A buyer pulling out of a house sale is an incredibly frustrating experience that is unfortunately just part and parcel of the traditional property buying and selling process.
If your property buyer has recently pulled out of your house sale then do not panic as you are not alone in your misfortune. Property chain collapses make up nearly a quarter of all property transactions in England, and you will be able to find alternative ways of selling your property.
We will go over what you should do when your house buyer pulls out before exchange and ways that you can avoid disruption as much as possible.
Next steps when your buyer pulls out
The first step to take when your buyer pulls out is to try and find out why. Either contact the buyer directly or communicate through your solicitors to find out what made them back out of the transaction and whether they can be convinced to change their mind.
There may be a problem with your house that escaped you and your solicitor which will need to be addressed before relisting your house for sale if you want to prevent the situation potentially happening again in the future.
The second thing that you should do is inform the other parties in the chain about what has happened and what you are doing to try and remedy the situation. Don’t feel bad about this as the situation is completely out of your hands. It is important though that the rest of the chain know about the break so that they can act and plan accordingly.
Sometimes there may also be specific things that you should do depending on how far into the sale you were and what position in the chain the break occurred. Here’s what you should do when:
The buyer pulls out before exchange
Unfortunately, a buyer is allowed to back out of a property transaction before contracts are exchanged.
Your next step should be either to contact your estate agent and notify then that your property is back on the market, or find an alternative method of selling your house such as a house for cash sale.
Or, you may be able to salvage your sale by negotiating with the buyer who pulled out. By knocking off a small amount from the sale price you may be able to convince the buyer to carry on with the transaction, although you will lose out on some money from the sale.
The buyer pulls out after exchange
Buyers are not legally allowed to pull out of the transaction once contracts have been exchanged.
If this has happened to you then we recommend that you seek immediate legal advice from your solicitor as you may be able to recover your losses from the buyer and also keep their deposit.
The bottom of the chain pulls out
If the party at the bottom of the chain has pulled out, then every upward member of the chain will be affected.
The second party in the chain now has no buyer, which means that they may not be able to purchase the house from the third party in the chain.
They can put their property back on the market in the hopes that another buyer will come along quickly so that they can still buy the property that they want, provided that every upward member of the chain is happy to wait.
If their sellers cannot wait, then the second party can refer to a property buying company such as us here at Easy Sale. We can then step in and buy the property fast and for cash, keeping the chain intact and keeping everyone happy.
The house sale falls through at the last minute
When a house sale falls through at the last minute, you may feel like all hope is lost but you still have some options in front of you.
If you still wish to use an estate agent to sell your house then you should contact your buyers’ solicitor to purchase the surveys. That way, you can provide them to your next buyer which will hopefully speed the process along.
Alternatively, we can buy your house for cash within a matter of days and can rescue your chain and ensure that you can still move into your dream property.
The house sale keeps falling through
If you find that your house sale keeps falling through repeatedly then there may be something wrong with your house listing that you are not seeing.
For example, is your house reasonably priced? If your house is priced too far above market value then prospective buyers may change their mind once they find a similar property for a much cheaper price.
Or, there may be other undesirable features about your home that you were not previously aware of such as faults, neighbours, or planned works. If any of these apply to your home, then we will still buy your property from you for cash with a very quick turnaround before the money is in your bank.
We can save your broken chain
Long story short, selling property through an estate agent is a wearisome task and there are many factors involved that can go wrong which result in you not being able to sell your house.
To sell your home as part of a chain, or if you are weighing up the equity release pros and cons, contact Easy Sale and we can provide you with a quote and begin the process of buying your house off you so that it will be finished within just a few days.
FAQs
Can a buyer withdraw an offer on a house?
Yes, a buyer can withdraw an offer on a house as long as the contracts have not yet been exchanged.
What does breaking the chain mean?
A property chain is when three or more properties are involved in a chain of transactions that are reliant upon each other to complete. When the chain breaks, it means that one or more transactions have fallen through, making the other transactions unable to complete.
For example, if Person A is the first party in a chain, then that means that nobody is buying a house from them. Person B is selling their house to Person A and buying a house from Person C, and so on until the last party in the chain is not buying a house from anyone.
