Buying in cash - searches required?

tim123456789

makeyourdaddyproud wrote: »

Searches also reveal who has valid title and charging orders against the property. Buying without searches means you potentially take on the title encumbrances incurred by the vendor. You would be a fool to avoid this important buying step.

I don't think that he's asking about these searches, as you say he would be a fool to not do those

He's asking about council and utility seaches. These can easily be skipped by a person who is knowledgable about the area and knows that there isn't (or is) a plan for a new motorway at the end of the road and how often the street floods (usually never)

tim

Yorkie1

tim123456789 wrote: »

I don't think that he's asking about these searches, as you say he would be a fool to not do those

He's asking about council and utility seaches. These can easily be skipped by a person who is knowledgable about the area and knows that there isn't (or is) a plan for a new motorway at the end of the road and how often the street floods (usually never)

tim

OP says they plan not to do any searches at all.

ValHaller

American_Girl wrote: »

Our solicitor has advised that these can take a few weeks but is insisting on completing them.

Ultimately, if there is no mortgage, you solicitor should accept an instruction not to do searches.

But as everyone else says, it is madness not to do them. For a start, when you come to sell, your buyers will almost certainly have searches done. So why buy something without making sure you can sell it on when the time comes?

Mattygroves2

Based on our experience buying a flat with cash I think you'll find you are waiting longer for the information from the freeholder than the searches. We didn't bother with a survey but did have the searches done.

Clitheroekid

As possibly the only poster so far who's qualified to give advice (I'm a practising solicitor) it's quite common for clients to buy property `without searches' in order to obtain a quick exchange.

What you do instead is to purchase a search indemnity policy. These are an off the peg product that any competent solicitor can sort out in 5 minutes. They insure you against anything that might have shown up in a local / drainage / mining search that would adversely affect the value of the property.

I use them regularly for sophisticated cash buyers and they're brilliant. In fact they are so good that even some mortgage lenders will accept them instead of the ordinary searches.

In 99% of cases searches against bog standard properties are a waste of time and money as they hardly ever disclose anything of any consequence.

The searches referred to as being against the title will always be carried out - you really would be completely mad to ignore them. However, these take about 30 seconds to do, so there's no delay there.

Next time get a solicitor who knows what they're doing and isn't just a box-ticker!