Seller pulled out!

Ashan55

The seller of the property we were purchasing decided to no longer wanted to sell the house to us on the day we were supposed to exchange!! He will be going through another estate agent who have said they can sell the house for more money (I guess we will see it zoopla in the next few days).

Is there anyway we can recover any money from him? He was desperate for the money and thought we took too long to exchange (its been around 6 weeks)

lee111s

Nope, nothing can be done if contracts were not exchanged. Either party is free to pull out right up until the point of exchange.

Malmo

Nothing can be done as you hadn't exchanged contracts, hence no legal recourse.

Move on and look for another property.

engineer_amy

just hope karma bites him in the bum and whichever buyer offers him more money pulls out themselves

Ashan55

Thanks for the replies!!!

House buying is so stressful.

stator

Ask him if he's aware he'll still have to pay the first estate agent.

They found him a "ready, willing and able" buyer, so he will probably have to pay them, even if he doesn't exchange.

Jemima09

I went through the same thing.. my mortgage took a long time to get approved, and they didn't complain during that process.. then finally got the mortgage approved, and a couple of days after that they decided not to sell! no reason given, just that they decided to stay put. Then about 3 weeks later it went back on the market at a higher price.. EA asked me if I wanted to switch back because I hadn't yet exchanged on the next one I was buying, but there's no guarantee they wouldn't have done it again! I notice it's now gone from rightmove but never went to STC, so I'm thinking they just backed out again...

It's very very frustrating! I lost my valuation fee (£300) but luckily the council didn't start the searches straight away so I got the money back for those.

Thrugelmir

Ashan55 wrote: »

He was desperate for the money and thought we took too long to exchange (its been around 6 weeks)

Possible there's insufficient equity to discharge the debt he owes. So isn't able to proceed further.

shortchanged_2

One of the bad things about house buying. Its too easy for the seller to encourage gazumping.
Personally I think that once the seller has accepted a procedable offer they should be liable for the buyers costs up to the point of exchange if they pull out. Why should the buyer be out of pocket for something out of their control?

themull1

I don't think it would be able to let it lie, i would find where the house is being re advertised, and get someone to put in a fake offer, then pull out, I love tit for tat. I know its childish......

audigex

themull1 wrote: »

I don't think it would be able to let it lie, i would find where the house is being re advertised, and get someone to put in a fake offer, then pull out, I love tit for tat. I know its childish......

I was just about to say that I hope nobody does something like that. That would be terrible.

Part of me thinks that's really mean and unprofessional (not that this is a "professional" transaction, as nobody is at work.... but you know what I mean)... the other part thinks that the fact the seller is JUST chasing cash makes it fair.

You wouldn't mind if they had to withdraw for a good reason, but just because they think they can get more money? I'd be tempted to waste their time back. Whether I would is a different question.... I'll let you know if anyone ever does it to me