Why no law to prevent buyers pulling out

Section62

demeggy said:

Disgusting isn't it? I hope you manage to resolve it.

It's just disgusting that there's no law or legal recourse that protects sellers and buyers over here. It makes my tits boil.

There is law and legal recourse that could protect sellers and buyers - user1977 made the point right at the beginning of the thread that people could enter into a legally binding contract at a much earlier stage if they wanted to. If they did, then contract law would apply.

That people buying or selling property in England generally don't enter into a legally binding contract ASAP - with the additional cost and risk involved - might give an indication that these demands for better buyer/seller protection are trying to fix a problem the majority of people aren't overly concerned about.  They'd rather go with a cheaper and less risky option that the current system - for all its faults - seems to provide Ok for the majority of cases.

Marvel1

demeggy said:

Disgusting isn't it? I hope you manage to resolve it.

It's just disgusting that there's no law or legal recourse that protects sellers and buyers over here. It makes my tits boil.

Curious, how can this applied? What would you change?

user1977

demeggy said:

It's just disgusting that there's no law or legal recourse that protects sellers and buyers over here. It makes my tits boil.

"Over here"? Which "over there" has laws which you would like to have?

GDB2222

Section62 said:

demeggy said:

Disgusting isn't it? I hope you manage to resolve it.

It's just disgusting that there's no law or legal recourse that protects sellers and buyers over here. It makes my tits boil.

There is law and legal recourse that could protect sellers and buyers - user1977 made the point right at the beginning of the thread that people could enter into a legally binding contract at a much earlier stage if they wanted to. If they did, then contract law would apply.

That people buying or selling property in England generally don't enter into a legally binding contract ASAP - with the additional cost and risk involved - might give an indication that these demands for better buyer/seller protection are trying to fix a problem the majority of people aren't overly concerned about.  They'd rather go with a cheaper and less risky option that the current system - for all its faults - seems to provide Ok for the majority of cases.

The government introduced property information packs in England and Wales, which required sellers to provide a lot of information about their property before even beginning to market it. That would have solved the OP's issue to a large extent, and drastically reduced the time between making an offer and moving in. It was very unpopular with sellers and estate agents, and it was quickly discontinued.

Gentoo365

I think most of the issues are less about the process itself, more about why some steps take so long.

Why do searches take so long? Can be months.
Why do basic enquiries take so long?
Why do sellers solicitors take so long to request the expected items from management companies? They probably also act for purchase so they know the requirements?

If the process was quicker then I imagine the time between offer and exchange would be much shorter with far less time for people to drop out. 

I also agree that if the seller (or their solicitor) was responsible for obtaining a lot of the information in advance it would speed things up, and also allow a buyer to assess that information prior to making an offer, or at least very soon afterwards.

But I think the biggest issue is just the time it takes for even the most generic of enquiries/searches. 

I think the seller has just gone with a cheap conveyancing firm and they don't have the staff so only look at each case once a week. So any question/response takes two weeks. 

housebuyer143

Gentoo365 said:

I think most of the issues are less about the process itself, more about why some steps take so long.

Why do searches take so long? Can be months.
Why do basic enquiries take so long?
Why do sellers solicitors take so long to request the expected items from management companies? They probably also act for purchase so they know the requirements?

If the process was quicker then I imagine the time between offer and exchange would be much shorter with far less time for people to drop out. 

I also agree that if the seller (or their solicitor) was responsible for obtaining a lot of the information in advance it would speed things up, and also allow a buyer to assess that information prior to making an offer, or at least very soon afterwards.

But I think the biggest issue is just the time it takes for even the most generic of enquiries/searches. 

I think the seller has just gone with a cheap conveyancing firm and they don't have the staff so only look at each case once a week. So any question/response takes two weeks. 

They used to have the home information pack when I first bought in 2010, and it had all the searches done for me so I didn't need to pay for them and I could puruse them before offering. I'm not sure why they did away with that.
Mostly though, it's because people don't want to pay much for conveyancing and so they have to take high levels of clients, which slows them down.
It's silly when you think someone will give an estate agent 1-2% without blinking an eye and they do very little, yet don't want to pay much to the person who is doing all the important work. 

user1977

Gentoo365 said:

Why do searches take so long? Can be months.

I do find it baffling that the English/Welsh seem content to put up with that. Perhaps it gives the conveyancers an excuse to do everything else slowly? In Scotland we got fed up with the councils' response times and everyone moved to the private search providers 20ish years ago, so we now get the local searches within a couple of working days.

NameUnavailable

Selling or buying at auction is much more immediate, if the normal process is a problem for you then that's a route to take.

Murphybear

Sapindus said:

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...

I can relate to that.  When I had my knee replaced we were living in a house with no downstairs cloakroom.  It was a nightmare. 

TBG01

Why do searches take so long? Can be months

That's one for the search providers and council to answer, and I'm sure they could do them quicker, if you were willing to pay for them to be done quicker.

Why do basic enquiries take so long?

Why do clients take the scattergun approach to completing documents and don't provide the documents for works done to the property? Time spent answering in the first instance is instead spent going back to the client and trying to get blood out of a stone.

Why do sellers solicitors take so long to request the expected items from management companies? 

Clients are welcome to order the pack themselves. 

They probably also act for purchase so they know the requirements?

And what about the service charge accounts? The ground ren accounts? Fire risk assessments? Section 20 notices? Would you accept them from the time of purchase 20 year ago, or would you want to know the up to date information?