Genuinely curious about why UK house buying is difficult
We've only been here a few years - we were living in Canada. We went through the house purchase experience once here, and from the sound of things, we were lucky and it went smoothly. It took 3 months before we had the keys, with no chain on either side.
We really don't want to face this again. Compared to how it's done elsewhere, it seems long, chaotic, and risky. You may not know until a few days before when you will own your house. Either side can back out any time.
In Canada, you put your house for sale. If someone makes an offer, it is accompanied by a deposit of probably 10% held in trust, and it has a proposed closing date. That can be any time after both sides agree, but is usually offered up in the sales advert. The buyer and seller agree on a closing date up front. When the 'sold' sign goes up, the selling is over. That's usually within 1 to 7 days. There's no 'subject to contract'. The adverts stop, as do the viewings. It's no longer for sale.
That date is fixed. The accepted offer can be conditional on the house passing an inspection/survey or the buyer getting approved for financing, or whatever everyone agrees on, and the conditions usually have a short time to be met - like 5-7 days. Once both of those occur satisfactorily, the conditions are waived, then the deal is then final. Then you wait until "closing day", which is fixed, and legally binding. You can book your truck and count on it.
Once that deal is final, the seller must be out. It's not dependent on a chain. The exchange and keys handover will happen when agreed. If it goes wrong somehow, then it's a legal issue.
When we sold our last house in Canada, the closing date was one month away. Both sides could (and did) count on it 100%. I've been through it several times in Canada, and it was always the same.
Why hasn't this process evolved here?
Edit 1: I should've said England not the UK. I was unaware that this was an England-specific issue.
Edit 2: I should also add that in Canada buyers generally have their own estate agents. Each side is represented by their own agent, who represents their clients and their best interests. It works much better.