Do legal fees apply if a house sale falls through?

The purchasing of a new home comes with an extensive list of contracts and applied fees that are used to hold the buyer accountable. Many potential homeowners are wondering if they are still held liable for these fees if a sale completely falls through. Typically, a deposit is what a contract defines as the seal of the purchase, so if the deposit has not been given, then the buyer typically will not owe any relative fees if it falls through.

Key Takeaways:

A reader states that his daughter wants to pull out of the purchase of a property, but wonders if she still has to pay legal fees.
The answer was that she doesn’t need to pay any fees to her solicitor except fees for identity checks and property searches.
She might have to pay for the surveyor’s report to the estate agent but if a new buyer can be arranged quickly, this might be waived.

“The fact that your daughter has not yet exchanged contracts means that she has not yet paid a deposit to the seller of the property, so she is not at risk of losing that money if she does pull out of the purchase.”