Something needs to be done................

[Karen, garrettponies]

My elderly parents house sale has fallen through for the second time today. On both occasions the sale has progressed through valuations, surveys, searches etc to fall through simply because the purchasers have 'changed their minds'.

So my parents have yet again been saddled with legal bills of work done to date. I seriously wish that something could be done in this country with regards to house buying to make it more like the Scottish system whereby once an offer is accepted it is legally binding. I know the market is flat and that it is deemed very much a buyers market but I think its dreadful when their sale should have completed tomorrow and today it has fallen through for no fault of the property or my parents. It used to be that contracts were exchanged and a deposit paid beforehand but todays system is leaning more towards exchanging contracts and completing on the same day which leaves vendors very vulnerable. Some people in the next villages furniture was already en-route to their new house when they found out their own sale had fallen through. What a ridiculous system we have......................

Rant over X

[fanfarefan]

not ideal but perhaps your parents could put their house up for auction , at least then they know where they are

[09rebel99]

I bought a house a few months ago. The money for deposit had to be put in soliciters account about a week before completion and if we had pulled out after that we would have lost 10% of the ammount we were paying for the house so how someone can pull out the day before a completion without forefitting the deposit is beyond me?