House buying process, how long left?

Windofchange

No it's not. Plenty of people who have completed multiple chains in under 3 months. You're buying a new build with no chain off a developer.

homeless9

lets start again.....

1. I am buying a new build, it has been built, it was completed several months ago. No chain.

2. I am a first time buyer. No house to sell.

3. I have reserved the property and signed a reservation form which states that I need to exchange contracts by the 6th April.

4. I have a mortgage offer pending valuation. Valuation will be fine. Mortgage offer should come through by end of day Wednesday next week.

5. I have paid a fee to my solicitor to do Environmental, Local etc etc searches. This was paid late on Friday, I assume they'll be getting on with this next week, but have had no official word on that.


Is this really potentially going to be months of waiting? If so, why did the estate agents put a deadline of 6th April on the reservation form?

iampetesmith

Don't hand your notice in until you've exchanged and have a completion date set in stone. You might pay a month's mortgage and a month's rent at the same time, but it really isn't worth setting such such a deadline that will cause major stress if things get held up.

We still had a few weeks rent left on ours when we moved and it saved on removal costs because I just moved all stuff myself in that time.

homeless9

iampetesmith said:

Don't hand your notice in until you've exchanged and have a completion date set in stone. You might pay a month's mortgage and a month's rent at the same time, but it really isn't worth setting such such a deadline that will cause major stress if things get held up.

We still had a few weeks rent left on ours when we moved and it saved on removal costs because I just moved all stuff myself in that time.

the thing is..... it could be 2 months rent I end up paying when I don't need to... that's £1,200 down the drain.

say they tell me on 2nd April that they want me to complete and take ownership of the house of the 9th April..... I will have paid rent for April and then have to pay rent for May as well as I would not be able to give a full months notice.

Annoying thing is it's Saturday and I cannot contact my solicitor to see if they can give me an estimate of timeframe.

I would not be homeless if I left the rental I am in and didn't have this house to go to yet, I'd likely be able to extend my stay in this HMO as several rooms are empty and the landlord has struggled to get tenants in for 2 years, so it's unlikely she will fill all 4 rooms. I can also go to parents to live, but I'd just rather not.

NewShadow

Searches can take 3-6 weeks to come back - then you're assuming there's nothing that needs querying, which even with a new build might not be the case... 

The point of searches is to turn up anything which might negatively impact the value of your property and is not required to be disclosed by the seller in advance of exchange - Wouldn't you want to get clarification if it turns out the property includes a chancel liability, or if there is access route across your property that you're not aware of? 

New build doesn't mean 'without baggage'... 

homeless9

NewShadow said:

Searches can take 3-6 weeks to come back - then you're assuming there's nothing that needs querying, which even with a new build might not be the case... 

The point of searches is to turn up anything which might negatively impact the value of your property and is not required to be disclosed by the seller in advance of exchange - Wouldn't you want to get clarification if it turns out the property includes a chancel liability, or if there is access route across your property that you're not aware of? 

New build doesn't mean 'without baggage'... 

I didn't hand in my notice. Though it seems likely I will be at the end of this month though.

I'll leave the solicitors to work out if there are any issues with the property. But there are things i'd like to know such as:

1. There is a small car parking area for 4 cars, (1 car per new build) and a bin storage/bike storage area for the properties. I am wondering if I have to pay some fee for the maintenance of these areas.

2. The garden is on the side of the property and you can only access it when you exit the front door and turn left. There is no 'back door' out to the garden. The fences the developer has put in are basic, they are just those fences made from 4 posts. 2 in the ground and then the other 2 going across from the 2 posts in the ground. So you can see right through them. I can see through into the neighbours garden and from the car park the whole neighbourhood can see into my garden as there is no fence that side. Basically I just want to know if there are any rules on what fencing I can put up as ideally I'd want to fence the whole thing off giving me privacy.

With these 2 queries I have - should I ask the solicitor to get back to me on those or just ask the estate agent?

SMR710

The solicitor will uncover if you pay a fee for the parking spaces and rules on fencing. The title deeds will stipulate what you can / cannot do to the property. For example you might be restricted from putting a garden shed in your garden or from running a business from your property
 All these sorts of things are found out by the solicitor. Hence why you need to give them time to do the work, relay it to you in formal documents and raise any additional enquiries you may have ?you've just raised two here!!)
Good luck with the purchase