Last updated: 7 May 2026 · Version 2.0
What this document is. These are the terms that apply to you, the buyer, when you use PurchaseSecured to reserve a residential property in England or Wales. They explain what your reservation fee covers, when you can cancel, and how refunds work.
You should also read the Reservation Agreement (the contract between you and the seller, signed via the platform) and our Platform Terms. If anything in this document conflicts with your specific Reservation Agreement, the Reservation Agreement takes precedence on matters specific to your transaction.
PurchaseSecured is a trading name of Transforming Everyday Decisions Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16649859). Our registered office is 399-405 Office 83, Unit 5, 399-405 Oxford Street, Mayfair, London, W1C 2BU.
We provide a digital platform that enables UK estate agents and property sellers to enter into legally binding reservation agreements with prospective buyers, and we securely process the reservation fee until the conditions of that agreement are met.
We do not give legal advice. Reserving a property is a significant financial commitment. You should read your Reservation Agreement carefully, and we recommend you take independent legal advice before signing.
A reservation fee is a sum of money you pay to take a property off the market for a defined period (the "exclusivity period") so the seller cannot accept other offers during that time. It is set by the agent and seller and is shown to you on the buyer portal before you pay.
Reservation fees on PurchaseSecured are between £1,000 and £6,000. The exact amount, exclusivity period, and conditions of release are set out in your specific Reservation Agreement.
The fee is in addition to the property's purchase price unless your Reservation Agreement specifies that it counts towards the purchase price (a "towards purchase" fee). Your agent will tell you which type of fee applies.
Your reservation fee is processed by Stripe Payments UK, Ltd, a UK company authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Electronic Money Institution (firm reference number 900461).
Once you pay, your fee is held in a ring-fenced platform balance — separate from PurchaseSecured's operational accounts and segregated under FCA safeguarding rules — until one of the following happens:
You will receive an email receipt from Stripe at the moment of payment confirming the amount and reference. PurchaseSecured does not at any time hold or have access to your funds in our own bank accounts.
This is the most important part of these terms. Please read it carefully before you pay your reservation fee.
What happens to your reservation fee if your purchase does not complete depends on why it does not complete. The table below summarises the policy. The full rules are explained in the paragraphs that follow.
| What happened | Do you get a refund? | How much? |
|---|---|---|
| The seller withdraws within the agreed exclusivity period | Yes | 100% of your reservation fee |
| An undisclosed property issue is discovered (e.g. material defect that should have been disclosed) — even if it caused your mortgage to be declined | Yes | 100% of your reservation fee |
| Both parties mutually agree to cancel in writing | Yes (if mutually agreed) | As agreed between the parties |
| You change your mind after waiving the 14-day cooling-off period | No | Fee is forfeited |
| Your financing falls through for reasons unrelated to the property (e.g. your circumstances change, your lender's criteria change) | No | Fee is forfeited |
| You withdraw within the 14-day cooling-off period (and you have not waived it — see section 5) | Yes | 100% of your reservation fee |
| Fraud, unauthorised payment, or chargeback | Yes | Handled by Stripe under their dispute process |
The reservation fee exists to protect the seller against you withdrawing without good reason. Once you pay it, the seller takes the property off the market — often turning down other offers and pausing onward arrangements. If you could change your mind without consequence, the fee would be meaningless and the seller would be no better off than before.
This is a long-established principle in English contract law (sometimes called "liquidated damages"). The fee represents a genuine pre-estimate of the loss the seller suffers if you pull out, and the courts will enforce it as long as it is reasonable and clearly disclosed in advance.
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 require sellers and agents to disclose material information about a property. If something material (something a reasonable buyer would have wanted to know before paying) was not disclosed and you later discover it, you are entitled to a full refund.
Examples include: undisclosed structural defects, undisclosed planning enforcement notices, undisclosed flood risk, undisclosed leasehold restrictions, undisclosed boundary disputes. If your mortgage is declined because of one of these, that counts as an undisclosed property issue, not as your financing falling through.
If you believe a material issue was not disclosed, contact us in writing within 14 days of the issue coming to light. We will review the evidence and, if your claim is valid, refund your fee in full.
When you receive a refund, you receive the full amount you paid. PurchaseSecured does not deduct any fees from refunds to buyers.
