House selling and buying in a chain

[NIsense]

Hi.
I am currently selling my house to buy another. In the middle of a chain. Can anybody advise me if failng to complete after exchange of contracts is a rare thing to happen? It seems that way but I do worry about the implications if it does happen.

It can happen, if the mortgage lender uncovers fraud or irregularities in the application and retracts their offer, or somebody’s financial circumstances change dramatically between exchange and completion. It’s pretty rare though. Each part of the chain lodges a deposit with their solicitor prior to exchange, which would be lost in the event of not completing.

It’s astonishingly rare.

Really not worth worrying about.

As I dont have actual money in the bank for a deposit it will be equity from my buyers house that will be passed up the chain to me an onwards, via the 10% exchange deposit mechanism. I really really hope it goes to plan as I have never bought and sold at the same time!

Well if your buyer doesn't exchange with you that will collapse the chain. It is a fraught system. But extremely unlikely that they would exchange and not complete; it's the exchsnge stage that is much more common not to happen. Once you've successfully done that then you can be 99% be sure that you will be moving so start packing!

Thanks for your comments. The financial repercussions of not completing after exchange are scary to think about. It would basically ruin me. Am I really worrying over something that's a rare event? Sounds like it

The deposit from whichever party broke the chain would then pass down.

I really wouldn't worry about this. If you think about it the majority of house sales are people in chains because you are only a ftb once and after that you are in a chain, and many people buy and sell or 5 times.
It is really, really rare.

Thank you all for your kind reassurances. Feel a lot better now :)