First time buyer - unreasonable request from developer?

wannabe_sybil

vyle wrote: »

I'm shopping around for solicitors at the moment. Surely they all have to operate the same way to a degree as they're all bound by the law?

Ummm. That is a great theory. However, if you go to a solicitor that you have chosen you know that they are DEFINITELY going to act in your best interests and if you go to a large firm they are more likely to spot the quirky clauses in the contract that make conveyancing threads so much fun. Also they may be able to point out more of the pitfalls, having perhaps acted on behalf of people that have not gone to an independent solicitor and then had to start legal proceedings or take legal advice.

Also - if you go to the solicitor recommended by them, are you SURE that they are not acting on behalf of the vendor and just doing the conveyancing. Who is paying them the most and where is the majority of the business coming from? A solicitor has a duty to act in the best interests of his client. A lot depends on definition of client.

If you sign an evil and twisted legal contract, it is still a contract and you can end up in the Ankh. You would still be bound by the contract, no matter how bad it is for you, and the thread would be full of 'and what did YOUR solicitor say?'

I don't know anything about buying a house or flat, and if it is what you want and you have considered the possibility that you may have to sell it for less than you paid if you need to move, then it is up to you to make the call, after taking independent legal advice.

(I am viewing three houses this weekend with a view to buying - and I know that some people on here would jump up and down in horror at the thought. They would advise me, with the best intentions in the world to stay put and buy at a lower price. Sometimes, however, more than economic factors influence our decisions. Good luck).

poppysarah

There are good reasons to buy now - but buying something that exists only in a brochure in such uncertain times seems wrong.

barnaby-bear

vyle wrote: »

Ok, here goes:

The developer is Taylor Wimpey on the Arbury Park development in cambridge.

All their other plots are built and this last crescent of the development is due for completion in approx october.

We saw the other apartments that they've made and really liked the style and size. The one we're buying is a ground floor apartment which we negotiated to £155k with carpets and integrated appliances. It's ideal because it's near to family, has two guided bus stops and a regular bus service into the city centre (that bus route is operational now while the guided bus is due to start in the summer or so).

Seeing as it's mostly built and sold it looks likely to continue.

As for security if they take the money and run, I don't know. I'm getting in touch with solicitors tomorrow, as I know that they're meant to hold money until completion and so I want to know what the solicitors will be doing with the money. When my parents paid early, the solicitors held it in an account and gave them the interest on completion.

The £500 reservation fee is fair enough, I guess, as that's coming off the eventual selling price and when I mentioned the developer to London and Country, they knew of them as being a large developer.

Honestly, the reason why we jumped at that price is because this time last year, a 2 bedroom cambridge city apartment was around £250k in a bad area. This area is very nice, has great access to work and is selling fast enough that I expect the future resale value will be huge.

The only thing is, my partner and I have no experience of this sort of thing so we don't know what's strange and what's not.

Are you not local - have you know idea of the sink estate/wasteland emerging at Arbury Park... half off it's been abandonned, no school places, unadopted roads, building shelved, primary school places full, tonnes of BTLs lying empty (really creepy round there at night with the patchy street lighting and empty properties). The hoard of youth hanging around off the Arbury/Kings HEdges estates
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http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=64677

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http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/displayarticle.asp?id=351162

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http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_cambridge/displayarticle.asp?id=350643

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/displayarticle.asp?id=348896

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http://www.wereallneighbours.co.uk/idlechat/message.php?id=31132&page=1

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http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/story.aspx?storycode=6500833

http://insideorchardpark.com/index.php/from-insidearburypark/13-no-thanks-to-gallagher

http://www.flickr.com/groups/suburbanality/discuss/7215761002634779/

This is an area with huge housing shortages and no-one is touching it with a bargepole, high social housing % and even before complete in a less than ideal location lots of problems

Pssst

Taylor Wimpey,like most housebuilder,are having problems. No doubt they will recover.

This time last year,their share price was around £2.20. Today its about 19pence.

They are not alone and should not be taken in isolation.

I hope those who have brought about this global fiasco will realise that homes are to be lived in,not traded like stocks and shares are instruments of profit.


It will be a long time before the industry forgets this and makes the same mistakes again. Probably not in my lifetime.

See here...

QUOTE

By Anita Likus
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.K. house builder Taylor Wimpey PLC (TW.LN) Tuesday said it will have to make further write downs when it reports full-year results unless market conditions improve.
The company said it continues to believe there will not be a recovery in the U.K. or U.S. housing markets in the short term.
"Whilst we welcome the recent reductions in interest rates, the availability of mortgage finance remains severely restricted and, together with increasing economic uncertainty, continues to have a detrimental impact on consumer confidence," it said.
As a result, Taylor Wimpey said it will need to make further provisions against its U.K. land and work in progress for full-year 2008.
At 0856 GMT, Taylor Wimpey shares traded down five pence, or 20%, to 20 pence. The stock lost 93% of its value in 2008 on concerns about the company's debt load but has climbed 64% since the start of the year on refinancing speculations.
But the company in its trading update for the year ended Dec. 31 offered no new details on the discussions with its debt providers except to say that talks continued and that it remains confident it will find a stable medium-term solution before a deferral period ends March 31.
Net debt at Dec. 31 stood at GBP1.55 billion. Taylor Wimpey has reduced its debt by GBP300 million since June 30 as a result of cost cutting and a reduction of levels of work in progress.
U.K. house builders have been struggling amid some of the worst market conditions in decades with a squeeze on mortgage availability and low investor and customer confidence. Taylor Wimpey has been hit harder than rivals as its debt weighs on its balance sheet.
One analyst said Taylor Wimpey's ability to cut debt is hampered by the weak market and high land credit values.
Taylor Wimpey said that its U.K. year-end order book stood at 4,231 homes, down from 5,109 homes in 2007.
Cash payments in respect of land totaled about GBP540 million during 2008, a significant reduction against the land spend in 2007. It didn't provide a figure for 2007. Taylor Wimpey expects a further reduction in land spend during 2009 to less than GBP400 million.
Taylor Wimpey completed 13,394 homes in the U.K. in 2008 compared to 20,690 in 2007 on a pro forma basis. Of those completions, affordable housing accounted for 21%, causing prices to drop, according to Chief Executive Pete Redfern. Average selling prices were GBP171,000 for the full year compared to GBP177,000 at the half year.
Redfern said that prices during the year fell about 20%.
Cancellations remained above normal levels throughout the second half of 2008 but did not show a marked increase as reservations were converted into completions in the latter stages of the year.
Taylor Wimpey's U.S. year-end order book stood at 2,789 homes at Dec. 31, compared to 3,137 homes in the same period last year.
The company is also reviewing the carrying value of its U.S. land bank but said that the size of any provision will not be significant in a group context. Taylor Wimpey's U.S. business makes up about one third of the group based on completions.
Taylor Wimpey said that the housing market in Spain remains weak and its plans to exit Gibraltar are on course.

