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Being part of a property chain can be a stressful experience when trying to sell your home and purchase another flat or house, because if any of the transactions in the chain fail then the entire process can collapse. If that happens, don’t worry because there are some actions that you can take that could result in a competitive and fast offer that is free from any chains.
- What does it mean to have a broken property sale chain?
- Reasons why your home’s sale chain might have broken
- Potential costs when the chain for selling a flat or house breaks
- Can you salvage the sale of a property in a broken chain?
- Finding other ways to sell your home after the chain breaks
- Broken property sale chains: frequently asked questions
What does it mean to have a broken property sale chain?
When you’re trying to sell your freehold or leasehold home fast, a potential complication that can occur in some situations is if you end up in what is known as a property chain. And if that chain ends up breaking, it means the sale falls apart, putting you back at square one.
To meet the standard definition of a property chain, there have to be at least three different homes involved in an interconnected sale process, as Completely Moved explains. But there is no cap on how many properties can be involved with a chain and it’s entirely possible that some chains exist with roughly a dozen or more homes.
But the typical scenario involves three unique people – someone who is only buying a house or flat, the person selling that property who is also purchasing another home, and the person selling that property. Therefore, all of the sales are dependent on each other; so, if the first person is unable to buy the home, the next two links in the property chain will break.
If you are in a property chain and it ends up breaking, this means that your sale falls through. But don’t panic at this stage because you have a few choices for how to still hopefully sell your home.
The rest of this guide will walk you through the explanations for why a property chain can collapse, as well as provide information to help you decide whether the chain is worth trying to salvage. And if you do have to start again with trying to find a buyer, you’ll also get advice on the steps to take to increase your odds of getting a fast and fair offer that isn’t part of a chain.
Reasons why your home’s sale chain might have broken
Some of the reasons for a property chain breaking will typically be out of your control, and there can be just one or perhaps several reasons why a chain breaks, as Rightmove notes.
But having an understanding of the factors that can lead to a home-selling chain breaking can be useful to help you realise why it might have happened. These can include:
- One of the buyers or sellers in the chain might suddenly chain their mind and decide they no longer want the home at issue, which can happen quite often.
- Many personal situations can lead someone to walking away from the sale or purchase of a home, including a divorce, serious illness, financial problems and more.
- It’s possible a legal matter may occur and one of more of the conveyancing surveys on the homes in the chain uncovered problems that mean certain buyers or sellers are no longer interested.
- If the selling process is taking many months or longer to complete, this can be a dealbreaker for some people in the chain who wanted a much speedier timeline.
- A buyer in the chain could fall victim to gazumping, where someone else approaches the seller with a higher offer that they accept, eliminating the original offer.
- Or one of the chain’s sellers might experience the related trick of gazundering, where the buyer reduces their offer just before contracts are exchanged and the seller rejects it.
- Another hurdle can be if a mortgage provider downgrades their value of a home in the chain, so the sale no longer makes financial sense for someone in the chain.
- There could be an upset in the property market that creates fresh uncertainty among people in the chain about whether to go ahead with the buying or selling.
These are just some of the most common factors explaining a broken chain, but there can be other reasons. Whilst experiencing a property chain breaking is never a welcome experience, just remember that there are still options available for securing a buyer soon after this happens.
One such solution is getting in touch with a quick home buying company like LDN Properties, because they can make quick and fair offers to purchase almost any home. They are able to do within a few short weeks, and that includes the time needed to pay you the sale proceeds and exchange contracts. It’s also a one-to-one sale, which means no risk of any chains.
Potential costs when the chain for selling a flat or house breaks
If you are part of a property chain of three or more properties and the chain has broken, causing the process to fall apart, the very fact that you’ll have to start over with trying to find a buyer may be enough bad news.
But you or other people involved in the property chain might have another problem of incurring some non-refundable costs due to the break, which will add to overall selling expenses. Some of these charges can include, but might not be limited to, the following:
- Prepaid home removal (£1,000 or more)
- Fees to pay solicitors (£850 or more)
- Fees for a property survey (£400 or more)
- Fees for repaying a mortgage (£1,000 or more)
- Fees for property searches (£3 each)
- Fees for lenders to value homes (£100 or more)
Depending on how far along in the selling and buying process your property chain is, the costs can quickly mount up and mean you lose out on a lot of money. If you are part of a broken property chain and have lost out on hundreds or thousands of pounds as a result, you will likely want to avoid getting into another chain when trying to sell your home.
