Should we lobby for change in the house buying and selling processes..the present system is PANTS!

johnhenstock

CSI_Yorkshire said:

When you book a holiday you sign the contract, which includes the deposit that you lose.  Entirely different situation.

Don't exchange and complete on the same day, that's just asking for stress.

How do you suggest holding people to contracts that don't yet exist?

Ahm… DO exchange and complete on the same day, easiest transaction ever, no risk of losing deposits, no faff.

Postik

johnhenstock said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

When you book a holiday you sign the contract, which includes the deposit that you lose.  Entirely different situation.

Don't exchange and complete on the same day, that's just asking for stress.

How do you suggest holding people to contracts that don't yet exist?

Ahm… DO exchange and complete on the same day, easiest transaction ever, no risk of losing deposits, no faff.

Apart from the fact you've paid the removals firm by then, and your entire life is in cardboard boxes, just for it to fall through on the day

CSI_Yorkshire

Postik said:

johnhenstock said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

When you book a holiday you sign the contract, which includes the deposit that you lose.  Entirely different situation.

Don't exchange and complete on the same day, that's just asking for stress.

How do you suggest holding people to contracts that don't yet exist?

Ahm… DO exchange and complete on the same day, easiest transaction ever, no risk of losing deposits, no faff.

Apart from the fact you've paid the removals firm by then, and your entire life is in cardboard boxes, just for it to fall through on the day

Exactly.  Day off work, everything loaded up in the removal truck, maybe even on the way or already in a hotel if it's a long move, already cancelled services and given closing meter readings, just to get the "it's not happening" call and have to undo everything.

Extra lost costs, extra hassle.

The amount of transactions that fall through after exchange and lose their deposit is miniscule.  The amount that fall through prior to exchange is much greater.  The amount requiring a delay to a proposed exchange date even greater still.  Why put the biggest risk together with the worst impact?

Grizebeck

TBG01 said:

Would you be lobbying for the same if it was your daughter who had pulled out?

of course they wouldn't dont be daft

youth_leader

I had two 'cash' buyers pull out weeks after offering, and on the second occasion I was very upset as I'd found somewhere I would have loved to live.  I'd been told he wanted to 'move fast' and had also sold my beloved huge sofa far too cheap,  for speed. 

When I went for my third attempt on the market I approached my EA and asked if it was possible to get a 'deposit' or 'promise' from a future buyer - doesn't exist in England. 

At the least I would like the system in England to change so that a level 3 survey plus a damp/timber report, possibly structural survey is available to prospective buyers upon viewing a  property, as well as the searches. 

Even with my L3 survey, I was caught out by not having asked my vendor if the floors were in 'good' order. 

CSI_Yorkshire

youth_leader said:

At the least I would like the system in England to change so that a level 3 survey plus a damp/timber report, possibly structural survey is available to prospective buyers upon viewing a  property, as well as the searches. 
. 

Which would be an entirely unnecessary extra cost in many circumstances, plus the only recompense available for ''oversights" in the survey would be by the seller (as the buyer would have no contract with the surveyor).

youth_leader said:

When I went for my third attempt on the market I approached my EA and asked if it was possible to get a 'deposit' or 'promise' from a future buyer - doesn't exist in England. 

Why would there be a deposit from someone who hadn't yet had the chance to do their due diligence in an open transaction?  If you want that, you sell at auction.

user1977

youth_leader said:

When I went for my third attempt on the market I approached my EA and asked if it was possible to get a 'deposit' or 'promise' from a future buyer - doesn't exist in England. 

What would the terms of this "promise" be? By the time you've negotiated that, you may as well have a fully-fledged contract.

It might be worth bearing in mind that the buyer doesn't need to have done all their due diligence before exchanging contracts, that's just what has become normal practice in England & Wales. The normal form of contract in Scotland is conditional on the title and searches etc being exhibited afterwards, with the buyer being entitled to pull out if there are any material problems. But it does at least get the price and completion date firmed up.

user1977

p00hsticks said:

phebe3 said:

But ....you have paid for searches, paid for solicitors services etc and then potentially lose the house...this happened to us and friends. ..and we have moved a few times.  Last time we lost a house 10 days before we were due to move. We had already, obviously, paid for searches and solicitors fees.  Luckily our buyers agreed to wait for us to re sell and we had to look again for another suitable house to buy. 

I'm not sure what steps are in place to ensure that any survey carried out on a property is independent and that it's the buyer rather than the seller who commissioned it that has any legal comeback if they are later found to be faulty, 

It's instructed by the seller, so in that sense it's not "independent", but the surveyor undertakes a duty of care to the buyer and their lender so is as capable of being sued as a surveyor you've instructed yourself.

And yes, it is shifting the survey cost to the seller, but at least it will be a one-off cost rather than one potentially being incurred by several buyers (bear in mind it was brought in to replace the normal Scottish practice of buyers getting their survey before submitting an offer, so in a closing date scenario you could have several surveyors acting for different bidders).

Schwarzwald

youth_leader said:

At the least I would like the system in England to change so that a level 3 survey plus a damp/timber report, possibly structural survey is available to prospective buyers upon viewing a  property, as well as the searches. 

Even with my L3 survey, I was caught out by not having asked my vendor if the floors were in 'good' order. 

in theory every vendor can commission such reports and surveys ahead of time and before conducting viewings, nothing that speaks against it, it's just a trade off between keeping the vendor's costs low -v- buyer's comfort level at the time of bidding after 1-2 20min of viewings with an often clueless EA

Schwarzwald

phebe3 said:

So....once again a chain collapses.  This time, my daughter...due to move in two weeks, and her buyer has pulled out.  No reason why.  And the agent omitted to tell my daughter for two weeks...daughter found out when solicitor mentioned it. Which leaves her and her husband in %$£*"!  ...as their mortgage was agreed..at the lower rate..on the amount they sold their house for. Which they are not sure they will get now.  They have also paid a lot of money for a full building survey on the house they thought they were buying.   Also leaves the people they are buying from in a mess as they can't move into the (empty)property they are going for unless they sell their house.

Time and time again I hear this happening....and it has happened to us an every member of our family, to friends, and relatives....buyers pulling out, chains collapsing, causing stress and in many cases leaving people out of pocket.  It seems ridiculous that when we book a holiday, which costs a fraction of the price, we have to pay a deposit which we lose if we cancel said holiday.  And yet when we agree to buy a house /are selling our properties, then the chain can collapse up until the v very hour the contracts are signed, and the keys in your hand.  Last time one of our offspring moved we were literally in the van, loaded up with all their belongings, waiting to hear if they could move into the house they were buying on that day, as they had to get out of the one they had as the buyer said he wouldn't have it unless he could move in on that day.  (we'd have had a very crowded house if they'd not got the house they were buying on that day!) 

The system seems a mess and needs sorting out....any ideas/ways to lobby?

so what are the specifics that you want to lobby for? or is it just a lobbying against the current market practice without a proposal for an actual new system?