What is a Property Chain & How Can You Avoid Them in Hull?

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What is a property chain?

How long will the process take in a property chain?

What happens if my property chain breaks?

How can a property chain break?

How can I avoid a property chain?

Thinking of moving home in Hull?

Moving home mortgage advice in Hull

During your process of moving home in Hull, it’s likely that you’ll come across lots of different hurdles and obstacles; if you don’t consider yourself lucky! It could be something completely random that gets in your way, something you never thought would affect your moving home journey.

A recurring problem that trips up a lot of mortgage applicants in Hull is the property chain. Getting caught up in the property chain can slow down and in worse cases, put your moving home process to a stop!

Here is all about property chains, how you may end up getting wound up in one and how to avoid them.

What is a property chain?

A property chain is a string of transactions that are each dependent on all purchases and sales completing. If one of the transactions breaks down, this can have a knock-on effect on the rest of the transactions in the chain. For example, let’s say you are selling your home and purchasing a new one.

Then let us say that the person who was looking to purchase your home suddenly pulls out. You were dependent on this sale to fund your new purchase, which you are now no longer able to make, which means you could possibly be holding up any transactions in front of you too.

Imagine it as an actual chain linking houses together. If one property purchase falls through, the chain potentially breaks and your property purchase may not go through.

Depending on the property chain that you’re linked with, the chain size could be endless. If you’re lucky, you may not have that many purchases in your property chain.

How long will the process take in a property chain?

This answer can change from chain to chain. It all depends on what situation your’s, your seller’s and your seller’s seller situation is! It’s very complicated… we know.

Property chains can run smoothly or badly, there’s no real in-between. You may be in a property chain without even knowing. If the process is fast, you can assume that everyone ahead of you in your chain had their purchase go through fine.

If things don’t work in your favour, you may get stuck in a waiting scenario. As a mortgage broker in Hull, we would strongly recommend starting the moving/buying a home at least six months before you’re wanting to move in.

This amount of time allows room to find your dream home and time just in case you get caught up in a property chain.

What happens if my property chain breaks?

When a property chain breaks, it’s quite unfortunate as there’s not a lot that you can do about it, especially when it’s further down the chain. You may be forced to wait or look for a new property.

If the property chain breaks at your purchase, acting quickly could save the chain from breaking. It can also help everyone else behind you. For example, if you’re selling your property, you can contact the applicants who want to buy your property by contacting your estate agent; this way, you can inform them of the situation as early as possible. As long as you act quick, you may be able to resolve the issue that broke the chain.

There are ways to prepare for a break in the property chain if the break is not on your level; this includes, you could try and buy a property that isn’t in a chain or in a small chain, sell your property and rent temporarily or buy a new-build property, etc.

For more moving home mortgage advice in Hull, contact our experienced mortgage team in Hull today.

How can a property chain break?

You’ll discover that there are many different reasons why a property chain could break. It could be at any level during the chain:

• The buyer’s mortgage application was declined
• A seller decides that they don’t want to sell their property
• A buyer/seller loses their job or becomes ill
• The property survey that was carried out on the property lightened some major damages and structural issues.
  

This is just a small list of examples, there are many more. Sometimes it’s just down to the length of the property chain to how drastically these situations will impact your ability to move home.

How can I avoid a property chain?

It’s hard to ‘avoid’ a property chain, even more so if you’re buying during a busy time of the year.

We would always advise that you do your research and talk to your estate agent and arrange your finances sooner rather than later. This puts you in the best position if a break in the chain were to happen. The more you are prepared, the better.

If you avoid property chain (‘chain-free’), you should be able to move straight on through the moving home process.
However, you must remember that you’ll need to provide evidence that you can afford a mortgage and provide a deposit for the property.

Thinking of moving home in Hull?

Are you thinking of buying and selling your home? If so, let our moving home mortgage advisors in Hull help!

Arrange your own free mortgage appointment online. Begin your moving home journey today and we will help you get through it stress-free! Our advisors can’t wait to hear from you.

Date Last Edited: 09/28/2023