AN Ilkley couple faced having their home demolished around their ears because a deal for a new house

collapsed at the last minute.

Steve and Viv Broadbent, were

devastated and left with a race against time to find somewhere else to live before the bulldozers moved in.

Now they have called for a change in the law to

prevent other home-buyers being placed in the same situation.

Mr and Mrs Broadbent moved from Bury, Greater Manchester, to Ilkley in August last year because Mr Broadbent, 53, who is registered blind, wanted to live back in the Yorkshire area where he was brought

up.

They rented Whinfield, in Heber's Ghyll Drive - from where they run their publishing business - until they could find a permanent home.

Whinfield will soon be demolished to make way for a seven house development if planners meeting in Keighley today follow officers' recommendations and grant planning permission.

Having agreed to buy a house in Silsden for £132,000 in January, the couple thought they had plenty of time to complete the sale before an agreed date at the end of April.

Mrs Broadbent, 41, said that after some delays they received a call to say the sellers wanted to exchange contracts with a deposit two days later on March 15.

"We spent two days rushing around trying to get the cash available from 'with notice' accounts and tried to find removal men to move us on the new date," said Mrs Broadbent.

She added: "Then at 3pm on March 15, the very day they had said, the call came through that they had called the whole thing off, and later, that they were taking their house off the market.

"We had incurred expenses of about £1,000, have expended tons of nervous energy and were left with just six weeks in which to find another house suitable for our needs or be homeless."

Mrs Broadbent said they were left with no sensible explanation, apology or recompense for their time trouble and expense. "The stress has been awful, causing sleepless nights and feeling awful - I must have done about 300 miles going around estate agents

looking for another house," she said.

The selling couple have done nothing illegal

whatsoever, but Mrs Broadbent has called for a change in the law to bring rules on house buying into line with the Scottish system where an agreement to buy and sell is as binding as a contract.

Ilkley estate agent William Eddison, of Dale Eddison, The Grove, said that thankfully, sellers pulling out of house deals at the last minute were rare.

"It is extremely galling when you have gone to the expense of doing a survey and employing solicitors to do the searches. It is also disappointing for the agent as well, they don't get paid until the contracts have been exchanged so they have done all that work for nothing," said Mr Eddison.

He said that the Government was preparing new legislation to speed up the house buying process and iron out the problems.

"It won't get rid of them all but it will certainly go a long way towards it," said Mr Eddison.

The Broadbents are now in the process of trying to buy a new house in Bingley before the development at Whinfield goes ahead. Mrs Broadbent said: "The English way of buying and selling houses is quite appalling - it is high time it was simplified, made less expensive and changed."

l Buying homes to bulldoze - see page 3.

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