Can a seller pull out after accepting your offer?

Short answer: yes, and without penalty. In England and Wales neither side is bound until contracts are exchanged, so a seller who changes their mind the day before exchange owes you nothing at all.

What you are likely to have lost

A buyer this far into a purchase has usually paid for a survey, a mortgage valuation, searches and some conveyancing. None of it transfers to another property, and none of it is normally recoverable.

It is worth asking your solicitor whether anything in your particular case changes that — an unusual written undertaking, say — but the default answer is no.

Why sellers withdraw

A better offer. A purchase of their own falling through, leaving them with nowhere to go. A change in circumstances. Or simply taking longer than expected and deciding not to move after all.

Notably, none of these require the seller to have behaved badly. The system allows it, so it happens.

Making the next one stick

You cannot bring exchange forward much, but you can get a commitment that exists before it. Under a reservation agreement, both sides sign and the buyer pays a reservation fee which is held securely until exchange or refund of the fee as per the terms of the agreement.

If the seller then withdraws, the buyer's fee comes back to them, and depending on the terms the seller may owe compensation. If the buyer withdraws outside the reasons set out in the agreement, the fee is forfeited. It is deliberately symmetrical — that is what makes sellers willing to sign it.

Before you offer again

Ask the agent directly whether the seller has had the property on the market before and withdrawn, whether they have found somewhere to move to, and whether they will sign a reservation agreement. The third question tends to answer the first two.

How it works for buyers · If a sale has already collapsed