If a buyer has not paid a deposit and is contractually liable to do so then they are in breach of contract. What the seller’s rights are in the circumstances will depend on the terms of the contract itself, but these could range from rescission (bringing the contract to an end), specific performance (forcing the buyer to comply with a contractual term) or simply breach of contract and a claim for damages.
We would need to consider the contractual documentation in detail before we can provide any advice. If you would like us to consider the matter in more detail, please feel free to get in touch.
6 weeks ago I sold my property at auction. The auction house congratulated me and said that the buyer’s solicitor would be in touch with my solicitor and I should sit back at wait for things to happen. I called my solicitor yesterday, as it was 6 weeks, and she didn’t even know I had sold the property. I contacted the very reputable auction house who said this was ‘not normal’ and they left messages for the buyer to contact them, and they contacted the buyer’s solicitor. I’ve heard nothing, from no one. I am in an absolute panic. Surely the auction house has a responsibility to check that things are progressing? My question is this, my buyer surely paid a deposit on the day, can you tell me who keeps this deposit money please, it is not in the legal pack I was given. No one wants to tell me about the deposit. Thank you
The requirement to pay any deposit, to whom this is paid and how it is held (stakeholder or agent) will depend on the terms of the contract.
We would need to read this before we could provide any advice.
It is of course quite usual for a deposit to be paid and it is also quite usual for a buyer to forfeit that deposit if they are in breach of the contract or fail to complete. It may very well be the case that the auction house does owe you a duty of care and therefore if they have not done things properly there may be a basis of claim against them. There may also be a basis of claim against them in contract depending on the terms you agreed with them.
If you would like to get in touch to consider the matter in more detail, please do feel free.
We purchased a property back in February in way of a modern auction. In the terms and conditions it states “ The purchaser will not be exchanging contracts on the fall of the virtual hammer but will be given 56 working days in which to complete the transaction, from the date the Draft Contract are issued by the seller’s solicitor”. We are approximately six weeks after this date through no fault of our own, waiting on restrictions from the seller to come through. We believe the terms and conditions of 56 working days have been broken not by us but by the seller and the auction agent. After speaking to our solicitor, she commented that based on the restrictions,(seller has debt/financial issues) the house shouldn’t even been put for sale/ auction. We have waited almost 6 months now and thought by buying through auction, the process to exchange contracts and moving in would be Swift but we are still waiting with no clear expectation of how much longer to wait. No promise of when it can be completed. We would like to pull out now before our mortgage offer expires so we can attempt to search/buy another property. We are concerned that if our mortgage offer expires, we may not get such a good deal with the interest rates that have gone up since then and mortgage offer due to our age as we are in our early/mid 40s.
We are afraid we cannot provide any specific advice on our website. Whether or not you were entitled to rescind the agreement will depend on the terms of the contract itself, which is something that we would need to consider in a lot of detail before we could offer any advice.
I would suggest that you do place faith in your existing solicitors to give you advice and if they do not feel that they are able to do so they will suggest that you instruct a different firm.
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Hello,
I sold a property at auction last Thursday and the buyer has not paid the deposit of £10k. What are a sellers rights in this situation?
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
If a buyer has not paid a deposit and is contractually liable to do so then they are in breach of contract. What the seller’s rights are in the circumstances will depend on the terms of the contract itself, but these could range from rescission (bringing the contract to an end), specific performance (forcing the buyer to comply with a contractual term) or simply breach of contract and a claim for damages.
We would need to consider the contractual documentation in detail before we can provide any advice. If you would like us to consider the matter in more detail, please feel free to get in touch.
6 weeks ago I sold my property at auction. The auction house congratulated me and said that the buyer’s solicitor would be in touch with my solicitor and I should sit back at wait for things to happen. I called my solicitor yesterday, as it was 6 weeks, and she didn’t even know I had sold the property. I contacted the very reputable auction house who said this was ‘not normal’ and they left messages for the buyer to contact them, and they contacted the buyer’s solicitor. I’ve heard nothing, from no one. I am in an absolute panic. Surely the auction house has a responsibility to check that things are progressing? My question is this, my buyer surely paid a deposit on the day, can you tell me who keeps this deposit money please, it is not in the legal pack I was given. No one wants to tell me about the deposit. Thank you
Thank you for your comment.
The requirement to pay any deposit, to whom this is paid and how it is held (stakeholder or agent) will depend on the terms of the contract.
We would need to read this before we could provide any advice.
It is of course quite usual for a deposit to be paid and it is also quite usual for a buyer to forfeit that deposit if they are in breach of the contract or fail to complete. It may very well be the case that the auction house does owe you a duty of care and therefore if they have not done things properly there may be a basis of claim against them. There may also be a basis of claim against them in contract depending on the terms you agreed with them.
If you would like to get in touch to consider the matter in more detail, please do feel free.
We purchased a property back in February in way of a modern auction. In the terms and conditions it states “ The purchaser will not be exchanging contracts on the fall of the virtual hammer but will be given 56 working days in which to complete the transaction, from the date the Draft Contract are issued by the seller’s solicitor”.
We are approximately six weeks after this date through no fault of our own, waiting on restrictions from the seller to come through. We believe the terms and conditions of 56 working days have been broken not by us but by the seller and the auction agent. After speaking to our solicitor, she commented that based on the restrictions,(seller has debt/financial issues) the house shouldn’t even been put for sale/ auction. We have waited almost 6 months now and thought by buying through auction, the process to exchange contracts and moving in would be Swift but we are still waiting with no clear expectation of how much longer to wait. No promise of when it can be completed. We would like to pull out now before our mortgage offer expires so we can attempt to search/buy another property. We are concerned that if our mortgage offer expires, we may not get such a good deal with the interest rates that have gone up since then and mortgage offer due to our age as we are in our early/mid 40s.
Thank you for your comment.
We are afraid we cannot provide any specific advice on our website. Whether or not you were entitled to rescind the agreement will depend on the terms of the contract itself, which is something that we would need to consider in a lot of detail before we could offer any advice.
I would suggest that you do place faith in your existing solicitors to give you advice and if they do not feel that they are able to do so they will suggest that you instruct a different firm.