Race to be in before Summer

brock-cruse

Oh angeleyes I really hope it works out for you. My DD (aged 9) cant believe what a disgustingly smelly, dirty house we are buying (its a 5 bed detached...originally 3 bed but had 2 storey extension...is in bad decorative order but thats about it). We keep telling her how much potential it has and remind her of the 3 bed detached we saw down the road first (exactly the same layout as ours but without the extension and decorated ok but we got our house for the same price that is up for:j )...not sure she believes us tho! Not told her yet that the carpets are all being ripped out and that it may be floorboards for a few months :rotfl:

stokegal

Hi Everyone

Well... my story should be simple... me and my OH are FTB and seller is moving in with his girlfriend, house has been on market since last September and is desperate to sell up quickly. So no chain....

We first viewed the property on 18th April, loved it and put an offer in on the19th - it was accepted so we then went to complete our mortgage application form on the 25th April and paid for our valuation. 5th May our mortgage application is rejected :mad: (my partner had moved up from London to Stoke to look for a house and because of change in situation they said no...) Mortgage advisor then has another packagefor us but it would mean that the vendor would have to agree to giving a 5% vendor gift (we had already negotiated him down by over 5% so it should make no difference to him) the vendor agreed so we then completed a new mortgage application form... this time it came back sucessful :j Our valuation comes back and there is a 2k retention put on the house :eek: and the valuer wants a damp/timber report and a roof report. Started to panic cause we don't have any spare cash but our mortgage advisor comes to the rescue and has already got the vendor to pay for a damp/timber report and negotiated with valuer that if the vendor got the roof repaired he would lift the retention without a roof report - they both agreed and the next thing we have is a receipt/guarantee for building work that the vendor has had completed :beer: :beer: . We then get all the forms from the solicitor to complete and instruct the solicitors 6th June :T Then we hear that my OH's id isn't acceptable... it's a driving license in his old address... so a few forms completed and posting his driving license off later and the dvla has issued a new license in our new address. Just had an update from our mortgage advisor and our searches were sent out last Saturday... had 1 letter back saying that because the house has had an extention the past 10 years she'll be looking for planning permission and guarentee's... and that's us so far... our mortgage advisor says it should be another 3/4 weeks for searches and then 2 more weeks for any queries arising for the searches so 5/6 more weeks - does this seem about right?? Cause I've read on here people completing in 4 weeks and we are already more than halfway through...

Thanks for any help and sorry if I had rambled

angel_eyes_3

hi stoke girl, I don't know what a reasonable time scale is, but from what I've read on these boards 4 weeks seems to be the exception rather than the rule! It sounds as if your mortgage advisor is on the ball though. At least you know you're not waiting on anyone else's purchase (although that doesn't help at the moment).

Deb, we're going for the bare floorboards look as well! It's going to big rugs for us (and maybe recycling those cardboard packing boxes underneath them! :rotfl:) Re-wire and new central heating system first.

Clare x

brock-cruse

Hi Clare...
snap... new boiler (one at the mo supports 13, yes, 13 radiators but we think that there is some system of the heating upsatirs cannot be on at same time as when on downstairs..interesting! of course being a repo house there is no-one to ask so getting plumber in end of June to check it all out). Need new radiator in conservatory and TRV put on all radiators. Taking out gastly fireplace and fire and replacing, having laminate in kitchen, lounge, 2 bathrooms and trying to smarten kitchen up with new worktop, handles and painting over the orange tiles!!! The kitchen is far too big to replace with our budget so just going to try this first. Fortunately the bathroom and shower room are nice except for the mould...note must get some Dettol stuff :rotfl: New carpet for landing and 4 bedrooms. Going for the cheap but neutral sort. Decided to get new sofa, dining room furniture, conservatory furniture and although the kids will be taking wardrobes we shall have to make do with suitcases and 2 hanging rails my friends is letting us borrow. Need new cooker as the one there is currently alive and walking on its own....darent open the oven door. The whole kitchen is greasy and the rest of the house is smelly (from dog and smoke...sorry no offence to pet owners and smokers) and generally dirty. Believe me most of it is not from being an empty house but from the house keeping from the previous occupants. Also have to get a plumber in pretty quick as the whole central heating is drained and water turned off......tell me again how much i love this house :rolleyes:

Stokegal..well you have had a time of it! Are there any no complicated sales and purchases???!!! I was supposed to complete within 4 weeks but no chance! Last time it went on for 7 months even with me chasing it but at that time it was the ftb at the bottom of the chain dragging it out.

kingkano

I thought the average was more like 10 or 13wks

I told our solicitor the dates the buyer came up with and he just laughed and said well we'll see if everything is done in time. He didnt think the buyers solicitors will be acting that fast and that the guy probably made the dates himself (which doesnt mean he wont force his solicitors lol).

