I physically moved out of my property on the assumption completion money would move the same day. The PM Law shutdown means the funds are trapped and I’m sofa-surfing with all my belongings in storage.

Charged me for sales packs… they never even requested.

Buyer says their previous conveyancer failed to complete title registration promptly, complicating a later transaction.

Some buyers only discover after purchase that their flat’s service charges make it almost impossible to sell on at a fair price.

They felt that without a specialist chain-rescue option, they’d have lost the house they were buying and wasted everything they’d spent on legal fees.

We had an offer accepted on a house that needs a fair bit of work because of damp. We thought we could get a damp survey after agreeing the price, but were then told there was already a damp report that should have been sent with the home report and we never received it. Now we have finally seen it and want to lower our offer because of the extra cost, but we are not sure where we stand.

Before completion I paid my share of the annual estate maintenance fee to my solicitor, who sent it on to the seller's solicitor. Four months later the managing agent has written to me saying I still owe the amount, and the seller's solicitor is not responding, leaving me stuck in the middle.

A buyer says they were effectively punished with a very late viewing date after refusing the agent’s mortgage adviser.

I found out today that my solicitor from the PM Law group has gone under a week before completion. My £50,000 deposit is now in limbo and even the SRA can’t give me a straight answer about what’s happening or when this will be resolved.

Our sale collapsed after six months, just before exchange. Now we’ve got two weeks to find another buyer or we lose our onward purchase and thousands in fees.

The owner said if they’d known charges would explode like that, they’d never have bought in the first place.

We discovered our solicitor wasn't cc’ing us into emails with the other side. We asked why. No answer.

I am slowly accepting the reality that my mortgage offer will expire 22nd September

By the time we heard the valuer wasn’t comfortable, the buyer had already instructed their solicitor to pull out and we’d wasted months.

We lost our sale purely because nobody at the firm picked up the phone or answered emails in time for the chain to hold together.

The Ombudsman found that the poor communication left the client confused, out of pocket and unsure what had actually gone wrong until it was too late to rescue the sale.

User says they ordered title documents from a site that looked official, then learned it was a paid third-party service and struggled to get support.

We’ve had to pay for emergency storage and last-minute removals twice now because completion dates kept slipping and then our PM Law firm collapsed entirely.

On r/HousingUK, a seller says their buyer pulled out just two days before exchange, and they are ‘absolutely gutted’ after months of planning a move back home.

They describe feeling stuck in a property nobody wants, with their lives effectively on pause while those charges keep climbing.

Goodlord’s material information guide says key details like tenure, ground rent and service charges must be prominent and not hidden or ambiguous in listings.

We knew the charge was ‘a bit high’ when we moved in, but it’s only now we’re trying to sell that we realise how much of a deterrent it is.

We want to buy a property with an annex where the main house is used as a holiday rental with bookings for another year. It is on crown estate land with other farm buildings and our mortgage broker is struggling to find a lender who will accept the setup.

They say the bank told them they’d seen the same scam recently and stopped it in time — and they could have lost a six-figure sum at the point of completion.

I’m terrified of putting the house back on the market because the last two buyers have walked away after survey – I’m just waiting to be ‘shafted’ again.

Buyer complains their solicitor never warned them that spray foam insulation in the roof could make the house unmortgageable and only found out when the lender refused to lend after valuation.

We’re the second buyers on a house; the first sale fell through over the summer and now our survey has found more issues that weren’t mentioned before.

They say their solicitor claims the buyer’s solicitor hasn’t even contacted the lender properly, and they can’t tell if they’re being fobbed off or the case is genuinely stuck.

Citizens Advice list cases where buyers lost deposits or sellers lost out on thousands because estate agents mishandled funds when a sale fell through.

Broker claimed a buy-to-let mortgage was arranged, took money, and then nothing progressed. Looked and felt like a scam operation.

The buyer pulled out once they realised the cladding and safety works would be passed onto leaseholders through service charges; nobody had explained that clearly at viewing.

Cunningtons highlight misrepresentation claims over hidden disputes, flooding and missing planning consents, all of which can derail sales or trigger compensation claims.

A reviewer complains that slow replies meant properties were effectively gone by the time anyone responded.

A Latimer Lee review simply says the sale fell through because the buyer’s solicitor couldn’t get answers from them and the buyers lost patience waiting.

A Parkers Tilehurst review says their original sale fell through ‘through no fault of theirs’, but the agent got the property back on the market quickly and kept the chain moving.

“After 8 weeks of torture… I decided to go to a real conveyancing firm.”

Our buyer’s solicitor waited until the day of exchange to say the leasehold wasn’t properly registered, so the whole sale died on the spot.

Left without progress for weeks; needed to review paperwork but it wasn’t provided.

After submitting an offer and returning to view the house again, we found cracked windows inside and out, damp upstairs and downstairs, patched repairs everywhere, and bubbling wallpaper. I am worried about repair costs and unsure whether to proceed with a survey.

Not even 1 star... Absolute ridiculous service. I would never want anyone else to go through the same experience.

The lawyer never explained that I’d still have to pay hundreds of pounds if the sale didn’t complete; when it fell through, I got a bill I wasn’t expecting.

We only learned the lease was under 80 years after our offer was accepted – that should have been made clear from the start.

Developer solicitor delays meant we paid months of extra rent and storage fees before completion.

My sale fell through and the conveyancers at Dee & Griffin barely communicated – it felt like I was just a walking bank account rather than a client they cared about.

They say moving house is one of the most stressful life events and I agree. Trying to get solicitors to actually do what they are paid for is horrendous; if I behaved like them I would be sacked.

Resident complains a big service-charge increase and poor responsiveness left an entire estate frustrated.

Four chains in a row fell apart for different reasons, from mortgage problems to leasehold worries; each time we paid for new searches and surveys.

They’ve slashed the asking price far below what they paid, but buyers are scared off as soon as they see the yearly heating and management bills.

Our sale fell through after the buyer’s surveyor flagged ‘damp issues’ everywhere. It feels like surveyors go nuclear so buyers panic and walk rather than negotiate.

Some say their flats are basically unsellable because buyers and mortgage lenders walk away as soon as they see the service-charge schedule.

The constant ultimatums from the other side left us feeling bullied; our own solicitor seemed unwilling to push back, so we withdrew the property from sale.

They’d already paid for legal work and paperwork and were left none the wiser about what scared the buyer off in the report.

They warned others that if your buyer’s mortgage offer runs out, you can easily lose not just the buyer but your onward purchase and all your upfront fees.

Another MSE seller says a buyer walked away after their surveyor reported dry rot in the loft – but a second survey later found no rot at all.

“For the first month my case was passed around… no communication why.”

After our buyer walked away, the agent suggested we strip the house bare to attract ‘serious’ buyers, which felt like terrible advice.

We were told to be ready to move, so we booked removals and vacated on the assumption funds would be sent. Then we discovered the firm handling our completion had been shut down and we had no house to go to that night.

Santander’s research says more than half a million property transactions collapse every year in England and Wales because of our outdated home-buying system.

One poster describes being first in a new build with a very long lease but still facing ongoing ground rent they hadn’t fully appreciated.

Result is the entire deal is dead, we have the legal fees, around £2,700 to pay our lawyers

Paid a non-returnable lease-extension deposit, then the process didn’t complete in the agreed timeframe.

Signed deed of variation promised ‘shortly’—then no progress and no proper responses.

They say some delays are avoidable with better communication, but others stem from a system still reliant on post, paper and overworked local authorities.

After all the stress of one failed sale, having a company that simply got it done felt like a relief, even if we took a hit on the price.

Our buyers disappeared after their insurer asked questions about historic flood events; nobody had mentioned the river bursting its banks a few years back.

The high street agent did very little beyond sticking it online; we had to chase for every tiny update.

They warn that reapplying mid-chain can delay completion, change affordability and, in the worst case, collapse the whole sequence of linked sales.

The reviewer praises their own lawyer’s persistence, saying without constant chasing they might never have reached exchange at all.

They say the agent applied intense pressure to complete quickly and chased them daily, then the purchase fell apart and left them in a housing scramble.

Our buyer’s solicitor is one of the PM Law brands. They moved out with their children ready for completion, but with the firm shut the agent says they’re effectively homeless while everyone waits to see what happens with the funds.

