Picture the scene: a home owner decides to move on and so he quite reasonably asks a local Estate Agent to come and advise him. Let us see how he gets on…

I am confident of getting close to 270,000 (pounds sterling) for your home. I have many potential buyers who would love to come and view this house.

Sounds very promising. He decides to use this Agent.

The Agent organises the Home Information Pack and helpfully rings you to say he will fill out the PIQ (Property Information Questionnaire) with a little help from you. Meanwhile you quickly find another home to buy and begin to organise matters in that direction; you find an empty, 2 year old home that has been repossessed and seems to be on at a heavily discounted value. Great.

Your own Agents do nothing exceptional over the next few weeks and only two people have viewed and no response has come back via the Agents. You decide to complain: you have not seen any Adverts and would have thought the Agent could have got more than two people to view by now.

In respect of your own purchase you decide that because the home is only two years old you do not need a survey of any description.

On your own home, over the next few weeks, three new viewings are made but the only offer made is at 220,000 (pounds sterling). Not exactly breath-taking stuff and you could not accept such a low offer.

After three months an offer comes in at £238,000 and the Agents say it should be accepted as the market is not doing much over the summer holidays. You reluctantly decide to accept the offer.

It then comes to light that a chain has developed and everybody is awaiting the sale of the lowest link – a small flat in a nearby Block that has only just gone on the market.

After the fifth month since you placed your home on the market your buyer has only just instructed his Loan Company to complete the mortgage appraisal inspection. You cannot take more time off work and so allow the Valuer to get a key from the Agents and let himself in to do his inspection.

After nearly seven months since you placed your home on the market your own Estate Agent and then your Solicitor calls with multiple bad news — (1) The bottom of the chain has fallen apart because the flat is not mortgageable because it does not meet the minimum property criteria laid down by the buyers Mortgage Company (something the Estate Agent should have known), (2) your buyers Loan Valuer says your roof frame is weak and needs structural supports to be added and that the buyer wants 5,000 (pounds sterling) knocked off the price because of this problem (could you have headed this problem off by commissioning a Home Condition Survey in the HIP), (3) the one you are buying has a small side extension that has been constructed on land not owned by the seller (if you had read the sellers HIP surely you could have checked out the Conveyance plan and compared it what you saw on-site?).

Stop. Is this chain proceeding? Who and how are re-negotiations to be conducted? Where do you go from here?

Stupid scenario? Not realistic? That would never happen! No – this is real. It can and does happen every day. So what went wrong? Who was to blame?

The answer is clear – everybody but you should take more blame than the others!

YOU should have asked several Agents to view and advise you and the sale price should have been realistic enough to generate immediate interest and potential buyers.

In respect of the roof problem on your own home this would have come to light if you had considered a Home Condition Survey prior to the unit being placed on the market so you would then have had the option of completing repairs or discounting the price to reflect the then known problem (Roofer estimates could have been obtained to show potential buyers and their Advisers).

YOU should have had a private survey completed on your purchase OR at least viewed the HIP and compared the conveyance plan with what you saw on-site.

YOU should have accompanied your buyers Mortgage Valuer so you could have explained the roof problem and ensured he was briefed properly so his

Stuart K. Parrett FRICS, MAE, dipHI is a Chartered Surveyor and owner of PROinspect Consultancy based in southern England. He is a residential property specialist and has over 35 years local experience. He is also a Home Inspector, Valuer, Thermal Imaging Consultant and Expert Witness.

To contact Stuart or to obtain more free information plus product recommendation and fee quotations visit him at http://www.proinspect.co.uk