Thankfully, you have a number of options available for starting afresh with searching for a buyer that will not result in your entering into another chain, such as trying you luck with a property auction or selling your house or flat to an honest no-fee quick buyer like LDN Properties.
Can you salvage the sale of a property in a broken chain?
If you are experiencing a broken property chain, you might be wondering whether it is possible to salvage and fix the break, which would eventually allow the sales to finalise.
In some cases, it might be feasible to mend a broken property chain, but whether or not this is achievable will be highly case-specific and depend on the reason for the original break.
One way that you can try to rescue a broken chain is by staying in constant contact with the estate agents involved, ensuring that they are addressing any concerns that someone else in the chain might have, and perhaps they could solve whatever problem led to the break.
Other outcomes that can fix a broken property chain might be less desirable, for example if saving the chain would require that you have to accept a reduced sale price for your home. For those property owners that are hoping to make as much profit as possible when selling their house or flat, this would likely result in fixing a broken chain to be an undesirable situation.
But there are many factors in favour of not trying to save a broken property chain, because avoiding this type of situation entirely can make it easier to sell a house or flat, as described by the HomeOwners Alliance. If you instead try to find a one-on-one situation with just one buyer for your one home, this avoids the complications of becoming part of a chain.
As the next section of this guide explains in more detail, one of the best ways to prevent getting into a chain is by finding a quick home buying company like LDN Properties. These businesses can make fair and swift offers to purchase practically any leasehold or freehold home, completing the process in a handful of weeks and free of the negative aspects of a chain.
Finding other ways to sell your home after the chain breaks
If you’re in the unfortunate position of a broken property chain, your next step will be trying to start again with finding a buyer. There are four typical ways you can proceed, which are selling to a quick buyer, selling at an auction, selling without any help or selling with an estate agent.
You fill find that there are specific pros and cons linked to each of these selections, for example you might have to pay a potentially high rate of commission when you use an estate agent or an auctioneer, and this fee will add to your costs because it is taken out of the sale proceeds. But if you sell to a no-commission quick buyer you get the added benefit of being able to finalise the sale of your property within a few short weeks, and that includes exchanging contracts.
A good tip to try is writing down your main goals with the sale of your home, such as whether you are open to paying any commission, how long you are prepared to wait to find a buyer and the ideal sale price for your property. Compare all of these factors against the specifics of the four approaches below and this should help with narrowing it down to your best option.
Selling to a quick buyer
Selling to a quick buyer can be an excellent way to completely avoid a property chain, and steering clear of a chain is one way to accelerate the sale of a house or flat, as Home Selling Expert says.
That’s because these companies will buy your property directly with no other people involved in the process. And it should only take a handful of weeks to finalise the sale of your home, which includes the time needed to pay you the full sale proceeds and to exchange contracts. That makes selling this way a speedy solution if you are emerging from a broken property chain.
You can also avoid paying any commission when you sell your house or flat to a genuine zero-fee quick buyer such as LDN Properties. This means that you can count on receiving the full proceeds from the sale, which will help in keeping your overall selling costs low.
Selling this way can be a wise choice if you own a home that might be harder to sell because of its age, condition, location, shape, size, any physical damage or other negative factors.
For example, LDN Properties has been buying and making offers for all types of freehold and leasehold homes since launching in 2003, including homes that were part of a broken property chain, as well as flats that have cladding, houses that have a sewage treatment plant, Airey properties, homes that have an infestation, flats in buildings that do not have a lift, houses located near a cliff, half-finished properties, vandalised homes, flats that have an absent freeholder and more.
Selling at an auction
Alternatively, after your property chain breaks you might consider gambling on an auction, but just remember that your home might get no bids and therefore it will remain unsold.
Or you could receive just a single bid at the reserve price – this is the lowest price at which you agree your flat or house can sell. Ensure that you choose a reserve price that should generate a profit from the sale even after paying the auctioneer their fees. Otherwise, you create the danger of selling breakeven around the price that you paid for the home, or even worse selling at a loss.
Typically, auctioneers charge commission at 2.5 percent of a property’s final sale price, and this will increase your costs because the fee is subtracted immediately from the sale proceeds.
This fee pays for the work that the auctioneer does in selling your home, which starts with putting together a listing that describes your home and features photographs of it, and then advertising this listing to generate interest in the property from buyers before the auction, They will also host the auction and oversee the final steps to complete a successful sale.
But it can take a very long time to sell this way as there are several waiting periods involved, including many weeks or months between when you choose to auction your home and when the auction is held. If your property does sell, the buyer then has about a month to sign the required legal papers and complete their other necessary tasks to finalise the purchase.
