Property purchases in Scotland

[jimmy milnes]

Seem to remember way back in the dusty, cobweb filled area of my brain that if someone puts an offer in on a residential property in Scotland that is accepted, should the purchaser withdraw their offer, that they are then left liable for the difference should the vendor have to accept a lesser offer.
Could anyone advise if this is actually correct or am I remembering incorrectly.
Cheers
Jimmy

 

[Rake Aboot]

If you sign the missives you’re in.
Back out after they are signed you can be sued silly.

 

[jimmy milnes]

If you sign the missives you’re in.
Back out after they are signed you can be sued silly.

So a bit further down the line than just having an offer accepted then, cheers matey, much appreciated.
Jimmy.

 

[NullMac]

If you sign the missives you’re in.
Back out after they are signed you can be sued silly.

Well.

If someone makes you an offer it is not legally binding until they sign the missives/written offer of acceptance. So they can withdraw/revise their offer to suit themselves until the missives are signed.

Once you sign missives you have entered into a contract.

If you then can't or won't complete the contract for a reason that is not allowed in the missives (eg conditional on the sale of your own property - a current issue with English buyers of Scottish properties) then the seller can sue for their loss i.e. costs of remarking, legal costs and any loss of value vs the previous offer. No loss, no basis to sue. Can't sue because they are unhappy, there must be a loss.

Then of course there is the real world - is the dog worth suing?

 

[jimmy milnes]

Well.

If someone makes you an offer it is not legally binding until they sign the missives/written offer of acceptance. So they can withdraw/revise their offer to suit themselves until the missives are signed.

Once you sign missives you have entered into a contract.

If you then can't or won't complete the contract for a reason that is not allowed in the missives (eg conditional on the sale of your own property - a current issue with English buyers of Scottish properties) then the seller can sue for their loss i.e. costs of remarking, legal costs and any loss of value vs the previous offer. No loss, no basis to sue. Can't sue because they are unhappy, there must be a loss.

Then of course there is the real world - is the dog worth suing?

Thanks that's much appreciated.
Jimmy.

 

[Cumbrian 1]

Seem to remember way back in the dusty, cobweb filled area of my brain that if someone puts an offer in on a residential property in Scotland that is accepted, should the purchaser withdraw their offer, that they are then left liable for the difference should the vendor have to accept a lesser offer.
Could anyone advise if this is actually correct or am I remembering incorrectly.
Cheers
Jimmy

It’s an old wives tale, if you sign the missives it’s binding it’s no different in reality to signing/exchanging contracts in England

 

[NullMac]

It’s an old wives tale, if you sign the missives it’s binding it’s no different in reality to signing/exchanging contracts in England

Which is why there is trend in Scotland now not to sign missive right up to the date of completion. Much to everyones delight

 

[Rake Aboot]

It’s considerably different to contracts in England
You can back out of a deal in England even after contracts are signed
In Scotland , the system is designed to ensure a quick seal on the deal with no backing out ( without potentially large costs)

 

[Rake Aboot]

Which is why there is trend in Scotland now not to sign missive right up to the date of completion. Much to everyones delight

Not seen that.
Solicitors and agents want them signed asap

 

[Cumbrian 1]

It’s considerably different to contracts in England
You can back out of a deal in England even after contracts are signed
In Scotland , the system is designed to ensure a quick seal on the deal with no backing out ( without potentially large costs)

 

[Rake Aboot]

Did I get something wrong ? This is what a solicitor told me earlier this year

 

[kes]

Even in England, if you sign a contract and pull out, the vendor can I believe sue you for his resultant costs, like solicitors (again) re-advertising and possibly even the difference in value for your confirmed offer and the offer he subsequently has to accept. It can also extend to the costs he has incurred in buying a new property if he subsequently is bound by his own contract and has to pull out due to your reneging.
Contract exchange can occur within 2 weeks of completion if the solicitor is pushed.

 

[Rake Aboot]

Thanks for that , maybe I’ve misunderstood what I was being told when I was thinking of buying.
A correction is always better than just a smart arsed emoji.

 

[Cumbrian 1]

Even in England, if you sign a contract and pull out, the vendor can I believe sue you for his resultant costs, like solicitors (again) re-advertising and possibly even the difference in value for your confirmed offer and the offer he subsequently has to accept. It can also extend to the costs he has incurred in buying a new property if he subsequently is bound by his own contract and has to pull out due to your reneging.
Contract exchange can occur within 2 weeks of completion if the solicitor is pushed.

You can also simultaneously exchange and complete on the same day, technically you can sign a contract of sale at anytime, in theory on day 1, but who would without doing their due diligence via the usual searches?

 

[Mike 01]

Nullmac is right - there is indeed a trend in Scotland for missives not to be concluded until the very last minute - sometimes not until the night before you are due to move house, and in the worst case, on the morning itself. As a general rule, only once the missives are concluded is there a binding contract that you can sue upon.

 

[countrryboy]

I would double check with ur solicitor 1st and make sure thyre clued up on any differences between Scotland and e gland.
After thats wot u pay them for.

To be fair I think the above advice is correct, but always best to double check esp if a fair bit of money involved.

I know a mate lost a house recently, the seller pulled out the week he was ment to move in.
Had everything boxed up ready to go.
To make it worse the seller has done this a few times now

 

[Utectok]

I think it’s different these days but a good friend accidentally bought a house by sending a letter to the estate saying he would buy the ruin for 1000£. Anyway it worked out as he did it up and sold it for £15k long time ago obviously lol

 

[User00035]

The buyer can indeed withdraw without penalty up to the point where the last missives are signed. I had that from my solicitor after just buying a house myself in Scotland. But after missives are signed if I'd withdrawn I would have been liable for the solicitor's costs.

What is different to England is that once the vendor has formally accepted an offer they are bound by that. The property must be taken off the market immediately and no higher offers can be entertained. This is to stop gazumping. A very good thing in my view. It does mean that many house sales in Scotland end up by default being sold by the sealed bid method whereby offers are invited "in excess of" and interested parties have to make their best offer before a deadline without knowing what the other bids are.
You are allowed to increase your bid or withdraw it at any time up to the deadline. That's fine and speeds up sales by removing "provisional" acceptance of bids which then sets in play a lot of horse trading where the estate agent goes back and forth between the other interested parties trying to get them to increase their offer. By outlawing such haggling it is a fairer and more stream-lined process in Scotland in my view and results in far fewer disappointments and false sales.

But when buying mine I was warned by Scottish friends that bid rigging is not unheard of, where agents tip off favoured buyers as to the highest current bid allowing them to slip in a higher offer in the in the last remaining minutes before the deadline to steal the sale. Highly illegal but I'm told it does happen.

With this in mind, I decided on my maximum offer but entered a bid 3K under that figure initially and let it sit there for two weeks, then increased it by the 3K in the last ten minutes before bidding closed. You're allowed to do that - keep a bit of your powder dry as it were - but the agent is not allowed to disclose what bids they have received so far.
Of course, the vendor does not have to go with the highest bid. They can reject all or accept any one they like, but once they have accepted, it's a contract.

 

[enfieldspares]

What is different to England is that once the vendor has formally accepted an offer they are bound by that.

I believe that to be true. And true as way back as when I did my CPE (Common Professional Examination) in Law in the early 1990s.

 

[Stalker-of-the-deer]

I belive in Scotland your word is your bond aswell legally speaking, so if you accept at that price then that's it. Along with the other bits that have been mentioned that's the deal done.

Gazumping and gazundering are illegal In scotland as a result, doesn't mean people don't try it though....