Seller cancelled sale

flatulantyounggoat

Can anyone give me a bit of advice?

I'm about 2 weeks away from exchange of contract and the seller has suddenly and unexpectedly cancelled the sale without warning. Now I'm down £200 on survey costs and another £1000 on solicitor fees. I'm gobsmacked especially as I've poured all this cash on the transaction to then just have them pull the carpet on a whim. Is there literally nothing I can do to protect myself from this? Am I suppose to just accept I'm completely vulnerable, and this could happen again too. Is there really nothing I can do and just accept this could cost me 1000's again?

I simply cannot believe this, at least in a casino I could have a chance of actually winning something. Robbery. Do I have any way to recoup my costs whatsoever?

babyblade41

You maybe able to come to some arrangement with your solicitor for a future sale maybe getting a slight reduction but generally sales falling through does sometimes happen.. a very close friend had it happen twice, thankfully 3rd time lucky and it went through and she was far happier with her final purchase

It could be worse it could be the day of exchange

need_an_answer

Sadly its a risk you take when buying a property...nothing is set in stone until exchange of contracts.

I can only sympathise with you the seller of the property I was buying pulled out on Tuesday almost 5 months since we started the whole process.

RelievedSheff

As you have not exchanged contracts then the seller is not legally obliged to sell you the property.

As difficult as it is there is very little you can do other start looking for another property.

AdrianC

Right up until exchange, BOTH sides can just step back and walk away. No, no liability for the other side's fees at all.

But you say "on a whim". Nobody ever does so lightly... Remember, they've got a lot of time, effort and money invested in this, too - and they're walking away from that. Do you know why they've decided not to sell? Perhaps their purchase has collapsed? Perhaps they've been given bad employment, health or family news?

You could have gone with a solicitor that offered no-completion-no-fee, of course.

flatulantyounggoat

Has anyone not ever tried to take a seller to the small claims court? Essentially, damages have been caused. If I crash into your car it's no good saying well that's life$hit happens???

hazyjo

flatulantyounggoat wrote: »

Has anyone not ever tried to take a seller to the small claims court? Essentially, damages have been caused. If I crash into your car it's no good saying well that's life$hit happens???

Not the best analogy lol.


More like someone saying 'I'll buy your car, mate. Just waiting on mine to sell and I'll buy the same day". Anything could happen to make them pull out. They could find a better or cheaper one, or something could happen to make them no longer need a car. If you wanted to sell that car with very little risk of losing a buyer, you'd use an auction. Same with property.


It's a pain, but it's common. Around 30-odd% of sales collapse.

SunnyCat

The same thing recently happened to me, except for being out of pocket for 1k survey, 1k+ solicitor and searches and 500 mortgage fee... quite aggravating for sure.

davidmcn

flatulantyounggoat wrote: »

£1000 on solicitor fees.

Sounds steep for an abortive residential purchase. I mean, it might be reasonable depending on the amount of work done, but any abortive transaction ought to attract a discount as there is no "responsibility" element i.e. you haven't relied on the solicitors' advice for a purchase which didn't happen.

sillyhilly

It's just the way it is, unfortunately. And really, there's not much or even anything you can do about it.

Overall though, I agree that this whole !!!!!show needs a reform.

tom9980

To everyone complaining write to your MP, you know actually do something about it??