? If so, you need to call your solicitor who will advise you from here.

skintandsad

Exchange of contracts is when a legally binding contract exists in England. If you have exchanged contracts, contact your solicitor - if not, I don't think you can make any further claim; your solicitor will advise.

(above poster beat me to it!)

Alison8_2

No contacts not exchanged..so its not legally binding, need to talk to the solicitor I suppose just so hacked off right now!!!
Thanks for your replys

Richard_Webster

Your solicitor may be able to find out what the reason was by talking to the seller's solicitor. It could be the seller having a family row, or he was buying something else and now finds he can't get a mortgage, or it could be that the seller is in negative equity and didn't realise that he couldn't sell the place for less than the mortgage he owed on it!

HH62

Alison8 wrote: »

No contacts not exchanged..so its not legally binding, need to talk to the solicitor I suppose just so hacked off right now!!!
Thanks for your replys

It's so frustrating when you've spent money and this happens. Phone your solicitor anyway just to let them know what's going on and like the above poster said, they may know what actually went wrong.

chickmug

Alison8 wrote: »

No contacts not exchanged..so its not legally binding, need to talk to the solicitor I suppose just so hacked off right now!!!
Thanks for your replys

It is worth keeping your cool with the seller, outlining every penny of your spend so far and asking if they are prepared to contribute anything to your costs. It is a long shot but worth a try. It happened to me once where the seller decided not to sell asked what I had spent and felt morally it was right to make a significant contribution.

As I said rare but worth a go then if no joy feel free to tell them what you think.

Alison8_2

Thanks for your helpful replys. It just seems unfair that we have spent this money on fees/surveys for nothing. I'm sure they have a genuine reason but right now I feel fairly irrational and going and downing a bottle of wine and hammering on the door is quite tempting:rolleyes:
I suppose I quite naively thought that once deposits were paid and contracts signed it would be smooth sailing, how wrong I was, perhaps they would like to refund me for the bloody sofas I bought!!!:mad:
Will get in touch with solicitor, its gonna be one of those days I can tell....

kunekune

It is an awful system. We're hopefully exchanging contracts shortly, and I'm holding off ordering wardrobes until that's done, just in case. Fortunately, as our current tenancy continues for a while after we are likely to move, there's no hurry to move in once we've completed.

Alison8_2

Yes hold off with the wardrobes! I almost feel like I tempted fate by buying the damn sofas! Luckily we live with my parents but I can imagine how awful this is if we were selling our house and it made an entire chain collapse, I hope yours goes better than mine..I'm off to scream in to a pillow or something....

Robert_Sterling_3

As contracts have not been signed either party can drop out. This is why buying a house rank with divorce and death as the three most stressful events we can have.

All one can hope is that you have better luck next time.