Urgent - Property Advice Needed

[Davman2005]

We have been scheduled to move this Friday and the only thing holding us up has been our buyers solicitor receiving their mortgage offer. This have never materialised, in the meantime we have signed documents with our solicitors. This morning the bombshell dropped and our buyer pulled out. Where do we stand in terms of us signing documents are we obliged to purchase the new house??

[Loosehead]

If you have not exchanged contracts you should be ok to pull out your solicitor should not have exchanged unless you exchanged on both your sale and purhcase but that's down to their competence rather that any procedural rules.

[themas]

It is likely the solicitor got you to sign the documents so he had them ready to exchange contracts when all the other parties were ready. If so, he will not have exchanged contracts and the whole chain of sales and purchases collapses. However, if your solicitor did exchange on your purchase without exchanging simultaneously on your sale and did so without your agreement, then he is almost certainly guilty of negligence and you should have a claim against him for any costs you incur as a result.

He should have explained the position to you when he told you your buyer had pulled out. Talk to him urgently.

[lady_p_gold]

It is the usual collapse of the chain which happens in so many cases in our system. I am sure as the others said that you just signed ready for exchange, and all it means is you are back to square one, but your solicitor should be able to put your minds at rest, after all that is what you are paying them for ! If you have had a survey though, that money will probably be lost, and also the fee for the local authority search.