I have just bought a house in Poland, and while it is hardly smooth sailing trying to buy a house with a British passport, it seems so much easier than the farcical (AFAIK) system we have here.
Basically, both parties share the same notary, and agree on a price, and deposit. The deposit is given to the buyer via the notary. If the seller pulls out, they must give the (former) buyer the depositx2 (so if you put a £10k deposit on as a buyer, and the seller pulls out, you get £20k back). If the buyer pulls out, they lose their deposit. The notary makes sure that the paper work is correct from both side, and handles all of the legal bits and pieces. When everything is ready, the buyer "hands over" the rest of the money and gets his keys.
I have never been involved in a chain, so don't know if that is why we have such a messy system here in the UK (or England). Does anyone know why we have the (seemingly) problematic system that we do, and why it hasn't changed to something a little better?