Failed Purchase Cost Calculator
Add up the money lost when a property purchase falls through: survey, legal fees, mortgage costs and the time spent, before you commit.
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A significant share of agreed sales never complete, and the buyer usually absorbs most of the cost. The survey, the legal work already done, mortgage and valuation fees and any broker charge are all spent whether or not you get the property.
Knowing the figure changes behaviour in two useful ways: it makes it worth paying attention to how solid the chain is before instructing anyone, and it makes a modest price concession look cheap against the cost of starting again.
What is actually lost
Survey, legal work done to date, searches, lender and valuation fees and any broker charge are all non-refundable. Add the value of the time spent, which is real even though nobody invoices you for it.
Worked example
A survey at 800, 900 of legal work, 350 of searches, 600 of lender fees and a 400 broker fee is 3,050 of cash gone. Six days of your time at 250 adds 1,500, so a collapsed purchase costs about 4,550 — and if the replacement purchase also fails, 9,100.
Weigh it against a concession
When a transaction wobbles over a few thousand, this number is the comparison that matters. Conceding 3,000 to keep a purchase alive is cheaper than losing 4,550 and starting again in a market that may have moved.
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Create your free property pageFrequently asked questions
How often do agreed sales fall through?
It varies by market and by how binding an agreement is locally, but in systems where nothing binds until a later formal stage, a substantial minority of agreed sales collapse. Ask a local agent for their own completion rate.
Can I recover any of it?
Rarely, unless the other party breached a binding agreement. Some searches transfer to another purchase and some lenders refund a valuation fee if it was not carried out, so it is always worth asking.
How do I reduce the risk?
Check the chain before instructing anyone: whether the seller has found somewhere, whether anyone above them has, and whether every buyer has finance agreed. Sequencing your spending so the survey comes after those answers avoids most of this cost.
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