The agent pushed us toward a house-buying company that offered far below market value after our open-market sale fell apart.

They note that in some developments, service charges have become higher than council tax, contributing to flat values stagnating or falling behind houses.

Another commenter replied that they’d personally avoid buying in that block because high charges and future increases would make it very hard to sell on.

A HousingUK thread about leasehold flats warns that service charges and ground rents can balloon to the point where you’re left with something you ‘can’t sell’.

Many negligence claims against conveyancers involve delays and failure to keep clients informed.

I would give zero stars if I could. The amount of delays, no communication and me chasing them is utterly unacceptable!

We’re three months in and still waiting on local authority searches. Our buyer keeps asking what’s going on and I’ve got no idea what to tell them apart from ‘the council is slow’.

In a Mumsnet thread, someone said their vendors pulled out after months, just as they were about to exchange, because they ‘no longer fancied moving’ and wanted more time.

The Guardian reported shared-ownership residents facing service charges up to £8,000 a year, leaving some homes effectively impossible to sell on the open market.

Slow, understaffed and liars. Estate agents and other law firms actually hate working with this company.

One buyer in the legal section said the sellers pulled out days before exchange, after months of obstructing survey access and being vague about their mortgage situation.

Campaigners say buyers were lured in by low initial estimates and only discovered the true costs later, when charges had already soared.

Service charge demands and threats create stress while people are mid-move and trying to complete.

Our solicitor and the agent both stayed oddly quiet about why the previous sale had fallen through; later we discovered the survey had raised subsidence concerns.

Totally incompetent - they should pay me

They describe the leasehold system as ‘unregulated and vile’, with no real way out once the annual costs have spiralled.

We lost our buyer when the survey highlighted significant damp and potential structural movement; even a small price reduction wasn’t enough to reassure them.

The seller says they can’t even discuss completion dates until the lender’s solicitor is satisfied, leaving the whole chain stuck in limbo.

Confusion over who was insuring the property between exchange and completion created weeks of delay and nearly derailed the move.

The first buyers pulled out after survey, and now every new viewer wants to know what was in that report, even though we never got a copy ourselves.

The estate agent’s recommended conveyancing factory was slow and chaotic; we only saved the chain by speaking directly to everyone ourselves.

Gaddes Noble admitted in an email that they failed to answer Land Registry requisitions, causing our application to be cancelled and resubmitted, with months of extra delay and stress.

So slow we lost our buyer.

Another Trustpilot reviewer says they pulled out on the day they were due to exchange because the search pack revealed high flood risk only at the last minute, even though the firm had held the results for weeks.

Leaseholders describe paying huge sums for service charges and legal fees they never agreed to and cannot challenge.

AVOID, AVOID AVOID!!!! No communication… No work done on the file.

Our solicitor repeatedly missed calls and emails from the lender requesting clarification on the title plan. The mortgage offer was suspended until we escalated the issue.

One MSE user considered suing after their sale fell through right before completion, but was warned that legal action is slow, expensive and rarely fixes the emotional damage.

They also say local authority searches and unresponsive lawyers can cause such extreme delays that frustrated buyers start viewing other properties instead.

General complaint of being slow/understaffed and giving misleading updates; others warned to avoid.

They recommend doing the legwork on insurers in advance, otherwise you risk a sale falling through just because buyers panic when comparison sites decline to quote.

I feel like I’m one admin error away from homelessness. My tenancy is ending, my purchase is frozen with a PM Law brand, and nobody can tell me when I’ll actually have a home to move into.

Buyers on Reddit have posted about mortgage offers expiring while they wait for searches and chains, saying they feel sick at the thought of their purchase collapsing after months of paperwork.

My solicitor changed handlers three times and each time I got the same story: ‘we’ll update you soon’. Weeks passed.

After terrible experiences with a previous solicitor and the housing association, having someone actually return calls and push the transaction forward was a relief.

They described it as a nightmare maze of complaints and delays just to get the bank to offer a workable alternative after the collapsed sale.

We’re buying with no chain and it’s still taking forever. I’ve heard almost nothing from the solicitor in months.

My retired parents’ buyers pulled out at the last minute, putting their dream new-build at risk and leaving them facing the loss of all the fees they’d already paid.

We spent thousands on a deed of variation but our ground rent issue still threatens to collapse the sale.

The buyers conveyancers, a 'tick box' firm said nothing and the deal progressed

One poster said their vendor became seriously ill and pulled out just two weeks before exchange after five months of pushing the sale along.

The Law Society explains that the Legal Ombudsman mainly deals with poor service such as delayed or unclear communication, billing problems and lost documents.

Buyer notes last-minute disruption close to exchange — conditional mortgage discovered too late.

Our sale fell through twice for different reasons, and the final sale was plagued by leasehold problems. Thankfully our solicitor stayed patient and kept pushing it along.

They felt powerless watching weeks go by with no progress, wondering if the whole thing would be lost because one lawyer wouldn’t pick up emails.

Communication was awful; we were constantly chasing and still got incorrect information.

Our buyers became increasingly aggressive over minor defects, sending long, hostile emails via their solicitor until our own lawyer advised us to walk away.

Reallymoving tell buyers to comb the TA6 form for past or ongoing neighbour rows; if anything looks worrying or vague, they say buyers are right to consider walking away.

The same piece highlights confusion around the Building Safety Act, saying around 20% of conveyancers refuse to handle some flat sales because of cladding risks.

The advice everywhere is to look very closely at lease length and ongoing service costs, or you risk being stuck with something buyers keep walking away from.

Communication was terrible and my solicitor went weeks without replying to anything.

Our solicitor assured us everything was ready for exchange, but on the day they admitted the mortgage deed had never been sent to the lender for approval. We lost our booked removals and had to negotiate a new completion date with the whole chain.

Their message to solicitors is blunt: start searches early and communicate clearly, or risk chains collapsing while everyone waits for paperwork.

A Sheffield Forum thread on gazumping notes that the only real ‘protection’ is to keep bidding or move on – until exchange, both sides are exposed to last-minute changes.

We’d been on the market a year, changed agents and dropped the price repeatedly. We finally found a cash buyer who didn’t even want a survey, then he still pulled out.

The muddle over who actually managed the block left the buyer worried about future repairs and charges, so they pulled out.

JBear Properties note that average service charges on flats rose about 11% in a year to around £2,300, widening the price gap between houses and high-fee apartments.

One angry customer talks about ‘rogue reports’ and asks where the accountability is when a single survey can derail a remortgage and future plans.

They describe being threatened with significant fees and being chased by solicitors, while also facing ongoing mortgage and council tax on an empty property.

Our sale fell through and now the solicitor is chasing us for a big conveyancing bill even though we never got to completion and their service was terrible.

Our solicitor failed to chase the freeholder for basic leasehold information, even though we had paid for the management pack. Weeks passed while they blamed 'third parties' instead of acting.

Our management company demanded over £400 for a basic leasehold information pack and then took a month to produce it, nearly killing the sale.

They said having someone who actually understood the lease and could explain it to buyers stopped the flat from becoming a permanent fall-through story.

Our landlord tried to sell with a sitting tenant but the buyer pulled out when they saw how weak the existing tenancy agreement was.

We are being forced to pay our agents Yopa even though they did not sell our property. I did the viewing, sold the property myself and we lost the original sale because the house was listed incorrectly and key material information was missing.

On ReviewSolicitors, a Gilson Gray client says communication was ‘appalling’, with questions ignored for months and phone calls never answered.

Selling leasehold: huge fee demanded just to answer standard enquiries by email.

After reading the report from a buyer, it felt like the house had been unnecessarily condemned, risking a collapsed sale.

A poster said their buyers gave no real reason for backing out; the solicitor just emailed that they were withdrawing and signed off with a casual ‘sorry’.

Buyer anxious mid-purchase because management pack is the only blocker — repeated chasing proves pointless.

purchase attempt that fell apart due to a lack of critical information being disclosed upfront

Another commented that every time they spotted a listing reappear, they assumed the previous buyer had discovered something nasty in the survey or lease.

The freeholder’s managing agent took months to answer basic questions about works and charges, and the buyer eventually walked away rather than wait any longer.

They describe emails going unanswered for weeks and only finding out about issues after repeatedly chasing.

A Screwfix community thread has a seller whose 150-year-old home was hit with a long list of issues and a down-valuation after the buyer’s homebuyer survey.

