Can we reclaim fees paid if vendor pulls out on exchange?

franklee

band wrote: »

There was no mortgage fee, solictitors were £650 incurred so far and £450 for a survey.

Our solicitor has kindly offered to send a letter to their solicitor for no charge which is very nice but I can't see us getting it back.

There should be a law against this!

The survey wasn't wasted money as it told you about the condition of the property and allows you to know the price on offer isn't worth it. So I do not consider that wasted.

As for the solicitor many offer no completion no fee. You would still need to pay for the searches etc.

Arguably you may well have pulled out given the survey said there was 8K work needed in any case as I doubt they would have dropped the price to take that into account. It sounds like whatever happened the vendor wants more than the property is worth to you.

Suggest you give the faults from the survey to the estate agents. They should not let the property with unsafe electrics. So the vendor will either have to spend money upgrading before letting or go back on sale. They may not realise that so you might as well let them know in case it changes their mind.

DTDfanBoy

I'd be tempted to agree to the £5,000 increase, wait until they fly back to sign the paperwork, then inform them that you've decided to rent a place instead of buying :cool:

nubbins

I agree, write the property off in your mind, offer the 5k or whatever it takes to get them to agree, let them fly back from Portugal, wait until the very last second and then say you have changed your mind.

stator

band wrote: »

Does any kind of protection insurance exist where you can get your money back if this happens. We can't afford to go through this now, let alone on another sale.

Yes, many brokers or solicitors offer this as a side product but you can also buy it directly from this website:
http://bespokefinance.eu/purchaseprotection/

I purchased a policy from them and it all seems legit. I haven't claimed though, so can't say 100% if they pay out

moneysavingvixen

Yes, indeed - I claimed on our when the survey was less than favourable in September 2014. We got a refund for everything.

It came automatically with our conveyancing. Feel free to PM for more info.

DTDfanBoy

stator wrote: »

Yes, many brokers or solicitors offer this as a side product but you can also buy it directly from this website:
http://bespokefinance.eu/purchaseprotection/

I purchased a policy from them and it all seems legit. I haven't claimed though, so can't say 100% if they pay out

I have my doubts that the OP would be covered under this policy in the above circumstances, and not being able to view the actual policy terms and conditions before purchase rings alarm bells :eek:

It states that you would be covered if

" The property is withdrawn from sale by the vendor for reasons beyond your control "

Refusing to purchase because the vendor has increased the agreed sale price may not be covered

Pulling out due to a bad survey result would also not be covered unless the mortgage company insisted on a retention of more than 10%, rectification works totalling more than 10%, or down valued the property by more than 10%.

DRP

We purchased a 60 quid 'policy' from our conveyancer to cover their conveyancing fees in the event that the sale/purchase fell through (excluded searches etc I believe).

samba

DRP wrote: »

We purchased a 60 quid 'policy' from our conveyancer to cover their conveyancing fees in the event that the sale/purchase fell through (excluded searches etc I believe).

I went with a fixed price "no completion, no fee" conveyancer and got the same protection at no extra cost.

DRP

samba wrote: »

I went with a fixed price "no completion, no fee" conveyancer and got the same protection at no extra cost.

Yes we compared quotes and it worked out cheaper / same this way.