Homesellers Beware

THE £15,000 HOMESELLING RISK NOBODY TOLD YOU ABOUT - AND THE £60 FIX
ClozeSure is a pioneering product which protects home sellers from post-exchange collapse - a legal black hole that can cost families more than £15,000 and endless stress.
When selling your property, once contracts exchange, most sellers believe the hard part is over. In fact, they've entered the riskiest window in the entire transaction. If their buyer fails to complete due to their mortgage being withdrawn, redundancy, accident, divorce, a death in the family, someone else in the chain failing, or simply rising rates - the buyer can walk away having forfeited only their 10% deposit.
But the seller is left in the lurch with bills that can run well past £15,000 and facing a long drawn out and costly legal process to recoup any funds beyond that forfeited deposit. And, if they are buying another property, they’ll probably lose that too.
Until today, there was no product or service designed to mitigate this risk.
But there is now; ClozeSure is the first product built specifically for the post-exchange gap and, for a one-off fee starting as little as £60, it protects residential property transactions which fail to complete post exchange.
If a buyer fails to complete, ClozeSure is obligated to acquire the property for 90% of the agreed sale price - which, combined with the buyer's forfeited 10% deposit, means the seller receives 100% of what they were expecting. In time to complete on any onward purchase, if relevant.
The product costs less than a single evening out, while the risk it covers can derail a family's finances for years.
WHY THIS MATTERS NOW
Post-exchange collapse has always been a known risk. But the market conditions of spring 2026 have made it materially more dangerous.
Two-year fixed mortgage rates have risen to 5.9% - their highest level since July 2024 - making mortgage withdrawal the single most common trigger for post-exchange failure. At the same time, stock levels are at an eight-year high and the proportion of listings taking price reductions is running 44% above last year. The arithmetic is brutal: the harder the market, the longer a second sale attempt takes; and a property already known to have fallen through once is the first to attract lowball offers.
In short: the financial exposure from a post-exchange collapse is greater today than it has been since the financial crisis.

WHAT THE COSTS ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE
On a £300,000 transaction, the costs likely to be incurred by the vendor will be considerable and would include abortive conveyancing fees, estate agent fees which become payable on exchange, and a removal cancellation charge, all of which could add up to a figure well in excess of £6000.
The situation worsens if the seller is planning an onward purchase which, without their sale, also fails, resulting in the deposit of the next property being forfeited too. If the seller is ‘trading up’, the deposit they lose is greater than the forfeited deposit they receive from their buyer. If the seller is fortunately enough to be able to finance, and continue with, the purchase of their new home whilst still owning their current home, they will also face having to pay a 5% second property SDLT surcharge on the acquisition of their new home (Refundable when current home sells).
If a bridging loan has been taken out to secure an onward purchase, costs can quickly spiral leaving the purchaser with a lost sale, mortgage costs still payable on the existing property and interest rates compounding on a bridging loan which can amount, very quickly, to many thousands of pounds.
THE SOLUTION
ClozeSure is purchased online in under five minutes, at or before the point of exchange. The guarantee activates the moment contracts are exchanged and expires on completion of the sale. Sellers can choose to pay the fee at exchange or on completion.
"It’s rare, but when it happens, it’s a catastrophe – roughly 500 families a year in England and Wales find themselves in this position. And the people it does happen to are facing a time of great disappointment, uncertainty and limbo, with losses that can easily exceed £15,000, with drawn out, costly, legal recourse beyond the buyer's deposit and no safety net designed to help them. That's the gap ClozeSure was built to close." Peter Thompson, Founder and Chief Executive, ClozeSure.
Available at: www.clozesure.com

ENDS

To find out more, please contact Peter Morley: Peter@tbcpr.com