A Mumsnet user said their sale fell through about six weeks in, just after survey, and the buyers wouldn’t even say why – they simply disappeared via their solicitor.

They sent one line emails with no explanation and then disappeared again.

Another leaseholder says they feel ripped off by a £4,300 London service charge – and that a colleague’s £10k bill has made their place practically unsellable.

When our sale fell through after six months, we weren’t just losing a buyer – we were losing the house we’d set our hearts on and a chunk of our savings.

Our buyer used Angela Viney and the file moved at a snail’s pace. Emails were ignored, they posted documents instead of emailing and the whole thing was a mess from start to finish.

Another Guardian story said some shared-ownership buyers saw service charges jump by hundreds of percent, turning ‘affordable’ homes into serious financial liabilities.

Our previous sale fell through and we turned to SmoothSale; they got it back on the market quickly and resold it before the whole chain imploded.

We felt helpless watching a perfectly good offer slip away thanks to a backlog at the council.

The landlord has decided to sell and we’re getting multiple viewings a week. I’ve been kicked out of my own home so strangers can look round and it feels like harassment at this point.

I inherited my aunt's house which has been rented out for years, but it turns out the garage encroaches onto council land. I can prove the garage has been there since 1964 but as I have not owned it for 12 years, I do not know if I can apply for adverse possession.

They point out that as well as losing their finance, buyers may incur extra legal and valuation fees and face higher interest rates when reapplying, all because timelines drifted.

After the first sale fell through I turned to a different law firm, and the contrast showed just how badly the first solicitor had handled things.

They realised only afterwards how little the first agent had done beyond sticking a board up and listing the property online.

We’d had a good relationship with our landlord for years but lately he’s making everything difficult – constant texts, unannounced visits, pushing us out because he wants to sell.

They said the constant chain failures were emotionally brutal and made them doubt they’d ever get the move done until one persistent sales progressor dragged it over the line.

They are painfully slow to respond, regularly ignored my emails, and never pushed the buyers for updates.

Our first buyer walked away after their solicitor raised concerns about a garage that was on a separate title; nobody had warned us it might be a problem.

I have zero idea of a timescale. I would just like to know if I need to start applying for a mortgage offer extension

Survey-style due diligence felt like a tick-box exercise with little real advice on tricky points.

Refusing the in-house mortgage broker made the buyer feel frozen out of viewings and offers, like access was being used as leverage.

Our buyer pulled out because the leasehold house had escalating ground rent; their solicitor warned it could make the place unsellable in the future.

The fixtures and fittings list arrived with a price next to almost everything, including old curtain poles and garden planters; it felt like being shaken down.

Two valuations cost nearly £2k and the reports were described as copy-paste. The customer felt they paid a fortune for low-quality work.

Their behaviour around access and viewings showed no regard for privacy or basic professionalism.

They warn that fall-throughs don’t just waste money, they also destroy confidence in the process and make people more reluctant to try again.

You assume the agent will weed out time-wasters, but in reality you can get a long way down the road with buyers who haven’t thought through basics like parking.

At 73 I found myself effectively homeless because my buyers’ solicitors disappeared; the sale collapsed and I’d already moved out of my home.

Bettermove’s guide on selling with neighbour disputes explains you must declare ongoing rows on the TA6 and that hiding them can backfire badly later.

2 of them have been quite insistent on starting the deed of variation now but our freeholder is charging everyone different amounts, its not consistent.

The HomeOwners Alliance warns that a down valuation can completely upend a sale, because buyers suddenly can’t borrow enough to stick to the agreed price.

On r/HousingUK, one leaseholder says annual service charges have made their flat ‘impossible’ to sell – first-time buyers can’t afford it and landlords can’t make the numbers work.

Our buyer pulled out after survey but refused to share the report. We know something spooked them, yet we’re going back to market blind about what future buyers might also pick up.

Buyer in a chain says progress stalled because others were still waiting on local authority searches, with uncertainty around timescales.

An Action Fraud/NCA/Law Society leaflet claims victims can lose their entire deposit or purchase money, and includes a case study where a buyer lost £640,000 after spoofed solicitor emails led to a payment diversion and the purchase collapsed.

On LeaseholdersForum, one owner complains about ‘excessive’ service charges for a basic block with no lift or facilities, saying they feel ripped off every year.

“They strong-armed me… to taking a review down… won’t give the other.”

MoneySavingExpert users discuss a flat that won’t sell, with the owner suspecting the near-£300 per month service charge is putting every buyer off.

Our mortgage offer was already in place when the original purchase fell through; the lender would only consider porting it if we jumped through more hoops and the new place met all their criteria again.

The sellers converted the cellar into a habitable room without building regulations approval and there is no FENSA certificate for the window. They only offer an indemnity policy. We are unsure of the long-term risks for lending and resale.

One JustAnswer question comes from a seller who filled in the TA6 with ‘no disputes’, then later had to complain about a neighbour using their driveway.

We’re up against a fixed-rate deadline and facing the prospect of an unsellable flat just as our mortgage costs are about to jump.

We were stunned to learn that until exchange, either party can just walk away; months of work and money can vanish with one email.

Not even 1 star but there is no option for that. Absolute ridiculous service.

The estate agent added nothing but stress. Constant chasing, contradictory updates and no real sales progression. Selling a house felt like a scam.

Our estate agent has had to publish special guidance because so many of their buyers and sellers are stuck with PM Law group firms. Chains are paused while everyone waits to see when files and funds will be released.

Some buyers say the jump in charges has wiped out any sense of affordability and made their homes unattractive to future purchasers.

By the time the third buyer completed, the family had lost all faith in the process and were just relieved to be out.

The agent never told us the buyers were using a specialist lender that was notorious for down-valuations; when the valuation came in low, everyone acted surprised.

I’d already mentally moved; now I’m back in the same house, surrounded by boxes and constant anxiety about ever escaping this process.

Another lender guide says if your offer expires before completion, you could face extra legal and valuation costs on top of a higher interest rate.

Our sale didn’t complete on the agreed day and we had removals booked, annual leave taken, everything. Now our solicitor is talking about claiming damages from the buyer for breach of contract.

After a two-year buying journey, it’s exhausting to still be asking whether the sellers actually have authority to sell or if we’ll be back to square one again.

In the PM Property Lawyers support group, hundreds of buyers and sellers say they were days from completion when the shutdown hit, leaving them stuck with packed boxes and nowhere to go.

Another seller says buyers keep backing out of their leasehold sale as soon as they see the £3–6k annual service charges in the paperwork.

Hearing that a property has already been under offer and fallen through makes you wonder what the survey or searches turned up that you’re not being told.

I posted that the vendor for a probate sale was not willing to pay for a gas safety check even though there was no history. After pushing, they finally agreed to fund it and the gas fire was found to have a gas leak and was condemned. It could have been very dangerous.

A HousingUK buyer said the seller ticked ‘no disputes’ on the TA6, but they later learned of repeated complaints and issues with the houses next door.

Six months later the buyers walked away and we were left wondering why nobody had been honest about the lack of progress.

Found out through someone else that the chain had collapsed; the lack of transparency meant weeks of wasted time and momentum.

Our house sale is in danger of falling through because both firms of solicitors are so slow and unresponsive.

They say it was incredibly stressful to discover everything was off track after months of preparation, and they lost out on the house they’d hoped to buy.

I came away feeling they were more interested in a quick fee than in getting a fair price for us after the first buyer pulled out.

So slow we lost our buyer. After over 180 days of waiting... our buyer finally pulled out and I don't blame them.

As a broker, it felt like constant back-and-forth with repeated requests and slow progress—seriously delayed cases.

We sent several small transfers thinking they were to our solicitor. They were all going to scammers.

They also warn that if sellers failed to mention disputes and you only discover them after moving in, specialist legal advice may be your only route to redress.

Our estate agent says several buyers and sellers are now ‘between houses’ because their completions involved Butterworths and can’t go ahead. People have moved out, but they haven’t been able to move in anywhere.

The same page also highlights a review praising another agent as an example of what an estate agent should be – knowledgeable, responsive and proactive, by contrast.

Mortgage valuation visit lasted minutes, then the property was declared unmortgageable because communal areas were ‘poor’. Buyer felt it was absurd.

