Extra house at top of chain

[Frustrated123]

So cross, we were on the verge of exchanging, we are at the bottom and renting as we already sold our property. Total number of chain is 4. The people at the top of the chain were happy to vacate as they hadn't found anything to buy. Today, we find out they have found a house and refuse to move until they complete on the house they are buying. I am yet to find out how many more this adds to the chain. Very annoying!!! I am paranoid our vendor will pull out as they need to exchange in order to secure a school place for their 2 children to start in September as they are relocating to a completely different area. Am I being unfair in thinking the people at the top of the chain should let us all exchange and sort something out?! Do they not realise that if the chain collapses they won't be able to buy their house anyway!!!

I think that you and I must be the only people who ever actually did go into rental - this kind of 'the little people will wait' nonsense is all too common.

the people at the top should go into rental, or a holiday let for a few weeks; but there is nothing to make them do that.

get on to your estate agent who has a commercial interest in holding it all together.

I don't see how this is going to hold up your sale if you have already moved out and are renting. Your sale can go ahead and you will have the money in the bank for a while before you buy your house.

Just found out that this adds an extra 3 houses to the chain - grrrrr!

It doesn't affect our sale Hoopapoop, but I worry that the people we are buying from will pull out. We have been trying to buy for almost 18 months and 2 houses we were halfway to buying fell through as the vendors changed theirs minds! Just paranoid I guess!

I think frustrated means the vendor of the house they are buying might pull out rather than the buyer of their own house

Hi Frustrated, I'm in a very similar position to you and I know how awful and soul destroying this is - feels like our future is in the hands and decisions of complete strangers at the moment

We were in a chain of 6 and was supposed to be exchanging just over a week ago - deposits in place, mortgage money released etc - only for number 5 in the chain to pull out of buying number 6!

There was a problem with the house they were buying and whilst it had been fixed the home insurance was going to be too high.

So now we are back waiting for the chain to end,...... in the meantime out mortgage offer runs out on Friday. Have managed to get a month extension but that is all. We also wanted to be in our new house in time for school admission applications

Our EA and solicitor are pushing the people at the end (via their EA) to go into rented but after a week they still haven't said they will (leaving us dangling on)

There is a good chance we will have to pull out - will be gutted as I love the new house - but if our mortgage extension ends and we need to apply for a new one we will probably look at finding another house with no chain.

Whole system is a mess - never felt so stressed in my life !

Hi Gemma, sorry to hear your purchase isn't going well either. So annoying when it seems everything is going ok and then changes at the last minute. Really hope something works out for you.

Frustated123 & Gemma77, hang in there, this is exactly what happened to us. You will get there in the end. Top three were ready to exchange and when we started asking questions why it hadn't happened, we found out an extra person was in the chain who had problems getting a mortgage under the new regulations. In all fairness to them they quickly re-applied when they were refused by one lender, the second lender started asking questions which they answered very quickly and we are completing 28 days later in planned (we've already exchanged for next week as well).

No one (not even the new ones) will want to loose a secure chain, so I think they will do everything they can to get things moving quickly. If someone pulls out, they run the risk of not finding a buyer quickly and could end up delaying things as their paperwork will have to be done again. You could ask the agent to relay that you realise these things happen, but you're worried about someone pulling out and are therefore asking if they could try and progress things as quickly as they can.