Flat offer falls flat...if only we did it like the French

Our flat is on the market. On Monday a chap put in an offer, then decided the next day to come back for another (3rd) viewing with his mother. This rang alarm bells - why would you come back the day after making an offer? Was he really serious? Despite assuring the estate agent that he was, I remained uncertain. Bringing you mother to view a flat which you have already viewed twice, and that both you and your girlfriend 'really liked' is a little odd. We all know how parents can be: interfering and opinionated (and...always right!), and how influenced children can be by said relatives.

So, on hearing the news of another viewing avec maman, we reined in our excitement about the prospect of potentially moving to the country sooner than we'd hoped... And we were right to do so, two days later we get a call from the estate agent - apparently the chap retracted his offer because despite that fact that he and his girlfriend still liked it, mummy thought the bedroom wasn't quite big enough, and that the flat itself is too close to the Emirates Stadium. We are on a road which stays surprisingly quiet when it's match day (plus, I don't mind the proximity and I HATE football... and my boyfriend is a Man United fan).

But, in a way it's good that they pulled out so early... saved them doing it later on down the line when we would have put an offer in on a house that we would almost certainly be champing at the bit to move into. That's the problem with the buying/selling process - it's very hard to tie people down... to get them to commit. Quite different from the French way of doing it.

In France, you give an offer in writing. As soon as this offer is accepted by the vendor, then you are bound by a contract, and you can't, in theory, wriggle out of it. If you do decide to retract, the vendor can then ask you to pay compensation. When you sign the 'offer contract', it usually stipulates a time span in which the vendor needs to respond to your offer - normally between one week and 10 days. As soon as they accept, the ball starts rolling and no-one has anything more to worry about than what a pain in the arse it's going to be to pack all their stuff up and move it.

This is the kind of system we need in England - it would be great to know that when you have accepted an offer the buyer is serious and you can go ahead with putting in offers, getting surveys done, engaging solicitors, without the 'what if the buyer pulls out' question hanging over you until the contracts are actually exchanged (not to mention the wasted expense if they do get cold feet at the last minute).

Vive the French way of doing things! (when it comes to this anyway). Fingers crossed that we get another offer in on the flat...and that they mean it next time.