Huge delays to the point that as sellers we almost lost our mortgage offer.

“Letter delivered about a charging order… still registered in previous owner’s name.”

They say buyers too often assume the offer will be extended automatically, only to discover the lender has changed its criteria or rates.

Nobody had explained that the historic claim would keep causing problems every time someone tried to get a mortgage on the house.

The new firm stepped in after that collapse, found another buyer and actually kept the seller updated throughout negotiations.

A Facebook leaseholder group is full of people saying they’re struggling to sell because high service charges and cladding issues scare off buyers and lenders.

Another agent advised to get indemnity insurance although this does not protect us against every lender

The figures match what home movers say online: nobody minds waiting as much as being ignored and left guessing whether the deal is alive.

One agent attempted to enter my home without proper notice, leaving me feeling unsafe and disrespected.

Our estate agent says several sales and purchases with Butterworths have all been frozen at once. Everyone in the chains is panicking that the deals will fall through before new solicitors can step in.

The conveyancing factory missed every timescale they’d promised, raised new enquiries after agreeing a completion date and almost caused the whole chain to fall apart.

Shocked to be basically 'scammed' by this firm.

Our chain is hanging by a thread – we sold in September, but third parties keep dragging their feet and it feels like any tiny wobble could bring the whole thing down.

Everything took so long that a chain-free buyer eventually pulled out; emails weren’t answered and updates were impossible to get.

We waited months while the chain above us kept falling apart due to solar panels, non-standard construction and someone losing their job; by the third collapse we gave up.

We were due to exchange and complete this week, but our PM Property Lawyers file has been frozen and nobody can tell us when or if we can move.

A leaseholder on a legal forum says charges in their block became ‘untenable’ after fire-safety issues were discovered and the building failed an EWS1 assessment.

The buyers pulled out because their buildings insurance quote came back sky-high once the postcode showed repeated flood alerts.

“Unclear and slow communication… Doesn’t seem to actually read emails.”

Our conveyancer sent our mortgage deed to the wrong address and insisted we pay for a courier to send a replacement urgently. Their mistake cost us extra fees and delays.

“Electronic transfer fee… source of funds verification fee… already stressed.”

In a purchase, the only remaining item was the management pack — every party chased with no result.

Our first-time buyer walked away after eight months because the managing agent took four months to produce a service charge pack and nobody chased them.

Valerie Holmes Law has been promoted as part of the PM group, but some online reviewers mention shaky starts and communication issues before things eventually got back on track.

We were shocked to hear the place we’d lived in for years described as very poor condition, effectively limiting us to cash buyers only.

Felt ‘scammed’ after receiving an invoice to open a file despite only requesting quotes via a third party.

Our conveyancing through Angela Viney Conveyancing Services stopped overnight. We’ve got buyers, removals booked and a mortgage ready, but nobody answering.

We had to renegotiate our sale price when the survey valued the place £25,000 lower than agreed because of roof issues.

A buyer asked online whether their seller’s lack of response to basic enquiries was a red flag – weeks had passed, no documents had come back, and their solicitor was warning the chain could fail.

They talk about buyers forced to take drastic steps to rescue deals and others left out of pocket after months of legal work that led nowhere.

Valuer reassured us during the visit, then submitted a lower figure afterward which derailed our remortgage expectations.

We’ve had three buyers pull out after survey on the same house; each report threw up slightly different issues and now nobody trusts any of them.

We’re starting to think our flat just isn’t sellable – the service charge is just under £300 a month and every buyer disappears once they see the numbers.

HousePriceCrash posters complain that surveyors are routinely down-valuing homes in some areas, effectively preventing buyers from borrowing enough to pay the agreed price.

Buyer claims the file was reassigned multiple times and progress stalled each time, with key steps repeatedly restarted.

A buyer on HousingUK said they’ve now had two purchases fall through, losing around £5,000 on surveys, valuations and legal fees with nothing to show for it.

Ground rents have become controversial — we thought we owned the freehold when in fact we had little control and large escalating fees on house we bought.

I was told it was a fixed-fee job with nothing to pay if the sale failed, then hit with a huge invoice when the buyer pulled out at the last minute.

A Guardian investigation into ‘affordable’ homes says some shared-ownership residents have seen service charges increase by up to 400%, leaving them effectively trapped.

Our sale fell through after six months because the buyers suddenly didn’t like the garage arrangement, even though it was on the deeds from day one.

We’d already paid removals, searches and legal fees when the buyers walked away on completion day, leaving us with nothing and no comeback.

“This company should be shut down… nearly 8 months… simple house purchase.”

The process of buying a property has been quick but emails are never answered, you cannot get through to anyone on the phone and the final costs were significantly higher than originally quoted.

My mortgage offer expired… absolutely no communication.

The sale took ten months with two failed buyers; our conveyancer was at least good at communicating, but the constant fall-throughs were exhausting.

Estate agent mis-selling: brochure didn’t state key information we needed — “as seen” listing lacked detail about construction type and risks.

The conveyancer used a generic template report on title that did not refer to several obvious issues specific to our property. A second opinion highlighted missing explanations about covenants, access and service charge exposure.

Our house sale fell through and I felt the solicitor was partly to blame; they were slow, unresponsive and seemed to let issues drift until the buyers walked.

Potential buyers walk away as soon as they learn service charges are higher than the council tax; we’ve had offers collapse for that reason alone.

The agent never checked basic details with the seller and we constantly got conflicting information.

Expedited Land Registry title still stuck months later, threatening the sale.

They said it felt like signing up to an open-ended liability, and they didn’t want to end up with a flat that would be hard to sell on for the same reason.

One buyer on HousingUK said their house sale took eight months and then fell through because the first-time buyer at the bottom of the chain simply backed out.

We were pressured to accept an offer from a buyer who hadn’t even listed their own property – nine weeks later they still hadn’t sold and the whole chain collapsed.

Flat purchase felt close to collapsing due to repeated delays and constant chasing for updates.

On r/HousingUK, someone calls a £4,300 London service charge ‘unregulated and vile’, claiming a colleague’s flat became unsellable after charges hit £10,000 a year.

A thread titled ‘Selling house/searches’ has posters explaining they delay searches until after the survey so they don’t waste hundreds of pounds if the buyer pulls out at survey stage.

We didn’t realise we had to disclose our dispute with the management company; once it surfaced, the buyer demanded compensation and then pulled out anyway.

Our first sale fell through and the information we got about why was vague at best; the buyers ghosted us for ages and only later blamed ‘pressure from the agent’ even though that came after they disappeared.

Our previous sale collapsed and I still blame the solicitor for never chasing anything; now I’m wondering whether to complain formally about them.

NetLawman explain that neighbour disputes cover everything from boundary rows and blocked driveways to noise and anti-social behaviour – all of which must be disclosed on the TA6 when you sell.

It’s frustrating that when a sale collapses you rarely get a straight answer; as the seller you are just told the buyer has withdrawn and you’re left guessing what put them off.

We thought we were on the verge of exchange weeks ago, but the date keeps getting pushed back for ‘one reason or another’.

SmoothSale reviewers describe hitting a ‘rough spot’ in a five-person chain where a previous sale fell through and they needed someone to step in fast to stop the rest unravelling.

They’ve booked removals and time off work and now face extra costs and stress because nobody can give a firm completion date anymore.

“No communication since 30 October. Calls and emails all unanswered.”

Buyer alleges poor professionalism from a panel surveyor led to delays and raised doubts about due diligence.

I purchased a flat in London in 2013 with 103 years left on the lease and proper title deeds. It has now been announced that I only have 71 years left instead of 92. I feel completely shocked and do not know what to do or how this can be right, and I am starting to feel that even Land Registry is biased.

Avoid like the plague if you actually ever want to buy or sell.

The reviewer says the delays exasperated their lender and the seller’s solicitor and that they would never consider using the firm again.

Our buyers pulled out eight weeks in, citing a ‘personal issue’. We’d already packed, paid for searches and now have to start again from scratch.

I am selling my leasehold flat and the estate agent is unhelpful, avoids phone calls, and gives no guidance on the selling process. It is my first time selling and I feel completely unsupported.

On their case-study hub, the Ombudsman lists common themes in conveyancing complaints: poor communication, delay, weak advice and unexpected costs.

We had to cancel our survey when the seller accepted a higher offer; our so-called ‘best and final’ offer clearly meant nothing.

