to think this is shady?

[PurpleOctober]

A couple of months ago we put an offer on a house - we felt the asking price was quite expensive for what it was, so chanced our luck and offered £5k under the asking price. We are first time buyers.

The sellers said no, and a few days later accepted an offer from another buyer in a chain who offered £5k more. We thought oh well, there are other houses. This wasn't our dream house so weren't too fussed.

We received a call from the EA agent today, saying there are complications with the chain, and the sellers want to know if we want to put our offer on the table again. If we do, they will say no to the buyers they've accepted.

Is this shady or perfectly normal in house buying? Am I BU to think they should have thought about the complications of a chain before turning down FTB for £5K?

House buying and selling is so stressful, not least because many people don't behave 'honourably'
I'm of the opinion that the vendors have not done anything dishonourable in the situation as described by the OP. More info would be needed to be convinced the sellers are lacking in honour.

The other buyer could have totally misrepresented themselves, which is why the seller is once again looking at other options.

The other buyers might have pulled back due to a structural issue though. Quite how you find this out is difficult.
Under Consumer Protection Regulations, that cover estate agents, and replaced the Property Misdescriptions Act, an estate agent must disclose to a prospective buyer any important information that would affect their decision to purchase a property. That would definitely include serious defects identified during a survey carried out by a previous buyer.

Not shady at all. I suspect that the other offer's chain has fallen through and so as not to lose their chain they want to sell to you. It's pretty normal in house buying.

We've bern in the sellers' position. Our buyer had been driving the process, pushing to exchange on a date mid Dec and complete a week later. He made it clear that he wanted to be in by the new year. We were happy to do so, but at end Nov/start Dec he disappeared. Not a whisper from him ever again. So we instructed our estate agents to contact other viewers who had expressed interest, and sold to one of them.