Why no law to prevent buyers pulling out

_Penny_Dreadful

user1977 said:

FlorayG said:

Isn't there some law to that effect in Scotland?

Nothing to do with differences in the law (other than perhaps having Home Reports, which speeds things up to an extent), mainly just different normal practice. England could have contracts entered into at an earlier stage if people wanted.

There is a difference in that once your offer has been made and accepted your solicitor can no longer continue to act for you if you attempt to gazunder. Likewise the seller’s solicitor can no longer continue to act for the seller should the seller attempt to gazump. 

user1977

_Penny_Dreadful said:

user1977 said:

FlorayG said:

Isn't there some law to that effect in Scotland?

Nothing to do with differences in the law (other than perhaps having Home Reports, which speeds things up to an extent), mainly just different normal practice. England could have contracts entered into at an earlier stage if people wanted.

There is a difference in that once your offer has been made and accepted your solicitor can no longer continue to act for you if you attempt to gazunder. Likewise the seller’s solicitor can no longer continue to act for the seller should the seller attempt to gazump. 

There is that, though that's because of professional practice rules rather than "law" as such. And the parties can still gazump/gazunder, they just have the hassle of finding a new solicitor!

Skiddaw1

I'd much rather the Scottish system for all it isn't perfect than the bloody awful English system.

OP, really sorry. Talking as someone who did (eventually) successfully relocate to the Lake District, I'm certain you'll get there in the end. Good luck.

ReadySteadyPop

Mortgage rates have jumped recently, that could be the issue, you can`t force someone into something they can no longer afford?

ian1246

I feel for you Op. Myself, wife (at the time) sold our house and had an offer accepted on a beautiful newly renovated detached Bungalow.

Our buyer pulled out a few weeks before exchange. We found a new buyer... he then pulled out as well. Nothing wrong with the house we were selling - just it was during the Stamp-Duty Holuday during Covid when the market went crazy. 3rd buyer got all the way to the day of exchange but was unable to proceed further due to a land registry issue on her house sale.

Eventually sold to a 4th buyer.... but by then we'd lost the Bungalow and ended up buying a detached house needing work. Due to the various delays with the 3rd buyer, where completion was meant to happen 4months before our son was due, it happened 3 weeks after he was born.

In hindsight, moving into a house needing lots of work with a 3 week old baby & a poorly wife (traumatic birth & severe post natal depression / at the time undiagnosed PTSD)  was a terrible terrible decision - And which sadly broke our marriage.

The market is thankfully much better now (selling our family home went smoothly, with noone pulling out - despite it having previously flooded in 2014!). Hopefully second times the charm for you!

The law/process definitely needs updating though!

Sapindus

ian1246 said:

... but by then we'd lost the Bungalow...

And if there'd been a law to "stop buyers pulling out" you'd have been in a right pickle.

We had buyers pull out when the overbearing husband finally realised no amount of wishful thinking was going to get his disabled wife up a steep staircase every time she wanted the bathroom.  Cross as I was, I wouldn't have wished that on her.  There's two sides to most stories...

themadvix

We pulled out after a survey (which for reasons I can’t now remember had been delayed, meaning most of the rest of the work had been done) when it uncovered potential dry rot that would have cost c£100k to fix on a gII listed house, likely caused by poor upkeep. Plus a second property on the plot that was advertised as a holiday let but had no planning permission for that use. How would it have been right for us to be contracted to go through with the purchase at that point? It’s frustrating for the seller but people are spending not just their own life savings but also the bank’s money - they can’t be committed to anything until all the checks have been carried out. 

Dustyevsky

jigsaw21 said:

 They’ve paid for searches, survey, solicitor and now pulled the plug. Leaving us very little time to sell and complete. 

Why isn’t there law to ensure a non refundable deposit is taken at the first stage?

Aren't the things they paid for non-refundable? This indicates to me their reasons weren't trivial.

Our last buyers dropped us in it too, but the net result was much better in the end. Put us in a different frame of mind.

Success and failure is much connected to mindset.

WellKnownSid

Skiddaw1 said:

I'd much rather the Scottish system for all it isn't perfect than the bloody awful English system.

We had the buyer of our buyer's property unable to proceed come the day of entry despite the missives being concluded on both of our sales.  That put us all in a bit of a pickle for a few weeks!

I feel if this had happened in England all hell would have probably broken loose, not in Scotland - although our lawyer did concede it was 'definitely a frustrating situation'!

YoungBlueEyes

From the other side of the coin - 

We were selling our big old Edwardian terrace house, all going fine, then on the morning of exchange the buyer decided that it'd be great as a pair of flats so he took the money it'd cost to do the work off his offer. On the morning of exchange. I used a lot of bad language that day