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TroubleshootingReviewed 2026-09-29

Unit or parking slot is not free: held for another buyer, not for sale, or taken before booking

An estimate can be priced, sent or booked only on a Saleable unit that is Available or already held for this buyer, with parking slots that are free or held for this buyer; a unit or parking slot held by another buyer's sent estimate, allotted, booked, blocked, or of PAP or Common designation is refused, including when someone else takes it between the estimate and the booking.

Messages this explains

  • “Unit <unit> is held for <name> until <date>”
  • “Unit is <status>”
  • “Unit <unit> is <status>.”
  • “Unit <unit> is <designation> stock, not for sale”
  • “Parking slot <no> (<area>) is held for <name> by a sent estimate”
  • “Parking slot <no> (<area>) is <status>”
  • “Unit was booked by someone else moments ago”
  • “Parking slot <no> (<parking>) was taken after the estimate picked it (it is <status>); pick another on a new estimate version”
  • “Held by another buyer”
  • “Held for this buyer until <date>; no other estimate can be sent on it.”

Unit or parking slot is not free: held for another buyer, not for sale, or taken before booking

You are pricing, sending or booking an estimate and the app refuses the unit or a parking slot: another buyer's estimate is holding it, it has been allotted, booked or blocked, it is not saleable stock, or someone else took it after your estimate was made.

What you see

On New estimate and Edit estimate:

  • The Unit search offers only Saleable, Available units ("No available unit matches" when none fits), and the availability grid lets you click only those. Held units are coloured "On hold (sent estimate)"; units kept for allottees show "Allotted to an allottee" or "Reserved for tenants (not yet allotted)".
  • In the Parking (optional) layout, parking slots you cannot pick carry a note: "held for <name>", "booked", "allotted to <name>", "blocked" or "not free".
  • Saving the pricing is refused, usually because someone else took the unit or parking slot after you picked it. "Unit is <status>" (for example "Unit is Booked") appears under Unit; "Unit <unit> is <designation> stock, not for sale" (PAP or Common), "Parking slot <no> (<area>) is held for <name> by a sent estimate" or "Parking slot <no> (<area>) is <status>" appears in the banner at the top.
  • When the unit has meanwhile been held for another buyer, the banner on this screen does not show the "held for" message; it shows a short technical line instead, and the other buyer's hold date appears under Valid until. That date is theirs, not an error in yours. The full message, "Unit <unit> is held for <name> until <date>", appears when you press Mark sent or Finalize pricing on the estimate page.

On the estimate page:

  • Mark sent or Finalize pricing is refused with the same unit or parking messages, because that is the moment the hold starts.
  • The Unit hold line reads "Held by another buyer" when the unit is on hold for someone else, or, on your own sent estimate, "Held for this buyer until <date>; no other estimate can be sent on it."

In the booking wizard:

  • A red alert "Unit <unit> is <status>." (for example "Unit 1204 is Reserved For Buyer."), with Continue and Book greyed out.
  • On Book: "Unit is <status>", "Unit <unit> is <designation> stock, not for sale", "Unit was booked by someone else moments ago", or "Parking slot <no> (<parking>) was taken after the estimate picked it (it is <status>); pick another on a new estimate version".

Why it happens

A unit can be sold only once, so the app keeps one buyer's claim on it at a time.

  • The hold. When an estimate is sent (or finalized straight from Draft), its unit and the free parking slots it picked become Reserved For Buyer for that opportunity until the estimate's Valid until date. While the hold lasts, no other buyer's estimate can be sent, finalized or booked on them. A Draft holds nothing, so two drafts can name the same unit; the first one sent wins. The hold ends when the estimate is cancelled, expires, is replaced by a version on another unit, when the opportunity is marked lost, or when it is booked (the unit becomes Booked).
  • Other statuses. A unit that is Allotted to an allottee, Reserved For Tenant, Booked, Sold or Blocked is not free to sell. Parking slots follow the same rule, and a parking slot allotted to a member or allocated to a booking is not free either.
  • Designation. Only Saleable units are sold to buyers. PAP units are kept for Project Affected Persons and Common units are amenity space; they are never priced for a buyer, which is what "<designation> stock, not for sale" means. (An allottee buying their own allotted unit is the exception; that runs from their offer.)
  • Taken before booking. The booking re-checks everything at the moment you press Book. The approved estimate's hold normally protects its unit and parking slots; if one of them is no longer held for this buyer (a hold was released in between) and someone else's estimate, offer or booking has taken it, the booking is refused. "Unit was booked by someone else moments ago" means two bookings on the same unit were pressed at the same moment and the other one was saved first.

