DIY Searches when buying a house

j368

Hi,
I have had an offer accepted on a 2 year old house on a large development by a well-known developer.

The owner has a valid reason for selling and I am in a hurry to meet the completion date of the person buying my own house, but it looks as if the only way to meet the date is to by-pass waiting for my solicitor do the normal searches.

My thoughts are that the developer will have done the searches and is still building (which is obvious to me so I don't need to pay money for that). Other houses on the development are flying off the shelf, either with or without searches being done, so do I really need these searches. Can I save the money, and more importantly to my situation, the delay, by skipping them and finding the information online?

I'm funding the purchase from the sale of my own property, so no mortgage is required.

I have managed to find out that it's not in a flood risk area but that's all LOL

The current owner is living there so it's clearly connected to gas / electrics / water / drains.

Are there links to free sites where I can find out any other stuff?

Any tips appreciated please.

Joy

davidmcn

If you're a cash buyer it's entirely up to you what searches you get.

I would tend to be of the view that in a newbuild development, the planning process will have flushed out most of the issues which searches cover. Have a look at the planning papers on the council's website (which you ought to be doing anyway!).

Slithery

I've bought a house with no mortgage before and didn't bother with the searches at all - I did, however, live just down the road in a property that I'd previously paid for searches on.

It all depends on your attitude to risk and your knowledge of the local area.

j368

Thanks, my son lives locally and has good knowledge of property. He feels, like davidmcn that the planning process will have covered it. Will look on council website :-)

Cakeguts

We did searches on a new build house one and discovered that the builder couldn't pass on a right to access to the house. It was on a new development. The builder didn't have right of access but hoped to get it soon. We didn't buy the house. It is all sorted now.

leon103

speak to a solicitor. I know a few who have gone from instruction to completion in 24 hours. all searches are electronic these days

AnotherJoe

Slithery wrote: »

I've bought a house with no mortgage before and didn't bother with the searches at all - I did, however, live just down the road in a property that I'd previously paid for searches on.

It all depends on your attitude to risk and your knowledge of the local area.

I've done exactly this twice (once on behalf of a relative), no mortage local knowledge. Saved a fair bit of time.

So it's entirely up to you, and you could go for it right now,

j368

Thanks everyone - as it happened my solicitor had already ordered all the searches and two of them were back even before I contacted her to say don't bother! My initial instruction HAD been to order the searches so, she only did what I said. But as time was of the essence, and only one still to come back, it's turned out OK. But interesting to know for another time.