The boundary issue was fixed last year but Land Registry delays meant I couldn’t switch to a cheaper fixed deal for months.

I only found out later that the previous sale on the house had collapsed over serious issues, but the agent spun a totally different story to get us to offer.

Another leasehold flat owner says high service charges and an oversupplied local market mean they’ve been trying to sell on and off since 2021 with almost no progress.

“Communication was very frustrating… multiple emails not responded to.”

JBear Properties wrote that unsafe cladding, unknown remedial costs and rising service charges are turning many leasehold flats into ‘hard to sell’ units that only cash buyers will touch.

They say they constantly have to chase the firm to get even basic work done, feeling the team shows little concern or engagement with the case.

They explain their solicitor originally told them completion would be March with a long-stop in September, but they’re now being told it could be April the following year.

Spent ages feeding all our details, then it turned into a hard sell for life insurance. Felt like a waste of time rather than real mortgage advice.

A paid survey booking was changed and then effectively wasn’t honoured, causing last-minute chaos, wasted time, and reshuffling around mortgage deadlines.

Our sale failed because the buyer’s lender didn’t like something in the searches and we never really got a clear explanation of what the issue was.

SharedOwnershipResources warns that estate service charges can make a supposedly affordable home hard to sell later, especially when the lease flags future charge risk.

They say many disputes reach the tribunal when leaseholders feel charges are unreasonable or poorly explained, which can itself delay sales.

We keep being told the hold-up is with the management company and their solicitor. Meanwhile our purchase is now two months behind.

Our sale collapsed the day after the stamp duty holiday ended because our buyer’s buyer pulled out. Nobody would tell us why – just a short email and that was it.

They said they felt misled about the true level of charges and worried they’d be trapped in a flat that future buyers would avoid.

After selling, says they dragged their feet closing the account and removing name from liability.

We were repeatedly reassured that our solicitor was 'waiting on Land Registry'. When we checked, the application had only been lodged weeks after completion, contrary to what we had been told.

It’s now been over a year since we engaged Let Property to purchase a property - only the seller to withdraw during completion.

Our buyers’ surveyor literally valued my mother-in-law’s flat at £0 because she’d mixed it up with a totally different new-build block next door. She still argued and the sale died.

Construction delays mean a 300 mile weekly commute and hundreds of pounds extra in fuel and childcare.

They recommend running from any firm that is hard to contact at the enquiry stage, as that often foreshadows problems later in the transaction.

They say some buyers only realise at resale that lenders and purchasers treat uncapped estate charges as a major red flag.

A buyer says an estate agent handling a previously failed sale allegedly didn’t reveal that a 2023 extension has no building control sign-off — and they only found out deep into the process.

Buyer says their purchase fell apart when the vendor let the place instead, and now refuses further viewings until after notice to the tenant.

A Prince Evans client switched to them after a previous sale had fallen through because of messy leasehold issues – the new firm quickly got to grips with the complex lease and saw the next sale through.

Their guidance says firms could avoid a lot of this anger simply by agreeing realistic timescales and sticking to regular updates.

They warn that some disputes never really end, and buyers need to know what they’re walking into before committing their life savings.

It’s gutting to realise that in England you can get right to the brink of exchange, have the other side change their mind and you simply eat the costs.

Buyer says their mortgage valuation came in twenty thousand lower than the agreed price, the survey listed damp and roof issues, but the seller refused to negotiate at all and the estate agent just told them to find more money.

Martin & Co’s survey of 500 homeowners found many had experienced down valuations, sometimes forcing them to renegotiate or abandon their purchase altogether.

Complainant says their case sat for months with little communication, adding to the frustration after losing money in a failed purchase.

I completed on the sale of my house, but PM Law never redeemed my mortgage. I’m now technically on the hook for a loan on a property I no longer own and a new mortgage on the place I’ve moved to.

Told it was a scam: documents not delivered and refund requests ignored; no phone number.

I watched a whole chain fall apart when the buyer’s mortgage offer expired just before exchange; without a valid offer they simply couldn’t proceed.

Our house sale fell through twice but luckily the bungalow we were buying stayed available for us; not everyone is that fortunate.

Between our sale and our daughter’s sale both collapsing, plus other family problems, it honestly feels like life has been on hold for months.

A HousingUK user said they feel ‘trapped in a leasehold flat’ where service charges shot up while owners of neighbouring luxury units pay far less per square foot.

A 2008 thread titled ‘Fuckity fuckity fuck’ describes a sale collapsing right near the end after the buyers vanished, leaving the sellers over a thousand pounds out of pocket.

We felt pushed towards a fire-sale rather than being given sensible advice about how to actually get sold without throwing away tens of thousands.

We were eight weeks into selling and buying when our buyer pulled out for ‘personal reasons’; the agent on our onward purchase gave us two weeks to find someone new.

Survey described as substandard and missed obvious issues. The customer said the complaints route was stressful and overwhelming.

The worst estate agent ever: they placed tenants who used my property for illegal activities and destroyed it.

They wanted hundreds of houses at knock-down prices to move tenants out of London, and we felt squeezed and powerless for months while the sale dragged on.

The same buyer says completion has needed to be by the end of next month for ages, but the vendor has ‘no sense of urgency’ and it’s putting the whole transaction at risk.

They’ve dropped the asking price by tens of thousands but say no buyer wants to take on such eye-watering annual costs.

I watched the chain implode when a lender refused to renew an offer that had quietly expired while the solicitors were still sending paper forms around.

We switched to Movuno after the first sale fell apart, and the difference in day-to-day updates and effort to get us sold was night and day.

Victims of Friday afternoon fraud describe losing life savings due to email interception.

Let Property refused to refund my Buyers Premium

A buyer says their purchase is stalling because the vendor’s estate agent won’t reply, and getting basic information about a management pack is ‘like getting blood out of a stone’.

“Took forever to chase up issues… ignored instructions… cost us money.”

Within those cases, common themes include delay, failure to progress and poor communication – exactly the issues home movers complain about online.

Clients say the difference is simply being kept in the loop – emails answered the same day and clear explanations of what’s needed to get to exchange.

A buyer says their conveyancer told them their email had been intercepted and scammers swapped bank details; the fake email and letter looked totally convincing and they nearly lost a six-figure sum.

The seller refused to budge, so we walked away having spent hundreds on fees just to learn the true condition.

One Redditor says they are ‘exhausted and heartbroken’ after their chain collapsed for the fourth time, each failure triggered by a different weak link.

An MSE poster nearly at exchange is told someone in the chain has let their mortgage offer expire – nobody had spotted the date until the last moment.

One Redditor said their ‘useless’ solicitor took ages to acknowledge a complaint and then the sale fell through, leaving them paying for work they felt had been badly handled from day one.

Relatives say they feel trapped between dumping the flat at a huge loss or continuing to bleed money on charges for an empty property.

Avoid like the plague! Very poor competence and communication.

We were eight weeks into selling and buying when our buyer’s personal situation changed and they pulled out; the house we wanted to buy won’t wait for us.

Even if they price the flat aggressively, they worry buyers will run a mile once their solicitor points out the service charge history.

“I would rather do it myself than use an incompetent conveyancing firm.”

Portal/communications blamed: buyers and sellers left chasing basic updates to keep the chain alive.

They argue this is quietly forcing sellers to reduce prices or accept repeated fall-throughs.

Buyer said Nationwide-appointed surveyor valued the property at £0 and ruined the mortgage application. They felt the process was sabotaged.

Fast forward to now, April 2025... I am now in arrears of £3232.55... they had a missing letter in my email.

They say if they’d known earlier, they would never have proceeded, but now they’re financially and emotionally invested and trying to work out next steps.

The agency turned complaints back on me and gaslighted me instead of accepting any responsibility.

On another page of that thread, a commenter said their own sale fell through several times due to Covid disruption before they finally managed to complete.

This company should be shut down… nearly 8 months… no problems purchase.

We paid a broker fee, then were effectively ghosted; we got the mortgage sorted elsewhere in days.

A PM Property Lawyers review warns to ‘avoid like the plague’, complaining of very poor competence and communication that dragged out the whole conveyancing process.

A seller says they were charged a large fee just to respond to standard enquiries during a leasehold sale.

