A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
Had a full survey done when we brought in the Autumn. It specifically excluded electricity and gas saying you should consult an electrician and a gas engineer for those.
Buying a home and don't know how anything works
- Thread starter miss direct
- Start date
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
Offer £180k but also say why you are a good buyer. i.e mortgage already in place, no chain, links to the area etc. When we brought there was another buyer. We both went in £10K under and both upped it by £5K but the vendors thought we were the better bet. They told us afterwards...
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Here’s a question. I’m hoping to be in a permanent job around Easter. Currently working as a temp via PAYE on an ongoing contract since March.
Would any lenders consider me straight away once I’ve started without having passed probation or do I need to wait 3-6 months until confirmed in post?
Will be putting down at least a 60% deposit and will need to borrow at most 4x salary on a 20 year term - am aged 40 so not old from a mortgage perspective.
Would any lenders consider me straight away once I’ve started without having passed probation or do I need to wait 3-6 months until confirmed in post?
Will be putting down at least a 60% deposit and will need to borrow at most 4x salary on a 20 year term - am aged 40 so not old from a mortgage perspective.
cybershot
Well-Known Member
I assume this is leasehold. Have you done your research on the service charges.
5t3IIa
Registered User
We weren’t asked anything about length of job by the broker but did have to produce 3 months payslips and bank statements. Not sure what the actual bank would come back with as I assume they look into it more deeply?
cybershot
Well-Known Member
No one has a crystal ball to answer this. Speak to a broker. My gut feeling would be there would be few lenders willing to offer straight away and those that do probably wouldn’t be great deals but as your LTV might be low that will go on your favour. Although on the flip you still want 20 years at aged 40 meaning (although this will obviously change in 20 years) you’d be near retirement by the time you finish paying it off.
Wait until you have at least 3 months pay slips. Although they will still want to know about your previous work and any gaps in employment. As long as you’ve got evidence to show your employment is solid you should be ok.
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Thanks both, that makes sense. It’s so long since I’ve had to apply for one. I did have a gap in employment in 2020-2021 where I only worked for 3 months out of 12, and took a mortgage holiday. This did coincide with the start of covid so hopefully not an issue.
Looks like I need to wait then - I’m sure a broker could work some magic but better to wait.
Looks like I need to wait then - I’m sure a broker could work some magic but better to wait.
steveseagull
Well-Known Member
Yeah 50 quid ground rent and 100 quit a month service charge
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
Pretty sure everyone in the last twenty years who decided to wait regrets their decision (financially, anyway). In any case, if interest rates about to go up, it'd be better to buy before they do, wouldn't it?
Yeah maybe. Or maybe the market will collapse and you can pick up 4 houses for the price of 1 in a years time.
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
Under UK law you can be got rid of at any point up to 2 years these days so probation of less than that is pretty much meaningless.
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
If that were to happen we'd all be in so much shit that this wouldn't really be a worry.
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Not going to happen.
cybershot
Well-Known Member
The age old question. My advice would be if you can afford to do it now. Do it now. Don’t wait for a market crash that by the time it happens. Will just lower prices to what the value may be today. Even after the last major market crash give it several years and you’re back in gains. Property is a sound investment and unfortunately the cornerstone of how this country operates. Why there’s so many MP bungs etc to allow developers to continue to build build build. We’re a country that buys services. We don’t produce anything that the world can’t live without.
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
Generally speaking, I agree with you, but leasehold can be a bit like comparing apples with oranges.
Leasehold houses that formed part of an old estate/land interests
There are older buildings that are leasehold on 999 year leases, tend to be residual issue from old big estates, land interests. Ground rent tends to peppercorn or minimal amount. There can be quirky convenants about rights of access or what you can or can't do.
And one thing to look out for in older properties, say in a village or old parish, is ecclesiastical covenants, where there's a legal obligation to pay towards upkeep of the local church. Some people have bought a house and then found themselves landed with a bill for repairing or replacing the roof of a nearby church, although it's possible to buy indemnity policies against such eventualities.
Leasehold properties that are ex-council/social housing
This will tend to be flats/maisonettes, as houses are usually sold freehold - although a house might be leasehold if it's part of some communal heating system.
The pros are that the ground rents can be relatively cheap, eg my ex-council flat has a ground rent of £10 per year. And the service charges can be relatively cheap, eg service charge for my three bedroom second floor walk-up flat in central Manchester is just under £60 a month, which seems reasonable enough.
