Over 300,000 property purchases fell through in 2020 – we show the most frequent motives and the best way to get your house sale back on track

Posted on 4 February, 2021 by Editor in Chief

A 12% drop in property sales in 2020 compared to 2019. 

Mortgage issues and sudden survey findings are typical factors. 

Even though the U.K. real estate market was buoyant for much of 2020, thousands and thousands of prospective home movers nevertheless saw their buys fall through. 

A total of 306,198 property transactions fell through this past year, a 12.26% increase from 2019 as stated by the residential property statistics TwentyCi. 

Fall throughs occur every time a property is subject to an offer, but the purchase then collapses without an exchange of contracts. 

Solicitors, mortgage brokers and surveyors – and – occasionally architects and contractors – are transferred cash ahead of a home sale finishing. 

In addition to cash, those with a home transaction fall through will have dedicated considerable amounts of time.  

Furthermore to the fiscal cost and the time lost, there’s also a psychological effect. 

There are many reasons why property sales fail, many of which can be market-driven, for example, falling or rising prices. Also, factors that might be outside the control of sellers and buyers said Jeremy Leaf of Jeremy Leaf & Co estate agents

‘Losing a job, illness, separation, problems elsewhere in the chain, or a disappointing valuation or survey can all cause a transaction to collapse.’ 

It’s not necessarily possible to avert a fall through. But being aware of several possible reasons for a deal to collapse, and using a backup strategy in case the worst happens, can prevent things from becoming completely derailed. 

Movehut has a large array of investment properties in London.  

 
The most frequent reasons that a property sale collapses 

A mortgage application can be diminished for a variety of factors. The purchaser could have a bad credit history or an excessive amount of debt, or even the mortgage designation on the house itself may return lower than that which the purchaser has agreed to cover off. 

‘If your situation or the property itself is unusual, then get your mortgage broker to run the situation past the lender first to avoid as many problems as possible,” said Nick Morrey, manager at broker John Charcol.   

‘Get all your paperwork ready, including payslips and bank statements, and if you can get the broker or lender to check them first, then it can’t hurt.’ 

 
Problems like subsidence, mould, asbestos, structural issues or Japanese knotweed may all be raised by a surveyor, resulting in the purchaser pulling out.  

‘If a surveyor points out a defect that the buyer was unaware of when they made their offer, you should be open to renegotiating the price to reflect the costs of repair,’ said James Perris, a chartered surveyor at De Villiers. 

Perris further adds, you need to remember that if the property purchaser obtains detailed quotes for the repairs in the relevant tradespeople in addition to the surveyor’s report, for the broker to rule out any issue the seller may have that the buyer is simply trying it on. 

‘This will lower the chances of discussions getting fractious.’ 

Gazumping and gazundering may also induce property purchases to fall. 

Gazumping is when a different party makes a higher offer on a house that the buyer is in the process of buying, forcing the first’s purchaser’s agreement to fall. 

Gazundering is where a purchaser lowers the offer deal in the last moment, before contracts being traded, resulting in the purchase to fall apart. 

Earnings can collapse because of a change of circumstance or heart from the seller or buyer, but frequently agreements may fall apart due to no fault of either party. 

There’s frequently a series of buyers and sellers, all relying on each other to make sure they can complete in their buy. If some of those collapses, everybody in the chain is affected. 

‘The best means of preventing property trade collapse would be to perform the very best possible preparation and study to the house before spending cash on the mortgage program, legal or survey job,’ said Leaf. 

The shortest possible chain is another benefit. 

Advice for buyers in case your sellers have a change of heart 

Do not just give it up right away: determine whether there’s a compromise to be had. 

It can be that you’re able to get a solution which works for both parties along with a compromise could be reached. It’s not uncommon that a purchase comes back together after falling with a little bit of hard labour.’ 

If this fails, brokers’ advice would be to maintain calm and continue. 

‘Do not be despondent,’ said Chris Husson-Martin, associate manager at Hampton ,’ telephone the representatives in the area where you’re trying to purchase and hit a dialogue again.’ 

‘You may be amazed by what could be accessible for you to purchase, which isn’t showing online. A few of the most exciting revenue last year never arrived in the open market.’ 

The priority would be to discover why the purchaser withdrew and see whether the problem can be worked out. 

‘It might be about cost, the end date, or a different problem you can do something about,’ said Leone Stone, associate manager of Hamptons at Epsom. 

‘You will never know, a little bit of compromise and renegotiation may solve it.’ 



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