I agree with you HC, I couldn't do it either.

The thing is, there may be nothing technically stopping the OP from pulling out i.e. they have not yet completed, but there are IMO wider-reaching implications.

Have you thought about what this will do to them? Could you live with yourself? At the end of the day, why did you exchange contracts if your partner had cold feet?

If I were your buyer and you pulled out at this stage, I would sue you for absolutely everything I could and then some. I would make your life as difficult as you had made mine, safe in the knowledge that it would cost me absolutely nothing. Because as well as being onto a dead-cert winning case (you have exchanged contracts) and getting everything I could, I would also get my costs paid. By you. I would ensure that I had the best and most expensive solicitor it was possible to get, and take you to the cleaners.

And in my opinion it would serve you right. Your buyers are unlikely to be any different - why would they be?

Apologies for double-post, it told me it hadn't posted the first time. Durr

I agree Laura, I would do everything I could to ensure the 'vendor' appreciated the trouble he had caused.

The buyer knows nothing of this presumably and is happily packing up and planning for life in their new home. Bite the bullet and complete.

I can only echo what other posters have said. It breaks my heart to think that somewhere out there are perfectly innocent buyers looking forward to their new home and all the while the OP is hoping that someone is going to tell them that is just fine for them to screw someone elses life up.

Words fail me

I too agree with Elsa, Velvet, Laura, HC and the other posters!

I lost my buyers at exchange and that was bad enough! I was very tempted to go round to the house of the buyer and give them a mouthful, but had no grounds - hadnt exchanged contracts! I had so much in place ready and waiting for my new home (stupid I know now, before exchange) - but your buyers will be busy packing, getting all their utility companies sorted, removal company booked and paid for, maybe schools!? After all this is what solicitors advise you to do "after" exchange!

I too, would take someone to the cleaners if they pulled out after exchange! If i couldnt afford it, i would borrow the money to afford it - as already mentioned in an earlier post, i would be on a dead cert winning case!

Onelove - i'm sure this is not an easy decision for you to make - but you've exchanged contracts now - move on and start afresh, go into rented accommodation until you find another property you like!

Apologies if i've missed this earlier, but onelove, are your buyers' FTBs, or is there a chain involved?

Yep, I'd be sueing too, 10% + every physical and mental inconvenience me and my brief could dream up. There'd be a good chance the court would want to make an example of this kind of behaviour.
On the upside property may well have maxed out, not everywhere but generally for the time being. Having sold and with a fat deposit there are many worse positions than your's.

My vendor pulled out of my sale on the day of our agreed exchange - I was a first time buyer with nowhere to live because my rental contract had come to an end and was assured from all sides of the party that we would be exchanged and completed within a matter of weeks. After making me wait 4 months to exchange and then pulling out at the last hurdle made me very angry as the vendor knew my situation.

Its financially difficult enough for first time buyers to get on the property ladder but to have to fork out the solicitors fees for an incomplete sale made it even more financially harder to think about going through the whole process again -

What is the point of going through the whole process if you are not sure you will go through with it?!

Hey I need to look out for myself, it’s a cruel world but shit happens. Everyone makes mistakes in their lives; you have to do what’s best for you.

Everything happens for a reason, I was never supposed to sell, and they were never supposed to buy end of story. I’m going to pay for my mistake financially, but hey its only money, id rather be penniless than be unhappy living in a home I was not comfortable in.

So shall we assume you are not going to complete then?

You've still not answered my question, are your buyer's FTB or is there a chain under them, reason i'm asking is that if they cannot complete on their sale, what happens to their buyers!?

You say you'd rather be penniless, why? Surely it would not impossible to find another home as lovely as your current home!

I appreciate you've asked the question on here to see what people's opinions are, after all that's exactly what this forum is all about - must please appreciate, lots of people (myself included) find this forum when they are moving and are having difficulties or a bad experience and come on here for friendly advise.

Why give away hard earned money to someone (your buyers when they take you to court), and leave yourself "penniless".

Onelove100,
You run the risk of losing your house and all your equity if you are determined to not complete. Do you have enough liquid cash to pay damages and costs? Also, if the buyer were so minded, they could enforce the completion. Either way you lose...

