# Seller pulling out of sale after contracts are signed



## property (8 Aug 2012)

What happens if a sale doesn't close after signing contracts and the problem is on the seller's side? 

If a buyer pulls out after signing, I assume they can/will lose the deposit  - is there a similar penalty for a seller? or does it depend on the buyer initiating a legal action? 


I have seen a thread on a sale falling through after auction, but cannot find any for Private Treaty - apologies if this is has been answered previously....


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## Brendan Burgess (8 Aug 2012)

A buyer can plead that they have been refused finance, and there isn't a huge amount you can do about it if they have no money, other than keep the deposit.

A seller has no excuse for pulling out. I would imagine that you can get a court order for the contract to be performed and you should get your costs by way of reducing the purchase price. 

Is this a theoretical question or has it actually happened? What did your solicitor say?


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## sadie (8 Aug 2012)

This happened to us on a Private Treaty. The sellers were splitting up then got back together - then decided not to sell having signed contracts. They just returned the deposit to our solicitor. 
The position was that there was no point in legally enforcing them to sell as in reality it is very hard to get people out of their house if it is their PPR and don't want to sell it to you. They could just come up with numerous obstacles and delays to closing for months or years even, while the buyer foots the legal bills trying to get them out.
We had paid for a survey, valuation and some admin with the solicitor so it had cost us close to 1k that could not be re-couped anywhere.
Our next house deal has recently resulted in the sellers pulling out very close to signing due to illness in their household. So it does happen that something happens that is beyond the seller's control. It's never over until the keys are in your hand.

You could always asking sellers for a goodwill payment to cover half your costs or some such.


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## property (8 Aug 2012)

Thanks, Sadie - I guess it doesn't happen too often as our solicitor has no previous experience. He did say it was probably not worth pursuing it ...

It looks like in other countries that the purchaser has more protection:



> Selling a property in France
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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