Chased our vendors whose solicitor was on holiday for a week!! So the 'standard replies' will be back end of week. yay! So the race for us is 2wks to exchange. I think it unlikely and its more like 3 or 4 wks even with our buyer harrying his solicitors (they didnt even request the leasehold info yet I think).

Good luck to everyone else hope things have progressed for you's.

brock-cruse

Oh king...leases! Is it your place that has a lease? When did you buy then? Its just that i sold my maisonette to my parents 8 years ago with no problems. They sold it again in Feb and only completed last week...took 3 months to sort out all the lease issues (everything else had been sorted and the rest of the chain completed April 2). Ended up that it was a stalemate between sols and my parents had to fork out £300 for indemnity insurance to cover the lease. These things are a real nightmare now. The solicitors really delve into hidden meanings and they can never agree on what it all means! Heres hoping yours will be straightforward.

brock-cruse

Well update from me...my agent phoned to say that my buyer has been called to solicitors to sign! Im getting her to chase my solicitor now also.....will let you know!:T

papermoney

I'm in the race.

Sold my house in Jan 2007 the sale went through in April 2007. We couldn't find a house we liked so moved in with my parents.

April 18th offered on house and was accepted.

3 messed up mortgage offers by IFA later we have finally got the correct mortgage offer through.

We are still waiting for some queries about building regs etc on the garage and ulitility conversions.

I'm also waiting for the insurance company to send details so i can prove the property will be insured. Also waiting for valuation from lender to give to solicitor to look at.

I'm a teacher so want to be in by the beginning of summer. 5 weeks and 1 day and counting.

Good Luck everyone.

angel_eyes_3

Been back to the house today. I'm abit daunted about the amount of work it needs, but still really love the house.

Had a look at the corner of the sitting room where the surveyor had said there was a problem, the floor has dropped (this is the same corner where the previous problem with the drains was). Spoke to our solicitors when I got home, explained the problem and that it was likely to show up on our survey, and asked if the vendors have any paperwork relating to having the drains repaired. I can see that it's likely when the survey comes back we will have to get a structural engineer in. Oh well.

Will also definately need the kitchen ripping out but can live with the bathroom (once it's been cleaned:rotfl: ). Am slowly getting recommendations for the work that needs to be done.

Survey was done yesterday, he thought it would take him 4 working days to get the report to us.That takes us up to it arriving on Wednesday. Then there is a probable strucutral engineer to book. Things are not moving quickly!

kingkano

brock-cruse wrote: »

Oh king...leases! Is it your place that has a lease? When did you buy then? Its just that i sold my maisonette to my parents 8 years ago with no problems. They sold it again in Feb and only completed last week...took 3 months to sort out all the lease issues (everything else had been sorted and the rest of the chain completed April 2). Ended up that it was a stalemate between sols and my parents had to fork out £300 for indemnity insurance to cover the lease. These things are a real nightmare now. The solicitors really delve into hidden meanings and they can never agree on what it all means! Heres hoping yours will be straightforward.

Indeed. Its our sale that has the lease. It took us 5mths to buy the thing, and even then we had to force our solicitor to exchange as he still had a few points he wanted to work on! (it was rubbish stuff though) Our buyer though seems very very keen and wants to move quickly. So I can only hope he forces his solicitor's hand more than we were able when we moved in. I doubt our sellers would wait 5mths for us!!

Luckily I cant see any problems with the lease, its long (100+yrs) and we have paid for the recent major works already ourselves. Fingers crossed.

Welcome to the race Papermoney, sounds like you've already been having a 'mare of it! Here's hopeing things go smoothly now