WAIL our chain has just collapsed

[Haywire]

We were supposed to be exchanging last week, moving week before Christmas. In a horrible chain of five we are two from top. Bottom buyer waited 'til exchange to demand a £5000 reduction, his vendors have now refused and are going back on market.

We accepted offer in May and this is the second time our buyers chain has collapsed but previously it was not so far down line.

so fed up, has this happened to anyone else with a happy outcome I need to hear it. If they or we can't find another buyer soon we will lose lots of money on house we want to buy. Solicitors, mortgage fees, damp survey we had done.

I know it's never a done deal until the contracts have been exchanged but what a bastard to wait until the last minute.

it happened to us three times - each time we all waited for the bottom of the chain to sell again and they did and we all moved

How long ago did it happen - the bottom buyer may come back with their tail between their legs and it could all be back on.

Can all the vendors involved share the £5,000 throughout the chain to keep it together?

oh thank you Ivykaty (3 times!) this is what I need to hear trying to stay positive. We live in rural mid wales type area so property does not sell that quickly but maybe we will lucky.

What Bowlers said - you'll lose more money between you letting the chsin collapse and starting again.

Yes we suggested just that re sharing cost through chain, but the idiot people he did it to don't want to deal with him anymore and have refused to let the estate agent negotiate with him. Has happened over the last week. I hope to goodness you are right soupdragon and he does come back in, seems crazy as he had a full survey so has paid out a lot already himself. Maybe this is all a negotiation tactic. Apparently he is buying as a buy to let, so maybe no emotional investment just business transaction.

Can you or other people in chain speak to the let-down buyers? They sound a bit mad to let this sale fall through at very little cost to themselves - if you lot can emotionally blackmail make it clear what a difficult situation this puts the rest of you in, they may be a bit more open to negotiation.

Our buyers have tried to talk to them today but they do not want to budge, agree this is bonkers and our buyers were tearing their hair out. But just had a phone call from them and their estate agent has been on to the people who were previously interested in their house and outbid and they have made an offer this afternoon. OMG talk about roller coaster. Might not come to much but ray of hope!

Yay!

I hate people that do this, especially a BTL. You do your sums before you offer, not try and pull a fast one like this. We made an offer on a property last week, we are BTL and made the same offer as a FTB, vendor went with us as less likely to get all emotional. We would never dream of doing this. We know he is desperate to sell as his last chain collapsed and he was in danger of loosing his new property, however this is just dirty tactics.
Hope it all works out for you OP.

Thank-you for the support people. just have wait and see what happens over the next week to see if this is going to pan out.

Yes am sure most buy to let buyers would not dream of doing this just got unlucky with this guy. There could well be more too it as it's been quite hard to find out what really went on . Our Estate agent has been utterly ineffectual of course .

Oh haywire, I'm really sorry for your trouble :-( what a pair of knobs!