Stressed out. Ftb being pushed to exchange/complete during lockdown

beckyben89

Hi everyone,
I'm a 31yr old first time buyer getting really fed up with the house buying process at the mo. 

Earlier this year, I was close to buying a dream property unfortunately a lack of building regs and a bad survey meant that it would have been too expensive for me since house was top of my budget. 
I'm renting at the moment, a place that is very cheap but getting too small now. 
Soon after this house purchase fell through, we visited a house in the same village and put an offer on it as it was more in budget and we thought it ticked a lot of boxes. 
My plan was to try and overpay to the max to get the mortgage paid off in 8 years. 
But there are a few issues. It is local connection which we obviously knew about. But what we didn't know is that you can only rent it out for 12 months. This worries me as we are planning to move again in 5 years and I was hoping to rent it out if I wasn't able to sell. 

 We have also found out that the conservatory does not have planning permission. Restrictive covenants also means that we can't put a hedge or fence up to close off the garden. At certain angles the whole garden can be seen from the estate. A private garden is important to me. 

Another issue is that a planning indemnity policy is in place. We have asked why? The sellers say that they do not know...!? Their solicitor answered "don't know" to a lot of enquiries. They also refused to pay for the indemnity policy at first. 

Now they are saying they will pay the indemnity policy if we exchange and complete now. I'm not happy to move during kickdown. Work for me is incredibly busy. I'm a postwoman and it is busier than Christmas. Im finding the daily phonrcalls stressful. I don't want to be picking up my phone when I'm working as I have no handwashing facilities whilst at work. 
All the shops are closed. I wanted to replace carpets. They have three cats and I'm allergic asthmatic. I cannot move without getting all the stuff I need. Also the sellers are living with their daughter elsewhere but some of their stuff is in the house and garage. They are wondering if I move in now and they can pick their stuff up after lock down. No thanks! 
I'm very nervous as well about losing lots of money. My husband and I are planning to move on to his family's farm but for reasons I won't get into this won't happen for 5 to 10 yrs. I'm worried about buying a house that I can't sell easily or even rent out. 
To give you my financial situation. My husband and I are classed as essential workers so we still have our jobs. We earn over roughly 35k per tax joint income which I appreciate is not a great deal but house prices not too bad in the part of Cornwall that we are in. We have perfect credit scores and £56,000 savings including help to buy isa. 

I want to move forward in life but this is not an easily sellable house. I've told estate agents and solicitor that I want to wait till after lovkdien but they keep pushing. 

beckyben89

Also they do not have a boiler installation certificate and do not have any inspection reports. 

I offered 160k. Guide price was 155 to 165 but estate agent said 160 was minimum.... I should have not been played.... 
Also haven't even had a homebuyers report yet. The surveyor is not available till 2 weeks after lockdown. 

davidmcn

If you can't get your survey organised then obviously exchanging now would be daft. What's the point in them pushing? Any other buyer would be in the same position.

In relation to the planning indemnity policy, surely somebody can read it and find out what risk it insures against?

beckyben89

davidmcn said:

If you can't get your survey organised then obviously exchanging now would be daft. What's the point in them pushing? Any other buyer would be in the same position.

In relation to the planning indemnity policy, surely somebody can read it and find out what risk it insures against?

Thanks David. I know, I'm not a risk taker so to me a home buyers report is necessary. Their solicitors are saying that we had a survey.... Yes a valuation survey done by the bank! My solicitor raised the issue of not being able to find entries of building regs on register. Their solicitor said something about it being to do with the age of the property. The property was built 25 years ago. 

I have found out that their daughters works for the conveyancing company that they are using. 

I feel that they are being very unreasonable and I find it offputting

beckyben89

I tried pushing to find out what the indemnity is about. I told my solicitor that I didn't want to proceed without being told. My solicitor says that it is possible that they really don't know the reason and that it was taken out by the person who sold the house to them in 2007

davidmcn

beckyben89 said:

I tried pushing to find out what the indemnity is about. I told my solicitor that I didn't want to proceed without being told. My solicitor says that it is possible that they really don't know the reason and that it was taken out by the person who sold the house to them in 2007

If there's an existing indemnity policy then your solicitor will get a copy and can read it themselves. The policy tells you what the risk insured is.

You also mention paying for (presumably) another indemnity policy - what's that for?

Building regs are fairly irrelevant for a 25 year old building.

[Deleted User]

I wouldn't even get close to exchange without a full survey.., £160k is a lot of money to risk.  If they are pushing you to exchange with only a valuation survey they are either risk takers (which means I wouldn't trust anything they said and would be on high alert) or they KNOW there is something a full survey would show up.  Neither is good. I'd be saying to myself something smells rather off here and start looking for another house.  I am very sorry that if you do, its a second failed purchase, but I'd find something with less compromises and the ability to do a full survey if I wanted to.

Lokolo

To be honest, you don't exactly sound like you're ready to buy.
You haven't said when you offered on this second property, but the fact you are this far and you now want a survey I would question. Why had you not got a survey before this?
If the private garden was important to you, why didn't you think about this when you were viewing? Presumably it was completely open when you viewed the property. 

DCFC79

Forget this property and look at others with a private garden.

jonnygee2

I want to move forward in life but this is not an easily sellable house. I've told estate agents and solicitor that I want to wait till after lovkdien but they keep pushing. 

You are the one with 160k to spend. They can push all they like but it doesn't matter, it's your decision and you hold all the cards.

If they are calling you daily it probably means they feel you are undecided, which does seem to be true, and they want to know if they should be opening up to other buyers (sounds like they should). 

If you really want the place, you should probably look to exchange contracts now but with a move date in June or July. If you aren't ready for this, just tell them you aren't looking to buy at the moment and will not make any decisions until lockdown is over. They will likely put it back on the market.

steampowered

It sounds to me like you are stalling because you are not decided.

There are clearly problems with this property so I think you need to make a decision. If you are not going to proceed, pull out now - before paying the cost of a full survey. If you are willing to accept the problems but want a full survey first, you need to make that very clear to the vendors.

The vendors will have to accept whatever you decide. They are not going to find another buyer quickly in this climate.

At the end of the day, no house is perfect. You just have to make the best decision you can and stick with it.

If it is essential that you can rent out the property after 5 years then the house is clearly not suitable. However remember that BTL should be viewed as purely an investment - the best house to live in might not make the best BTL investment. When you move to the farm you could always sell this property and use the money to buy a BTL somewhere else (maybe a city centre flat?) or a different investment such as a Stocks & Shares ISA - which would have no tax and no letting fees.