vyle

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Are you not local - have you know idea of the sink estate/wasteland emerging at Arbury Park... half off it's been abandonned, no school places, unadopted roads, building shelved, primary school places full, tonnes of BTLs lying empty (really creepy round there at night with the patchy street lighting and empty properties). The hoard of youth hanging around off the Arbury/Kings HEdges estates
----

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=64677

----

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/displayarticle.asp?id=351162

----

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_cambridge/displayarticle.asp?id=350643

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/displayarticle.asp?id=348896

----
http://www.wereallneighbours.co.uk/idlechat/message.php?id=31132&page=1

----
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/story.aspx?storycode=6500833

http://insideorchardpark.com/index.php/from-insidearburypark/13-no-thanks-to-gallagher

http://www.flickr.com/groups/suburbanality/discuss/7215761002634779/

This is an area with huge housing shortages and no-one is touching it with a bargepole, high social housing % and even before complete in a less than ideal location lots of problems

People are touching it, just not as quickly as they possibly would (as I said earlier, a couple of my friends have missed out on apartments they were going to buy).

I am local, having lived in arbury all my life, so having troublesome youths hanging around isn't anything new for me.

I know about the lack of amenities, but I actually like the spooky, empty atmosphere, it feelt quite nice when me and my partner were looking around.

Our objectives for this place are to have a roof over our head, somewhere to store our posessions and to sleep in at night. That's it. The community doesn't bother me and I don't go to the local shops or pub I have now, because it's chav central. I'm quite glad there won't be anything like that there because it means there's nothing for me to avoid.

If I had children and wanted to get involved in the community, then perhaps it'd be an issue. As it is, it seems fine.

poppysarah

Go walk round at night.

RabbitMad

Pssst wrote: »

It will be a long time before the industry forgets this and makes the same mistakes again. Probably not in my lifetime.

Why, are you planning on dying in the next 15 to 20 years?

Do you think in the early 90's crash people didn't say the same thing

The next housing boom is just around the corner give it 3 to 4 years for house prices to stableise and then they'll be level for say 5 years before rocketting up over a period of 5 to 10 years.

barnaby-bear

vyle wrote: »

People are touching it, just not as quickly as they possibly would (as I said earlier, a couple of my friends have missed out on apartments they were going to buy).

I am local, having lived in arbury all my life, so having troublesome youths hanging around isn't anything new for me.

I know about the lack of amenities, but I actually like the spooky, empty atmosphere, it feelt quite nice when me and my partner were looking around.

Our objectives for this place are to have a roof over our head, somewhere to store our posessions and to sleep in at night. That's it. The community doesn't bother me and I don't go to the local shops or pub I have now, because it's chav central. I'm quite glad there won't be anything like that there because it means there's nothing for me to avoid.

If I had children and wanted to get involved in the community, then perhaps it'd be an issue. As it is, it seems fine.

Ummm... I guess there really is a market for anything....

vyle

poppysarah wrote: »

Go walk round at night.

Well now, I don't do that anyway. Too many weirdos about (kingsway flats) .

Good news, though. After speaking with the lovely people at Miller Sands, they pointed me towards NHBC buildmark cover, which the developer does have.

In that, it has provisions for insolvency or fraud.

Full details can be found here:

http://www.nhbc.co.uk/NHBCPublications/LiteratureLibrary/Homewarranties/Buildmark/BuildmarkPolicyDocuments/filedownload,24116,en.pdf

The money shot is on page 6.

I feel much happier, now.

barnaby-bear

vyle wrote: »

Well now, I don't do that anyway. Too many weirdos about (kingsway flats) .

Good news, though. After speaking with the lovely people at Miller Sands, they pointed me towards NHBC buildmark cover, which the developer does have.

In that, it has provisions for insolvency or fraud.

Full details can be found here:

http://www.nhbc.co.uk/NHBCPublications/LiteratureLibrary/Homewarranties/Buildmark/BuildmarkPolicyDocuments/filedownload,24116,en.pdf

The money shot is on page 6.

I feel much happier, now.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_search/home.asp?searchterm=kingsway

Kingsway is the medium-rise flats on the neighbouring Arbury where they shove those obliged to house who cause 90% of the drug fuelled crime in the hope they'll interact and anhilate each other.... The feral chav scum in the surrounding area are more of a nuisance to the general public....