The cons are that every now and again you might be hit with a massive bill for 'major works' to replace windows and doors, or to replace a lift (I'd be wary about buying a leasehold flat in a building with lifts, as they're notoriously expensive to repair and replace, not to mention inconvenient if you live on the fifth or eleventh floor or whatever and the lifts keep breaking down).
Councils/housing associations are seemingly susceptible to contracting cowboy bodge builders to do works for them, which can be inefficient and expensive.
Another way in which they can be inefficient and incompetent is that when a leaseholder wants to do essential major works - decorating the block, replacing a roof, etc - basically anything that will cost each leaseholder more than £250, they are legally required to serve a Section 20 Notice and consult. It's 99.9 per cent of the time a 'con'sultation as they've already decided what they are going to do and which contractor they are going to use (even though they're supposed to get different quotes, this conflicts with their long-established practice of putting work out to tender and using the same contractors for all their building works).
Their incompetence can work in a leaseholder's favour, though, if/when they fail to serve that legal notice, because failure to serve the notice means that the bill for major works will be capped at the £250, so you won't have to pay more towards your eg £17,000 share of the costs for lift or roof replacement.
Many people who've bought under Right to Buy, or who've bought ex-council because it's relative cheap, have come unstuck by bills for major works and some have had to remortgage or even sell up due to being unable to afford a £15-30k whatever bill for their share of lift or roof replacement.
Leasehold property built by private developer
Leasehold houses are commonly known as 'fleecehold' because even though many property developers have offered purchasers the right to buy the freehold, even when someone buys the freehold they might find that there are still some covenants that aren't extinguished, like they still have to pay towards the upkeep of communal areas on a new build estate, like occasionally resurfacing a car park or maintaining playing area or gardening landscaped area, and people often complain that they're paying hundreds of pounds and not getting much in return.
But if you haven't bought the freehold, there will likely be lots of onerous charges associated with a new build (actually new, or recently new build in the last 2-3 decades), these will include above estate charges, but also lots of permission charges. Fancy painting your front door a different colour? If you're not precluded from doing so, they will probably charge you a permission fee for giving you permission to paint your own front door. Want to change your windows? Build an extension? Permission fees. Want to convert the integral garage into a bedroom or playroom or study? Permission fees. Want to knock your kitchen and dining room through and put in French windows opening onto your back garden? Permission fees. You won't be able to do anything to your own home unless you get their permission and pay for the privilege.
But worse of all is the issue of ground rent, which has been a cash cow for property developers. Many developers imposed ground rents that were due to be reviewed at regular intervals increase with the rate of inflation every five or 10 years or so, or some would double. £100 annual ground rent might not seem so bad, but if it's doubling, in 50 years, it's going to be £3,200 a year, an annual ground rent starting at £250 a year would turn into an annual bill of £8,000 due to doubling.
Lots of lenders consider doubling ground rent or even inflationary ones to make a property unmortgageable and you'd have difficulty selling to anyone who needs a mortgage.
And what's even worse is that a legal anomaly means that a ground rent of more than £250 outside London and more than £1,000 inside London means that it becomes an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. Do not touch with a bargepole. Now or if your increasing ground rent is going to put you in this territory any time soon.
Assured tenancy traps – the unexpected AST
Most people think of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) as a short-term let. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that long leases of say 125 years can also sometimes be ASTs. For a leaseholder, this won't always be good news.
www.mishcon.com
The clue is in the word 'rent'.
But what this means in practice is that you will lose your home if you get into three months of arrears. Not might or could, but will.
If you get into more than three months of arrears with ground rent in (if your ground rent is in the >£250 outside London or >£1k inside London category), then a court must grant possession to the freeholder. There is no discretion, no asking to pay of the arrears, nothing will make a difference because the law stipulates it. So you could lose your property. You might think you would be careful and not get into arrears, but 99 or 125 years is a very long time to trust that there won't be any bank-related IT glitches, that you won't change bank and forget to set up a new direct debit, or that you won't ever be skint/overdrawn and the payment won't bounce. And, again, if payments are missed, and you inadvertently get into three months arrears, it doesn't matter if you pay them off, the law says possession must be granted.
Some property developers are now addressing these concerns, and are now selling freeholds, or properties with more reasonable ground rent, but many developers have already sold on property portfolios to investors, some who increase charges further.