Where a refund happens because the seller or agent did not meet their obligations, the agent (rather than you) bears a small administrative cost — but this is between us and the agent, and does not affect what you receive.
Important. When you pay your reservation fee on the buyer portal, you will be asked to confirm that you want the seller to remove the property from sale immediately, and that you understand this means you waive your 14-day right to cancel.
You do not have to give this confirmation, but if you do not, the seller will not be required to take the property off the market until 14 days after you pay.
Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, when you enter into a service contract at distance (i.e. online), you generally have 14 days from the day you sign to cancel without giving any reason and receive a full refund of any payment you have made.
This 14-day period is called the "cancellation period" or "cooling-off period". For a typical online service it would mean you could pay your reservation fee, change your mind within 14 days, and get the full fee back.
However, the entire purpose of the reservation fee is to immediately take the property off the market — that is the service you are paying for. If the agent had to wait 14 days before doing so, the reservation would be largely worthless.
Regulation 36 of the 2013 Regulations recognises this. It allows you to waive your 14-day cancellation right, provided that:
On the buyer portal, you will see a separate, clearly-labelled checkbox immediately before you pay, with wording substantially as follows:
"I want PurchaseSecured to remove this property from sale and start the reservation service immediately. I understand this means I waive my 14-day right to cancel under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, and that if I withdraw from the reservation for any reason other than those listed in the Reservation Agreement, my reservation fee will be forfeited."
Ticking this box and proceeding to pay constitutes both your express request and your acknowledgment for the purposes of Regulation 36(2). Your tick, the timestamp, and the IP address from which you ticked it are recorded by us in a durable medium for evidential purposes.
If you choose not to tick the waiver box, you can still proceed with the reservation, but the seller is not required to take the property off the market until 14 days after you pay. During those 14 days you may cancel at any time and receive a full refund of your reservation fee, no questions asked.
Most buyers waive the cooling-off period, because the immediate exclusivity is the whole point of paying a reservation fee.
Once you have waived the cooling-off period and paid, your fee is held under the Refund Policy in section 4. You will not be entitled to a refund simply because you change your mind, but you remain entitled to a refund for any of the other reasons listed there (seller withdrawal, undisclosed property issues, etc.).
By using PurchaseSecured, you agree to:
We process your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
The information you provide is used to: facilitate the reservation, share with the agent and seller (so the agreement can be signed), process your payment via Stripe, comply with anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, communicate with you about your reservation, and meet our legal obligations.
You have rights under UK GDPR to access, correct, delete, and port your personal data, subject to certain exceptions. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
We aim to provide a smooth, fair, and transparent service. If something has gone wrong, we want to hear about it.
Send your complaint, in writing, to complaints@purchasesecured.com. Please include:
We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to resolve it within 30 calendar days. If we cannot resolve it within 30 days, we will write to you explaining why and giving you a target resolution date.
If we cannot resolve the complaint to your satisfaction, we will issue you with a "final response" letter setting out our position and your right to escalate.
If we issue you a final response and you remain unhappy, you have several options:
The agent you are reserving with should be a member of The Property Ombudsman (TPO) or another approved redress scheme. You can refer complaints about the agent's conduct to the relevant scheme. Their decisions are binding on the agent.
If your complaint is about how Stripe processed your payment (rather than the reservation itself), you may be able to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service. They handle complaints about FCA-authorised firms, including Stripe Payments UK, Ltd.
If you believe an agent has misled you about a property in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, you can report this to your local Trading Standards office or to the Competition and Markets Authority.
You always retain your right to pursue legal action through the courts of England and Wales. The Money Claim Online service (gov.uk/make-money-claim) is suitable for claims under £100,000.
These Buyer Terms of Use, your Reservation Agreement, and any related dispute, are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may bring proceedings against you in your country of habitual residence if it is somewhere else.
Nothing in these terms affects your statutory consumer rights under UK law, including under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. If anything in these terms is inconsistent with your statutory rights, your statutory rights prevail.
Transforming Everyday Decisions Limited (trading as PurchaseSecured)
399-405 Office 83, Unit 5
399-405 Oxford Street
Mayfair, London W1C 2BU
United Kingdom
Email: hello@purchasesecured.com
Complaints: complaints@purchasesecured.com
Companies House registration: 16649859