Bear in mind you may be opening yourself to additional losses from people further down the chain if there is one. This one may get very expensive.
Personal tragedies happen but changing your mind about a move doesn't qualify, imho.

I'm sorry but this can't be a genuine query. Unless the OP is utterly stupid, they must be able to see that the amount of money they will lose by staying in their current home will mean that they won't be able to afford to stay there anyway! Therefore all of thier "drama" will have been for nothing.

I smell a big, furry rat...

I agree Laura I think it is a wind-up, that's why I kept my answers very short, I didn't think this 'enquiry' was genuine. The storyline doesn't make sense, and neither does the OP's attitude.

I agree, a wind-up. Anyone who doesn't pull out before exchange isn't safe to cross a road, especially as the gap between completion is usually days at most.
I smell HPC but that could just be my antennae.

quote:

Originally posted by Laura NB:
I'm sorry but this can't be a genuine query. Unless the OP is utterly stupid, they must be able to see that the amount of money they will lose by staying in their current home will mean that they won't be able to afford to stay there anyway! Therefore all of thier "drama" will have been for nothing.

I smell a big, furry rat...

Or a weasel

quote:

Originally posted by Onelove100:

Everything happens for a reason, I was never supposed to sell, and they were never supposed to buy end of story.

This is not supposed to happen (in some karmic way) it is happening because you are a low human being. If, however, you do believe in karma then we can all imagine the sort of payback you can look forward to receiving if you do pull out.

I hope, though, that the other posters who think this whole post is a wind up are correct.

quote:

Originally posted by Laura NB:
I'm sorry but this can't be a genuine query. Unless the OP is utterly stupid, they must be able to see that the amount of money they will lose by staying in their current home will mean that they won't be able to afford to stay there anyway!

Well, a lot of people do not behave rationally in respect of housing do they - assuming that normal contract laws or whatever do not apply or whatever.

You can turn the karma/fate point the other way. It is your destiny *to* move. Your life might actually get better .

The world does not end just because your housing position changes - something it is easy to lose sight of in this property (house price) obsessed age.

quote:

I was never supposed to sell, and they were never supposed to buy end of story

In that case, I'd be suing the EA (I presume, or your split personality) that found the buyers and tricked you into getting £220k profit, the solicitors who underhandly progressed the tricked sale without your knowledge and permission and for tricking you into exchanging, and the buyers themselves for stealing your house away from under you when you obviously so clearly weren't selling.

You were never meant to sell....
how DARE they ignore your pleas to NOT put the sign up, NOT show the viewers round, NOT invite offers, NOT accept one offer leaving 220K profit for you, NOT start searches and surveys etc., NOT exchange - why they've blatantly ignored your shrieks that you didn't want to sell all the way through this. Perhaps they got the wrong house by mistake - you should have this looked at, not by your solicitor though as they're obviously dodgy to exchange on a house where the vendor has maintained they were never meant to sell all the way through.


One more thing...
I moved 40 mins from all my family to a place I'd never been to to get on the ladder as an FTB. It's bricks at the end of the day ... take your 220k and grow up.

Just to let you no that I have pulled out of the sale, my lawyer not solicitor has managed to agree in writing today an amicable compensation offer of 5% of their deposit plus legal fees. I must say he has done a stern job going through the contract as it was full of propositions but no water tight clauses to back them up. Their solicitor seems to be more hated than me now. Saying that my lawyer said that both the contracts were of concern, because people very rarely pull out after exchange solicitors seems to over look it in the contract!! So for those of you that think exchange of contracts is 100% then think again, because as you can see it can be easily got around through sloppiness of the solicitor and expertise of the lawyer.

Another great day for the legal system in the UK

I'm not buying this story. However many pairs of sunglasses you put on.

quote:

Originally posted by velvet:
I'm not buying this story. However many pairs of sunglasses you put on.

My thoughts entirely. Do people who spell 'know' as 'no' get offered jobs in New York? The solicitor has done a 'stern' job. Sterling?
Neither the house, the job nor the solicitor exist, let's face it. It's another back into the community case.

Haha, in the words of the famous Officer Crabtree from Allo Allo - what a cick!!