They now find that potential buyers are scared off by the possibility of further hikes, leaving them stuck with homes that don’t feel affordable at all.

Our conveyancer ignored emails from the developer’s solicitor, causing us to lose our reserved new-build plot. The builder refused to extend the deadline.

Seller states their solicitor failed to mention a disputed right-of-way, now causing legal threats from neighbours.

Buyer says they paid for a level three survey that missed a collapsed drain causing subsidence and feels they wasted money on a report that failed to spot obvious structural issues.

Communication was poor to non existant

We almost completed without anyone checking building regs for the loft conversion; when the lender asked for paperwork that didn’t exist, the buyers walked.

LandlordZONE reports landlords stuck with ‘unsaleable’ leasehold flats as management charges pass £2,000 a year and average flat service charges hit £2,300 in 2024.

Our house sale fell through while we were on holiday; we came back to an email saying the buyers had changed their minds.

Then the mortgage lender to him and his brother refused to release him, killing the entire transaction!

They suggest keeping a close eye on the expiry date and pushing everyone in the chain to work towards it, rather than assuming it can be extended easily.

Booked several viewings as a cash buyer and the estate agent never turned up or called. I had to chase them and was told it was a mix-up.

A PistonHeads thread about a flat service charge warns that if the bill isn’t paid, you can end up unable to sell at all because the arrears hang over the property.

The SRA reminds consumers they can report solicitors for serious breaches of conduct, but that most day-to-day service issues like delay go to the Legal Ombudsman.

They now have tenants in situ and a property thousands of miles away, all because one buyer backed out at the last minute.

Our neighbour started parking across our drive once the For Sale sign went up and shouting at viewers about noise and bins.

Our conveyancer allowed exchange to take place without confirming that a key indemnity policy was actually on risk. When the defect later surfaced, we had to spend weeks proving cover had finally been put in place.

On a first-time buyer group someone said their previous sale fell through and they squarely blamed the panel solicitor recommended by the agent for being slow and unresponsive.

An agent repeatedly allowed misleading marketing about 'no onward chain' and the ombudsman process felt useless.

By the time the sale fell through I was dreading every call from the agent or solicitor, convinced it would be another demand or ultimatum.

Calls went to voicemail, emails ignored, I had no idea what stage my purchase was at.

Some solicitors will waive fees if a deal collapses and you stick with them, but others bill you for every failed attempt on top of the stress.

A buyer says they waited with little clarity and felt the handling was disorganised and difficult to progress.

One poster said auctions are often where ‘doer-upper’ properties end up after regular buyers can’t stomach the cost and hassle of refurbishing them.

I put my well maintained 1930s family home on the market and accepted a full asking price offer within two weeks, but since then the buyer's solicitors have been bullying, questioning a new boiler and new insured windows, and demanding indemnity policies. I have pulled out because the stress has become unacceptable.

A week later the cash buyer pulled out by email... He didn't have the cash.

Our first sale fell through and SortRefer’s recommended conveyancers got everything picked back up quickly so the next sale didn’t drag for months like the first one.

Our buyer pulled out after a survey that felt wildly inaccurate, including basic safety items allegedly missing that were plainly there.

On another MSE thread ‘Pulling out of a house sale’, a first-time buyer wants to end their relationship and asks how late they can cancel the purchase.

Agent failed to send the conveyancing quote on time and ignored follow up calls.

We picked this company on price alone and soon found we'd made a terrible mistake!

Leaseholders saddled with cladding bills say they face thousands in costs they were never warned about.

Our lender’s valuation came in far below the agreed price; the seller wouldn’t negotiate and the whole purchase collapsed.

The conveyancer was so slow and unresponsive that not only did we lose a cash buyer, we also had to start over with a new solicitor halfway through.

On a first-time buyer group, someone discovered their flat’s service charge had more than tripled from £60 to over £200 a month, and was told it might now be hard to sell without cutting the price.

They say agents should properly check how secure a buyer’s position is – chains, finance and timescales – instead of just declaring ‘sale agreed’.

A reply warns that many buyers will “run a mile” when they see ‘modern method of auction’, implying it can hinder sales and reduce serious interest.

This is the third time our house sale has collapsed right before completion – every time a different link in the chain breaks and we’re back to square one.

They describe expired offers as a ‘domino effect’ risk – one missed deadline can destabilise everyone up and down the chain.

As of today, I still have not received my refund.

Harassing, rude, and overbearing behaviour during viewing and buying enquiries.

I accepted an offer on my apartment in July 2025

On MSE, a buyer says their ‘new build long stop’ has come and gone with no completion, leaving them stuck waiting while the developer keeps pushing dates back.

“I was told I couldn’t relist the property.”

“Funds sent in May 2025 weren’t paid to management company until July 2025.”

Two prospective buyers withdrew immediately after witnessing the behaviour, saying they didn’t want to live next to constant drama.

This must be the worst legal firm in the country. They just cause endless delays.

Buyer complains their conveyancer went silent for over a month, ignored emails and calls, and only admitted at the last minute that they had not even ordered searches, putting their onward chain at risk.

A week after our offer and the estate agent still had not even confirmed they had received it.

Staff did not get back to us, we were always chasing them, and they never seemed to know what was going on.

One owner said every prospective buyer vanished as soon as their solicitor saw the service charge schedule in the management pack.

Their broker even suggests not telling the agent that part of the deposit depends on a separate sale, highlighting how fragile the whole set-up can be.

They described spending on surveys and legals again and again, only to be flung back to scrolling listings, too drained to get excited about anything new.

A buyer thought they were getting a bargain flat, but rising service charges and future works have turned it into a long-term liability.

MoneyHelper points out that mortgage offers can and do expire thanks to conveyancing delays, changes in credit status or issues with the property itself.

Our sale fell through before exchange after six months; we were told we might lose our onward purchase and ‘thousands of pounds’ in the chain if we didn’t find a new buyer in two weeks.

Buying delayed around 15 weeks due to Land Registry/title boundary mismatch concerns.

They note that long chains are particularly vulnerable when one down valuation knocks out a buyer’s finance and the shock travels upwards.

Our buyer pulled out citing ‘personal circumstances’ and that was that. The vendors of the house we were buying immediately put theirs back on the market and reduced the price.

Delay is built into the system.

Leaseholder says they made numerous calls just to sort out service charge arrangements and still lacked promised documents.

Seller says simple enquiries were left for weeks, creating a chain-wide delay and extra moving costs.

On r/HousingUK someone said you can start with a flat that has a modest £50 service charge and £100 ground rent, only to watch a new freeholder hike both to the point the flat becomes almost unsellable.

Buyer describes an estate agent failing to coordinate viewings and not explaining that sellers could only do limited times.

We walked away from a purchase after discovering long-running arguments with neighbours over fences and access that nobody had mentioned upfront.

Only discovered late the lease was 79 years — this triggered lender advising us to renegotiate or face higher interest.

Our first buyers pulled out a few days before exchange, saying their circumstances had changed – we’d already packed half the house and now we’re back at step one.

We’ve already had one subsidence claim refused and now we’ve got a mortgaged house with no buildings insurance, untreated movement and cracked walls – how on earth do you sell that?

Overcharging for works never done; ‘expected’ charges then later surprises — feels sneaky.

My house sale just fell through and I’ve discovered home seller protection insurance might have covered some of the wasted costs – nobody mentioned it at the start.

Chaos… the reason our property sale fell through in the end.

A Reddit user says their house sale didn’t complete as planned because the buyer pulled out around exchange, leaving them suddenly back at square one.

“No sense of urgency… forced to chase all the time.”

I’m a first-time buyer using a PM Property Lawyers brand and haven’t heard anything directly from them about the closure. Everything I know has come from news sites and a Facebook group, while the house I’m buying is now stuck.

Can't give zero otherwise I would... we were ready to complete the sale after 8 weeks.

Solicitor misread the lender’s mortgage conditions, resulting in extra documentation and delays close to completion.

They concluded that even when third parties are slow, clients deserve proactive chasing and clear communication instead of being left in the dark.

We have been going through this sale since August 2024, with a second set of buyers and solicitors who are not responding. We have to move before our buyer's mortgage offer expires and I am at the end of my tether trying to get the solicitors to communicate.

The bungalow we’re buying has just been valued £10k below our offer. The last sale at a higher price collapsed when that buyer’s chain fell apart.

