Home Front logoI was terribly disappointed this week to hear that one of my investor clients was ‘knocked on exchange’ – this is when at the eleventh hour a seller decides they want more money for the property even though they entered into the sale with an agreed price. This incident happened on the day my client was due to exchange, so committed to the purchase she had already hired my agency to manage the letting, and we had gone in the day before to take the photos with my photographer as she is leaving the country shortly on a new work assignment so under some serious time restraints to get everything organised with the letting prior to leaving the UK.  Sad to say I believe the seller knew this and has taken full advantage of the buyer knowing they have little to no time left in the UK to seek out another property before they leave. This type of behaviour is something that was rife pre 2007 as the market continued to grow almost weekly back then and I have to say I am shocked to see it rearing its ugly head once again, which brings me to the point of this column. Something needs to change within the UK property market to prevent this type of behaviour continuing, in most other countries including our friends across the pond in the USA a deal is a deal, once agreed there is no going back and I believe this is a much more ethical way of buying and selling properties. It’s so unreasonable to agree a price with a buyer or seller and then change your mind later on once the other party is financially committed to the sale or purchase, having enlisted the help of financial advisors and solicitors who will start charging the moment you instruct them, not to mention the cost of a survey. This money can never be recouped if the deal falls through, so buyers and sellers can sometimes find themselves thousands of pounds out of pocket with nothing to show for it if the purchase/sale falls through. Estate Agents too work on a no sale no fee basis so we too feel the brunt of such dreadful behaviour. Even without the urgently needed new rules and regulations being implemented to prevent this happening in the first place I would urge both buyers and sellers to take a more ethical approach to dabbling in the property market, how about a little bit of honourableness amongst us?! Sadly greed continues to prevail and until something legal is set in stone no doubt this type of behaviour will continue and other innocent parties will bear the brunt of such selfishness.