Buyer pulling out after exchange of contracts

zappahey

shhe wrote: »

I was wondering if anyone would be able to advise me on what would happen if contracts were exchanged on a property but the buyer pulls out and keeps the deposit?

The contract with the estate agent says that fees are payable once contracts are exchanged.

To avoid any confusion, and make sure the answers are useful to you, is this a theory question or is this actually happening to you?

shhe

zappahey wrote: »

To avoid any confusion, and make sure the answers are useful to you, is this a theory question or is this actually happening to you?

Sorry, should have said this at the beginning, this is a what if question

FireWyrm

Rest assured, it wont. It is more likely that you will be struck by a car and die than a sale fall through after exchange. It's just too costly for both parties and any solicitor who did not take extreme pains to avoid it wouldnt be a solicitor for long. It has happened, once on here and it received fantastic traffic simply because it was so rare. All sales are effectively final after exchange, nothing short of death stops it going through.

Just out of interest MissMotivation...how did you get your client out of that fix :-)

MissMotivation

FireWyrm wrote: »

Rest assured, it wont. It is more likely that you will be struck by a car and die than a sale fall through after exchange. It's just too costly for both parties and any solicitor who did not take extreme pains to avoid it wouldnt be a solicitor for long. It has happened, once on here and it received fantastic traffic simply because it was so rare. All sales are effectively final after exchange, nothing short of death stops it going through.

Just out of interest MissMotivation...how did you get your client out of that fix :-)

I believe, and bearing in mind this was several years ago, that none of chain forfeited deposits or sued because it was a death and not someone just changing their mind.

FireWyrm

MissMotivation wrote: »

I believe, and bearing in mind this was several years ago, that none of chain forfeited deposits or sued because it was a death and not someone just changing their mind.

Well, that kind of makes sense. The buyer most definately had mitigating circumstances....:rotfl:I just wondered if the 'estate' was forced to pay instead and the heirs just inherited the property.

mumcoll

It did happen to my son - he was selling a shared ownership property. The purchasers' mortgage company pulled the money AFTER exchange as there was only 66 years left on the lease. (Which they hadn't noticed before :eek:) The purchasers couldn't buy the freehold as it was owned by the council (who owned the other 50%). It couldn't be sold unless the other 50% was purchased from the council at the same time. They were obviously buying a shared ownership as they couldn't afford a 'whole' house.

So it all fell apart after exchange. His solicitor said he'd never seen it in his years of practice.

A very stressful time for my son who couldn't afford to keep the house either - however, a cash buyer came along and that sale went through in a matter of weeks.

PasturesNew

Running_Horse wrote: »

Enter the following words into the search box at the top of the forum page:

"welshwoofs after exchange contract"

There was a monster discussion on it a while back.

Making it easier ... here is a link to the thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1806123

paddy's_mum

This once happened to me. On the morning of completion, my purchasers (a large and voluble Portuguese family, with 5 adult children living at home plus their various kiddies) were sat outside my house in a string of vans and cars waiting for the keys to be handed over, when I got a phone call from my conveyancer saying that the money had not been forthcoming from the Portuguese people's purchaser. The whole chain ground, very loudly and heatedly, to a halt!

Consternation/hysterics doesn't begin to cover it! I just heaved a sigh and got the coffee pot on.

After most of the day being spent in frantic phone calls and arrangements between their solicitor and my conveyancers, it was agreed that they could come in "under licence" which, as I understood it, meant that they had no more status than lodgers but at least were not outside in the street in a cold February night with nowhere to rest their heads! Under the terms of their own contract, of course, they had no right to return to the house which they had just sold and vacated. I went to my Mum's.

Three days later, their purchaser's solicitor finally got hold of him and pointed out that paying the money was not a matter of 'when I'm next passing your office, I'll drop it in' and everything went ahead relatively smoothly. I might add that the recalcitrant payer picked up the extra bills for all three of the solicitors acting in this short chain.

My conveyancer, head of a large department, and with 11 years experience had had it happen only twice in her career - once when a buyer dropped dead the day before completion and once when a buyer flipped and was sectioned between exchange and completion.

It is, thank heaven, unbelievably rare and as worthy of being worried about as wondering if you're going to be eaten by a polar bear during this week's shopping trip to your local Sainsbury store.

shhe

paddy's_mum wrote: »

It is, thank heaven, unbelievably rare and as worthy of being worried about as wondering if you're going to be eaten by a polar bear during this week's shopping trip to your local Sainsbury store.

I'm a worrier by nature in my world the polar bear scenario might just happen....

hcb42

shhe wrote: »

I'm a worrier by nature in my world the polar bear scenario might just happen....

dont go down the frozen food aisle. THere are polar bears there. i have seen them on the telly.

This happened to my brother in law once (the buyer pulling out, not the polar bear attack). I know he recouped quite a bit of cash from them, what a pain though.