We walked away having burned cash on valuation, broker fees and searches for a property we never moved into.

We felt we were paying almost full fees for a transaction that never reached exchange, on top of the cost of trying again with another buyer.

Another lender guide says if your offer expires before completion, you could face extra legal and valuation costs on top of a higher interest rate.

My partner is moving in with me but the house is in my name. I know I need to notify the council about losing the single person discount, but I do not know who else I must inform and whether the lender or insurer needs to be told.

Analysts say these rising charges are slowing down flat sales because buyers factor the annual bill into affordability and often walk away.

“After over 180 days… the buyer finally pulled out.”

Every time the chain moved an inch, someone’s solicitor raised a new ‘urgent’ enquiry and then took two weeks to send a two-line reply.

Chain collapsed after eight months when a buyer finally pulled out, and the poster blames constant solicitor delays, repeated unanswered enquiries and nobody taking ownership of the process.

One seller said their chain collapsed three times over 19 months; only their final agent really pushed things along and got them over the line.

Slow, understaffed and liars. Estate agents and other law firms actually hate working with this company.

We paid for a level 3 survey and an extra valuation. The surveyor simply agreed with the price we were paying even though there are very few comparable properties and the house needs a lot of work. We now feel we overpaid and the valuation was meaningless.

Another Ombudsman case involved a conveyancer whose poor communication and delay meant a sale fell through; the clients said they’d never understood what was going wrong until the buyer walked.

“We are midway… edging closer to September… no one is contactable.”

Our buyers got cold feet when they saw how high the service charge could go in future; their solicitor advised them to pull out.

We paid for two valuations and the reports were nearly identical and full of basic errors, which didn’t justify the price at all.

We finally sold on the third attempt after two buyers dropped out at the last minute, each time leaving us with survey and legal costs we couldn’t recover.

A Legal Ombudsman case study described a conveyancing firm that repeatedly failed to update a client about a buyer’s intentions; by the time they realised the sale was in trouble, it had already fallen through.

They stress that brokers can do everything right and still see clients’ purchases put at risk by other parties in the process.

A trustpilot reviewer says their chain-free home sale took over 180 days with almost no progress, and the buyer finally pulled out because conveyancing was so slow.

Our first buyer’s sale fell through because of leasehold issues in their flat, so we ended up selling separately and storing all our furniture for weeks.

In the end it wasn’t a single big problem, just a thousand tiny delays from different firms that pushed us past our mortgage expiry date.

HRD Ventnor office refused to release OUR lifetime legal check which we paid £80 ?

They see buyers who moved in, discovered serious neighbour problems and only then learned the seller had ticked ‘no disputes’.

The stress was unreal – I’d packed up my life, lined up removals and now I’m back to living out of boxes with no idea when I’ll get to move.

Leaseholder says trying to pay ground rent was made unnecessarily difficult, with limited payment methods and failed attempts.

They quote stats that around 60% of Britons have had some kind of neighbour dispute, and many say they’d think twice about buying next to one.

Our mortgage offer expired because the conveyancers and Land Registry issues dragged on; by the time things were resolved, the lender refused to extend and the deal was dead.

Terrible communication from the solicitor meant nobody realised the mortgage offer was about to expire until it was too late.

We offered on a flat that was marketed with an EPC C rating, but the official report is actually F. The agent says they took the seller's word for it.

Ten days of trying: no calls answered, no emails replied to, and chats ignored.

Many examples involve buyers and sellers who didn’t realise how badly their matter was drifting until deadlines were missed and transactions collapsed.

A quote request turned into persistent badgering via email/text/calls.

I read everyone’s else’s review and just wonder why I never checked this before going with them! I’ve missed out on a house because of them.

In a warning about property-transaction scams, police say Action Fraud recorded 143 conveyancing-fraud cases (Apr 2024–Mar 2025) with £11.7m total losses, mostly in residential deals.

After over 180 days of waiting for CDPLL to process the sale of our chain free home our buyer finally pulled out.

Buyer says they were brushed off and blocked from viewings/offer discussions after refusing the agent’s mortgage broker.

We discovered late in the day that the property relied on a ‘flying freehold’ over next door; our lender’s underwriters were deeply uncomfortable.

We discovered a possible roof leak in the loft that was never disclosed. We want a price reduction to cover repairs but are worried the seller may withdraw if we push it.

On ReviewSolicitors, a client of Kelly Groves says a supposedly simple, no-chain, no-mortgage conveyance was very slow, mainly due to their solicitor having too many cases.

It shocked them that something they saw as a one-off row could end up following the property around and scaring off future buyers.

Offer accepted months ago and we’re still nowhere near exchange. Every time I ask, it’s ‘we’re waiting on the other side’.

We were meant to exchange last week with PM Property Lawyers handling everything; now we’ve no idea who has our money or documents.

They describe the leasehold system as ‘unregulated and vile’, with no real way out once the annual costs have spiralled.

We picked this company on price alone and soon found we'd made a terrible mistake! …We never heard from them.

It’s a horrible choice: stay put and live with the neighbour, or be honest on the forms and risk the buyer walking away when they see there’s an ongoing dispute.

An advice site warns that a history of subsidence makes it harder for buyers to get buildings insurance, which in turn can wreck mortgage applications at the last moment.

A homeowner in a boundary dispute says delays and poor communications around paperwork have made the property feel difficult to sell.

We were pressured into using the in-house mortgage adviser and felt it affected how seriously our offer was treated.

My buyer pulled out because of the time taken.

Our sale went quickly, but the buyers’ solicitor still hasn’t got the LPE1 from the management company and it’s holding everything up.

After the first collapse we had to endure more viewings, more negotiations and more paperwork. It felt like living through the same nightmare twice.

A Smoothsale reviewer says they only turned to a quick-sale company because their original buyer pulled out, putting the entire chain at risk and leaving them panicking about losing their onward purchase.

An advice site reminds buyers that if they feel an estate agent has misled them about why a previous sale fell through, they can escalate the complaint to the Property Ombudsman.

After my partner died I just wanted to move closer to friends, but repeated fall-throughs and slow solicitors left me stuck in the same house and emotionally drained.

Despite clear comparable sales, the valuation came back lower and created a mortgage gap we had to fight to resolve.

Several prospective buyers said point-blank that the service fee made the numbers unworkable compared with similar flats, so they walked away.

A chain-management article says the best way to reduce the risk of collapse is constant communication – but most consumers complain that solicitors and agents barely speak to each other.

Very, very pushy - and a liar. … supposed to meet me… I waited for 20 minutes…

Total garbage... only got us a single viewing in 6 months.

I was forced into meeting the in-house mortgage adviser and felt it affected the fairness of the buying process.

Our buyers used PM Property Lawyers and what should have been a simple sale is now months late. Every document supposedly takes a week to ‘process’ before anyone even looks at it.

On Trustpilot, a Pattinson customer said their initial buyer dropped out and they felt pushed into an auction at a heavily discounted reserve, only for that route to fail as well.

Purchase derailed by missing upfront disclosures; buyer says the transaction became impossible to progress.

Every time a surveyor knocks it down, another buyer disappears and we’re left wondering if the price will ever be ‘good enough’.

Our purchase was undervalued by the lender’s surveyor, forcing stressful renegotiations and wasting weeks.

Don't go by the cheaper price! I can not express the delays in a three person chain that this firm caused.

The whole process of buying a house has been painful and this is largely down to our solicitor.

They ended up questioning whether the valuation reflected the actual house at all, or simply a tick-box exercise.

The chain collapsed when one seller refused to fix a dangerous boiler; their attitude was ‘take it or leave it’ so the buyers left it.

A subsidence claims advice site lists common reasons insurers reject property damage claims, from alleged pre-existing damage to technical policy wording that ordinary homeowners struggle to understand.

A conveyancing complaints guide lists big red flags: slow responses, difficulty getting hold of anyone and reviews mentioning constant delays and errors.

Our conveyancer sent confidential bank details in an unsecured email without any warning about fraud. We later learned the regulator had issued multiple alerts about this exact risk.

Our sale fell through because we couldn’t agree on who would repair a dangerous retaining wall; neither side wanted to inherit the liability.

They stress that what’s written on the TA6 becomes part of the contract, so glossing over serious neighbour issues can come back to bite sellers badly.

