Had your offer accepted and then pulled out before exchange? I want to hear your experience.

LAD917

Bottom line is agents want to get paid / earn commissions and won't hold it against you if you're acting reasonably.

I pulled out of a couple of purchases on the advice of a solicitor. In both cases, I made a good-faith attempt to solve the problem and reach compromise with the seller (and in one case, freeholder), but the problems proved to be unresolvable. In one instance, the agent was professional about it. In another instance, the agent scolded me and sent me a note saying he had the property under offer to another buyer within 24 hours.... and then several weeks later, came back with his tail between his legs when that buyer pulled out for the same reason. I didn't respond.  He continued to send me several more properties for months.

Asking for reductions after a survey is trickier.  My general rule / assumption is that reductions should only be for things that are not plainly visible or otherwise disclosed.  If a buyer wants to do surveys, I generally make it clear that these are for informational purposes only, and I intend to market the property until the surveys are done and the buyer signs off on the property condition.  (I do not subscribe to the common practise of only doing surveys, searches, etc. after a chain is formed - I'd rather waste money than time.)  If I'm buying a "project," I usually make it clear with my offer that I'm realistic about the condition and either don't intend to do a survey (if I feel comfortable with my own knowledge) or intend to do a survey within the first week for informational purposes.  The nightmare for any vendor is a last-minute survey / request for reduction.  I normally try to take that off the table, especially if I'm offering low.

olgadapolga

We pulled out of a purchase after the survey revealed potential problems with the drains, along with an issue around the boundaries of the property. The vendor was not willing to renegotiate the price so our solicitor advised us against continuing with it. We found another (better) house with the same estate agent, so it clearly wasn't an issue for them.

The house that we didn't buy eventually sold to a developer for £37k less than our post-survey offer. 

Dodged a bullet there, methinks.

Keswick1uk

On our first purchase we pulled out of first offer house when it turned out the extension had no planning permission. Solicitor advised us to.

On our second purchase we sort of pulled out in that the chain fell apart somewhere at the bottom. Then the house we had offered on went back on market and sold to someone else.

Keswick1uk

In both cases we paid a bit for our legal costs, surveys/valuations and searches of the aborted purchases. 

Scotbot

nicenic said:

@AnotherJoe I am being asked to make offers that are not subject to survey. So what I am saying is, I am tempted to make such offers and then if there is an issue back out on 'buyers whim' as you say. Of course it is legal but I personally feel uncomfortable doing it so was seeking opinions on the acceptability of doing it morally, and what consequences there are if any. @AdrianC I understand there are no legal consequences, was more asking if anyone had suffered any other consequences, as I suggest, being dealt with differently by EA in the future. 

It is a given in England that any offer is subject to survey as you are legally entitled to drop out at any point before exchange  you don't have to state it. Not sure if this is the case in Scotland.

 I pulled out of one purchase because of a survey, the second purchase because of solar panels which had a lease, the third property because the school directly behind had an application approved to double in size and renegotiated the price on the 4th and final property after survey issues.

MovingForwards

Scotbot said:

nicenic said:

@AnotherJoe I am being asked to make offers that are not subject to survey. So what I am saying is, I am tempted to make such offers and then if there is an issue back out on 'buyers whim' as you say. Of course it is legal but I personally feel uncomfortable doing it so was seeking opinions on the acceptability of doing it morally, and what consequences there are if any. @AdrianC I understand there are no legal consequences, was more asking if anyone had suffered any other consequences, as I suggest, being dealt with differently by EA in the future. 

It is a given in England that any offer is subject to survey as you are legally entitled to drop out at any point before exchange  you don't have to state it. Not sure if this is the case in Scotland.

 I pulled out of one purchase because of a survey, the second purchase because of solar panels which had a lease, the third property because the school directly behind had an application approved to double in size and renegotiated the price on the 4th and final property after survey issues.

A buyer, or seller, can pull out at any point up to conclusion of missives (exchange) in Scotland.

When I made my offer it was subject to valuation by my lender, if the sellers HR surveyor wasn't on the lender's panel which they weren't. Even when I instructed my solicitor to make the formal offer, mine had been accepted before emailing him, he said it's always subject to survey / any other checks as standard.

