The Last Castle

Kittenkirst

Yay that your offer was accepted!

Good luck on your mortgage free challenge!

michelle09

Hooray! That is great news, hopefully it will all go smoothly.

The numbers are huge but chipping away at it with OPs makes it all seem slightly less awful (our mortgage is more than double yours, so I really feel your pain!)

tori.k

Thank everyone.
We are looking to exchange/complete end of August it's pretty straightforward on the vendor our end as there is no chain, but it does have a small flying freehold element but all in all our lender been pretty good about it.

penny*pincher_2

Congratulations on finding your castle and getting this far - I hope it is smooth sailing!!

Good luck with your goals!!!! Bit by bit

P*P

tori.k

Well straight forward is turning into a headache, as the vendor solicitor has yet to send all of the titles for the property, so at a stand still. Dods (hubby) is popping into the EA this morning to see if the EA can suggest to the vendor that they may want a word with there solicitor if they want to move forward with this.
On a better note we have the figure for the mortgage so it's a two year fix at 1.96% moving to there currently 3.74% SVR over 25 years.

We plan to double and round up the mortgage payment as there is some work we would like to do as a start so need to find £116 pw in my budget to do this.
Luckily the money we regain from dropping council tax bands covers the life insurance.our yearly utilities should also drop a little and daft things like a lidls being our nearest corner shop rather than the co_op, will also save a few pennies here and there. My commute to work is also halved I only run a little smart car but it should see a £30 a month minimum saving in fuel cost.

My predicted SOA for the new house is predicting just over a £100 a month saving from changing properties, which is a great start. I learnt from my DFW days the key was a correct SOA not a wishful one, but most I know as fact only really electric & fuel that will take a little time to work out.

This months 1K that I have been saving is going to replace the living space carpet in the rental ( I burnt a hole near the wood stove) but we are keeping the existing one as it can be used for 2 rooms in the new house while we replaster and decorate.

I have 1k left in savings towards the solicitor fees, but have £500 in cashback from the mortgage lender also so hopefully this should cover it, broker fee has been covered by also using him for the life insurance. So looks like we are currently to plan if the vendor gives her solicitor a shove.

michelle09

Hey tori.k - it looks like it's progressing even if it's not as fast as you would like. Solicitors seem to work at a different pace to everyone else!

tori.k

Thanks Michelle I shouldn't moan really as the solicitor is only looking out for our interest, we now have 3 out of 4 titles so hopefully the end is in sight, ironically I said I'd would never be custodian to a old building again this one is slightly newer the the 1830s China clay kiln we currently live in, this one is a 1840s asylum hospital building that was carved up in the 1950s into 3 houses and partly again in the 80s. I must be a sucker for history or I'm a martyr for work. So we've unofficially named the place Costa lotts.

tori.k

Well looks like our mortgage free dream has fallen at the first hurdle, the titles don't add up and going to take months to unravel. Turns out a house not even connected to our property owns part of the hallway and the land the oil tank is situated on, so a total blinking mess, I'm told it's down to a chap that owned multiple properties around the site in the 80's.
It's going to take months for this to be sorted by the vendor and the other property involved. The estate agent will be informed tomorrow that they can no longer sell the property as advertised.
The house is unmortgageable in it's current form, but has been snuck passed a lender before.
We are not quite out of the race yet, we will leave our offer on the table and if the vendor can sort the titles out we will be happy to proceed, but they may wish to readvertised and take the chance on a cash only buyer.
We will keep to our plan and continue as if the move is going ahead as it will just reduce our mortgage requirement if this or another house goes ahead.
Cheesed off doesn't even begin to cover it.

Jessy103

Oh no! Sorry to hear this tori! Fingers crossed it gets sorted out for you!

tori.k

I'm trying to stay hopeful, so far it hasn't cost us as it sitting on everyone's desk, our mortgage is valid for another three months. It's an estate property so the vendor is keen to shift as probate took an age and it's costing in council tax etc now. I think this is a product of cheap conveyancing, never worth it as it cost you more in the long term.