The race to be in your new house for 2007 [Winter/Spring]

Jem8472

Well me and my gf exhange and complete with our first flat tomorrow :-)

Bustle

Hope to complete on my apartment by end of February as:-
a) Place I am renting ends 28th Feb
b) Am overseas from 28th Feb
c) Mortgage offer has been extended (again) to 3rd March.

Local search is being done so have asked solicitor if I can exchange and complete on same day. Is this normal? The deposit is ready to transfer and the mortgage is sorted.

Place I am buying is empty and being sold by the solicitor who is handling the property.

So stressful....if it all goes tits up, will have to put stuff in storage, stay with a friend and plead with my lender ...again...

MJMum

We have agreed to split the cost with our vendors of the stuff that needs immediately doing, and fingers crossed we should exchange next week :beer:

pknottm

We're hoping to exchange contracts next week on our new (well 5 year old) house....can't wait!! :j

Is it normal to pay a 10% deposit on exchange? I didn't pay a deposit on the previous 2 houses I bought (in 1997 and 1999), and it wasn't mentioned when we put the offer in!

I've had to pay £31,500 as a 10% deposit until we complete, which is only the week after, so I can't see why I was asked for it, and why it wasn't mentioned until the last minute!

This deposit wasn't mentioned at all until last Monday, and as my money was tied up in various accounts, it was a pain transferring it over!! I would have preferred to have just transferred the whole amount (£315K) via CHAPS transfer on completion day (20th Feb!).

However, it'll be great to move...we've been renting a tiny 3 bed semi for the past 3 months. The interest on the sale proceeds of our last house more than covered the rent.

MJMum

It's usual to be asked for 10% I think, although it's often not necessary for it to be the full amount, as there is provision in the contract for the vendors to recover the full 10% from you if you don't then complete the transaction. We are buying at a similar level, but are putting down 5%. (And where there are chains, the deposit usually "moves up" the chain, being passed from purchaser to purchaser so it's often not 10% of the purchase price by the time it reaches the top of the chain). HTH. Your solicitor could have asked the other side if they would accept less.

irishwench69

Hello everyone :wave: Is it ok if I join you?

Our story so far..........FTB (my partner and I), currently renting, looking to buy - lots of discussion last year, finally got serious beginning of Jan (new year and all that!). Looked at a couple - as it turned out, the second viewing was the one! This was the second week of January....

We put in an offer, the second one was accepted (a little bit of competition between us and another couple ).....still under the asking price, as work needed on the bathroom (OH doesn't mind - looking forward to it in fact, as he's an architect! :j )

Went to a mortgage broker mid-Jan, messed us about, so went to L&C....lender chosen third week of Jan, credit checks etc went through end of Jan - agreement in principle with the lender!

Now onto conveyancing etc.....OH did the survey - no probs there. Going with the conveyancing with our estate agents, as they're quite well regarded and competitive on price too....

We have our solicitor in place, and they've started the local searches etc, and have requested the draft contract from the sellers solicitor today.

The lender should be doing a valuation survey (in addition to the one we've already done!) in the next couple of weeks.....

There isn't a chain as such, as the seller isn't currently in the house (he's moved out after a divorce, and is living with his new gf.....once they have the money from this sale, they'll sell their other place to get somewhere together.....)

So overall, pretty happy with progress - we've done all we can on our end for the moment, and the next key moments I think are seeing the contract / inventory once the solicitor gets them, and getting the valuation survey done......

Hoping to be in by end of Feb, or at least March!



IW x

Jem8472

Well I picked up the keys today and have been over to have a look. All looks good! :j

Met one of the people that lives in the flat above, she seemed nice. SO its just the long task of getting everything sorted and getting in.

DougWeller

We did it! The removal men packed our things Monday, finished packing, loaded the vans and moved our stuff Tuesday. Good weather. 180 boxes in a house a lot smaller than our old one, nightmare. Unlabeled and mislabeled boxes, boxes in the wrong rooms, where are our warm coats, etc? Wednesday, our first full day, we managed to get our loft boarded -- 40 sq metres, a large hole cut and a nice loft ladder added and our garden dog-proofed. We've been lucky, found a local loft ladder firm and a handyman!
Of course, then the weather changed, but I've still been able to get to the tip every day with huge numbers of boxes to recycle. Found my PC and got connected this morning. (Actually, Tuesday evening I panicked realising Sky was coming and I couldn't find the tv or phone points, but I managed to dig my way through to them.).

Never again, but I think with this house we won't want to mvoe again.

Doug

Mrs_Optimist

Well a week on and we have had our survey done, mortgage offer through and are ready to exchange with our vendor who has moved out of our new house (!). The problem now is our buyer (FTB) who, 5 weeks into the whole process has still not had survey done on this house yet. Our sols have been in contact with his sols and they are getting on with the conveyancing. He has instructed them.

However despite kicking up with our EA (who are frankly useless) two weeks ago ,chasing up the survey, no further movement has taken place, They informed me last week that the survey would take place this week. Now this week they tell me that all the surveyers were booked up for this week (!!!!!!?) and it will be taking place NEXT week now. I am pretty peeved by the whole thing at the moment. Especially because we dropped our price because he was a FTB and had his mortgage sorted and wanted a quick completion.

It is more galling because a house a couple of doors up from us is on the market with the same EA and we have seen loads of veiwing taking place - no offer as yet because that house is a tip - but we keep thinking "they could be our buyers" All acticity has been ceased on our house once the offer was accepted, and I wouldn't entertain the thought of gazumping our buyer, but there is nothing to prevent him from pulling out of the purchase and we will have lost valuable marketing time.

Will see what next week throws at me. If DOOZERGIRL is reading this, perhaps she could let me know if I should be worried or not?

Bergaspeed

Quick update

We have now arranged to have our electrical survey done and the EA are getting the Damp & Timber report and also the roof report done - there was some mention of certificates being somewhere for these so am I correct in assuming that work has already been done by the owner and has been certified and guaranteed?

Does anyone know what the electrical report involves?