Well, one reason for a property sale to not complete could be due to financial reasons. If the buyer only has an agreement in principle from their mortgage lender, the lender has not completely agreed the mortgage and therefore the lender may decide not to allow the mortgage to proceed. This could be because of a change in the buyer’s financial circumstances, for example a change of job. This happens more often than you would imagine, along with potential buyers, not having funds in place, before they decide to make an offer to buy. 

 

Another reason that the buyers may pull out, is that the survey could show issues with the property that the buyers cannot afford to put right, or even an easement that appears to allow ramblers access to your back garden. 

 

There could be many other reasons that a buyer pulls out, but one of the worse reasons, in most people’s opinions, would be ‘gazumping’ and ‘gazundering’. Yes, strange as the terminology may be, our conveyancing team have been faced with instance of these things occurring. Gazumping, which our team of property solicitors have discussed on another blog, which you can read here, is when the seller of the property finds a buyer who is willing to offer a higher price than the current buyer. Gazundering, which again, you can read about here, is when the buyer offers a lower price than initially offered, right at the last minute. This can force the seller to accept the lower offer, just to move the process along, or they can pull out and incur any costs. 

 

At this point, not only are you half-packed and ready to move, but you may be worrying about what costs you could be left to bear: the estate agents, legal fees, and the cancellation fees of the removal men and the new decorators, etc. 

Well, there are two types of fees that you will be asked to pay for the sale of your property: disbursements and legal fees. Disbursements include costs made out to any third parties, such as copy Land Registry documents, insurance policies and costs for obtaining sale-related documents. Legal fees are what our team of property solicitors will charge you for dealing with your sale. 

 

As our team like to be upfront and transparent about the costs that we charge, and what disbursements our clients have to pay out for their sale matter, we would generally quote you for any disbursements that we can before you instruct us. If there are any disbursements that we can’t foresee until we’re mid-way through your transaction, for example if an indemnity policy is required, we will make you aware of these fees as soon as we can. Unfortunately, if we have paid out for any of these disbursements before your matter has concluded, these will be re-payable to us, even if your matter doesn’t complete. 

 

However, as part of our promise to you to offer you the best possible service throughout your property matter, our team can offer our clients a “No Sale, No Fee” service, which you can discuss with our property team before your matter starts. 

 

Our team can be contacted by email to property@mglegal.co.uk or online here.