Service charges can also be expensive. As the residents in the building with the sky pool have found out, when they realised how much it was costing to heat their outdoor swimming pool.
Wealthy residents complain about paying £164,250 to heat Sky Pool in winter
The pool, suspended between two skyscrapers 35 metres above the ground, is heated with the £9,000 annual service charges residents pay.
metro.co.uk
If your apartment building has a swimming pool or fancy gym, secure parking, CCTV, concierge, etc, then you're going to pay through the nose for those, in service charges over and above monthly mortgage payments.
Cladding
And of course leaseholders in buildings affected by cladding scandal after Grenfell tragedy are facing ongoing uncertainty and potentially financially ruinous costs.
Conclusion
Some leasehold properties are much worse than others.
If you get an older property, with peppercorn ground rent and it doesn't have any weird or wonderful covenants like making you liable for the cost of replacing the nearby church roof, you're relatively okay.
If you buy an ex-council/social housing flat or maisonette in a walk-up building, it might not be too bad. NB a ground floor flat in a tower block also shares the cost of lift! But check when major works were last done and when they're next due.
New build 'fleecehold' is generally to be avoided, because of increasing ground rents and AST anomaly meaning risk of losing property (and capital invested) and also service charges for common estate areas and also expensive permission fees.
I'll come back to comment on shared ownership later, but I'm about to head out to work...
hash tag
Books, not bombs
I would check that the mortgage did not fall through because the lender did not like the property.
It's worth visiting the property during the day, evening at weekends to check what its like for noisy neighbours, noisy area etc.
Got a message to say my home buyers report can't be finalised, the valuation of property, as they need an EWS1 form. Would have thought they would contact the vendor or building management... Fortunately it does have one. Asked the vendor myself, have forwarded it on. it's a bit complicated as the adjoining building is having cladding removed, work TBC. I know that from several sources.
That was actually one of the first things I asked when viewing, about cladding.
That was actually one of the first things I asked when viewing, about cladding.
Kinda reluctant to say as could get gazumped or sommat.
But yeah I offered 12k under, mentioned have large deposit, no chain etc. Toing and froing, we settled on 5k under. Just hope it all goes through...
5t3IIa
Registered User
Had a flurry of panic yesterday as we owed one more doc to the estate agents & mortgage people to secure it all and the vendor contacted us to say if we can’t be their buyer they’d lose the house they want. Jesus, it moves so fast and doesn’t take much to be on a knife edge 
5t3IIa
Registered User
Then it stops completely. I’d assume no news is good news…? 
All the stuff (ID and statements etc) is with the broker to get the mortgage and with the estate agent too… Didn’t hear anything yesterday then I tried to ring after 1700 so too late. Will call the broker at 0900. Need to complete the insurance applications. Will not doing that yesterday hold anything up? I need to talk to a person 
Also, do we need to engage a surveyor after the mortgage is confirmed? Is that the next thing to do?
All the stuff (ID and statements etc) is with the broker to get the mortgage and with the estate agent too… Didn’t hear anything yesterday then I tried to ring after 1700 so too late. Will call the broker at 0900. Need to complete the insurance applications. Will not doing that yesterday hold anything up? I need to talk to a person Also, do we need to engage a surveyor after the mortgage is confirmed? Is that the next thing to do?
5t3IIa
Registered User
Thanks!
Seem to have skipped the bit where we get a solicitor
We are buying via Strike. Forgive me but which bits do we need the solicitor for? 
Thora
Differently Ethical
I don't know what Strike is, but the solicitor does all the searches, contract, and all the actual payment - the mortgage, ISA and deposit all goes to the solicitor and they pay it to the vendor's solicitor.Thanks!
Seem to have skipped the bit where we get a solicitor
Thora
Differently Ethical
I've looked up Strike - they're working for the vendor, not you, so you definitely need your own solicitor. Assume everything Strike tells you is a lie unless proven otherwiseThanks!
Seem to have skipped the bit where we get a solicitor
5t3IIa
Registered User
Thanks for looking! Fucking hell, OKI've looked up Strike - they're working for the vendor, not you, so you definitely need your own solicitor. Assume everything Strike tells you is a lie unless proven otherwise
steveseagull
Well-Known Member
Offer accepted on the flat I wanted to buy. Bring on the nonsense. Now how the f*** does all this work? I will re-read from page 1.
5t3IIa
Registered User
I’ve read this whole thread twice and am still asking stupid questions