My service charge jumped from £125 to £417 a month plus a £2,200 deficit bill. None of this was disclosed.

Our solicitor misfiled our ID verification forms and asked us to repeat the entire onboarding process two weeks before completion. The mistake cost us our removal slot.

They see more and more cases where buyers only discover noise or harassment problems after moving in, then regret not asking harder questions.

Complaints partially upheld: delays sending a conveyancing quote and failure to call during the process.

Our chain collapsed after the builder admitted the property we wanted was not actually available; by then our buyer was threatening to walk as well.

An Avenue Road review mentions how stressful it was when their first sale fell through, and how vital it was having someone on the phone to calmly explain the next steps.

The Legal Ombudsman’s ‘delays outside a firm’s control’ case study still upholds a complaint where a conveyancer failed to chase missing documents for nearly two months.

They also say their solicitor won’t really ‘advise’ when they question the risks, leaving them feeling exposed at the point everything matters most.

The same report includes examples where solicitors failed to follow instructions or give proper advice, causing serious financial loss and long-running disputes.

The company defrauded me of £6,000

Our buyers pulled out claiming they were uncomfortable with the speed; in reality our solicitor had been slow and unresponsive from the start.

A Camden leaseholder forum thread discusses actual service charge bills arriving higher than estimates, with residents shocked at the final totals.

Zapperty warn that missing documents – things like completion certificates, warranties and building regs sign-off – can delay or even derail a sale because buyers’ solicitors won’t sign off without them.

The first buyer walked away as soon as they realised there was a management company fee on top of the service charge; they said it felt like paying twice.

Leaseholder says getting routine pre-sales information from the agent was a 'nightmare' with emails and calls ignored.

In another complaint, a client said they could never get hold of their conveyancer, weren’t told who to contact when she was away, and only found out things had stalled when the sale collapsed.

Reading the lease pack now, I’m scared future buyers will run when they see how fast charges have risen, leaving me stuck with something that’s hard to sell.

Posters said sellers often blame ‘flaky buyers’, but usually it’s something real: finance issues, survey results or information that should have been clear earlier.

The solicitor charged us for searches twice after misplacing the originals. They insisted it was unavoidable even though the delay was their own fault.

We bailed on a purchase when we heard the sellers were in an ongoing row with the downstairs neighbour about noise; we didn’t want to inherit that stress.

The couple loved the house but panicked when they saw a separate garage title on the deeds; instead of asking questions, they simply withdrew their offer.

A different Reddit user asks if they’re ‘overreacting’ to their solicitor’s delays, saying the lack of updates is causing serious stress during their first home purchase.

We’ve been trying to buy a no-chain property with PM Property Lawyers since mid-2025. Now, just as we thought we were nearing the end, the firm has collapsed and our agent says the chain could still fall apart.

Ground rent rules are unfair — lenders got nervous when they saw doubling clauses that weren’t clear in the purchase packs.

Long investigation backlogs mean unhappy home movers may wait months just to get an answer about poor conveyancing service.

Campaigners say many leaseholders were tempted in by low initial estimates without clear warning that charges could later soar.

One r/HousingUK poster said they lost out on their ‘dream property’ after a chain collapse and now feel numb every time a new listing appears, expecting it to fall through again.

British Homebuyers are praised by one reviewer for stepping in after their first sale fell through, re-marketing fast and keeping them updated throughout.

Would give zero stars if possible. Completely missed deadline to complete by over a month.

People keep saying ‘don’t buy a leasehold’ because of hidden management charges and ground rents that buyers only appreciate after moving in.

After my original sale fell through, the agent pushed me into an auction at 20% below market value, then asked for another £30k reduction and it still didn’t sell.

They describe expired offers as a ‘domino effect’ risk – one missed deadline can destabilise everyone up and down the chain.

It’s been 15 months since we started the process. The conveyancing and the follow-up with Land Registry have both been painfully slow.

Didn't put up a for sale sign, no proactive communication.

Leaseholder says they paid a non-returnable deposit for a lease extension with an agreed timeline, but progress and communication collapsed.

Some house sales don't happen, sad but things happen

Seller alleges they lost at least two sales because required pre-sales information wasn’t issued to solicitors despite repeated chases.

Fixed-rate mortgage was set up without the customer signing the paperwork. A serious issue that had to be raised as a formal complaint.

We’re waiting for an insurance certificate to progress issues; experience shows why reform is needed.

Leaseholder complains that getting a signed deed of variation took weeks beyond a promised timeframe with minimal updates.

We’re in a leasehold block with endless management issues – missed maintenance, unanswered emails, random extra charges. Our solicitor warned it could put buyers off completely when we come to sell.

Our buyers pulled out after their survey flagged old subsidence, even though previous reports and insurance showed it had been resolved.

Seller’s house sale fell through near completion; they believe the other side’s solicitor mishandled things.

In ‘Sellers’ solicitors are moving slow’, a buyer says their own lawyer is fast and responsive, but the seller’s solicitors are dragging things out and risking the deal.

Having a broker platform that actually chased things and kept us informed made a huge difference compared with the radio silence we’d had previously.

We want to buy a house but the agent or auction company wants 6500 pounds upfront because the house is going to auction. The house has a serious internal wet wall issue and we would only get a survey after paying the fee. We were told we would not get the money back if the report is bad.

Another solicitor warns that once a mortgage offer expires before completion, there’s no guarantee your lender will issue the same terms again – or offer at all.

1. Excessive and Unjustified Delays… 2. Persistent Failure to Communicate…

Mortgage offer took so long the seller lost patience. We lost the house after chasing constantly with no clear answers.

After the survey, the valuation came back tens of thousands lower than expected and flagged issues we’d never been told about, creating panic late in the process.

One poster points out that while searches can sometimes be reassigned, buyers usually still foot repeated legal bills every time a transaction collapses.

Our surveyor wildly overestimated the cost of some minor damp and movement; the buyers panicked and demanded a huge discount we simply couldn’t afford.

So slow we lost our buyer.

What was sold to us as a quick, clean purchase turned into a long chain with constant changes and delays.

We are part exchanging with a new build and are meant to exchange on 28 November, but there has been no response to searches for the new build and no enquiries on our property from the developer's solicitors. We are worried we will miss the timeline and our children will lose their new school place.

The buildings insurance quote nearly doubled after we declared past movement; our broker said some lenders would flat-out refuse, so we withdrew before it got that far.

They claimed I had a life insurance policy issue and rang almost daily—felt like a scam attempt to fish for information.

Our buyers are using this shambolic firm... now in month 6 of a simple conveyancing... no chain.

After three months of delays… told the purchase required full cash due to missing certifications.

Seller says their buyer’s solicitors struggled to get any response, causing the buyer to pull out after long delays.

A consultation found only about 35% of property listings contained adequate material information. We were the ones missing the 65%.

An article on inefficient conveyancers lists tell-tale signs: slow responses, poor communication and little use of technology – all of which can stall a transaction.

the conveyancers of our buyer were changing the person in charge of account several times

A reviewer said they turned to a quick-sale company after a failed attempt with a local agent, simply because they couldn’t face risking another collapse.

Replies point out that formal complaints and council records definitely count as disputes and must be revealed on the TA6, however inconvenient that is for a sale.

We completed our sale through a PM Law firm just before the collapse, but the proceeds never reached us. That money was supposed to fund our next purchase and now both moves are on hold.

Our sale fell through on the Thursday morning, but Parkers had it back on the market by Friday and sold again by Saturday, which literally saved our chain.

I am buying a buy-to-let in a high flood risk area with a history of flooding. The current owners use Flood Re but landlords cannot, and I am struggling to find future-proof insurance cover at a reasonable cost.

In the process of my moving and buying I was asked to send a copy of my trust documents... I have sent numerous...

Another MSE user says their buyer reached the point of exchange and then decided the house was ‘too small’, forcing the seller to relist and pray their chain would wait.

Buyer’s premium refused even after the purchase attempt fell apart.

They say the agent applied heavy pressure to complete quickly, chased them daily, and the purchase collapsed after they’d already given notice to their landlord — creating immediate housing pressure.

Citizens Advice highlight complaints where estate agents didn’t return deposits promptly or failed to pass money on correctly when a sale fell through.

The phone goes unanswered and emails sit in my inbox for days. My solicitor says ‘we’ll reply next week’ every week.