New Build House - Driveway

FallenStar

MobileSaver wrote: »

Which area is this? That sounds unusual as you would expect the developer to charge a hefty premium over a 40 year house for a new build with warranty and brand new shiny appliances etc.

South East (Just outside the border of London) The developers are charging the premium, for what we are buying, 2 years ago that price would have bee laughable, now it's the norm - but because they are saying its X amount, everyone around the area get the perception theirs is worth just as much (regardless of age of house) and the normal reason is 'well since they are building shiny new houses for, let's say, £300k, i will put mine up for sale at £295k' - and the 'saving' of what could be 5/10k will be eaten up by maintenance or upgrades within a the first year anyway so there's no point.

I hope that made sense haha!

FallenStar

daveyjp wrote: »

If this is supposedly a freehold property, the completely unregulated service charge element of the deal should be far more of a concern.

Are there also covenants to pay other costs you may not be aware of?

Yeah it's freehold The maintenance charge is what everyone on the estate will pay - i think it's about £350 a year to help maintain the roads, lighting, green spaces etc!

Re covenant - I explicitly asked them when we had out meeting 'Do you guys (the devs) have any covenants or anything like that on the plot' and they explicitly replied with 'No, nothing from us.'

I will wait for further conversations down the line to whether i actually believe that or not...I'm going with the latter... but if they say it again i'll get it in writing.

AdrianC

FallenStar wrote: »

Re covenant - I explicitly asked them when we had out meeting 'Do you guys (the devs) have any covenants or anything like that on the plot' and they explicitly replied with 'No, nothing from us.'

I will wait for further conversations down the line to whether i actually believe that or not...I'm going with the latter... but if they say it again i'll get it in writing.

Leave this for your solicitor. And make sure you don't use the developer's pet sol...

bouicca21

I also find it strange that the older houses cost the same as a new build. Mind you, depending on how much older they are, they probably have bigger rooms, and don’t have ongoing charges for maintaining the road/verges. Older houses may need a bit of maintenance but at least you don’t have to fight a developer over snagging issues.

FallenStar

kev2009 wrote: »

usually a new build you expect to be 20% or 25% more than equivalent houses as when i bought my new build property, i effectively paid this much more purely because it was brand new - bit like buying a brand new car, pay top money but you could buy a car that's been driving to the show room for much less

Mine is free hold which has a covenant on it for 10 years which basically says the property has to remain looking as it is and I can't go putting things like satellite dishes on the front of the house or changing the colour of it etc. However, as mentioned, this is only for 10 years, after than I can do whatever I want. I also pay a maintenance fee for a management company to look after the public spaces on the development (all property owners contribute to this) it is a relatively low monthly cost, at present anyway. It mainly involves cutting the grass in shared areas and maybe trimming few hedges/trees as required. However, that is it. I already have plans for what i want to do after the covenant is up - get rid of the tree they put in the front garden, didn't want a tree and wasn't aware i was getting one until i arrived home one day to find it there lol.

Kev

Hi Kev - Yeah usually you would, but i'm afraid in the south/borderline London (or at least around the areas i'm looking) that number is more like 5% less max lol. I wish it was like that, i would almost prefer to buy one that was 20% cheaper and it would probably have more land and more room to improve/extend etc

No covenants on it - i explicitly asked and they said no... but i'll wait and see if this is actually true!

I would almost rather they did have a covenant for 5 years or whatever, but did actually grant me the driveway land - which should come with the property in my eyes - so at least i could do something with it in the future!

FallenStar

bouicca21 wrote: »

I also find it strange that the older houses cost the same as a new build. Mind you, depending on how much older they are, they probably have bigger rooms, and don’t have ongoing charges for maintaining the road/verges. Older houses may need a bit of maintenance but at least you don’t have to fight a developer over snagging issues.

It's the mass perception that people think because they have one/two similar features (maybe a bit more room in the garden or the bedrooms etc) that this warrants an increase of price by like 30% - it blows my mind. But yes, you're right, there would be more options to turn it into a house you want - We are struggling to find suitable houses because we want one within walking distance of a train station -Might sound picky but after taking the bus from where we are living currently (which is like 20mins) we don't want to do this forever...

Don't get me wrong there are some that are the right price, but they are in the wrong place, with no public transport or anything to connect to civilisation - impossible if you commute in.

davidmcn

FallenStar wrote: »

No covenants on it - i explicitly asked and they said no... but i'll wait and see if this is actually true!

Of course it isn't. Either they're lying or they misunderstood the question and thought you meant unusual restrictions. Expect about 30 pages of stuff to go through...

FallenStar

davidmcn wrote: »

Of course it isn't. Either they're lying or they misunderstood the question and thought you meant unusual restrictions. Expect about 30 pages of stuff to go through...

The sales guy I've been speaking to takes 2 weeks to reply to an email, has no phone number, and has just been thrown into this site to manage so i don't think he has a clue lol.

I wish i had all that paperwork - I welcome the idea of going through hundreds of pages it all to make sure it's exactly what they said - when we had the initial reservation meeting i made them change or scrub out lots of lines that were just generic and didn't relate (especially the line about when the reservation fee is non-refundable) - because we are help to buy, we can pull out whenever we want :T (silver lining in the biggest rain cloud ever created lol)

getmore4less

Check the planning it should have all the plots outlined and other restrictions especially for that retaning wall.

There will be loads of useful info buried in the planning application especially for an old pit site.

If you look at most sites the initial planning changes over time, one developer has initial approval they tweek the site to what they really wanted.

One building conversion near us sold all the units then put in application for 2 more floors.

SouthLondonUser

FallenStar wrote: »

Yeah it's freehold The maintenance charge is what everyone on the estate will pay - i think it's about £350 a year to help maintain the roads, lighting, green spaces etc!

Sounds like a so-called 'fleecehold'. Google it to read some horror stories.

I would never consider properties with these arrangements, but to each their own.

I bet you will have no power whatsoever to decide who manages that; this means you will practically have no recourse if they do a lousy job, or if they increase their fees by some crazy amount every year. I also bet they will have some kind of claim on your property if you don't pay their fee.

In the rest of the developed world, the feudal era ended a while ago, and property owners can appoint a firm to manage common areas, and fire it if it doesn't do it properly. Unfortunately England (and I specifically mean England, not the UK) is stuck in the middle ages.