That seems a fairer way of doing things tbh. In the case of the first buyer pulling out of my house sale i would have got some compensation as we had our completion date.
What sort of penalty would someone get if they backed out after missives were concluded?

put a bit more clearly

quote:

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If your offer is successful, there then follows an exchange of letters between the buyer's and the seller's solicitors: this process is called missives. An offer may contain around 20 different clauses, from the price, date of entry and extras to be included, to more technical conditions. The selling solicitor will take some time to go through it in detail.

It is very unusual for an offer to be met by a completely unqualified acceptance: it is likely your solicitor will receive a qualified acceptance, deleting or amending some of the conditions in the original offer. Some amendments may take a little time to resolve and a number of letters between solicitors to sort out.

Once agreed on all points, missives are concluded and a legally-binding contract exists between purchaser and seller. Neither party can back out without penalty.

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Basically you put in an offer subject to certain conditions, like a satisfactory survey and valuation, clear searches, seller having good title etc.

That gets accepted in principal and you go ahead with the survey....all being well, you go back and say the survey clause can be deleted.

The seller comes back with an acceptance with certain qualifications

You can either go back on that basis and conclude the contract, or go back and make more changes, until it is eventually all agreed and concluded.

Up until missives are concluded either person can pull out, but once they are concluded you are tied in

thats where Scotland is stupid, those prices AK was posting up with 'offers over' were ridiculous!

AK & Fee had to pull out on one because they made an offer based on survey but offered more than the survey said it was worth & couldnt get a mortgage on it & the seller wouldnt negotiate. That might happen now & then if folk dont do a survey 1st but generally once you agree make an offer you close the deal.............pulling out because you changed your mind is just gay!!

I think you can still pull out from a purchase in scotland however it rerely happens!!

yeah agreed.....not 100% sure bout how it is in Scotland but i think once you agree a price it is binding so you get compensation if they pull out. I'm sure AK, Fee, colin etc will be able to verify this?

TBH the house buys should have to put a deposit down when they place an offer. Atleast then if they do pull out then you get some money back to cover fees.

Cheers mate. Its really shit as it costs me money everytime someone pulls out as my solicitors still need paying for the work they have done. That HIP thing comes in soon too so that will be another 600 quid i've got to spend.

quote:

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Originally posted by C2RL R
We should change the rules in this country to be more like Scotland and then maybe the time-wasters would think twice before putting an offer in.
:(

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Buyer number 2 just withdrew their offer yesterday so my house is back on the market yet again. couldnt believe the one from yesterday, i accepted their offer last friday and then less than a week later they pull out coz they are getting a divorce and can no longer afford it. Load of bollocks. i'm seriously gutted.

We should change the rules in this country to be more like Scotland and then maybe the time-wasters would think twice before putting an offer in.

:(