Buying house from a divorcing couple - does this mean two chains?

JaneyLouWho

Good morning lovely people of MSE!
Just wondered if anyone could shed any light on my situation. We are purchasing a lovely home from a divorcing couple. My understanding is that they are releasing money to enable them to both buy their next properties. We have been dealing only with the husband, who currently still lives in the house, and who seems to have shared custody of the kids with his ex-wife. It just occured to me that their situation may mean that there are two upward chains to form before we can agree exchange of contracts. Is this even a thing? Would the solicitors require one of them to act as chain free buyers to ensure things aren't held up, or is it really down to our vendors to decide what they want to do in terms of exchanging/completing in tandem (or not)?
Just trying to predict potential hiccups so I can be sure to ask the right questions of the EA and solicitors. One chain having to form feels fraught enough, let alone two! :eek:

Hedgehog99

If the couple have any sense, one of them would have to be prepared to put their stuff in storage & rent if the other found a new place first in order to complete the sale to you in a timely fashion.

If you don't want to get tangled in a more complicated chain, make sure the EA and your solicitor know this. Just say that you need to complete by a specific date, or a month etc. (be reasonable about your expectations & fair to yourselves WRT how much you want this particular house) otherwise you're not interested.

k3lvc

We've been there twice and it was a nightmare (sorry)

First was a company funded move for us with exchange/completion on same day - on the day couples solicitors started arguing over division of proceeds and it looked like game over until my employers lawyers jumped in and said something that got the thing moving

Second was buying from wife and her estranged husband had left the country - took 9 months/3 court cases to resolve as he wouldn't sign at the price she'd agreed - eventually he got done for contempt of court and it progressed. Been here 8yrs and still worth all the stress we went through but at the time it wasn't much fun

I'm sure others will had advice but mine would be to discuss with your solicitor any of the pitfalls at the early stages, don't exchange/complete on the same day and plan for the process to take twice as long as it might have done

JaneyLouWho

I'm content to wait as long as my mortgage offer holds really, this house is uniquely suitable for us given our extended family situation, location for work, school etc. And we currently rent. So I don't want to be putting undue pressure on anyone, but equally the risks of everything falling through greatly increase if there are two chains. Perhaps we should dig a little more with the EA now we have the mortgage offer - or might this spook our vendors unnecessarily?

JaneyLouWho

We did have a hiccup at the beginning - the chap accepted our offer then the wife wanted to hold out for cash buyers (we are waiting for a relatives sale to complete for our gifted deposit). Luckily that got resolved and we've not heard anything negative since. In fact I've heard anything either way since - last time I checked in with the EA he gave a very ambiguous reply that 'the onward purchase is progressing at a similar pace and we expect both sales to be ready at a similar time'. What does that even mean?!

warby68

You are right - it can mean the chain splits into two. It happened to us once and we only found out very near the end that there was a second party trying to tie their onward purchase up as well.

You can ask questions to find out what is going on but it can be very fluid and one party might not wish to be fully open either. You might not get a full picture until the legals start and solicitors start to pin people down.

You are also right it is entirely up to them whether they agree with each other or do anything to break chains if needed.

Potential for heel dragging and awkwardness and lack of disclosure are higher and very little you can do to mitigate except see how it goes, try and set deadlines and ultimately pull out if it isn't progressing.

Its a pretty common situation though.

bouicca21

When I split with my ex I went into rented, so only one chain. You'll have to ask them!

DaftyDuck

. 'the onward purchase is progressing at a similar pace and we expect both sales to be ready at a similar time'...

either means 5od-all, or "I'm [STRIKE]hoping[/STRIKE]... going to get my commission at some point, other than that, don't care don't care don't care..."

Agent will mouth platitudes freely to both parties. For anything closer to the truth, he'll charge! Oh, the sellers...

shortcrust

I've no experience but it wouldn't put me off if I really liked the place. However, only if I could afford to lose money spent on conveyancing etc; I'd be bracing myself for it all falling through at any moment.

eddddy

JaneyLouWho wrote: »

We have been dealing only with the husband, who currently still lives in the house, and who seems to have shared custody of the kids with his ex-wife.

So do you mean the wife has already moved out?

If so, there would only be one chain - the husband's.

k3lvc

eddddy wrote: »

So do you mean the wife has already moved out?

If so, there would only be one chain - the husband's.

Even if Wife has moved out she may still have a financial interest in the property and be waiting for funds to purchase a new property ?