House Sale Fallen Through: A Guide

Selling your house involves a huge emotional investment.

And it comes with paperwork, stress, and effort, involved in completing the sale. Not to mention losses on the costs of selling a house.

So if your house sale collapses, watching it all slip away is painful.

Sadly, roughly 1 in 3 house transactions falls through in the UK.

And there’s are many different reasons why it happens!

In a country where property is practically a religion, and where Rightmove browsing is a national sport, you want to avoid this scenario at all costs.

So, it’s useful to understand what causes the huge percentage of collapsed house sales. As unfair, personal, and infuriating as it may seem, it’s becoming normal.

Read on to learn why, and what you can do about it…

The numbers behind a broken system…

You don’t need to rely on anecdotes to get the sense that the system is broken. Just one glance at the numbers will tell you all you need to know.

Research by Santander found that 530,000 house sales collapse every year in England Wales.

This equates to about 1,450 households every single day. That’s a lot of heartache, derailed plans, and financial crises.

Each family might’ve lined up removals, found their dream place to move into, and perhaps handed in notices at work.

Costs to would-be buyers

The financial fallout is eye-watering.

Homeowners lose £560 million in direct costs each year. This money is lost on:

And nothing is gained in return. Once you’ve signed the contract saying these payments are non-refundable, you’re at the mercy of the property Gods.

Statistics on bigger picture

It seems that there’s a tremendous incentive to the UK government to turn this around.

The economy suffers a £950 million blow each year from lost productivity and reduced wellbeing surrounding house transactions. Furthermore:

The average individual loss when a sale collapses is £1,240, though one in five lose more than £2,000
85% of people report a financial hit
64% say their stress levels skyrocket
Almost 50% of people lose sleep
More than 25% say the fallout damages personal relationships.

And here’s the stat estate agents don’t like you hearing: 28% of people say the experience put them off moving again.

That’s a whole generation of homeowners effectively frozen in place because the process was so traumatic they refuse to repeat it.

Bizarre reasons that house sales collapse

In such a formal and high-stakes setting, it’s natural to think that a house sale only falls through for a valid, serious reason.

Well, think again, because that couldn’t be further from the truth!

Of course, there are times when a house sale collapse is for ‘legitimate’ reasons. But there’s plenty of outright bizarre stories out there, too…

One buyer talked publicly about receiving a phone call a couple of days before completion, from the seller, who was in tears and saying that they could no longer sell the home because “my babies were born here.”

The seller was in her 60s and her children had left long ago! Nostalgia struck at the eleventh hour.

There was also a man who listed his house on Purple Bricks – despite the fact that he didn’t even own it. It belonged to his ex-wife, who he was trying to annoy. We imagine that probably did the trick!

One family tried to sell a house without realising they couldn’t, because the owner (their parent) had passed away, and they hadn’t gone through probate.

They genuinely thought you could just list it and see what happened. The term ‘grant of probate’ was totally new to them.

One chain collapsed because of a single squeaky floorboard overheard in a survey.

Five minutes with a screwdriver and a dab of WD-40 would have solved it – but instead, the buyer called it a ‘dealbreaker’, and bolted.

Another sale imploded because the seller refused to obtain or indemnify retrospective permission for a dropped kerb.

This was a £100 to £400 issue on a £750,000 property. Pride, it seems, costs more than logic.

Superstition also has its victims. One buyer refused to complete on Friday the 13th because it had ‘bad juju.’

The house wasn’t cursed, and the sale still went ahead – they just wanted to choose a different day!

Solicitors

Even solicitors get in on the drama.

One chain nearly imploded because the seller’s solicitor aggressively confronted a neighbour about a missing alleyway key, turning a legal transaction into an EastEnders episode.

Some of these stories are funny in retrospect. But, they’re probably not that funny when they happen to you.

Can a house be ‘legally haunted’?

You can’t talk about strange property disputes without mentioning one of the most famous court cases in property history: Stambovsky v. Ackley, also known as the ‘Haunted House Case’.

In 1990, Jeffrey Stambovsky agreed to buy a picturesque Victorian home in Nyack, New York.

All was well until he discovered (after paying his deposit) that the seller, Helen Ackley, had spent years publicly talking about her home being haunted.

She’d told local newspapers, and her house was even part of a local ‘haunted’ tour.

When Stambovsky learned this, he pulled out and demanded his deposit back. Initially the court refused.

But the appeal court overturned the decision in spectacular style, declaring the house ‘legally haunted’ because the seller had publicly represented it as such.

The judges concluded that no inspection could possibly uncover ghosts or folklore, and therefore the buyer could not be expected to know. The contract was voided and the house deposit returned.

Why does this matter to us?

Because it reveals something most sellers forget: reputation matters.

You can’t downplay or hide known issues, you must disclose key information on your house. If you’ve made public statements about your property, then that influences how its perceived, which impacts value.

