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Buying a home and don't know how anything works

Our wall's going to need pinning in the new place, we got a couple of quotes and decided it wasn't worth potentially delaying til after the stamp duty holiday (when it was still ending at the end march) to save the maybe £10k, which is spread across 25 years anyway.
 
bimble said:
Yep. It’s a second hand thing, a house (or a flat). Not reasonable to expect the person selling it to you to deduct all the money it would cost you to make it ‘as new’.
You and them both want the sale to go through so compromise is the key, I think.
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Exactly, my place is in need of a few bits of work and some modernisation, if I'd already listed it 15k lower than the value of my neighbour's nicely maintained place then I wouldn't be knocking another 15k off the price after an offer had been made because it needs some (very obvious at an initial viewing, hence the lower asking price) work done.
 
I didn't see anything really obvious, but as I don't know a whole lot about homes, I'm not sure what I would notice other than mould or wires hanging out of walls.

Four months :(
 
My solicitor reckoned searches were taking 8 weeks at the moment due to local authorities being really slow due to covid.
 
Thora said:
My solicitor reckoned searches were taking 8 weeks at the moment due to local authorities being really slow due to covid.
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If that is the case then there is nothing to be done about it really, it would be the same for any other buyer as for the OP. Very frustrating waiting around for other people to do things though!
 
miss direct said:
I didn't see anything really obvious, but as I don't know a whole lot about homes, I'm not sure what I would notice other than mould or wires hanging out of walls.

Four months :(
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Aye, I'm just saying really that if a place is markedly cheaper, say around 15k cheaper, than other similar places in the area or neighbours places that have sold recently, then if the survey/homebuyers report turns up that it needs some work that is going to cost around 15k to fix, then it would be unreasonable to retract your offer and offer 15k less for the place (resulting in a 30k discount), if the 15k worth of work that was needed was already reflected in the initial asking price.

Anyway that was just an example and not aimed at you or your situation with this house purchase, I just brought up the thought in response to another post, it doesn't directly relate to your purchase and I'll shut up now :)
 
We put an offer in on ours in December. We are supposed to complete on Friday. We have been ready to go since the end of January though, it’s been the vendor (and now their vendor) who is holding things up. We are hoping to exchange today (but we were Friday and yesterday too) so watch this space.
 
I’ve been in my house almost two years now, the first year renting it the second it’s been really mine, and woke up today loving and appreciating it so much, how the light comes in and how the birds are regulars at my feeder, and that nobody (saving disaster) can tell me to leave. We are the lucky ones who get to have that feeling, worth waiting for.
 
Epona said:
If that is the case then there is nothing to be done about it really, it would be the same for any other buyer as for the OP. Very frustrating waiting around for other people to do things though!
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You can proceed without the searches if you want - you can buy something called search indemnity insurance, which covers you for the costs/loss you incur should anything that would have been revealed by the searches turn up. Typically less than £100, or even half that - ie less than the typical cost of searches...

If you’re buying in a standard sort of area - established residential area, ie generally well-known what the risks are (basically nil) it’s definitely worth considering.

I did it for my second purchase, to speed things up (and have one less thing to think about). I mean, we got stuck in a complex collapsing chain from hell in the end and it took over a year, but hey ho.

Property buying professionals use it standardly all the time, and banks will accept it in lieu of searches for lending to professional landlords, which given their general risk-aversity gives an indication of their view of the risk (ie very low).

P.S. ask your solicitor - they’ll probably be able to arrange it for you, if they do an amount of conveyancing they’ll likely have an arrangement with an insurer. Also they may disagree that it’s a good idea in your particular case if they have local knowledge.
 
prunus said:
You can proceed without the searches if you want - you can buy something called search indemnity insurance, which covers you for the costs/loss you incur should anything that would have been revealed by the searches turn up. Typically less than £100, or even half that - ie less than the typical cost of searches...

