Buyer pulled out...

UPSET_3

I can't believe it.
Our Buyer has just pulled out because they couldn't get the cash they needed. When they first put the offer in on our house they wanted a 95% mortgage, which was fine. In the end they wanted a 125% mortgage (Don't know what changed!) They couldn't get a lender.
What upsets me is that we have paid a fortune out on mortgage set ups, solicitor fees, surveys etc..... on the house we were buying. I do not understand why we were not told the buyer was struggling to get a lender. If we had been, we certainly wouldn't have paid out all that money.
Are the EA's obliged to tell you there is a problem..?
We have had to put our house back on the market. The people we were buying off have put theirs back up too. I just know we are going to lose it now and we can't afford to fork out all that money again on surveys on another house....
What worse is we were ready to move in 4 wks. I have my baby in 10 wks time and really wanted to be in the new house by then.
I really want to scream....

indiegirl_2

I'm sorry to hear of your predicament - I'm in exactly the same situation as you (my FTB dropped out last week without telling anyone - not even the agents).

Until we move to the Scottish way where an offer is legally binding we're going to suffer this problem over and over.

There is room for massive improvement on some agents' communication channels - we only found out that our buyers had dropped out because we were sat at home waiting for their surveyor to turn up - and he never did :eek: A swift call to the agents had them chasing around trying to found out what was going on...

I don't think EAs are allowed (let alone legally obliged) to tell you that the buyer is having financial difficulties until the buyer themselves officially pulls out. At least you have a fairly reasonable excuse for their pulling out.

Hopefully your place will sell quickly and you'll be back on track - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

spunkeyrich

Estate Agents can only ask a limited number of questions regarding someones finances, people unfortunatly sometimes are not honest, and will keep telling an agent everything is fine when it it not while they try to apply for finacial help, sometimes this is one of the reasons that agents or sellers should consider the continued marketing of homes until a buyer is more secure (survey done) rather than 'holding' a home for them.

sorry to hear of your situation, but i doubt very much the agent had much to do with it as they want homes to go through for payment, it is usual for an agent to ask a selling thier direction of weather they want to continue to market a home or to have it withdraw from open market while a sale is proceeding, and to be honest, alot of people want a free run at a home before paying out to buy.

catch 22 situation.

rich

rich

silvercar

hopefully you will find another buyer before your seller does. In which case everything can get back on track.

wnb

I have never been in a chain before but surely you can ask for proof that the they have finance in place before you start spending 1000's.

spunkeyrich

I suppose an Agent could phone a mortage provider and ask weather someone is has an application in the pipeline, but they are very limited to handing out that infomation.

Alot of genuine buyers would be insulted with that question though and probably get the hump. It used to be the norm to have a buyer go through an in house morgage expert to check thier ability to pay. But there was alot of dodgy dealings that went hand in hand with that as of course the main reason was to make money out of them.

kingkano

Some buyers will have AIPs in place, and estate agents sometimes ask to see them. Surely this is the kinda thing that could happen?

UPSET_3

Thank You for your support.

The thing that bothers me most is that the buyers came round 3 times to look at the house SINCE putting in their offer. They brought the whole family at one point (3 generations)
We had swapped numbers too and said if there were any problems we would call each other to advise.....
When we found out they had pulled out, we called them to ask why. That is when they told us they wanted a 125% mortgage and couldn't get it. They also told us they had put an offer in on a cheaper house that had been accepted..!! We have since found out that we probably signed our cheques for the solicitor etc.... on the same day they had put an offer in on the cheaper house. Arrrrrrggghhhhhh!!
We could have been a little bit better off money wise had they just told us.
:mad: :mad: :mad:

spunkeyrich

Those are the kind of people that made me decide I no longer wanted to be an Agent. Makes my angry just reading your situation, unfortunatly, theres alot of people like that around who are selfish and dont care about peoples feelings.

Hope all goes well for you, and maybe you will end up in a better situation soon.

rich

kingkano

that really does suck and scares me about selling our flat....

lianne1978

So sorry to hear about that, totally understand what you are going through it happened to us nearly 3 weeks ago. We had built up a solicitors bill of 200 and paid 510 for the survey on the house we wanted, I felt so depressed and scared we'd lose the house. I wouldn't have been too bothered as their are plenty of houses, but we'd viewed 16!

In fairness to our EA they really pulled the stops out to get people through our door and we got another buyer 6 days after.

However, after promising they would instruct a survey within the week it isn't taking place until tomorrow and their offer was accepted a week last Friday.
The vendor of the house we want wouldn't consider allowing us a couple of week's grace to get a buyer and survey carried out. They have continued to market it and have had viewings and I was so worried as the offer they accepted was 4k less than asking price, 5 days after it went on the market. However, it would seem what is my dream house isn't everyones as although there has been interest in the property nobody has submitted an offer.

So don't panic things may work out for you. Put plenty of pressure on your EA to market your house as a 'hot property', i.e. anyone who'd shown an interest previously, put in previous offers, wanted a viewing again, wants a house in your area etc. Fingers crossed, oh and I suppose legs too!!!