Closed petition Legally binding contract after a reasonable time from property offer acceptance

Closed on 6 November 2019

In England anyone making an offer to buy a property can pull out at any stage before exchange regardless of onward purchase offers, further plans or money and time spent. Other countries incl Scotland have a time limit in place shortly after an offer is accepted before which pull outs can happen.

Legitimate reasons for pulling out after such a deadline can be defined and accepted, such as negative findings in surveys, searches or mortgage offer issues. However, 40% of pull outs are due to ‘finding a preferred property’ once conveyancing is underway which has to be prevented and made illegal or subject to heavy penalties. This is stifling the property market and causing people to fall in to debt, stress and depression on multiple fronts. This issue affects thousands of people every week.