If you’re buying in a standard sort of area - established residential area, ie generally well-known what the risks are (basically nil) it’s definitely worth considering.

I did it for my second purchase, to speed things up (and have one less thing to think about). I mean, we got stuck in a complex collapsing chain from hell in the end and it took over a year, but hey ho.

Property buying professionals use it standardly all the time, and banks will accept it in lieu of searches for lending to professional landlords, which given their general risk-aversity gives an indication of their view of the risk (ie very low).

P.S. ask your solicitor - they’ll probably be able to arrange it for you, if they do an amount of conveyancing they’ll likely have an arrangement with an insurer. Also they may disagree that it’s a good idea in your particular case if they have local knowledge.
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Blimey, the place being purchased is leasehold, I wouldn't advise any other method than going through a conveyancing solicitor - there is more than just transferring the deeds to consider
 
Epona said:
Blimey, the place being purchased is leasehold, I wouldn't advise any other method than going through a conveyancing solicitor - there is more than just transferring the deeds to consider
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I’m not suggesting self-conveyancing! Just not doing the LA and other searches, which aren’t part of the conveyance, just belt and braces checking that HS2 isn’t about to be built through the back garden and so on. Solicitor would still do the conveyancing and everything else.
 
Lengthy call with solicitor's office this morning. Basically nothing much can happen until they've checked my ID and proof of funds (would have been useful if I'd been told that right at the beginning, but there you go..), which hopefully I can do in the next few days. We discussed having vs not having searches. Yes they are taking longer than usual - so do I really need them?
 
Yes you need the searches :confused:

The info that the solicitor gets from them isn't going to land by any other way, and you can't be buying a flat without knowing that the deeds are in the name of the people selling it and that it isn't due to be flattened to make way for a new bypass or something :confused:

You can't skip some of these things if it seems like they will take a while, unless you want to end up with potential legal issues in the future.
 
miss direct is the place ex-council with the council as freeholder? I thought you said it was at one point. If so, skipping searches would be less risky than on a freehold property.
 
Ok. She made it seem like it was my choice. I think she was just talking about the land searches, not the deeds. Anyway I will go ahead with them.

Yes it is Boudicca.
 
miss direct said:
Ok. She made it seem like it was my choice. I think she was just talking about the land searches, not the deeds. Anyway I will go ahead with them.

Yes it is Boudicca.
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She will definitely have not been talking about the deeds/lease- the work on that forms the report on title, it’s separate to the searches, and it’s very important - it’s basically what you want to pay the solicitor for to get the benefit of their insurance in case they fuck it up.

The searches are different, and are what I refer to above as replaceable by insurance. Assuming your solicitor has some knowledge of the area you are buying (?) then by suggesting you consider skipping the searches she is basically saying there’s nothing going to come of them (the searches for all the properties in an area are fundamentally the same, so if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all) - if it was me as I’ve said I’d say yes please can you put an indemnity policy in place just in case.
 
miss direct said:
Lengthy call with solicitor's office this morning. Basically nothing much can happen until they've checked my ID and proof of funds (would have been useful if I'd been told that right at the beginning, but there you go..), which hopefully I can do in the next few days. We discussed having vs not having searches. Yes they are taking longer than usual - so do I really need them?
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Welcome to the real world. :D
As previously mentioned, I am not sure what's happening because of covid, but, it might be possible to get personal searches. It normally takes about 48 hours and costs more

Time scales. This is pretty exceptional and/or bloody lucky. Girlfriend of mine has sold in Surrey and has bought in Scotland, which has separate and different laws to England. The chain is 3 people. All freehold houses. Place being bought has septic tank and agricultural restrictions, amongst other things. My mate in the middle knows her way around a little. Total time taken from viewing to tomorrow's completion is about a month :rolleyes::eek:
 
Just check my files and my survey was done mid September and I completed mid November. There was a bit of a hiccup when my sellers new property fell through, but she found somewhere else quickly and we kept to the plan.

