Buyer has pulled-out - need advice

pinkteapot

EA fees are normally only payable on completion so they shouldn't be due, but check your contract and speak to them.

Mortgage application fee *may* possibly be transferable to a different house you buy. Check with the lender.

You may not lose the house you're buying. If you find a new buyer before they do, they should still sell to you. You said they won't wait but they can't sell tomorrow. They'll need to remarket. You'll only lose it if they get an offer from a chain-free buyer, or if yours takes a long time to sell again.

Snakey

Some good advice already given.

What I'll add is that you should make allowances for the fact that everyone else in the chain is just as stressed about this as you are - and perhaps (human nature being what it is) are of the belief that if it had been their buyer then they would have spotted it before now and therefore can't help but assign a little bit of the blame to you even though they know that isn't right.

So don't react immediately to any threats further up the chain about people pulling out - let things calm down over the weekend, and see how everyone is feeling once they have had time to think properly and discuss it with their other halves and professional advisers.

Just because someone's immediate reaction is "well, tell him we're not going to wait, if he doesn't exchange regardless then we're off", doesn't mean that's what they'll definitely do.

Good luck.

Argghhh

my buyer pulled out when i sold my last house so i wrote them a really nice letter, passed along by my estate agent, saying how sad i was they had pulled out of the purchase and that it was a shame as searches and survey already done and we were within touching distance of completing and that if there was anyway in which i could help to please contact me
No word of a lie - 2 wks later - EA rang me up and said they wanted to buy house would we accept them again as buyers and we completed a month later - might be worth offering a sweetner of 2k towards her fees ( on completion) might be cheaper in the long run. Yes i know legally cant do it but you could buy some expensive stuff she was selling on ebay off her or summat lol