I knew it! Buyer bottled out. Rubbish excuse about waiting a month for her money to transfer from Australia & concern about a possible change in the exchange rate. None of it stacks up & one of the agents was far blunter than me. She's a recent divorcee & I guess is feeling fragile. I can understand that, being a single woman negotiating the housing market too. But it stinks!
Our system is not fit for purpose. An accepted offer, negotiated through agents, should be a binding agreement & there should be a penalty if you default. My offer on the house in Oxford was accepted, so I've lost that & had to pass on the bad news to the elderly lady who was also hoping to move nearer to her daughter. The knock on ripple effect goes all down the line.
No wonder buying & selling houses is so stressful. It's worse now because of the financial situation & there is a distinct lack of a moral framework to many people's way of operating. It is very difficult to trust the word of anyone involved in property. All you can do is try to maintain your own moral code & deal as honestly & fairly as you can.
Need to focus on the positives. It would have been much worse if it had happened when I was in Nepal & I'm lucky to live in a lovely house in a beautiful location with fantastic friends & neighbours. But, how do I explain that to 7 year old Sam & Theo who came on the second viewing with me & were very excited at seeing what would have been their bedroom in Granny's house?
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