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Written by rosalind renshaw

AssuredSale, an online service which aims to reduce fall-throughs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has now gone live and is recruiting agents.

Launched by entrepreneur Tim Price, it tries to ensure the completion of a home sale by committing the seller and buyer to enter into a pre-exchange bond with funds held in a secure bank account – so if either party subsequently withdraws, the bond is automatically forfeited to the other party.
 
The cost of the bond to buyer and seller is tiered in line with the value of the property involved, so for example could range from £500 to £1,000 for a three-bedroom family home with a UK average price of £162,000.
 
AssuredSale also charges a fee to both the buyer and seller, tiered in line with the bond, typically being £150.
 
The pre-exchange financial commitment is legally binding and the firm says the entire buying and selling process offers transparency because it can be seen online by all parties. A tracker function shows the real-time status of the transaction, following the process to exchange and completion.
 
The funds will be held in an account with The Co-operative Bank until the sale is complete.

Price said: “I decided to establish AssuredSale because I lost £2,000 and two months of wasted time when the owner of the home I wanted to buy pulled out.
 
“We’re the first to market with this, so there’s nothing else like us that can give early commitment at verbal offer. Pre-exchange agreements are available, but these are ad-hoc, expensive and not well known.
 
“There are many online tools from solicitors which handle the buyers’ conveyancing (legal) progress, but our tool is for all parties to share and collaborate on from start to finish to help resolve issues.”
 
AssuredSale is being trialled by several estate agents, including Davis & Bowing in Yorkshire, Clements in Hemel Hempstead and Abode Estate Agents in Northern Ireland.

Comments

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    This is where our impartially comes in - its a standard contract for both buyer and seller.

    We have examples in London where the solicitors would ofter take many weeks of arguing to reach agreement on the lock-out agreement, as one side thought it was unfair. They are now using AssuredSale, as its off-the shelf for both parties and of course cheaper.
    (Pre-exchange agreements / lock-out agreements usually cost hundreds of pounds in drafting and time)

    • 15 November 2011 09:54 AM
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    But I would still have to pay £75+ for my money to sit in your account, when I dare say many local conveyancers would offer this service either for free or a small charge incorporated into the overall fee.

    • 14 November 2011 10:21 AM
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    Hi all, thanks for the comments - it was quiet on here, it seemed we did have quite a few people registering for more info on our site instead.

    @country Lass

    This article above only gives an example of the of the fee as its tiered. So for a lower priced house where the bond is only £500, the fee is lower at £75.

    Yes we handle this type of issue, if the valuation is below 1% of the agreed asking price, they need to agree to compromise. This makes the buyer and seller work it out as they cannot just walk away at the first sign of a issue.

    @PeeBee

    for more expensive houses (e.g £500k), where you would incur higher charges of up to £2,000, the bond is increased, and would be £2000-£3000. So in that case, the customers costs would be fully reimbursed.

    The customer can then stay in the scheme again, for free until they do complete on a house sale.

    This scheme helps protects both buyers and sellers, so we are working with our early adopter agents on finding the best fee/bond levels as customer feedback will help us get the right balance of protection for them.

    • 13 November 2011 14:11 PM
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    "Price said: “I decided to establish AssuredSale because I lost £2,000 and two months of wasted time when the owner of the home I wanted to buy pulled out."

    Same situation WITH this scheme - read:

    "Price said: “I decided to use AssuredSale but the owner of the home I wanted STILL pulled out, and even though I got his $500 bond, I STILL lost £1,650 (including the Fee...) and two months of wasted time. Assured sale, however, clicked three hundred quid out of the deal..."

    Worthwhile? Sorry - but it still doesn't get my vote...

    • 13 November 2011 12:03 PM
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    Yup! The basic principle has benefits, but Icertainly wouldnt be happy paying £150 for someone to hold a £500 deposit! What happens if it gets downvalued, and the vendor wont renegotiate? Who loses the deposit?

    • 12 November 2011 09:10 AM
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    WOW this got a lot of no interest didnt it?

    • 11 November 2011 18:29 PM
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