How to fix it

  1. See who has it. Hover the unit on the project's Structure tab: the hover names the holder ("On hold for…", "Allotted to…", "Booked by…"). On the Parking tab's layout view the hover reads "On hold: a sent estimate holds it until it is cancelled, expires or is booked" followed by the buyer's name and their unit. This needs the View permission on Towers, Floors & Units or on Parking.
  2. Pick another unit or parking slot on the estimate. On a sent or later estimate, use New version (the Create permission on Estimates) to change the unit or parking; on a Draft, use Edit (the Edit permission on Estimates).
  3. If the other buyer's hold should end, whoever works that opportunity cancels their estimate (Cancel estimate, the Edit permission on Estimates) or marks their opportunity lost; the unit and its parking slots go back to Available at once. Otherwise the hold lapses by itself after that estimate's validity date.
  4. If the unit is PAP or Common and really is for sale, its designation is changed on the Structure tab by someone with the Edit permission on Towers, Floors & Units, and only while the unit is Available or Blocked. Otherwise choose a Saleable unit.
  5. If the booking is refused because the unit or a parking slot was taken, the approved estimate cannot be booked as it stands. Make a New version on a free unit or with other parking slots, send it (which holds them), and take it through approval again before booking.
  6. To stop this happening, send the estimate as soon as the buyer agrees and keep it valid: extend its validity with Extend validity rather than letting the hold lapse while approval or the booking is pending.

Related

  • New estimateScreen

    Price a unit for a buyer: pick the unit and optional parking slots, load a unit pricing plan or add charges by hand, override rates with a reason, set the validity, and save the draft before moving on to the payment plan.

  • Edit estimate (estimate wizard)Screen

    Continue an estimate in three steps: edit the draft pricing, draft or re-version the payment plan (lumpsum, installments, custom dates or construction-linked), then review and finalize, which locks price and plan and requests approval.

  • EstimateScreen

    One estimate version: its charges by group, payment plan, approvals, unit and parking hold and validity, with the lifecycle actions to send, finalize, request approval, approve or reject, extend, cancel, version and book.

  • Book <unit> for <name> (booking wizard)Screen

    The three-step wizard that turns an approved estimate into a booking: review exactly what was approved, add co-applicants and their shares, set the booking date and book the unit.

  • StructureScreen

    Build and maintain a project's towers (wings), floors and units, generate them in bulk, and see every unit's status and designation at a glance.

  • ParkingScreen

    Set up the project's parking areas (basement, podium, stilt) and their numbered parking slots, see who holds each parking slot, and allocate parking slots to society members.

  • Estimate validity and the unit holdConcept

    A sent estimate holds its unit (and the parking slots it picked) for that buyer until its Valid until date; the hold starts on sending, can be extended with a reason, and an hourly job expires the estimate and frees the unit the day after the date passes.

  • Unit status lifecycle: available, reserved, allotted, held, booked, soldConcept

    Where a unit stands right now, from Available through the rehab path (Reserved For Tenant, Allotted) or the sales path (Reserved For Buyer, Booked, Sold), who moves it and what each status blocks.

  • Unit designation: Saleable, PAP, CommonConcept

    What a unit is for, separate from its status: Saleable stock, a PAP unit kept for Project Affected Persons, or a Common unit housing an amenity; the designation decides who can be allotted or sold the unit and whether it shares the project's cost.

  • Parking areas and parking slotsConcept

    A parking area (basement, podium, stilt) holds numbered parking slots that are inventory like units: held by a sent estimate, booked with the unit, or allocated to an allottee from the project.

  • Price a unit for a buyerHow-to

    Create the first estimate on an opportunity: pick the unit on the availability grid, any parking slots, a unit pricing plan or hand-added charges with overrides and GST, set the validity and save it as a draft.

  • Revise an estimate after a rejection or a change of termsHow-to

    Change a locked estimate the right way: a new version for a different price, unit or parking (the old version is superseded), a new payment plan version when only the terms change, or a fresh approval request on the same version.

  • Estimate expired or its validity date has passed: the unit hold was releasedTroubleshooting

    An estimate holds its unit only until its Valid until date. A draft whose date has already passed cannot be sent or finalized, a new validity date cannot be in the past, and once the date has passed the hourly job marks the estimate Expired, releases the unit and parking slots and tells the team; an expired estimate cannot be revived, so a new one is priced.

  • Unit cannot be allotted on the offer: taken, wrong designation, or too many unitsTroubleshooting

    An offer can allot only units that are Available or Reserved For Tenant, not on another offer, of the right designation for the allottee (PAP units to PAP tenants only, Common units to no one), and at most 50 of them.