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Guide to Property Chains

Welcome to Ashton Morton Slack's handy guide to property chains, written by our conveyancing experts. A chain occurs when someone who is selling a property is also buying one. It means that the sale is dependent on another transaction, and your sale can be delayed whilst the other transaction is in process.

Chains cause problems when, as a buyer or seller, you are ready to proceed on your transaction, but some one else in the chain, is not, for any number of reasons. The problem with chains is that they're only ever as strong as their weakest, or slowest, link!

• although the others in the chain will be going through exactly the same procedure that you are - checking title, sorting out their mortgage, and getting their own sale in place - they may have started their transaction later than you have, or struggled to find a property to move to
• transaction will be dependent on all other links in the chain, and if the weakest link does not proceed, then the whole chain could collapse
• it is useful to try to find out at the start of your transaction whether or not there is a chain - either on your buyer's side, or on your seller's side, or both. If so, try to find out how long the chain is - it may help you to work out how long the transaction(s) may take, and how secure the chain is
• often your estate agent will find out these details for you. If you are selling, your estate agent will generally find out from potential buyers if they are involved in a chain, and if so, at what stage all the related transactions are
• be prepared to 'negotiate' on the completion date. Remember other people will think they have just as good a reason for having a particular date for completion as you do - something, somewhere might just have to be compromised!
  

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