Bought a house being told it was chain free...now there is a chain...what can we do?

[alliwantforchristmasis50k]

Basically the title...

We put an offer on a house a few months ago being told that the seller was moving in with a relative and that there was no onward chain. The exchange date has been July 17th for about a month, and today we have found out that the seller is actually buying a house and now we have an onward chain to wait for! No idea how many people are involved in forward chain we only just found out this morning.

We have handed the notice in on our rental, booked time off work etc all with the assumption that the exchange would happen as planned on the 17th as there was no chain to hold anything up and we would be in by the end of July.

Not one mention of any of this by anyone from the start of the process in February!

Is this allowed? Why have we only found out there is a chain a couple of weeks before the move date everyone agreed to? Our solicitors have only just found this out as well and are saying "don't worry it should be fine"

Will it be fine?? Should we be worried??

on exchange you agree a move date, this then can't be changed after exchange. Are they saying they wish to delay the exchange now? or are you just thinking it might?

In short: nothing you can really do other than ask the vendors to break the chain. They can refuse.

It's a common situation.

Exchange contracts date of 17th July or completion date as in move house on that date? Perhaps your seller is planning to go ahead with selling their house as planned and move into rental before their purchase goes through? If not, your choice is pull out and be back at square one finding somewhere you like and still already given notice on your rental, or accept it and wait for the chain to line up but you still have given notice on your rental. Either way it looks like you are going to need to find a short term solution once your notice has run out… family or air bnb maybe?

Yep, exact same thing happened to us, unless you've exchanged there's absolutely nothing you can do. Beyond irritating.

We had something similar. We were buying a chain free house but after accepting our offer, they decided to buy a house after all. This was a previous house sale they had pulled out of when they lost a previous buyer. Suddenly we were under pressure to complete really soon because someone higher up the chain needed to move before the deadline for school applications. This wasn't as stressful as your scenario but did make the whole process more stressful.

Unfortunately you can't stop them doing this. All you can do is push for a prompt exchange and completion date and hope it goes ahead to the timescales you need. Until you have exchanged then nothing is set in stone and there is always a risk things won't go to plan.

Just to clarify we were asked when we wanted to get the keys which was the 17th, but the exchange hasn't happened yet...this is our first house purchase so it's all a bit new. Is it normal to exchange and get keys on same day?

We have a terrible system. People lie about moving into a rental. Especially when they are a large family with a dog (I knew when we looked at the house that they were lying and were just keen to get us as a buyer).

A good EA can manage this right at the beginning. Ours was very good and really sorted out the chain and who was saying what. Really drilled down to everyone's circumstances. He did it with us as well but prefaced it by saying he needed to know everything to ensure that things went smoothly or he knew what he was up against.

It’s usually better to have a gap.

But nothing is set in stone until you have exchanged contracts so giving notice on your rental etc was all a bit risky!

In your circumstances I wouldnt exchange and complete on the same time as your sellers sound flaky. They could let you down on the day!

Try and get a week or two between exchange and completion to that YOU have time to book leave, organise any removals etc. Do remember that once exchanged you can breath a sigh of relief.

Happened to us too, we were so angry but nothing we could do, we had sold our flat and absolutely would not delay that (2008 so looming economic crash). We ended up living with a friend with our 14 month old and incredibly lucky found another house immediately with no change. So all in all the delay wasn't too bad but of course the costs were added to with new surveys etc etc. Oh how I hated those sellers, turns out they had kids in the same school we moved to and I secretly hated on her (petty I know) Turns out the house we got was much better in a better location so maybe some things happens for a reason. Good luck

Unfortunately, this is one of the issues with housing buying in the UK. It v much relies on trust and some people are not trustworthy and are quite happy to mess others around.
You need to have a very firm conversation with their estate agent about what is going on, why this wasn't communicated to you and what the situation is wrt the higher chain and then make a decision about what to do.
If you based the level of your offer on the fact that you were told that there was no chain and are now incurring extra costs as a result of their dishonesty, you can try to negotiate some money off. It would be v reasonable to do this but you have to be prepared to walk away and look elsewhere in this situation.

This happened to us it's really upsetting we went back to agents and said as the basis of our offer was chain free we would now like to withdraw it until they are willing to take a lower price. The agent asked how much lower and we said no that needs to come from them and can we please book viewings for these 3 houses for this week. We would also like to reregister as actively searching and have already done so with other agencies. By end of day there was no chain they moved in with relatives and we exchanged pretty quickly

You get the keys on completion so exchange would have already happened, usually a week+/- before. You shouldn't give notice on a rental before this but it's understandable that you didn't know this as FTBs.

There is usually a gap between. I had 4 weeks gap.

You don’t normally exchange and complete ie get the keys on the same day no. You can. But as it’s probably become apparent the resin you don’t is because nothing is set in stone until you exchange, anything could happen and it might all fall though. Once you’ve exchanged, you are committed to a day to complete so then you can make your moving plans etc.

I think it's worth playing hard ball here as per this post @alliwantforchristmasis50k but it obviously depends on your exact circumstances.

You can say ‘our offer was based on you being chain free’ and ask them to go into rented.

they might say yes or no but worth a go

Usually there is a gap between echange and completion. In our case I think it was about a month. We asked for a month as we were renting and had to give one month notice.

Many many friends and family have been shafted during house purchases and there was no way we were going to end up homeless with a baby and a toddler by leaving our rental too early 😳

I see this as a consequence of the trend to exchange and complete on the same day, is that what you're doing OP?
In which case nothing you can do apart from threatening to withdraw if original timetable isn't adhered to. Lesson learnt, and I hope others are listening. Always leave a time gap between exchange and completion.

I had this happen. I was moving 5 hours away for a new job with a fixed start date. I had made the offer contingent upon being able to move in time. I told them I’d have to pull out as I didn’t have a big enough contingency fund to put all my belongings in storage and live in a hotel for months. They backed down and it went through in time.

There are 2 parts to buying a house1) exchange 2) completion.

Sometimes they can happen on the same day, but normally exchange happens first, which legally locks everyone into the purchase,, and then completion happens a couple of weeks later, at which point you actually own the house. Up until exchange for anyone can walk away with no penalty. After exchange there is a financial penalty for walking away, but the house still isn’t yours yet.

often people prefer to have a gap as it’s at the point of exchange that the dates are committed which means you can go ahead and book removals etc.

@alliwantforchristmasis50k

I would definitely be playing hard ball here, per previous posts, but unfortunately the seller holds quite a good hand of cards. There is no law against what they've done, and although it is possible to exchange and complete on the same day, it is quite rare.

In your position, and maybe for future reference, I would state up front that you need a gap between exchange and completion of whatever your notice period is. That lessens the risk of the circumstances you currently find yourself in where you have given notice on your current property without having certainty over your new one.

Good luck.

You normally exchange then hand your notice in and start planning etc. exchange is often delayed unfortunately due to various reasons.

Happened to us. Months in there was suddenly chain.
I told them that either we stick to original agreement re dates or we walk. They stuck to original agreement.

Don't do exchange and completion on the same day. Imho that's just masochistic

You kick off, that’s what you do. Threaten to pull out if the 17th is not adhered to. Send screen shots of the property advert saying chain free, re-send emails stating the 17July.

Go nuclear.