No Upper Chain !!

somethingcorporate

We bought a 'no upper chain' house from a divorcing couple 2 years ago. Managed to wangle £35k off the asking price due to us being proceedable quickly, just sold it for £30k more than we paid for it.

There is a chance to get a bargain but also the chance to get bogged down in no mans land! Good luck and keep harassing your solicitor to move things along if you do go for it.

Dan-Dan

monty-doggy wrote: »

What's the AP?

Sorry , AP is offers over 220k

eddddy

Better_Days wrote: »

Proceed with caution.

If the parties change their minds and decide that they want to buy another property there could be two upward chains. Also there could be disagreement when it comes to accepting an offer.

Hi Dan-Dan

I've never used one, but.... you could talk to your solicitor about a pre-contract deposit agreement.

Then if either party pulls out without good reason (e.g. because the selling couple can't agree how to split the sale proceeds), they lose the deposit.

You could add a clause about not introducing a linked sale/purchase which has not been declared at the outset (i.e. they can't suddenly introduce an onward chain.)

But this would increase legal costs, there can be arguments about what 'good reasons' to define in the contract, and then more arguments about whether something falls within the definition. (For example, you may end up arguing about whether planning permission for a new supermarket over the road falls into the definition of a 'good reason' for you pulling out - or whether you forfeit your deposit.)

hazyjo

I have recently sold a house with my ex - we'd divorced first, before selling though.

So long as the financials have been sorted, it should be okay - although some on here won't buy from a divorcing couple cos of potential problems!

You might find one deals with all the correspondence re the sale (me in our case!) or that they expect the other to do their fair share too. That can cause problems.

Also might delay things cos one of them is having to send things on to the other for signatures, etc, adding at least a couple of days to everything done by letter.

Luckily me and my ex were on good terms - but it did cause a few spats along the way!

We had agreed our financial split, but OMG the nightmare we had trying to draw something up. His solicitor was meant to be doing it, but then started insisting on asking questions re our pensions (which didn't enter into it), and that added weeks onto it cos his pension co would only send it in writing. In the end we gave up with that option as our buyer was pushing like crazy so our joint solicitor (for the sale) produced a letter spelling it all out (which we had asked about in the first place but they'd said they couldn't do - arghhh!). It delayed my mortgage approval by months.

We were also selling 'chain free'. Ex was going to rent, I was going to buy. I did have an offer accepted on a house around 5 weeks into the sale. I was planning on being 'homeless' for a month or so (probably stopping with my BF or mum) and not delaying the sale, but the sale took forever (16.5 weeks) and I was lucky enough to play catch-up and complete on my purchase too withinin 11 weeks (albeit with a far shorter - stressful - time between exchange and completion). That wasn't cos I delayed anything in order to catch up, it just worked that way.

So I'd definitely try to find out if one will be dealing with everything sale-related - and whether they've agreed their financial split (and got it in writing already). My mortgage offer was through around a week before my completion - it was all backwards and totally crazy!

Jx

Dan-Dan

thanks for putting me right off hazy jo :-)

hazyjo

Haha - well, I'm still on friendly terms with my ex so it wasn't all bad, but we were extremely lucky our buyer wasn't pushing too hard (until the last week). Could easily have lost her as several things regarding our sale took weeks to sort out. She didn't seem to rush anything, so in the end it just about got tied up in time.

So long as you're sure they're actually doing things, it's okay. I was emailing the solicitor, estate agents and mortgage bod (and anyone else related to the sale) on a daily basis (yes they were sick of me!). I was also emailing the EAs I was buying through telling them every single update and/or delay. Thankfully, I think that kept them on side and they knew I was doing all I could and didn't push too hard.

I know sometimes you just want to get in, and it all gets too much and very stressful, but if you can presume it'll take a little longer (4 months instead of 3 maybe?), and push for updates but don't lose your rag and making threats to pull out if X isn't done, then it should all be fine

Jx