Q. After a bidding war that resulted in sealed bids, I managed to secure my dream property, everything seemed to be going well and my survey was carried out and that came back fine. I had a shock today though as I had an email from my estate agent saying unfortunately the Vendor had decided not to sell after all. As you can imagine my wife and are extremely disappointed, as well as financially out of pocket, surely there must be something we can do and shouldn’t the Vendor at least refund our survey fee?
A. I thoroughly sympathize with you I really do but unfortunately this is an everyday occurrence within the agency world. At this early stage of the sale both the vendor and the Buyer are free to withdraw at any point and quite often do. Sadly the agreement to sell/buy a property does not become legally binding until exchange of contracts and as so it is perfectly legal for both the buyer and the seller to withdrawer prior to that date. It’s always worth asking the seller if he will cover your fees for the survey but legally he has no commitment to do so whatsoever, it will just be a case of whether or not the Vendor feels he wants to compensate you for withdrawing at this stage. I have to say that unfortunately in most situations like this the vendor does not feel the need to reimburse as often they themselves have been a victim of the very same scenario.