Selling without any help
You could also try selling your home without any third-party assistance from an auctioneer or an estate agent after your property chain breaks. This will mean you have to handle all the tasks involved with selling, from producing and advertising a listing through to scheduling viewings to give people tours of your home’s inside and outside, and hearing offers from buyers.
It’s a massive amount of work and this process is not recommended unless you have sold a home before or have an experienced friend or family member that may be willing to help you with selling your property at no charge. If not, it can quickly become very stressful to sell on your own and it might take more than an entire year before you are able to find a buyer.
Note also that you might get an offer from a buyer but then they could change their mind and cause the sale to fall apart, which would once again result in you having to start again with trying to find someone to purchase your property and delaying the schedule even further.
The only clear advantage of selling without any help is that you will not have to pay a fee to a third party, which helps lower your costs. But you will need to spend funds on advertising your listing and other steps, and this can wipe out any saving you make by selling on your own.
If one of your main aims with selling is not having to pay any commission, you might want to instead think about selling to LDN Properties or another no-fee quick buyer. This would achieve your goal of not having to pay any fees and it would also give you the extra benefit of being able to complete the sale of your house or flat within a few short weeks – and this timeline includes both paying you the full proceeds from the sale and also the exchange of contracts.
Selling with an estate agent
Another way you can attempt to sell your property is through an estate agent, but this is one of the options that has a greater risk of potentially ending up in another chain before you are able to sell.
An estate agent will handle the bulk of the work with selling your property, like creating and advertising a listing, organising viewings, hearing offers and overseeing a sale. Whilst this reduces the amount of effort you will have to put into the sale, you will pay commission to the estate agent if they are successful in selling your house or flat.
This charge is often within the range of 1.15 percent to 1.40 percent of a property’s final sale price and it will be subtracted from the eventual sale proceeds, adding to your costs. If you are trying to reduce your expenses when selling your home, you should review some of the other options available including getting in touch with a no-fee quick buyer like LDN Properties.
Because estate agents handle many property sales, there’s also the increased chance that you might get caught in another chain when trying again to sell your house or flat. And if that chain eventually falls apart, it will repeat all of time, cost and stress of the first chain that broke.
Even if you do not end up in another property chain when selling your home via an estate agent, you might still have a very long time to wait before you are able to find a buyer. Do not be surprised if it takes many months, or even more than a full year, to sell your property this way. If you are looking for a rapid sale then you may want to think about some of the other options, for example using a quick buyer where the entire timeline should only be a few short weeks.
Broken property sale chains: frequently asked questions
Below you will find LDN Properties’ answers to some common queries that we get from owners trying to sell their homes who have recently experienced a break in the sale chain.
Your top questions when selling property due to a broken chain
Property chains are those involving three of more homes where the sale of each is dependent on successful sales with all parties. Typically, this means that one person is trying to buy a home, the second person is selling that home and wants to purchase a separate property, and third person is selling that house or flat, and all the transactions must happen for it to succeed.
The reason behind each broken property chain will be unique to the specific circumstances of the properties and people involved. But some common explanations for why a chain might break include one of the buyers or sellers changing their mind due to financial problems, illness or something else, gazundering or gazumping, a downturn in the property market, and more.
Depending on how far along the property chain was in terms of buying or selling before it broke, there might be one or more costs associated with it that you may already have paid and will be unable to recover. This can include legal fees, mortgage fees, costs associated with property searches and surveys, and other charges, and they can quickly add up to a lot of money.
Yes, there are a couple of ways that you could still successfully sell your house or flat even if part or all of the property chain collapses. In certain cases, you might be able to salvage the property chain, although this will be the exception rather than the rule. In other cases, you can pursue one of the four conventional methods for trying again with finding a buyer.
You could try to sell your property through an estate agent but that might lead to another chain which you may want to avoid. There are three other options available for trying to find a buyer for your flat or house and these are selling at an auction, selling without any help from a third party or selling to a no-fee quick home buying company, for example LDN Properties.
Generally, the fastest way to sell almost any type of house or flat is by contacting LDN Properties or another quick buyer because it should only take a handful of weeks before you exchange contracts and receive the full sale proceeds. But selling via an estate agent, an auctioneer or on your own can all take at least many months, if not longer.
If you choose to sell your property at an auction or with an estate agent then you will need to pay them commission if they are able to complete the sale of the home, and this fee will be taken out of the final sale proceeds. But if you decide to sell to a zero-commission quick buyer such as LDN Properties or sell without any assistance then you will not pay any fees.
