Almost everyone who has ever moved home has a story about being let down by their buyers or being stuck in a chain. The house buying process in this country is fraught with difficulties and in a slow market the pitfalls become greater.
Why chains build up
Chains happen because everyone needs to move at the same time. That’s fine when there’s only two or three buyers involved, but in a chain of six, eight or more, there’s plenty to go wrong. It only takes one link to break for the whole chain to collapse.
Why chains break down
Most property chains break because a buyer somewhere along the line simply withdraws their offer. The offer is not a legally binding contract in England and Wales and the buyer is free to pull out of the deal up until the time that contracts are exchanged. Although they will lose a small amount of money, by comparison to the price of the property they are about to purchase it is insignificant. Buyers pull out for a host of reasons, some genuine such as ill health or redundancy but sometimes because they believe they can get a better price for their own property by withdrawing it and re-marketing it later, or simply because they have changed their minds. Others find they are unable to raise enough finance to buy the home they have chosen.
Surveys and Home Information Packs
In theory, the introduction of the Home Information Pack should make it easier for buyers to see exactly what they are buying before they put in an offer, hence making it less likely for the chain to break down should the survey uncover something ‘nasty’. But in effect, many estate agents and property purchasers are reporting that Home Information Packs quickly become out of date and don’t always negate this problem.
Avoiding the complications of a chain
Housing buying and selling doesn’t have to be like this. Property Rescue can step in to mend a broken chain by buying a property within a few days, allowing the rest of the chain to go ahead and everyone to move on the date they had planned.
Property Rescue buy homes nationwide, regardless of their location. Contact them to find out how to avoid property chain break down.