5 houses on the chain - confusion on who should start the process

gemma.zhang

Hi All,


Thanks to all your great advice, our offer was orally accepted, with condition that it can be completed by end of Aug. They won't remove it from the market yet until we've booked our survey.

Now the chain is complete, with 5 houses all together Very Scaring.
Our sellers are going to rent, so we're the last one on the chain.

Never been on chain before, could anyone please help me here:
1. Which one should start the Survey, giving that we're the last one on the chain? should be the one who doesn't need to sell, or should it be us, or all of us together at the same time? Ideally, we would like our buyer to kick it off before we throw 700 pounds on the survey.

2. What do we need to do next? I guess will be survey, we already have mortgage, a matter of borrowing extra, no idea how long does it take to arrange survey though.

3. Is 5 transactions normal?, how worried should I be? Don't want to lose money + lose our might be only chance of moving this year.


Many thanks!

G_M

Ignore the rest of the chain unless you hear there is a difficulty. Just focus on your own sale/purchase and start the process.

Conveyancing
Mortgage / finance
Surveys

Get them all started. The 'coordination' of the chain is done by the conveyancers whoever they are.

flora48

If after you have started your bit and things seem slow, get your EA to some ringing round. Mine was pretty good at rattling the bars in the final stages. Scenting their commission no doubt.

sonastin

You can never predict where the hiccup might happen. If it starts at the top of the chain and the survey at the bottom causes the chain to fall apart, you've all lost money. Similarly, if it starts at the bottom of the chain and the survey at the top goes wrong and collapses the chain, you've all lost money. If no one takes the plunge, no one loses money on surveys but equally no one moves.

G_M is right - just get on with it. Make sure you aren't the slow b*gger that the rest of the chain has to wait for. If the other 4 do the same, you'll be moving before you know it...

botchjob

There is no rule book. You just need to manage your sale and purchase efficiently and tie them in as best you're able. But if you insist on waiting for your buyer to do something before you do the same thing with your purchase it's going to be a long old process and your vendor is going to get bored of you quickly. My advice is to behave in a professional and proper manner and hope that everyone else does likewise. The whole process of being in a chain will drive everyone insane but the usual end result is that push comes to shove and just when it all looks like collapsing, exchange will somehow happen. By completion day all parties will be vowing never to go through the whole horrible process ever again. At least that has been my experience of the whole awful process.

BTW, if you're in a chain of 5 then your vendor's stipulation of completion by August is completely and utterly meaningless. It is beyond both your control.

As you are buying and selling my one constructive piece of advice is to get yourself a good local solicitor. Don't scrimp and get one of those internet outfits. Ask your estate agent to recommend some local solicitors. These will be people they know and have experience of dealing with. It helps. Seeing a chain through is ALL about good communication and a local solicitor on the end of the phone is a million times better than a conveyancer in a call centre.

Good luck. It will all be a fading memory in 6 months, with any luck....

gemma.zhang

It does sound very scaring... We have a few quotes for solicitors, A is very local ( quite push and desperate - which is not very assuring ), B's not local but sounds very professional, C's pricey ( well still in London) however highly recommended by colleague. going to decide tomorrow..

it's very scaring to be the 1st one to start survey, and worry sick of 'what-if's... sigh..

G_M

gemma.zhang wrote: »

it's very scaring to be the 1st one to start survey, and worry sick of 'what-if's... sigh..

What makes you think you are? No one elsewhere in the chain is going to ring you up and say "We've instructed our surveyor" - they are just getting on with it!

gemma.zhang

Everyone is waiting for the chain to complete before proceeding with survey. So no one has done anything yet.

PasturesNew

That's a bit bizarre. Most people just get on with their bit, never minding what the others are up to - that's the job of the solicitor/estate agents to worry about.

I've never seen the question asked here before, nor anybody who was chain-aware and knew everybody was 'waiting'.

gemma.zhang

Guess before, they don't want to start until they know the chain is complete. Will find out more tmr.