House buying help

Justamum

I don't know if this is the right place to post this.

My husband is due to receive his inheritance from his mum very soon and we want to buy a house. We should receive between R5.2 and R5.3 (that's SA Rand) I've calculated that's roughly £330,000.

We've never bought a house before, so I wondered what sort of extra costs we would need to look at - survey, conveyancing costs, house insurance etc.

We are in the Isle of Man and sadly that £330,000 doesn't go very far. We have rates not Council Tax.

We've seen a house which is £349,000 but is negotiable. When we find out how negotiable we might look into getting a small mortgage to cover the difference. The rates on the house are just over £800 a year.

How much should we budget to spend each year on maintenance (as we live in a rented house at the moment where the landlord only does emergency repairs it's something I know can be very badly neglected by owners). Also insurance - I believe it's best to insure for rebuild cost, not the purchase cost.

It's a bit of a minefield for us.

Hintza

What are exchange control regulations like in SA these days? Can you get the money out?

Also from what you say, the money isn't in the bank yet, take a word of advice DO NOTHING until you have the money!

Hintza

Have a read below bit I think you need to get some advice if the the Rand are "Blocked Rand" back in my day they were called "Financial Rand".

http://www.money-transfers.co.za/what-are-blocked-rands.php

warmhands.coldheart

Bit of a question on this as I sort of have a similar situation in the making where a parent is outside the UK (Though still in Europe). Do you have to pay Inheritance tax on this money? Is Isle of Man different to rest of UK? (I'm in Northern Ireland)?????

Justamum

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Bit of a question on this as I sort of have a similar situation in the making where a parent is outside the UK (Though still in Europe). Do you have to pay Inheritance tax on this money? Is Isle of Man different to rest of UK? (I'm in Northern Ireland)?????

No, there's no Inheritance Tax here. We paid SARS some in SA because it was over R5 million (apparently up to R5m is IHT free).

Justamum

Hintza wrote: »

Have a read below bit I think you need to get some advice if the the Rand are "Blocked Rand" back in my day they were called "Financial Rand".

http://www.money-transfers.co.za/what-are-blocked-rands.php

We've had a company dealing with the estate in SA. It's been through the SARS process and we've been told that most of it is ready to be sent immediately (about R4.7m of it) and they're waiting for the rest to be released, so we're waiting for the whole lot to be sent at once, so I assume that it's all be sorted out tax-wise.

fluffpot

At least you wont have to pay stamp duty on the purchase of the property - if you were in mainland UK that would be nearly £10,000!

You'll need to allow for solicitors and surveyors fees plus moving costs. And furnishing.

Might be worth posting on the house buying board to see if you get any ideas - its 12 years since I moved and I remember it cost about £20K all in!

Justamum

fluffpot wrote: »

At least you wont have to pay stamp duty on the purchase of the property - if you were in mainland UK that would be nearly £10,000!

You'll need to allow for solicitors and surveyors fees plus moving costs. And furnishing.

Might be worth posting on the house buying board to see if you get any ideas - its 12 years since I moved and I remember it cost about £20K all in!

Thank goodness we don't have Stamp Duty (and what a rip-off that is, I feel sorry for anyone having to pay that). There's also no Death Duty, so when we shuffle off this mortal coil we won't have to pay for the privilege.

Sorry for sounding dim but could you post a link to the house buying board? I've had a look and can't seem to find it.

SuzieSue

Justamum wrote: »

Sorry for sounding dim but could you post a link to the house buying board? I've had a look and can't seem to find it.

Here you go:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16&utm_source=MSE_FS&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=11-Jun-13

Justamum

SuzieSue wrote: »

Here you go:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16&utm_source=MSE_FS&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=11-Jun-13

Thanks. :T

Leif

You might want to compare asking and selling prices. There can be a big difference, sometimes selling for more than asked, often selling for a lot less e.g. initially £380K, selling for £320K, initially £350K, selling for £300K. Depends on demand of course. And those were run down houses which needed completely refurbishing.