Buying a house but not moving in for a while

Miss_Marple_2

Hello - I wonder if anyone can advise me about what I need to think about ( mainly the financial outlay) if I were to buy a house, but continue living at my current (rented) property for a few months.

I live in a house that was owned by my mum ( and I had lived with her there for the last few years until she passed away a few months ago). The house was left to me & my brother and he has paid me cash for my half. As part of the consideration for the house was included an amount of rent payable to him to cover 12 months.

I wasn't intending to move for a while, but have seen a house that looks OK and is in the right location. It is vacant. I am not ready to move for a while as I need to sort out my mum's possessions, I've got holidays coming up etc but I do like the look of this house I have seen.

If I do buy the house and continue to live at my current house for, let's say 3 months or so after the house is bought - what do I need to think about and what additional outlay will there be ? Would I need to pay council tax on both properties ? I will be a first time buyer so I'm a bit naive about owning a house in the first place and don't want to get caught out by not including something in my sums that I should have.

Apologies for going on, but I wanted to include any relevant information ( such as rent is already paid so it's doesn't need to be included in my calculation).

Thanks for any help you can give me

ognum

Yes you would be responsible for council tax, utilities, insurance on both properties, you could check with your council about exemptions for empty property but many councils stopped these in April.

[Deleted User]

There are council tax discounts and exemptions for empty properties, depending on your local authority I believe you can get up to 6 months (or maybe it's weeks) of council tax waived.

You would need to have the house insured and a lot of insurers have problems with a house that is empty for longer than 2 weeks, often having a house empty for longer than that will void any insurance so you'll need to seek out insurance that covers that specifically.

If the property is going to be empty over the colder months you'll need to make sure that the pipes do not freeze by running the heating on a low setting.

There will be others that I have missed that I'm sure someone else can provide.

ghosti

considering the time it takes to buy a house, approx 12 weeks albeit in your case it should be shorter, you could see what situation the seller is in and if they are in a rush to complete after the exchange of contracts?