House purchase - What made you pull out?

Skiddaw1

We've never actually pulled out once offer made but we pulled out of a second viewing (we were intending to make an offer) when we discovered an enormous gas supply depot was due to be built on adjacent ex-MOD land. Luckily, we'd spotted the planning permission notice and looked it up. It explained why house was so much cheaper than seemed warranted...

bertiewhite

Diocletian_II wrote: »

I think one mistake buyers make is failing to consider, before they buy, what the neighbours could be like.

I rejected one house as soon as I was met at the door by the EA because of the amount of cars in various states of repair on next door's front lawn. The EA remarked that he couldn't do much about the neighbours to which I said "exactly, I doubt anyone could"

System

bertiewhite wrote: »

I rejected one house as soon as I was met at the door by the EA because of the amount of cars in various states of repair on next door's front lawn. The EA remarked that he couldn't do much about the neighbours to which I said "exactly, I doubt anyone could"

That's an obvious one. The more difficult one to ascertain is whether there are unpleasant neighbour dynamics going on below the surface, and to consider whether they could affect you if you bought. It's probably mostly impossible to know this before you buy though, unless you have inside information.

babyblade41

I haven't pulled out of buying but I've had to pull out of selling once... I felt awful for ages but thankfully the buyer found somewhere about half a mile away a couple of days later

bobobski

I've pulled out of three:

1. Couldn't get a mortgage due to structural damage to the building - the freeholder was the council - there was evidence that they'd been aware of the issue for years and had no plans to do anything about it.

2. Legal problem with an upstairs flat where it had no right of way over the ground floor areas. Seller had no intention of fixing the issue, and even if they had it would have been out of their control anyway (landlord and ground floor tenant would need to be involved). Seller kept blaming Land Registry but the issue was the lease itself.

3. Seller's solicitors never even issued papers - no onward chain so no reason for delay, and EA kept telling me it would be "soon". I waited for months, and eventually pulled out a month before the mortgage offer expired, as I had told the EA very early on that I wouldn't be making an application for a renewal of my offer in this case.

In all of the above, I found the process of withdrawing offers very simple and faced no pressure to change my mind - probably because the EA in each case was sympathetic to the reasons. And I'm glad things went the way they did, as I learned a lot from the experience and eventually found a property completely out of the same league as those above (although the process of buying it was 10x more stressful!).

My advice is: be selfish. Unless you're very lucky with your advisers, no one is really looking out for your interests except you, and you don't owe anyone anything (especially when you've already been so patient with them), so do what's right for you. Good luck!

System

bobobski wrote: »

Unless you're very lucky with your advisers, no one is really looking out for your interests except you, and you don't owe anyone anything (especially when you've already been so patient with them), so do what's right for you. Good luck!

This is very true. It can be a mistake to rely on others' advice, even professional advice that you are paying for, as it has its own interests and never truly aligns with your interests. I have had a dodgy solicitor before, whose main efforts (and expertise) were in covering up her own incompetence.

newbridge

Pulled out of purchasing a coach-house, when my solicitor highlighted the free-holder/mgmt company were horrible and had high charges for simple tasks (requesting documents, reselling etc). Solicitor had conveyed a property on same estate before.