Buying and selling of houses in England

In the U.S. if a buyer pulls out of a contact for no reason they loose their deposit to the seller.Of course the buyer could always sue the seller for their inconvenience and money lost but they usually don't.They move on and find another house.

Grannyknow:
Because these days all the party leaders / would-be leaders, whatever party they decide to join, tend to be part of the same ruling class, don't they? Mostly career politicians with the long-term aim of feathering their own nest.

Of course, I don't think that applies to most lowlier MPs, many of whom I am sure go into politics with the best of intentions.

grannyknot the logical thing to do [however difficult it is] is to sell your own house and rent somewhere. Of course, it may be hard to do this in 2 weeks, so what you do is tell the people who are buying your house that you still want the sale to go through but explain what has happened.It will throw the plans out time-wise, but ask for another 2 weeks on top of the original 2 to sort things out. They will not want to lose out for the sake of some extra time and will be glad you have not pulled out of the sale.Renting agencies can act quickly when you want them to, because they want your letting.Yes, this does affect 'the chain' but everyone in it has to be as flexible as possible.

apologies, it's not grannyknot but grannyactivist sorry to give you wrong name.

I disagree that government should step in to do anything, it's a system that usually works very well, and has worked for a long time here.Sometimes things will go pear shaped with any transaction.We have moved into rented places with young children, it doesn't make them clingy or anything, in fact they were excited as long as Mum is there.it's not a huge problem in the country at all, just that some people will experience problems.All sellers are not awful and we have had some friendly ones, who are very happy to let you measure up for curtains and sit and have a cup of tea and chat.Flexibility is the key to buying and selling and keeping on top of what the estate agent and solicitor are doing a[ bit of gentle chivvying.]It may seem awful when a seller pulls out for some reason, but it does give you the same rights as well to stay put in your home [as happened to a friend of mine who's husband had a stroke.]

rosesarered we shall have to disagree on this. Very strongly.

It is not a good system and leaves people vulnerable.

My DD is selling/buying at present and there are no certainties and the possibility of losing money they cannot afford. We just have to keep our fingers crossed for them.

roses the system here is completely cocked up IMHO and I've not seen anything to change my mind. A young friend recently sold a flat and was boasting, really, that she got £15K over the asking price, because of a "bidding war". What?

That means that 2 sets of people REALLY wanted her flat and were prepared to pay over the odds.I feel sorry for people when things go wrong but IMHO having bought and sold loads of houses in England over the years, generally speaking it's not a bad system at all.There may be very good reasons for people to have to pull out of the deal, both financial and emotional and this way gives both sets, the buyers and the sellers a bit of leeway.The best thing to do [always] is to sell your own house, move into a rented house for a while in your chosen area, where you can take your time, look round and then you are in a really good bargaining position to buy your house.But we can all either agree or disagree about this.The one thing you can say about selling a house in England is that it will be fast, because houses here do not hang about for years like they do on the continent.

Regarding the buying and selling of property. Have the rules changed at all. My seller has just pulled out 6 days before contacts were due to be exchanged. Like one of the previous posters, I either do the same to my buyers or I become homeless. I have chosen the latter, I would never do that to someone! But this leaves me and my 2 kids sofa surfing for Christmas and I've just this week moved my youngest to a new school in the area we were moving to. Leaving me driving an hour and a half round trip to drop him off and same again to pick him up. To say I'm angry is an understatement. The stress has been unbearable. I have near enough begged the seller to change her mind - we got on really well and I was also buying her furniture. So I got rid of most of mine. So nothing much to go in a rental even if I could afford to spend all my hard earned deposit on rent! To say I have bad and evil thoughts towards them is an understatement.

Wow Molly this is so dreadeful- good job you have people who can house you and family for a while. It's so so wrong. Same happened to us when we moved from Staffs to Leics, me 7.5 months pregnant with a 2 year old toddler in tow, and a husband in digs in Leics already as he had started his new job- and no family in the area at all (and mine abroad)- that was the day before the move- the seller had told us all was totally fine and the late signing was only due to the solicitor breaking his leg- and we should book the removals, etc, 100% guaranteed. He pulled out the day before the move!

We called the nice young couple who were buying ours to come for coffee, and we explained exactly what had happened, that I had had an emergency ceasarian for first and might need the same for second- and the whole story. They were mightlily annoyed, but not with us- fortunately they could extend the rental on their flat from their relative. We went to Leics the next day- visited about 30 houses that were empty (and dreadful) and bought the last one we saw- shaking hands on the deal with the owners who had moved half way to Staffs - stopped at their farm for a cuppa and got it all sorted. Our solicitor got all the paperwork done very quickly- and we exchanged on the day of the move- with baby coming a few weeks later. Next door neihbour took us under her wing- we were so so lucky. But the stress- wow. The system is totally wrong!

We nearly had the same happen to us four years ago. The people we were buying this place from had the rug pulled out from under them the week before we were all due to complete. The people who were buying ours were moving up from Reading and she was about three weeks from giving birth and anxious to be settled beforehand. In the end, our sellers said they would move in with parents until they could sort out another property, and it all went ahead, but it was incredibly stressful. I agree that there ought to be legislation to prevent it happening.

Three weeks before this 'debacle', after phoning them once again to ask why things were not moving with the contract- and explaining that OH had to move for the new job, and I needed to be settled before the birth of DD2- we were concerned. So we made an appointment to visit them and talk face to face. We made the journey, and they welcomed us wiht open arms, coffee and cake, and made a fuss of little one, etc. We again explained how difficult the situation was, and that we could not afford for anything to go wrong because of the baby coming and no family at all that could help. They looked us straight in the eye and said all was hunky dory, just delayed due to solicitor's accident- swore all was fine and to trust them- they'd got the house in DEvon and the sub-post office all done and dusted. So we went away and believed them.

The day before the move, they phoned to say the sub-postmaster job had fallen through and they didn't have a house- knowing full well we would be up the proverbial creek. There are no words for people like that. As it happened the house we found the next day, and so was the location and fabulous neighours. Fate, and all that.

But the system should be changed, truly.

We were very lucky when we bought our current house. The people we were buying from were going to move into a rented house with their three children while they looked for another one to buy. A week before completion they rang to say that they had lost the rented house so could we give them another week? Our buyer was expecting to move into our old house so we put our furniture into storage and went to stay with DD. FOUR MONTHS later they finally found a house to rent! Prices had been going up and up the whole time and I had been terrified that they would decide not to sell, because by then we wouldn't have been able to afford anything else in the area. Fortunately they didn't and in the end it all went smoothly, apart from the removal lorry going to the wrong place!!!

We bought out flat 7 years ago in the UK, and we thought the price had hardly moved. After reading this thread I went to check estate agents for the area, and the flat next to us is on the market for £55.000 more than we bought ours! Very surprised, must say. Will be interesting to see what they actually sell for.