Part ex our old house, for a new build - Really confuzzled with process.....

T4i

Help! Feels like I'm chained to a never ending waltzer........I want to get off, I'm dizzy enough now..



OK so here is the easy bit (for me):


-We (me and my partner) currently own a house (we owe 51k on the Sandanter mortgage, locked in until May 2015 @ 3.29%)

-We have deposited £100 against a new build house (worth 135k)

-Development offering us 88.5k for our current house

-We are happy to proceed etc


As we need 4k for carpets/flooring/bits we are looking at a mortgage of ~104k

Completion date of new build is last week of June 2013

Development has given us details of a mortgage company called Acumen (£199 if we take mortgage with them, and £0 if we don't take the mortgage with them) who are coming to see us this week

Development has given us details of a solicitor local to the development who say have 'agreed' a discounted fee for any business put their way

This week we need a gas safe certificate for the house we are selling (anyone know what this is called exactly?)

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Right, all the above I understand.....but........what actually happens for our circumstances?


Is it a case of Acumen offering us a 'top up' mortgage to run alongside our existing mortgage from Santander? For us to leave Santander now we would occur a penalty of ~1.5k so I presume this would be the cheapest way for us to do it?

The solicitor wants £350 plus VAT for the part ex plus ~£1300 for the selling of our current house (searches etc). Which is due on completion?

We need stamp duty of £1350 for the part ex to take place?



Is this all sounding correct so far?



When the papers are signed does the solicitor get all the monies involved and then hands the money out to different people on completion date?

Are any of the above costs/fee's (plus any I have missed out) needed upfront - ie in Cash?





I've not had to deal with any of this before so I am really struggling to get my head round it all. Seems like so many people are involved and obviously all are trying to take some cut of it (as they would). Do I need to ask any specific questions to Acumen and the Solicitor?



Are we on the right tracks?




Thanks,
C

GenD

I'm afraid I can't help with most of those queries, as I've never done a PX or bought a new-build, but as far as I'm aware, you can't have mortgages from 2 different lenders on the same property (in case of repossession I assume) - so you would probably have to repay your current mortgage on completion and take out a new one with Acumen.

Also the 'searches' a solicitor charges for are related to the purchase not the sale of a property - there are various other charges for selling, and if you're doing both at once you'd still have to pay the full set. Search fees (and a survey, if you need one on a new-build?) you have to pay up front, but usually in my experience the solicitor handles the rest from the proceeds of your sale.

But most importantly I'm pretty sure you're not bound to use either the solicitors or the mortgage lenders that the development company recommend, unless there's some clause in the deal you've done with them - and assuming you're not restricted to them you should DEFINITELY get quotes from other companies, because they're extremely unlikely to be recommending the cheapest ones for you, but the ones they can make the most from!

Hope that helps.