Chain Break

Chain breaks are unfortunately a common scenario when selling a house in the UK. Most house sellers think that once an offer is agreed the deal is done but in reality thousands of sales fall through because of a chain break. An aborted sale affects the whole chain and everyone risks losing their sale and the property they want to buy.

Lost your buyer? What next?
If you've read enough, the next step is to complete our free Online Estimate or Contact Us. If you'd like to know more about our chain break service and how we could help please read on.

What is a sale chain?

A chain of related house sales/purchases
Most house buyers/sellers will be involved in a sales chain because people generally have to sell their home before the can buy on
First time buyers or property investors normally form the base of a chain
Property chains can involve 3 to 10+ transactions

How does a chain break?
If any link fails the sales above and below cannot proceed and the whole chain collapses. So a problem with just one sale could jeopardise 10+ other transactions

Why do sales abort?
A sale can fall through for a variety of reasons:

Unable to secure mortgage/finance
Problem at survey
Change their mind about buying
Change of circumstances e.g. redundancy /divorce
Find another property
Anxiety about property market and economy
Gazumping/Gazundering

And a sale can fall through anywhere in the chain but effect everyone involved.

How common are chain break situations?
Unfortunately sales fall through all the time and chain breaks are very common.

Although exact figures are difficult to estimate Quick Move produces a monthly fall through index or FTI based on its property sales.

This index shows that up to 50% of sales will abort before completion.

Many more house sale chains don't even get off the ground so the true rate of chain break experienced by members of the public is likely to be much higher.

It is likely that most home sellers currently face a 50:50 chance of their sale going through to completion.

How to fix a broken chain
To repair a chain the property that has lost buyer needs to be resold. In current market it is very difficult to fix a broken sale chain because there are so few buyers. Generally everyone loses out and marketing has to be restarted from scratch.

Negatives of a sale falling through

Lose house you want if you can't re sell your house quickly
Costs- Sunk costs in sale chain e.g. mortgage fee, survey, estate agents, solicitors, HIP, removals/storage
Mortgage-Deals are often only valid for short period. May lose out on agreed deal if you don't sell/buy within necessary timescales
Hassle- of marketing/selling again
Stress-when an offer is accepted people set their hearts on a move. When it doesn't happen it can cause severe stress
Wasted time-Chains can stutter along for many months before eventually falling through. Re-marketing/selling can also then take a long time.

There is however another option:
Quick Move Now offers a chain break solution where we buy the broken link and so resurrect all or part of the chain.

Importantly this allows you to sell your house and secure the home you want
Gives you and rest of the chain certainty that base of the chain is secure
As a professional cash buyer Quick Move can guarantee a quick sale and in many cases allow the chain to complete to planned timescales
Minimises costs associated with aborted sales
You can sell chain free, giving you added bargaining power when negotiating

Visit the relevant pages to learn more about the benefits and cost savings offered by the service.

How does it work?
There is no cost or obligation to get a formal offer on your property.

As a company Quick Move obviously has to buy at a discount to full market value. However because there is a chain of related sales, all benefiting from our chain break solution, the discount can be shared with all parties involved.

Visit How We Offer for more information.

Who are Quick Move Now?

Quick Move specialises in the quick cash purchase of residential property. Our professional service provides clients with a quick, secure and efficient sale. Having bought more than 2,500 properties Quick Move is the largest and most respected company in the field. If you wish to learn more about the company visit About Us and read our Ethical Charter.

How can I find out more?

If your chain has broken or you want to avoid a property chain completely, try our simple on-line estimator - this will give you an instant estimate of what our cash offer might be for your property. Simply click on FREE Estimate and let Quick Move Now help you move house, now.