The ‘true value’ of a house is whatever people are willing to pay for it – and perceptions matter, even if there’s not proven or true.

Ranking the reasons house sales fall through

Over 1,000 house sales falls through every day in the UK. And there’s recurring reasons that come up across the country, which it’s always best to be ready for.

1. Buyer can’t get mortgage

At the top of the list is the biggest villain of them all: buyers who can’t get a mortgage.

Around 22% of fall-throughs happen because a buyer’s mortgage in principle turns out to be worthless (if they even had one in the first place).

Banks love to move the goalposts, or disagree with house valuations, which throws a spanner in the works.

2. Survey issues

A close second is survey and search disasters. Surveyors uncover:

Damp in the home
Rot
Roof issues
Asbestos
Japanese knotweed
Dodgy electrics
Cracking walls

And much more.

Any one of these could be considered a ‘dealbreaker’ by the buyer, depending on their priorities.

3. Lack of property information

Third on the list is a lack of up-front property information. This could mean that documents are missing, or details are withheld.

In other countries, like Spain, if a seller withdraws after accepting an offer, they must repay double the deposit. No wonder their fall-through rates are half the UK’s!

4. Property chain breaks

The fourth most common reason is property chains breaking.

And, the longer your chain is, the more likely it is to collapse – which is why so many people prefer to work with chain-free buyers and sellers.

5. Negotiation disagreements

Fifth is disagreements over renegotiations on house price.

These are a part of any house sale, and sometimes can even include bad tactics like gazumping or gazundering.

And then, you’ve also got to allow for indecision and ‘cold feet’ and delay a house sale or cause it to fall through. As frustrating as it sounds, and potentially financially damaging, some people decide the house they’re trying to buy ‘isn’t quite right’.

They panic about interest rates, or they simply don’t want to move anymore. This is especially common with first time buyers, unfortunately.

6. Leasehold complications.

Leaseholds can be complicated and expensive to rectify. If leasehold restrictions are found, potential buyers may pull the plug.

7. Slow conveyancing

Slow or incompetent solicitors are a common stumbling block. Quite simply, the solicitor you choose can make or break your transaction.

The conveyancers drowning in cases are the worst kind. They tend to misplace files, request funds too late, or forget searches. Not good!

8. Estate agents

Estate agents will sometimes make a house sale collapse, if they fail to communicate promptly and properly with all the relevant people.

This is why finding the right estate agent early on is essential.

Realism is your best friend

It’s impossible to control everything – and if you’re looking for us to promise you that your house sale will never collapse, then you’re in the wrong place.

That isn’t the reality. But, we’d be lying if we said there aren’t things you can do to improve your chances, along with common buyer ‘warning signs’ that should make you stay away.

Proper preparation is your secret weapon. Get all your documents in place before you enter the market, and you’re far more likely to get things done quickly.

Keep in mind, a slow-moving process can be just as dangerous as anything else. It gives people time to change their mind, or for their circumstances to change.

Realism is your best friend in the process of buying or selling a house. It’s crucial to balance what you want, with what’s actually achievable.

Don’t find an estate agent who just sugarcoats your ego – find one who’s brutally honest, and tells you what you need to know.

Alongside a trustworthy estate agent, you also need a solicitor who’s on the ball.

Not all of them are passionate, prompt, and professional – so do your research, check reviews, and vet all candidates carefully.

Momentum is a big part of completing a sale. Inject some energy into it from day one, and it’ll probably carry on that day.

But, if you start with lethargy, you’ll find it really tricky to turn it around.

The longer your house chain, the more likely it is to fall apart.

If you can make yourself chain-free when selling, and also find a buyer in the same position, then you’re far more likely to reach the other side without having several crises along the way.

The brutal truth: Britain’s system needs reform

The biggest tragedy of fall-throughs is that so many are avoidable. Other countries have solved this:

Norway completes sales in a month
Spain penalises sellers who pull out late.
America uses escrow to reduce uncertainty.

But Britain clings to a slow, antiquated system that leaves ordinary people paying for its failures.

88% of people say they’d move more often if the process were less painful.

Santander argues for digitisation, centralised property data, and AI-driven systems to cut delays.

Right now, half a million households a year are paying the price for our outdated process.

Until change happens, British homeowners will continue living with the fear that their carefully planned move might collapse without warning.

It doesn’t have to be this way – and if you return to this article in a few years, we sincerely hope that all of these doom-and-gloom statistics would’ve changed.

Alternatives to consider if your house falls through

Most people whose house sale falls through choose to begin the selling process at a later date.

However, some consider other ways to sell their home. These include property auctions or – for more speed and certainty – selling to a cash buyer.

We Buy Any Home is one such cash buyer. If you sell your home quickly and are tired of your home sales falling through we can purchase your home in as little as 7 days for up to 85% of the market value.

This allows you to move into your dream home without the risk of your home sale falling through or forking out on expensive fees.