Underhand house purchase tactics.

It happened to us - we'd sold, put an offer in and had it accepted, and were told our sellers had put in an offer on a house and had it accepted. The seller even told me which house it was.
Ages down the line, having done searches and surveys etc, we found out they failed to get a mortgage for the house they'd offered on and were now trying to rent. It held us up for months, because then it turned out they had bad credit and were struggling to rent.
It all worked out eventually, and apart from them leaving the house a complete mess, and us having bailiffs at the door (it seems they never paid their bills!) all was eventually well.
We also got held up on exchange date because they hadn't paid their council tax - and you can't sell a house with council tax arrears. We found out later the bloke pawned his guitars to pay it. A nightmare all in all. I often think there must be a better way to buy & sell houses...

We agreed to buy a house but some things came up on the survey. It took six months to sort out. Houses used to have Sale Agreed on instead.

No, because when you get an offer on your house, any good estate agent should send you details of the rest of the chain. You can then decide if you’re accepting their offer based on how long the chain is. So you would know if they hadn’t sold their house, except in the case of first time buyers but they don’t have a house to sell anyway!

When I sold my Mum’s house, I would only allow viewings to those who were able to proceed. Agent tried to get me to let in those who were on the market, but I stuck to it. They were not worried about wasting my time, I was

Depends where in the UK you are. In Scotland offers are made through a solicitor and are binding. If they accepted an offer and have a closing date, but they haven't found anything but then they could rent a place or stay in Airbnb and put their stuff in storage. I think a lot of people accept offers without having found something.

Yes, I knew people who used bridging loans years ago and it wasn't unusual to come unstuck as the rate for the bridging load was often really high. If you didn't sell your house pretty quickly you could spend a fortune. Today there would also be the problem of paying extra stamp duty if you owned two homes, though of course you can claim the difference back when you do sell if it is within a reasonable period of time.

I've accepted offers on my last two houses without having found anywhere to buy because, personally, I don't really look thoroughly until I know my sale is proceedable. It saves disappointment for me, and I've always been able to find somewhere before we needed to agree on a completion date.
I've also been prepared to complete the sale before I have completed on my next house purchase, last time we went to live somewhere else for two months until all the paperwork on new property was finished.

The estate agents will go up and down the chain to confirm everyone has offer etc. and will check progress, there are always issues and chains can break down but this is the flaw in current Uk system.

We can put our house on the market and see if they will let us view it at that point. If not, then it's too risky. We need to stay in the school catchment area so we are limited in options.

That was our situation so we had decided to stay put. Then another one we LOVED came up and they accepted our offer subject to sale. 6 months in and LOVE it 😃

So what is your plan?

Currently trying to view our dream house but they won't even let us see it until ours is sold. We aren't on the market yet, but we know ours will sell quickly. We don't want to be in a position where we don't have anywhere to go.

Absolutely not my experience. You are only locked in once Missives are signed and you can't sign missives until dates are agreed and you can't agree dates until everyone in your chain is able to proceed. I have lost a house and a buyer recently and am currently owning 2 houses (under a bridging deal) in order to proceed my chain, otherwise I would likely lose another house. It is a short pain to give my buyer the time they required to sell and set their dates.

The first house I purchased was exactly like your neighbour, sold to us and it was all hurry, hurry, we are in a hurry until we tried to set the exchange date and conclude missives, then it was all we haven't been able to find anywhere give us more time, finally they agreed a date as we were pushing to conclude and about 3 weeks before the expected exchange and cruicially before they were committed by signing on the line... they bailed. Found out later that they had marketed their house only 8 months previously and bailed on that sale too. Cunts.

The EA/vendor would likely not entertain it if you were not proceedable. We were in a chain when our buyers buyer pulled out so we no longer proceedable, our vendor then pulled out.

I’m confused! Any decent estate agent would be doing due diligence on all of the chain to make sure that all offers are legitimate and that all the buyers in the chain are informed about what is happening. All the estate agents involved in the chain will be regularly speaking to each other.

In previous house purchases where I have been moving area I have sold mine and rented for six months- if prices are not moving up strongly then this allows you to understand better the local area and conditions. Might they be doing this?

Your posts make perfect sense to me.
The problem is that your seller would, fairly soon, find out that you are not proceedable. Through communications between estate agents and solicitors. Also, estate agents won't let someone, who is not proceedable put an offer in.
Years ago this wasn't a problem. I had offers accepted on properties, before my house was under offer. This is pre 2010

Agree. It's not underhand (if the chain are aware) it's just seen as more risky by some but in our case our seller was happy to accept an offer from us even though ours wasn't on the market as they were flexible with time and not in a rush. We were lucky it sold in 9 days. If it had taken some time they may have reconsidered. Similarly a friend in Edinburgh has just offered on a house with one to sell and they have accepted but only given her 6 weeks to sell. She's had several viewers this week and will likely have no problem meeting that deadline.

Honestly it's the buyer. Most people need a mortgage to buy and your lender will not do a valuation (nor would you want to pay the fee for one) if you haven't had an offer accepted on the property. For plenty of people it only then becomes apparent that it's non-standard construction or has 2 kitchens so is viewed as an HMO rather than a property with an annexe and they won't lend on it.

You also only do a full mortgage application (next step from a mortgage in principle) once you have a specific property you're buying, so sometimes credit issues arise.

It's the same with local authority searches - you pay for those once you have had your offer accepted and then find out about Japanese knotweed. Sold subject to contract is only really a reservation.

If we had a system where it was binding unless the buyer couldn't get a mortgage, they lost their job/died, or the house had structural or legal issues many would fall through anyway.

I thought as much! Thanks

They do still exist but they are very expensive.

Because any decent estate agent will check the chain. An incomplete chain isn't a chain.

Chains normally build from the bottom. The person at the top normally has their eye on something, but if not and they don’t find anything theres the option to go into rented. Or they have to pull out, and the next person down has the option to go into rented. Failing that the chain collapses.

If you accepted an offer from someone who wasn’t proceedable the estate agent would find out. They check out all transactions below, not just the one immediately below.