Rejected petition Make property offers legally binding upon acceptance in England and Wales

Introduce a law where an offer on a property becomes legally binding once accepted , to prevent gazumping, gazundering and unnecessary financial losses for buyers and sellers.

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In England and Wales, buyers and sellers can pull out of a property deal anytime before contracts are exchanged, leaving both sides exposed to gazumping, gazundering, and losing money on surveys, legal fees, and mortgage costs.
In Scotland, an accepted offer becomes legally binding earlier through the conclusion of missives, giving more certainty, fewer fall-throughs, and a fairer, more efficient market.
We want a law that requires property offers to become legally binding upon acceptance.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign the following petition, which calls for similar action:

Amend the home buying process in England to align with Scotland
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/739512

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 17 November 2025
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