House buying: Sale Fell Through, How Do You Claim?

skierskier12

I agree with everyone here, you need to be aware that you only ' bought' the house on completion.
I don't understand how your solicitor accepted your deposit money so early days in the process, monies are normally requested prior to exchange/completion.
Unless you had exchanged contracts, the sellers ( or ex ) owe you nothing and you should have received a pack from your solicitor explaining all this to you.

Good luck in buying your next property, if this has not put you off, things do need to change here, in the meantime, some of us have to carry on playing a fairly... unfair game !
All the best.

Gaz1980

Thanks people. Yes I did suspect there wasn't anything I could do about it Oh well live and learn I guess.

I opened my mail today and have had the cheque returned by the solicitors after 3 weeks!

Just been working it out and I've lost £1731.24

14th May 2012 William H Brown Estate Agents: £498.00.

14th May 2012 HALIFAX DIRECT. £355.00 (From the cost of Wiliam H Brown arranging the Mortgage).
17th May 2012 Blacks solicitors. £295.00
29th May 2012: Connells Survey & Valuation Ltd £475.00
22nd June 2012: £108.24 Blacks solicitors. More search fees.

Total lost = £1731.24

Still looking for another house, but won't be using the same estate agents or solicitors again as there were useless

thelem

I don't understand these costs:

> 14th May 2012 is when they took £498.00.
> 14th May 2012 HALIFAX DIRECT. £355.00 (From the cost of Wiliam H Brown arranging the Mortgage).

Are you saying that you paid £498 to the EA, who then passed £355 of that on to your lender (keeping the rest as commission)? If so, then you can't count the £355 when working out what this has cost you. If not, then what was the £498 for?

Fire_Fox

Why did you pay the estate agents to arrange your mortgage? You could have done that yourself or used an independent broker who would have taken his commission from the lender.

G_M

I bought a house, but the sales fell through..

so... you didn't buy a house.

William H Brown Estate Agents
14th May 2012 is when they took £498.00 for arranging Mortgage etc.

mistake 1: you used the estate agent to arrange your mortgage....
mistake 2: you paid to have a mortgage arranged
So: 2 lessons learned.

£1727.64, Stamp Duty £1675.00, Indemnity Insurance - Chancel Sure £26.50, Indemnity Insurance

mistake 3: you paid for stamp duty before Exchange (HMRC require it to be paid within 30 days (I think) after Completion
mistake 4: you paid for insurance before Exchange - only needs to be in place for Completion.

pinkteapot

It's a hard lesson learned, but the EA have had you a bit.

Solicitors - find your own locally, preferably on recommendation from friends/family. Some solicitors now have a "no completion, no fee" arrangement due to the number of sales falling through. You'd still be liable for searches etc, but they'll carry over their professional fee to your next purchase if your first falls through.

Mortgages - you presumably used the EA's in-house broker. These are not usually whole of market. There's no harm in talking to a broker (ideally independent and whole of market), but do your research first and find out what the best mortgage deal you can get for yourself, direct from the lenders is. We spoke to a broker but they couldn't beat HSBC's deal that we got (HSBC don't offer their mortgages to any brokers). Make sure you know how the broker is paid - do you pay a fee or do they get commission from the lender?

One of those initial costs - the £498? - could have been the mortgage arrangement fee. When you look at mortgages, some have this fee, which is effectively an application fee. If that's what it was, you would have paid the same to Halifax if you went direct and took the same product.

If a purchase doesn't make it as far as exchange, even avoiding the EA bundled services, you will lose:
1. Mortgage arrangement fee (if any - not all mortgages have one)
2. Survey cost
3. Solicitor fees incurred so far

marathonic

I had a potential purchase fall through recently. It was due to repossession hearings being initiated before the seller thought he could just sell the house.

I'd arranged my mortgage, luckily a fee-free one and been in touch with the solicitor. He said he wouldn't need any money until the sellers contracts and the mortgage offer was received.

He'd received the mortgage offer but the sellers contracts never arrived - the sellers solicitor realized what he was trying to do and told him he couldn't sell the house.

The mortgage was fee-free so I didn't pay the valuation. In all, it hasn't cost me anything so far. The bank have told me that, should I have an offer accepted on a house costing the same, or lower, I'd not have to pay the arrangement fee (which are now back in place with this lender). I would, however, have to pay a valuation on the new property. This, in my opinion, is fair enough. If I offer higher, it'd have to go through the underwriting process again so I'd have to pay the arrangement fee.

With regards to the solicitor, because he didn't receive the sellers contracts, he didn't do any searches or anything. The only costs to date will be his time spent on the case. He didn't mention fees at my last meeting so I'm assuming that, as long as I use him for my next purchase, he'll not charge anything for work done to date.

I've been very lucky because a lot of people are caught out for a lot of money.

To answer your question above, you are unlikely to get any money from the seller but it may be worthwhile chasing up each person you paid money to to see whether they will refund the costs or consider some of them as a credit towards your next house purchase.

gr8outdoors

I am pre-contract exchange and have spent on survey & solicitor/searches.

Turns out that building work has been done that does not adhere to planning and listing consents. There are significant financial implications to rectifying this, and it changes the intended use of the property; as a result I have no interest in pursuing the purchase.

Do you think this case might qualify for Small Claims Court (for survey/solicitor fees) on the basis that I made the offer on the property in good faith based on mis-represented particulars?

Thanks in advance

Fire_Fox

gr8outdoors wrote: »

I am pre-contract exchange and have spent on survey & solicitor/searches.

Turns out that building work has been done that does not adhere to planning and listing consents. There are significant financial implications to rectifying this, and it changes the intended use of the property; as a result I have no interest in pursuing the purchase.

Do you think this case might qualify for Small Claims Court (for survey/solicitor fees) on the basis that I made the offer on the property in good faith based on mis-represented particulars?

Thanks in advance

Welcome! No, you have no contract so no right of recompense. Finding out this sort of thing is the whole point of having legal bods on the case, it's quite normal for sales to fall through after surveys or searches. Next time use a no sale-no fee solicitor.

MelaBella

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Welcome! No, you have no contract so no right of recompense. Finding out this sort of thing is the whole point of having legal bods on the case, it's quite normal for sales to fall through after surveys or searches. Next time use a no sale-no fee solicitor.

absolutely agree, there is no way you can claim anything