Grrr underhand...maybe?

OLS

Had offer on our property, negotiated and accepted. We were going to rent for a bit then we found a wicked deal on a property in our ideal area so we put in offer it was accepted. We accepted in Oct, our offer was accepted in Nov. Finally this Friday we were due to exchange / complete on both properties and on Monday the guy buying ours pulled out, didn't even tell the EA, we only found out cause I asked the EA to ring his sols to chase as my sols were having trouble contacting him. They told EA, don't know why but he has. I notified my Sols, his sols hadn't even the courtesy to let them know. So now nearly £800 lighter (we had top survey done as was old terraced we were buying) and searches were completed, a very bare ish apt (as we were due to complete on the fri, it was in the contracts all holes had to be rectified so we removed pic frames curtain rails etc and filled them, put base lights back up, packed and just left bare essentials and shipped it all to mums - were both at work all week and have a young baby so did it at the weekend!) and its now back on the market!

So i'm rather pee'd off. I reckon he knew well before hand he was going to pull out, why did he leave it till last min, he knew we were a young family with a baby - some people have no scruples!

We have a viewing on Monday so fingers crossed!

cattie

Will definitely keep my fingers crossed for your viewing on Monday.

I had a reasonably similar scenario to you with me being pushed for exchange & completion a few days before Christmas. Then with a week to go buyer pulled out. :mad: Excuse given was very vague, although at least we were given an excuse of sorts, unlike you.

However, on my part, I do have a guardian angel as 2 days after collapse I had 2 more viewings sent from ea & received asking price offer from ftb same day as a result. We exchanged last week & complete next week. :j

Good luck with your sale.

Nenen

So sorry to hear about your immoral ex-buyer OLS. Like you, we assumed that people wouldn't be so awful to someone with a young family but twice we were shafted (one buyer and one seller) when I not only had an 18 month old toddler but was heavily pregnant as well! I don't know how these people sleep at night and can only hope that the old saying 'what goes around comes around' applies to them in particular!


Good luck for a quick sale and hopefully then all will not be lost with your prospective purchase.

Leeds_Fella

Hi mate, I'll buy your house for 30% less than the asking price !

Seriously, I feel for you, the current English process stinks, the sooner we get our processes in line with the Jocks the better, low lifes like that don't appreciate they are ruining peoples lives and it costs serious money.

When you have an offer accepted, it should be legal and binding.

Rabiddog_2

Maybe ask for money up front to show good faith and to take it off the market?(500-1000) . My motto is, its never sold till the money shows up as a credit on your bank statement. The jock system has nearly as many disadvantages as ours. It should be, agree a price, spit on your hand, shake hands.. and whoever breaks the Deal dies, slowly..:D

IveSeenTheLight

Leeds_Fella wrote: »

Hi mate, I'll buy your house for 30% less than the asking price !

Seriously, I feel for you, the current English process stinks, the sooner we get our processes in line with the Jocks the better, low lifes like that don't appreciate they are ruining peoples lives and it costs serious money.

When you have an offer accepted, it should be legal and binding.

Definately helps when an offer is accepted it becomes legally binding like here in Scotland.
I also prefer the closed bid system.
You bid what you think it is worth and what you can afford. If you win you cannot be gazzumped, if you lose then it was worth / more affordable to another

martinbuckley

It would be better system if the vendor had to put up 1% deposit two weeks after their survey, when an agreed sale price should be "final and fixed" (taking into account any work that may need doing) and then the remaining deposit on exchange. Then, if they pull out once a sale price is agreed, they lose their money.

Similarly, the seller should also put up a bond at this point equivalent to the cost of the buyers' survey, and if they pull out, the vendors are re-imbursed the cost of their survey and their 1% deposit.

This would get rid of gazumping, gazundering, as buyers and sellers would have to put their money where their mouth is.

Debt_Free_Chick

OLS wrote: »

So i'm rather pee'd off. I reckon he knew well before hand he was going to pull out, why did he leave it till last min, he knew we were a young family with a baby - some people have no scruples!

