Can Seller Sell Property Whilst I Have Already Exchanged And Paid Deposit

DeludedAussie

I just wonder if there is anything which prevents teh following happening:
1) BuyerA pays 10% deposit and exchanges with completion in 4 weeks
2) Seller instructs different solicitor to sell and exchanges and completes immediately

As a buyer how are my rights protected between exchange and completion?

harz99

DeludedAussie wrote: »

I just wonder if there is anything which prevents teh following happening:
1) BuyerA pays 10% deposit and exchanges with completion in 4 weeks
2) Seller instructs different solicitor to sell and exchanges and completes immediately

As a buyer how are my rights protected between exchange and completion?

I'm not an expert, but surely that depends on who exchanged first?

I don't see any other outcome than the first exchange taking precedence and if thwarted then the seller and his/her new solicitors become responsible for costs/damages ect.

beccad

If you've exchanged prior to all this taking place, then there's some serious financial repercussions for the vendor, I believe.

firstaspect

Once you've exchanged the sale is legally binding, the vendor would be in for some serious problems financially if they don't then complete. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be legally able to exchange with someone else after exchanging with you.

Hammyman

We've just exchanged today. The husband of the couple selling house is an !!!! to the point his solicitor instructed his EA to ring his wife and not him. His EA said that now we've exchanged then if they do pull out they would end up compensating us thousands.

beccad

That's right.

Joey122

Hammyman wrote: »

We've just exchanged today. The husband of the couple selling house is an !!!! to the point his solicitor instructed his EA to ring his wife and not him. His EA said that now we've exchanged then if they do pull out they would end up compensating us thousands.

This is interesting - What penalties exactly would be levied

For me this sounds like fraud just waiting to jappen

Sooler

Joey122 wrote: »

What penalties exactly would be levied

http://www.access-legal.co.uk/services/conveyancing/frequently-asked-questions-689.htm#981

• Can I pull out of my sale?
  
  Any party may withdraw from the transaction prior to exchange of contracts without risk of penalty. Once contracts are exchanged remedies for breach of contract would be available to the suffering party and the buyer would be able to insist on return of their deposit.
  

I think the vendor would have to, at least, reimburse BuyerA all costs incurred.

Hammyman

Joey122 wrote: »

This is interesting - What penalties exactly would be levied

For me this sounds like fraud just waiting to jappen

All my solicitor costs, valuations and searches. In addition to that, all the costs of buying a new property. As I'm also letting out my property I'm currently in, loss of rental income.

If I had been selling the house and completed the sale and had to move out now with nowhere to go, they would also be liable for all storage costs, additional moving costs plus the costs of accommodation whilst I found somewhere else.

Richard_Webster

Seller would be liable to buyer for costs etc and would have to return the deposit paid. Problem is that having disposed of property he could do a runner and it could be difficult actually to recover any losses other than getting the deposit back.

If buyer's solicitor had carried out an OS1 search immediately contracts were exchanged they would have obtained priority at the Land Registry and buyer 2 would not be able to register his transaction. When his solicitors did their search they would find that there was a prior search with priority and they would ask what this was about and the story would then unravel - but to be fair it isn't normal to do an OS1 search immediately on exchange.

The other point is that the seller's second solicitor is bound to be suspicious of the sudden speed of the transaction and would ask questions so the fraudster would have to be very clever actually to get away with it.