SpiderLegs

nicenic said:

I am currently looking for a property to buy, mainly projects. Many of them have many issues and I have found sellers very reluctant to sell subject to survey. The market is so crazy I get the feeling people just make an offer and then pull out later if they discover issues, or lower their offer after acceptance. This means that they offer as if everything is fine which is usually higher than what I am willing to offer with a few questions still needing answers. I am thinking of changing tactics to offer higher but I want to know what the consequences are of pulling out before exchange. Will that agent 'blacklist' you and exclude you from offering on other properties or tell vendors that they have been messed around by you before, and advise against accepting your offer? What are your experiences? Any estate agents here, would love to hear from you. 

What is the chain of events here.

Are you trying to make offers that are subject to survey
or are you making a straight offer which the ea is then saying it cannot be subject to survey?

Scotbot

Keswick1uk said:

In both cases we paid a bit for our legal costs, surveys/valuations and searches of the aborted purchases. 

In my  case I paid for the surveys but no legal costs as it was too early in the process. I arranged the surveys as soon as I had made the offer. One property sold soon after for slightly more than I offered. The one near the development was withdrawn a few months later and is now SSTC a year since the development finished . The one with solar panels finally sold a year after my offer at 10% less. So I wasn't the only one who saw issues with them

RJM90

We pulled out of buying a property just last week. We had our offer accepted and our mortgage was with underwriters, unfortunately the survey raised massive red flags. The extension was breaking away from the wall and there were major structural issues with it. We were told it would probably take around £10,000 to fix. Unfortunately the vendor wouldn’t budge on price as she’s in no rush to sell. We can’t have been the only ones to experience this as the property has been on the mark since October 2020 - in this market everything else nearby is being snatched up in a matter of days!

I wouldn’t worry about pulling out of purchasing a house - if there’s a legitimate reason then it shouldn’t even be frowned upon.

TBagpuss

AnotherJoe said:

nicenic said:

I am currently looking for a property to buy, mainly projects. Many of them have many issues and I have found sellers very reluctant to sell subject to survey. The market is so crazy I get the feeling people just make an offer and then pull out later if they discover issues, or lower their offer after acceptance. This means that they offer as if everything is fine which is usually higher than what I am willing to offer with a few questions still needing answers. I am thinking of changing tactics to offer higher but I want to know what the consequences are of pulling out before exchange. Will that agent 'blacklist' you and exclude you from offering on other properties or tell vendors that they have been messed around by you before, and advise against accepting your offer? What are your experiences? Any estate agents here, would love to hear from you. 

All offers are subject not just to "survey" but buyers whim.

Why not just make an offer, without caveats, rather than stating "subject to survey" because that's not only superfluous but immediately gives the vendor you are already in the  mindset of looking to lower the price you've only just offered !

 

I think if you are explicitly saying it is subject to survey then it may be sending up red flags either because it sounds as though you are going to look to pull out for issues which are clearly visible / obvious on viewing, or because people aren't very familiar with the terminology.


Make your  offer based on the  obvious condition of the property. Any offer is subject to contract (i.e. not binding until a contract is actually signed and exchanged) so you don't need to to say that. 

IF, once you have your survey, it reveals further issues you are then free to pull out or to revise your offer to take into account those factors.

You are unlikely to get blacklisted by an agent unless you are being unrealistic - e.g. trying to negotiate down for things which would have been obvious on viewing, or disclosed at the time, or where you are asking for ridiculous reductions / declining to provide any information to back up your demands.

I pulled out of a purchase after the survey. Ironically the agents had said to me, when we were arranging for the surveyor to go to the house, that the seller wanted me to agree not to seek to change my offer following the survey. I told them the obviously that wasn't something I could commit to - it was fairly clear that the agents know it was a ridiculous demand but they had to pass it on. 
The survey showed serious issues with the construction of the extension (I can't remember the full details as its a few years ago now, but broadly speaking there was a two- story extension which wasn't securely tied in to the main house, and was already showing signs of significant movement. there were also issues with the roof of the extension, which had about half the number and strength of beams it should have had, and with the way that joined up with the original roof. ) The surveyor down-valued it significantly .

I pulled out because I didn't want a project that big, and I didn't have the savings to pay for the work which would be needed, in any event, but it was clear that the sellers were not willing to negotiate at all. 

Those sellers were clearly not realistic about the property - the house stayed on the market for over a year after I pulled out, and was 'under offer' more than once in that time, so I assume I wasn't the only one to back out after getting a survey. The house eventually sold for about what my surveyor has suggested -  prices generally in our area had been rising in the intervening year! 

I didn't have any issues with the agents, they had no problems arranging viewings on other properties they were marketing.