Nearing completion - what costs to budget for?

MushyPeas

Hello

Yes, another FTB on the board, hope all the experienced users don't mind us asking silly questions

Current state of affairs are; survey gone through, mortgage in place, searches have been carried out. I'm guessing that this means the move is imminent? I'm drawing up a list of all those things I am going to have to pay for come the time the house becomes mine and would like to know if I have missed out anything. So far I have:

• Deposit
• Removal firm
• Solicitor's fees (including the stamp duty and searches)
• Mortgage arrangement fees
• Larger than normal initial mortgage payment

Anything else I should have thought of?

Oh and one last thing, I became divorced today :undecided . So far all my transactions have been in my married name, before the sale goes through should I change everything to my maiden name? Or shall I wait till I've moved?

Advice, as ever, gratefully received.

MP

Monkeybutt

Some of the things we had to find extra money for was as follows :

Final utilities bills
reconnection of phone / satellite etc.
takeaways for the first few days

Also the expected larger mortgae payment was easier to handle as the first payment was a month after completion so we had a month off.

Hope this helps

JennyW_2

Oh and one last thing, I became divorced today . So far all my transactions have been in my married name, before the sale goes through should I change everything to my maiden name? Or shall I wait till I've moved?

probably check this with your solicitor. May confuse the issue if you start using another name

If you solicitor advises waiting until the move, you can then start sending copies of your absolute out and advising of your preferred new name. When I got divorced I "kept" my married name, just added a Miss in front of it. I felt it was going to be far too confusing referring back to my maiden name. It was easier to just ask people to refer to me as Miss ...........

MORPH3US

MushyPeas wrote:

• Larger than normal initial mortgage payment

Anything else I should have thought of?

Sorry to jump on the thread, but why do you have a larger than normal initial mortgage payment?!?!?

Thanks

M

booey_2

I think the intitial payment is larger if the mortgage payment is taken before the regular date ie if the mortgage is due on the 20th of each month and the first payment is made on the 13th then you pay an extra week.

Someone correct me if I'm talking nonsense!

MushyPeas

Hi JennyW and Monkeybutt

Thanks for the advice :T

I had forgotten about connection charges so I will factor that in. Also, I'll have to check to see exactly when my first mortgage payment goes out. I assumed it went out on completion, but obviously not!

It's all getting a bit scary now :eek: a letter from my solicitor arrived yesterday asking what date I'd like to exchange/move. However, I also received a letter from the hospital offering me a date for an operation in three weeks time, won't be able to move for at least two months. I hope the vendor isn't too angry :sad:

MP

sarah_elton

booey wrote:

I think the intitial payment is larger if the mortgage payment is taken before the regular date ie if the mortgage is due on the 20th of each month and the first payment is made on the 13th then you pay an extra week.

Someone correct me if I'm talking nonsense!

That's right - the extra is the interest on the loan for the intervening period. If you're getting capital repayment, you won't pay any extra capital off in the first payment.

For instance, I completed on the 21st I think it was, and mortgage repayment dates are the 1st, so I had about 11 days. My first payment was something like £850 instead of the usual £620. The closer to your mortgage date you can complete the better - whatever you do don't complete a couple of days after you'd normally pay!

If you speak to your mortgage lender though, they should be able to tell you what the first payment will be so you can budget, once you have completion date.

Another poster is also correct though - you actually get a months break effectively. I completed late Jan, and thought my first payment would be 1 Feb but it was actually 1 March - they said something about mortgages not being able to start for at least 28 days, so I assume this applies to all. You don't end up paying more because of this.

So I made my last rent payment on 11 Jan, and first mortgage on 1 March, so Feb was rent and mortgage free. That made it easy to budget for the higher first repayment.

In terms of timing for everything you're budgeting for, unless you're exchanging and completing on the same day, deposit and solicitors fees will be payable at exchange, rather than completion.

MushyPeas

Thanks for your message sarah_elton. Thanks for letting me know about what I have to pay for when I exchange; deposit and solicitors fees. So on the completion day that is when I get the keys to the house, I guess? Is that when the mortgage fees are due?

This buying a house lark is rather more complicated than expected! I guess it will be easier the second time around, if there ever is one

Jorgan_2

Completion is when the property becomes yours & you can move in, check with your broker when your first payment will be due.

With regards to your hospital appointment it may be worth seeing if you can complete on your purchase before going into hospital. Many vendors won't be happy with having to wait an extra 8 weeks or so to complete the transaction. If your vendors are prepared to wait, make sure you exchange with a delayed completion, this way all parties are legally tied into the sale.

Are you doing anything else stressful in the coming months or are you going to leave it at divorce, house move & operation?

MushyPeas

Hi Jorgan

Thanks for your message, made me smile . As soon as I found out about my hospital operation I popped into my solicitor's office to leave him a message and let him know, hopefully he can advise me about what is best. However, you're right, I don't want to annoy the vendor too much.

This month? Well, I didn't mention trying to leave my job or completing a part-time degree did I ? Thank goodness I'm not addicted to spending all my time on MSE :rolleyes:

MP

sarah_elton

MushyPeas wrote:

Thanks for your message sarah_elton. Thanks for letting me know about what I have to pay for when I exchange; deposit and solicitors fees. So on the completion day that is when I get the keys to the house, I guess? Is that when the mortgage fees are due?

Come to think of it, can someone else confirm solicitors fees are due at exchange rather than completion? Might be wrong on that one but I thought that was the case. Deposit definitely yes - the point being that if you pull out after exchange you lose it. I had a 100% mortgage so had to have same day exchange/complete as I had no deposit to secure it with.

Re mortgage fees, do you mean arrangement fees or similar? That must vary by company - HSBC debited mine as soon as the mortgage was approved and I confirmed I wanted it (well before exchange), but they had explained up front it was non refundable if things fell through. If you haven't paid them yet, I'd phone your lender and check...