Help..Buyer Pulled Out

[CoolGirl05]

I'm hoping someone can give me advise before I see my Solicitor.

I own a flat in Scotland and the entry date was for the beginning of October, offer in writing in and accepted etc. The buyers had carried out a survey and highlighted to me that there was small amount of dampness is one of the bedrooms. I had this treated a few years ago and it was still under guarantee. The buyers requested that I carry this work out and they would move the entry date until the beginning of November. I called the company that done the work previously and they came out, treated it and re-plastered, issuing me with a new 35 year guarantee. By me carrying out this work, I fulfilled my side of the deal. The buyers seemed to be dragging their heels a bit and by early November, it was still not complete. I signed paperwork at the Solicitors and he said that he would contact me the day after as that was the date of entry and he should receive the cheque. I got from my solicitor stating that the same was not going ahead and he was trying to find out why. I called the estate agents that sold my flat. they called me back and stated that as I own a flat, the factor had said the one of the chimmney's required to be removed but they did not see a problem as I had already paid for this work but the buyer felt that there may be other problems so did not want to go ahead.

The reason I called the estate agents to find out was that the "buyers" work for the estate agent that I advertised my flat through. My lawyer is not impressed as he feels that they have not had my best interests at heart due to a conflict of interests.

Is there anything that I can do?

Coolgirl

[brian]

Sorry to hear about your situation - I'm certainly under the impression that if an offer was formally made, and formally accepted, then there was a binding commitment - but this really does depend on the individual circumstances involved as to the exact legal details.

Definitely recommend you chat to the lawyer further about this.

[TheSecret]

For anyone in this prediciment in the future you could conssider using a lock-out agreement, this prevents against gazumping and is a contract which basically states if either parties pull out they will have to pay any expenses, your solicitor will be able to insert various conditions in the agreement.The only donwside to this is that people may be hesitant to enter into this agreement but atleast by doing this you know that both you and the other party are serious about the sale.

[fred333]

With the lock-out agreement you just have to do what you got to do to protect yourself in this rough market.