Tactics to avoid chains failing

tigerminxy

For the first time, I think I'm going to be in a situation where I'm going to have to form a chain in order to move home. The thought of this petrifies me, with thoughts of people pulling out at the last minute or gazundering/gazumping going on.

Apart from trying to buy where there's no onward chain and/or sell to a FTB, what have people here done to try and reduce the stress and uncertainty of forming and being in a chain?

mrsc_4

We wasn't in too much of a chain FTB brought our flat and we brought a house with no onward chain.

However when we were looking at properties we promised ourselves that if we got into a chain we would be as flexiable as possible (within reason), we also turned around all paperwork within 24 hours so we wasn't holding anything up.

Debt_Free_Chick

I think you might find it equally stressful trying to prevent a chain from collapsing

Quite simply, they collapse for a number of reasons .... negotiations break down over the agreed price, post survey; personal circumstances (death, divorce, change of job etc); something lurking in the deeds (easements, covenants, private roads, private drainage etc); building works not regularised (no PP, no building control certificate, no electricity certificate etc). There is little you can do to "prevent" any of those issues arising somewhere in the chain - and people simply pull out if they later see a different property that they want more! :mad:

You only have a certain amount of control - and even then, it's only over those you are buying from and those you are selling to. It's just about impossible to influence any of the parties further up or down the chain.

This is going to sound simplistic, but I think you can only let the chain take its course and see what crops up later. If the chain collapses, then stay calm - it's often only one link that breaks and all the other parties can simply hold on until it's fixed.

Stay calm

silvercar

the longer the chain the worse the nightmare.

You do find that people break chains by going into rented so the chain suddenly halves in length; you also find that you can be cut adrift when someone gets a higher offer whilst you wait for other peoples delays.

Open communication is the best advice I can give.

We turned a chain into a circle by buying out the lowest priced house in the chain, when the original buyer dropped out. Without people communicating swiftly we would never have known that there was a problem we could solve.

courtjester

I agree - there is nothing you can do to prevent a chain collapsing due to circumstances affecting other parties which you can't control.

What you can do is try and keep a high level of communication going up and down in order to get early warning of problems, which you *might* be able to help resolve or mitigate.

Many agents don't like to have their clients speaking directly to other vendors, but I would try and establish the direct contact details for all the parties and keep in touch. Be objective and businesslike in all dealings with other parties.

Doozergirl

Don't ever say anything just to make your buyer or seller happy. Encourage them to do the same.

Set sensible timeframes, be flexible (remembering the comment above tho!) and don't try to move too quickly. It's when people have unrealistic expectations that things start to get very stressful and people start making threats.

Ensure that everyone in the chain has a mortgage decision in principle before you start spending any money. The number of times it turns out someone can't get a mortgage! :wall:

moov-in

Doozergirl wrote:

Don't ever say anything just to make your buyer or seller happy. Encourage them to do the same.

Set sensible timeframes, be flexible (remembering the comment above tho!) and don't try to move too quickly. It's when people have unrealistic expectations that things start to get very stressful and people start making threats.

Ensure that everyone in the chain has a mortgage decision in principle before you start spending any money. The number of times it turns out someone can't get a mortgage! :wall:

I think Doozergirl is absolutely right and would just like to add:

Make sure you're estate agent has the complete chain including the solicitor details, sometimes an agent on the ball can help a chain out of difficulties should they arise

MJMum

We "broke the chain" by moving into rented property.

While this has helped us (fingers crossed) buy the house of our dreams...I wouldn't do it again!!

Nenen

MJMum wrote:

We "broke the chain" by moving into rented property.

While this has helped us (fingers crossed) buy the house of our dreams...I wouldn't do it again!!

Why wouldn't you do it again MJmum?
We are thinking of doing that... got a buyer on ours and think renting for 6-12 months might help us.

silvercar

Doozergirl wrote:

Ensure that everyone in the chain has a mortgage decision in principle before you start spending any money. The number of times it turns out someone can't get a mortgage! :wall:

So true! Our first chain got delayed by a month while the FTB tried to sort out some passport problem. We only stepped in on the second chain because the FTB had been caught lying on his mortgage application.

MJMum

Why wouldn't you do it again MJmum?

Because it has been really stressful!

If you move into rented, you get rid of some problems but give yourself other ones. For a start, you prolong the agony of moving. This has been the worst part, as we have two small children to re-settle. One has just started school, and we have moved a long distance, so he has had to change schools, and now faces doing so again after only a few weeks.

We had fun and games with "porting" the mortgage - I'm not sure whether going into rented made this more painful, but it certainly wasn't as straightforward as we were led to believe (whole new application, struggled to prove income level as I stopped working when we moved, we weren't on electoral roll - duh! we just moved - so advisor originally balked at our credit score, etc)

It's expensive. Two removal costs, of course. Plus an inevitable period of paying both rent and mortgage, unless you are incredibly lucky with your timings when you purchase again.

Having said that, we are on our way to being home-owners agin - hopefully NOT because we are soooo desperate to move out of the leaky dump we are renting (if there is one lesson to be learnt - view in DAYLIGHT and MORE THAN ONCE). :rotfl:

Good luck to you if you are thinking of doing it. Once has been enough for this family. (Having said that, we did secure a reasonable deal on a very, very desirable cottage, largely because we come with no lower chain, can exchange pronto but can then wait a while before completion, as our vendors sort themselves out to go abroad).