Chaos as UK town house sales on brink of collapse after council error | UK | News
Hundreds of home sales in the suburban town are on the verge of collapse after an IT upgrade went wrong. Estate agents have warned that purchases in Bracknell, Berkshire, are at risk of not going through due to mortgage deals expiring.
Bracknell Forest Council said it was unable to carry out land checks on behalf of buyers following the failed upgrade. The problem left the local authority’s system in a state described as ‘chaos’, with buyers being left waiting months for checks to be carried out. The Labour-run council said the problem was first noticed in mid-January but was unsure when it would be resolved.
In a statement on its website, Bracknell Forest Council said it was “reconstructing data on our records which was the root cause of the outage”.
“The record is key to the Land Charges search. It needs to be complete and accurate. This work is crucial so we can restore the service safely.
“Due to the nature of the system, there is no workaround. It is not possible to temporarily revert to manual operation.
“We are unable to confirm a specific date for the restoration of service. We sincerely apologize for any delays this will cause to property transactions.”
Local estate agent Kevin Winchester said the system problem was impacting people financially and leaving dozens of housing chains at risk of collapse as buyers pulled out.
he said Telegram: “It causes a huge delay in operations. We have to tell people that if it’s a time-bound move, you’re going to miss the deadline and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
First-time buyer Mike Cox, 28, said his life had been “completely on hold” since mid-February as he awaited land search results.
“The longer it goes on, the more money I spend on rent and the more I put into savings,” he told The Telegraph. “This is hell.”
Mortgage offers typically last three to six months, after which buyers face repricing, possibly at a higher rate, as the Iran war increases borrowing costs.
