Moving home in 2024? What’s the risk of your transaction falling-through?

From the point of agreeing a purchase on your dream home, and/or a sale price on your current property, it can be several months before you actually move. In that time a lot can happen and there is the very real risk that your transaction/s may fall-through, de-railing your plans to sell and/or buy your property.

What is the likelihood of my property transaction/s falling through?

According to Rightmove data obtained by Holmes & Hills’ team of conveyancing solicitors, there is a 30% chance of your property transaction falling through^[1]. The fall-through rate has changed over recent years. In 2019, Rightmove reported an average fall through rate of 30%^[2] and in 2020 Rightmove reported an average fall-through rate of 25%^[3]. In 2020 and 2021 the property market was particularly buoyant, helped by the Government's Stamp Duty Holiday which did not end until 1st October 2021.

Many sellers and buyers are surprised to hear that the risk of their sale or purchase falling-through is, on average, as high as 30%.

How to minimise the risk of your property transaction falling-through

Choosing the right conveyancing solicitor will go a long way to minimising the risk of your property transaction falling through, providing you the best chance of reaching a successful completion.

For instance, Holmes & Hills Solicitors boasts a successful completion rate that is 22% better than the national average reported by Rightmove^[4].
This means that as a client using Holmes & Hills’ conveyancing services, you have a higher chance of reaching a successful completion, with a lower chance of your property transaction falling-through.

Why do property transactions fall-through?

Your sale or purchase can fall through for a number of reasons, these including:

• The property lawyer acting for the buyer identifies an issue in respect of the title of the property, causing the buyer to pull-out. Issues might involve covenants, easements, rights of way, aspects of Planning Law, queries regarding property boundaries, restrictions, overage or options.
• The property lawyer acting for the buyer identifies an issue in respect of the lease of a leasehold property, causing the buyer to pull-out. Issues might involve ground rent clauses, ground rent review clauses, remaining lease term, covenants, restrictions, liabilities, problems with management companies.
• A surveyor identifying an issue with the property, leading to a buyer pulling-out of the purchase.
• Your buyer or seller attempting to renegotiate the price, perhaps because of issues identified by a survey, or some other reason. If re-negotiations are not successful, this can lead to one party pulling-out.
• A buyer finds another property to purchase and so pulls-out.
• A seller’s onward purchase falls-through and this leads to them pulling-out of their sale.
• A buyer’s mortgage offer runs out, they are unable to get an extension form their mortgage provider and so they no longer have the appropriate funding to continue with the purchase.

The longer that a transaction takes to complete, the greater the likelihood that a problem can arise, or that the circumstances of the parties involved in the transaction change, causing them to re-think their plans. Delays increase the risk of your property transaction falling-through.

Why is Holmes & Hills’ successful completion rate higher than the national average?

Key to achieving a successful completion in a property purchase or sale (and avoiding the transaction falling-through) is having a property lawyer able to deal with problems if they arise.

A large team of experts:

Holmes & Hills Solicitors has one of the largest teams of residential property experts in the region, with 22 property lawyers dealing with second-hand, new-build and shared ownership property, for clients across the country. The size of our team means that there is not a property law issue the team has not seen and resolved before.

Proactive approach to transactions:

Being able to quickly identify issues and take action to advise you on the implications of these factors, so that you can make informed decisions, helps keep property transactions on course to successful completion.

In-house specialists dealing with planning law, land and boundary issues:

Holmes & Hills Solicitors is one of the few firms of solicitors in the region to have a separate, specialist department of planning law experts, a division of specialists dealing with land matters, as well as a specialist division of property litigation solicitors that are expert in boundary disputes.

If there is a particularly complex property matter involving, for instance, an element of planning law, or a land or property litigation/boundary issue, our residential property lawyers can enlist the help of specialists from across Holmes & Hills’ other departments to promptly advise you and resolve the issue. This ensures your interests are protected and your property transaction remains on course for successful completion.

¹ Rightmove data relating to Q3 2022, provided to Holmes & Hills Solicitors on 13th February 2022.
² Rightmove / ITV - Jan / Feb 2021.
³ Rightmove data relating to Q3 2021, provided to Holmes & Hills Solicitors on 11th May 2022.
⁴ Holmes & Hills' successful completion rate is calculated using sample data for 333 residential property transactions started between July 2022 to September 2022 and is compared to national average successful completion rate of 70.3% (provided by Rightmove, 13/02/2023).