The House Buying Chain

A chain is only as good as its weakest link.

We've been settled in our new home for almost two years, now, but this post isn't about us. Some friends in a nearby village have also been let down at the last minute, in similar circumstances to our experience.

A few weeks ago they sold (stc) their house to teachers moving into the area, who had accepted an offer from a first time buyer, thus completing a very short chain. With one week to go until exchange of contracts, the first time buyer reduced her purchase offer by several thousand pounds. It was unacceptable and the chain collapsed. Our friends, who should have been moving at the end of this week, have had to put their house back on the market - in August - expecting no response until early September when the summer break is over.

Their plan is to purchase a narrow boat for their semi-retirement - a lifestyle that enables them to live within a smaller income, with some cash in the bank for 'rainy days'. Our frustrated friends had to decide whether to lose the boat or take a bridging loan. The property buying/selling system needs radical reform!

Here's a nice photograph of some canal boats ...

Footnote: There was a happy ending - a lovely couple bought their house and they are happily living life on their boat.

The New Home Saga Continues...

You may remember the final couple of paragraphs of our previous post about finding a new home to buy? Well, it's been a frantic few weeks but here's the catch-up!

With ten weeks until the agreed moving date, we hadn't found anywhere to live - then we did - and were set to exchange last Friday... then Monday... then, on Tuesday, we were told by the estate agent that the person at the bottom of the chain had pulled out. At this point, we discovered what an unusual chain it was! Apart from the first time buyer at the bottom of the chain, every other link along the chain was buying a cheaper property than they were selling.

It highlights some flaws in the system: one person can, on a whim, have a change of mind on the designated exchange date which triggers the collapse of the whole chain. In this case, there were varying degrees of consequences.

1. The vendors who lost their buyer at the foot of the chain were moving their family from South London to North Hertfordshire and are due to start new jobs next week, having arranged child care and schools. We understand that, in the interest of expediency and their sanity, they have decided to rent out their London home and use the proceeds to rent more cheaply in Herts.
2. The people they were buying from have re-listed their house with the estate agent. These are the people to whom we have sold (stc) our house and we have been asked to sit tight for a couple of weeks to see how things progress. Being school holidays, though, many potential buyers may still be away for the rest of August.
3. We're cool for a couple of weeks and so are the people at the top of the chain, who we agreed to buy from.

However, all of us have accumulated £hundreds in solicitors fees, searches, surveys, etc. which are not reclaimable. No wonder selling, buying and moving home is high on the list of stressful situations!

So... more to come!