Family's Home Sale Crisis: The Growing Problem of 'Gazundering' in England and Wales

Sarah was excitedly packing up to move out of the terraced house her family had outgrown to a four-bedroom home in the countryside. But the day before exchanging contracts the buyers of her house dropped their agreed offer by £15,000. "It was awful, your heart just drops to your stomach," says Sarah, not her real name. She had fallen victim to gazundering, a rare but growing problem in the property market in England and Wales, according to the Conveyancing Association, external. It is calling for government reforms aimed at tackling this and other house buying and selling issues to be brought in "without delay" instead of 2029 as planned. [...] The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government told the BBC: "We're stopping gazundering by introducing legally binding agreements that prevent buyers from walking away at the last minute without a valid reason, with fines for those who do."