Your buyer is buying your house.

You're buying somebody else's.

They're buying another one.

And somewhere several houses away, a person you've never met hasn't returned a form to their solicitor.

Welcome to the property chain.

It's one of the stranger parts of moving home. Your plans can depend on people whose names you don't know, buying properties you've never seen, with mortgages that are absolutely none of your business.

You can't control all of that.

But you can make your own part of the chain considerably less likely to cause trouble.

First, find out what you're actually attached to

“There's a small chain.”

Lovely.

How small?

Ask.

If you're selling, find out whether your buyer has a property to sell and whether they've actually found a buyer for it.

If you're buying, ask what's happening above you.

Has the seller found somewhere?

Does that seller's purchase involve another sale?

Is anybody still looking for a buyer?

A chain of several properties isn't automatically a disaster.

But there's a big difference between four transactions all progressing and four transactions where somebody hasn't even put their house on the market yet.

Get the money sorted before everybody starts waiting

If you're buying with a mortgage, get an agreement in principle before making serious offers.

That's the lender saying, based on an initial look at your finances, roughly what it may be prepared to lend.

It isn't the final mortgage offer.

But “we've spoken to a lender and here's our agreement in principle” is considerably more reassuring than “we're going to sort the mortgage out next week.”

The same goes for your deposit.

Your legal adviser will need to establish where the money has come from. Savings, proceeds from another property or money gifted by family can all require evidence.

Nobody wants to be hunting through ancient bank statements while five other households ask why nothing is happening.

Appoint your legal adviser early

You don't need to wait until the removal boxes are stacked in the hallway before choosing who will handle the legal side.

Once a sale is agreed, there will be forms, documents, questions, searches and correspondence going backwards and forwards.

The earlier your conveyancer has what they need from you, the less chance your file spends several days sitting still because one document is missing.

If you're selling, start gathering the paperwork for the property as well.

Extensions, alterations, new windows, boiler paperwork, leasehold information anything likely to produce a question later is much nicer to find now than when everybody wants to exchange contracts on Friday.

Peterborough searches need time too

If you're buying, your conveyancer will normally arrange searches to find information about the property and surrounding area that may affect your purchase.

Peterborough City Council handles local land-charge information covering matters such as planning decisions, conservation areas and certain restrictions affecting land.

They're an ordinary part of buying a home.

They're also another reason why “offer accepted” doesn't mean “book the van”.

Ask your conveyancer when the searches were ordered and whether anything is still outstanding.

Deal with the survey while there's still room to think

A survey that finds a genuine problem doesn't automatically destroy a chain.

Ignoring it for three weeks might help.

If something significant appears perhaps roof trouble, damp, structural concerns or another expensive defect establish what the problem actually is.

Get evidence.

Find out what it could cost.

Then decide what you want to do.

Perhaps you proceed at the agreed price.

Perhaps the seller fixes something.

Perhaps you renegotiate.

Perhaps the problem is serious enough to walk away.

What doesn't help is allowing everybody else to believe the transaction is progressing normally while you're privately deciding whether you still want the house.

The most important question may be embarrassingly simple

“What are we waiting for?”

Ask your estate agent.

Ask your conveyancer.

Because “the solicitors are dealing with it” can cover an extraordinary number of situations.

Perhaps everyone is waiting for a search.

Perhaps a mortgage offer hasn't arrived.

Perhaps there's an unanswered question about an extension.

Perhaps one seller hasn't returned a form.

Once you know what the hold-up actually is, somebody can chase the right thing.

Don't create a crisis at the finishing line

Sometimes new information genuinely changes the deal.

A survey uncovers an expensive problem.

A lender values the property below the agreed price.

Something appears during the legal checks that nobody knew about.

Those can all justify another conversation about the price.

Deciding at the last minute to demand another £10,000 off simply because you think the seller is now too committed to say no is different.

By that stage, other people may have paid for surveys, searches, legal work, storage and removals.

A late change can travel through the whole chain very quickly.

And the seller can still say no.

Keep everybody informed when something changes

Going on holiday?

Tell the people handling the move.

Waiting for a document?

Tell them.

Mortgage delayed?

Tell them.

Can't make the proposed moving date?

Definitely tell them.

Property transactions contain enough genuine uncertainty without adding the completely avoidable variety.

You cannot guarantee that a chain won't collapse.

You can have your finances ready, appoint people promptly, return paperwork quickly, deal with problems when they appear and keep asking the wonderfully unglamorous question:

“What are we waiting for?”

Property Speak — Translated

Property chain — The linked group of property purchases and sales that depend on one another. If one transaction stops, several others can be affected.

Conveyancer — The solicitor or licensed conveyancer handling the legal work involved in transferring ownership of the property.

Property searches — Checks carried out during the legal process to uncover information that may affect the property, such as planning or local-authority matters.

Mortgage agreement in principle — An initial indication of roughly how much a lender may be prepared to lend, subject to its full checks.

Exchange of contracts — The point when signed contracts are exchanged and the sale normally becomes legally binding.

If you've been through a Peterborough property chain, what caused the biggest hold-up mortgage, survey, paperwork, searches or somebody elsewhere in the chain?

Tell us in the comments.