Having the council involved could be good or bad, depending on how efficient they are. I do think this means searches are less of an issue as they are unlikely to want to knock it down to put a motorway through it or to have built it on a flood plain, but there may be some faffing around when your solicitor ask about planned works and service charges.
 
Exciting times!
My youngest and her partner have just bought their first home, an 8 year old freehold house with no issues. Viewed and made their offer early in September, signed contacts early December, completed mid February, no reasons seemingly to explain the delay. Mortgage was already agreed in principle, nothing unusual about the small modern house, seller buying a bigger house nearby with no upward chain. Hopefully yours will proceed very much faster - chase, chase and chase some more, because you might be the only party with any sense of urgency!

Fingers crossed that things move quickly once the survey is done. Good luck!
 
I have just come into some money. So I can cash buy a small flat or studio just for me in London. Want to stay south of the river so will probably be looking at Croydon or maybe a bit further south as it is cheaper. Are there any other areas I could look in London (north or south?) Looking at around 200k and needs to have either a small garden, terrace or balcony.

Lots of great info in this thread.
 
steveseagull said:
I have just come into some money. So I can cash buy a small flat or studio just for me in London. Want to stay south of the river so will probably be looking at Croydon or maybe a bit further south as it is cheaper. Are there any other areas I could look in London (north or south?) Looking at around 200k and needs to have either a small garden, terrace or balcony.

Lots of great info in this thread.
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South Norwood, Thornton Heath and Penge might also be worth a look. A quick Rightmove search shows there's a few things in your price range in all of them. They're all nice areas imo. Make sure you try and move fairly quickly to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday extension. Given your budget you've got till September to get in before it comes back.
 
iamwithnail said:
My top tip for the day is harass the shit out of the various lawyers involved. 3pm and we still haven't exchanged. :mad: Literally just phoned the other side's lawyers. Property is an absolute racket.
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When it comes to exchange yes, harass the fuck out of them, and why it's useful to get the private emails at the least of your buyer/seller. Don't bother waiting for your solicitor every day, give them a call in morning saying you give permission to proceed and ask them to start harassing down the chain, so it can come up nd back down asap. Sounds very similar to the problems I had, in the end we had to get everyone (me,my buyer, my seller, my agent and my sellers buyers agent) all harassing the fuck out of the one shite solictor, and even then we only got it over the line at 4:30pm, was by far the most stressful part of the process as was supposed to be moving on the Thursday, and only exchanged on the Monday! was 30 mins away from cancelling my movers.
 
steveseagull said:
I have just come into some money. So I can cash buy a small flat or studio just for me in London. Want to stay south of the river so will probably be looking at Croydon or maybe a bit further south as it is cheaper. Are there any other areas I could look in London (north or south?) Looking at around 200k and needs to have either a small garden, terrace or balcony.

Lots of great info in this thread.
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Is it worth posting in London/Croydon. Addiscombe or Woodside?
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cybershot said:
When it comes to exchange yes, harass the fuck out of them, and why it's useful to get the private emails at the least of your buyer/seller. Don't bother waiting for your solicitor every day, give them a call in morning saying you give permission to proceed and ask them to start harassing down the chain, so it can come up nd back down asap. Sounds very similar to the problems I had, in the end we had to get everyone (me,my buyer, my seller, my agent and my sellers buyers agent) all harassing the fuck out of the one shite solictor, and even then we only got it over the line at 4:30pm, was by far the most stressful part of the process as was supposed to be moving on the Thursday, and only exchanged on the Monday! was 30 mins away from cancelling my movers.
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Good to know! We deliberately chose a Thursday for that reason, and so that we had room for fuckups. Our move is next saturday so we need to exchange by tomorrow really. I've just told our solicitors to ask for the supervising partner if they don't get any joy, this was all agreed weeks ago, it's not like it's a surprise.
 
I had a message today from the mortgage company saying they were going to do a valuation. Do I need to arrange a separate survey myself?
 
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