Why no law to prevent buyers pulling out

arthurdick

Murphybear said:

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. 

I too can relate to that,  The good old memories of going up and down the stairs on my 'arris, oh what fun.

saajan_12

YoungBlueEyes said:

saajan_12 said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

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

And you added the additional value of having 2 units right? 

Que? You've lost me. It was one house that he wanted to split into 2 flats.

user1977 said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

saajan_12 said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

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

And you added the additional value of having 2 units right? 

Que? You've lost me. It was one house that he wanted to split into 2 flats.

Yes, but we are presuming he wanted to do so in order to make a profit.

Exactly, presumably the value of 2 flats once converted is higher than 1 house otherewise he wouldn't do it. If he wants you to pay for the conversion work, then you want a higher sale price reflecting the value of 2 flats instead of the value of a house. That'll probably offset the deduction he wants for the work needed to make it into 2 flats. 

YoungBlueEyes

Yep I agree that probably his plan all along. We didn't price it as 'could be 2 flats' as that wouldn't have worked in our area. Well it might have but he'd have been the first to do it on our road and almost certainly the first in any of the roads round us with similar houses. EA's were sure about suggested asking prices so we sold it to a young family in the end. 

pieroabcd

pretamang said:

I feel every buyer/seller goes through this when things are agreed and you're spending money to get to exchange but it could all still fall apart, even those that have gone smoothly for me have been stressful until that point.

I know Scotland have a slightly different system; anyone know if it's the same overseas, does anyone have a solution to this that works?

Country X.
Everything passes through a notary, that represents both buyer and seller. As a matter of fact notaries are civil servants / public officers.
The notary does all the checks: ownership, match between land registration and current floorplan, gas and safety compliance,  verification of charges, basically everything that regards compliance.
Only when the notary is satisfied they can proceed to exchange and pay the deposit  At that point if either parry pulls out they have to repay twice the deposit.

Now it's even possible to register the house in the name of the notary for 30 or so days to prevent that a house is sold to A in the morning and to B in the afternoon, as sometimes happened in the past.


I used to consider it an antiquated system, but it's eons ahead.
I've heard very rarely of sales fallen through, while in the UK it's 33%, that is quite telling.

annetheman

It really does suck but without all the due diligence, it just isn't feasible - very few would take the risk. 

It sounds super cliche, but I absolutely believe in things happening for the best. It may not feel like it now but you will realise in future that it was not right and whatever happens from here was the best possible outcome.

I was the buyer that pulls out and it worked out great - in late January, I had an offer accepted (alongside others) on a house in a location I didn't really like. The EA would not take it off the market until survey was done, so it was a race to survey; my survey was done first and the sellers said they wanted to complete by end March - this is where it all got tricky. I was selling a shared ownership, which includes a 6-week nomination period (EA knew upfront at the time of offer); the timeline wasn't possible. I pulled out and the very same day the sellers accepted another offer £5k above mine (according to the EA when we spoke), from the other party who didn't do their survey before I did. They are complete already as far as I can see - the SOLD sign is gone!

Meanwhile, I had an offer accepted on another house £25k below asking, had offer accepted and even though it has a rodent infestation and damp, location is way better for me than the first house - compromise was on the condition.

So you see, I got my comeuppance with a rodent plague - maybe that'll happen to your ex-buyers  I jest but really, it did work out for the best for everyone.
They got £5k extra and completed in the timelines they wanted (or closer to, anyway), and I got a house in the location I wanted with a seller who doesn't really care that my shared ownership is taking 10,000 years to get to exchange because there are rodents to kill in the meantime, anyway!

In hindsight, you will realise this was the best outcome - don't worry!

Murphybear

arthurdick said:

Murphybear said:

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. 

I too can relate to that,  The good old memories of going up and down the stairs on my 'arris, oh what fun.

My husband is having his hip replaced soon.  Thank heavens we have a downstairs loo. He’s not the lightest of men