what order do things get done

riverboat2001

We have had our offer accepted.

I think i know who my solicitors will be, and the structural surveyor.

I have an AIP with the Post Office, but obviously i'm anxious to see this through and have it all confirmed and signed off before i weigh out any money...!

OR, should i get the survey done then follow up the mortgage application?

Lastly, Mum is "gifting" the 25k deposit that we need, at what point and how do i "prove" this to the mortgage provider?

Property is empty and seller is happy to go at our pace.

On a side note, 20% vat on anything we need to buy is really painful.

reehsetin

Our gifted deposit - we just gave the solicitor a signed letter from parents saying it's a gift and that they expected no interest in the house or repayment (purely for legal reasons otherwise they'd have an interest/claim on the house)

poppysarah

They'll value it.
Maybe less than you've offered.

Reduce your offer.

Did you save any of your deposit yourself?

riverboat2001

No, we have saved though, for installing heating and rewiring, and all fees. We needed to prove to ourselves that we could afford the mortgage so we have been saving that amount.

Richard_Webster

I would provide the evidence about the gifted deposit as soon as you can to Bank of Ireland so that they can decide whether they are still happy to lend to you.

If you have not saved much then they might think you are a bigger risk, so you don't want leave this until you have spent out other money on legal costs searches etc, in case they are not happy to give you a formal offer because of it.

reehsetin

Richard_Webster wrote: »

I would provide the evidence about the gifted deposit as soon as you can to Bank of Ireland so that they can decide whether they are still happy to lend to you.

Just to give the OP an idea, BOI were fine with ours, approx 2/3 gift and 1/3 own savings

dizziblonde

We've just gone through the Post Office system and actually they were really helpful when we rang them up several times with what probably seemed to be completely obvious questions to the rest of the planet (there's a real market for someone writing a House Buying for Dummies book out there seriously - it's like learning a flipping foreign language getting through it all). We went via the surveyor they recommended (who again was fantastic in terms of being prepared to sit and go through the survey results with us and give us his verbal opinions on it all - because when written down it strikes terror into your heart to start with) and their line was that they wouldn't have instructed the surveyor to go ahead until I looked like everything was in the clear with the mortgage app.

They were also really good sending texts out when it was approved to tell us the letter for that was in the post, and again when the funds had been released and the like - worth ringing them back up if you're unsure of anything because they did talk hubby through a lot of it.

riverboat2001

dizziblonde wrote: »

We've just gone through the Post Office system and actually they were really helpful when we rang them up several times with what probably seemed to be completely obvious questions to the rest of the planet (there's a real market for someone writing a House Buying for Dummies book out there seriously - it's like learning a flipping foreign language getting through it all). We went via the surveyor they recommended (who again was fantastic in terms of being prepared to sit and go through the survey results with us and give us his verbal opinions on it all - because when written down it strikes terror into your heart to start with) and their line was that they wouldn't have instructed the surveyor to go ahead until I looked like everything was in the clear with the mortgage app.

They were also really good sending texts out when it was approved to tell us the letter for that was in the post, and again when the funds had been released and the like - worth ringing them back up if you're unsure of anything because they did talk hubby through a lot of it.

Yep, we've already had to call them a few times today with filling out the formal application pages......does your head in, far more stressful than the actual house finding itself!

Just out of interest, i was only going to book a plain valuation survey with them and then go private for a structural one...which did you pick?

dizziblonde

We just got a homebuyers done through them for the lot of it - but we were relatively confident in the structure of the house anyway, having lived three doors down in rented for a couple of years.