I know it's upsetting, but you just don't know his circumstances .... there could be all manner of good reasons; job loss, bereavement etc.

And he's spent some dosh too ..... survey? solicitor? possibly a mortgage application fee. People generally don't do this to wind the seller's up - not at this stage.

Don't dwell on it - anger is such negative energy. And the anger stays within you, not him

Nenen

martinbuckley wrote: »

It would be better system if the vendor had to put up 1% deposit two weeks after their survey, when an agreed sale price should be "final and fixed" (taking into account any work that may need doing) and then the remaining deposit on exchange. Then, if they pull out once a sale price is agreed, they lose their money.

Similarly, the seller should also put up a bond at this point equivalent to the cost of the buyers' survey, and if they pull out, the vendors are re-imbursed the cost of their survey and their 1% deposit.

This would get rid of gazumping, gazundering, as buyers and sellers would have to put their money where their mouth is.

I quite like the idea of some kind of penalty clause to protect both parties but think your system is still biased towards the sellers... ie the buyer stands to lose 1% (£2,500 on a 250K house) plus any survey and search costs they've incurred whereas, under your system, the seller only stands to lose the cost of a survey (about £600 - £1,000). This wouldn't stop gazumping as, if the seller was offered several thousand more and knew that he only stood to lose the original buyer's survey costs he (should he be prepared to go back on his word) would be quids in! Why not both parties have to put up bonds for 1% of asking price which they lose if they pull out? Also, if the sellers pulled out less than two weeks after the survey the buyers still lose their survey and search fees! Conversely, if the buyers take two weeks to arrange a survey (not unusual) and then have another two weeks to lodge their bond then potentially they could mess the seller around for almost a month and still pull out without penalty... IMHO, this is not much improvement on our current system!

On reflection, all this system would really be doing is bringing forward a partial exchange and no doubt it would increase solicitors costs for the extra legal work entailed! Various schemes for tightening up the procedure have been discussed on this forum before and, while the vast majority of posters seem to agree the current system is terrible, no one has yet come up with a perfect solution!

What about if both parties had to put up a bond for 1% of the price when they agree a sale conditional upon the survey finding work requiring less than 1% of agreed price? If the suvey finds work that would cost more than 1% then the buyers have the option to renegotiate or, if a new price cannot be agreed, they can walk away without losing their bond. However, if the survey finds nothing wrong or work costing less than 1% of sale price then either party loses their bond (and it is given to the other side) if they pull out.

Debt_Free_Chick

martinbuckley wrote: »

It would be better system if the vendor had to put up 1% deposit two weeks after their survey, when an agreed sale price should be "final and fixed" (taking into account any work that may need doing) and then the remaining deposit on exchange. Then, if they pull out once a sale price is agreed, they lose their money.

At which point, the buyer doesn't have a mortgage offer. What if "things change" and he then finds he cannot get a mortgage? Hardly the buyer's fault, but he loses his money.

And the searches haven't been done. What if there's something in the searches that the seller didn't reveal (as they're not required to)? The seller would then have been playing underhand and gets to pocket the buyer's money!

There would be some interesting legal wrangles trying to prove is "at fault".

dubsey

We've been on both sides. Had the bottom of the chain for our last house pull out on the day of exchange. Due to exchange at 3.30pm, solicitor said I will call you at about 4pm when it's all done. Had a call from EA at 2.45pm to say he'd pulled out because he'd had offers on 3 seperate properties and was going with whichever one exchanged first! He obviously didn't care about up front costs (3 surveys etc).

In turn it meant the house we wanted we then couldn't buy. We went around to tell the sellers ourselves because we thought that would be the decent thing, and they had such a go at us! I could certainly understand them being upset - they had already paid a deposit on 2 rented properties (they were divorcing) because they thought they were moving 5 days later, but how on earth was it our fault?