What to do when you’ve bought a house

firsttimebuyerhelpme

Excuse my very silly question, just looking for some advice really! 

We are due to exchange and complete on our house purchase this Friday. We’ve organised our insurance policy to begin on this date. What do we do when we actually get the keys!? We’re not moving in straight away as some renovation needs completing. So far we’ve thought of;
- take meter readings
- contact water company 
- take over gas and electric/get new cover 
- sort council tax 

Is there anything we’re missing that we immediately need to sort? Mail redirection is not necessary as we are FTB’s moving from parents houses so we can sort this as and when. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

Racky_Roo

Unless it's a new build, change the locks! Cannot emphasise how important this is, you don't know who has keys to the place and there have been some weird threads about people letting themselves into their old houses etc

Slinky

Depending on the locks, they may not need replacing. We replaced the barrels in our upvc doors but had a 5 lever mortice lock in an old door we planned to replace, which a locksmith changed the order of the pins around in and cut us new keys. Was cheaper than installing a new lock.

shakAFC

Depends what kind of works need doing. May be easier to do certain things first. Such as painting before carpeting/flooring.

Silvertabby

Update your Wills.

firsttimebuyerhelpme

It isn’t a new build, we are looking at getting new doors but hadn’t planned on doing this immediately! Maybe we will look into it sooner rather than later. Thanks 

Petriix

If you have a firm completion date then it might be worth booking in the broadband installation ASAP to reduce the waiting time. Obviously pick an appropriate date for when you will need it.

Depending on what is being left by the current owners and how much renovation you will be doing, certain things (curtains, appliances etc.) will be needed. It's really useful to have a fridge, working cooker, kettle, toilet roll, soap etc. even if you're not moving in right away.

Make sure that the heating has some kind of frost protection setting or set the thermostat to a low (but not off) setting to ensure pipes don't freeze if the temperature drops while you're not there. Take photos of the meters on the day you get the keys and contact the supplier(s) asap to get off their 'deemed' tariff, but don't take a tariff that has any exit fees. Then do a comparison and switch supplier.

Make sure there isn't an immersion or electric heater permanently switched on. Replace any incandescent bulbs with LED equivalent bulbs on day 1.

If you're anything like me then get overexcited and buy a whole house music system before you even exchange and then spend the first week running speaker wire everywhere and cutting holes in the ceilings.

Find out the bin day and recycling details. Bleed the radiators then (very important) re-pressurise the boiler.

Make sure that you have working smoke alarms and at least on carbon monoxide alarm before staying the night.

Say hello to the neighbours and apologise in advance for any noisy renovations.

Order a skip. Make sure all the doors and windows are secure. Get on gumtree, ebay and Facebook marketplace for bargain furniture.

bex2012

firsttimebuyerhelpme said:

It isn’t a new build, we are looking at getting new doors but hadn’t planned on doing this immediately! Maybe we will look into it sooner rather than later. Thanks 

You dont need to change the doors, just the locks. The old barrels should be able to be taken out and new ones installed.

greatcrested

Use google or duckduckgo.

There are multiple website with lists of house moving tasks. All slightly different so read several and extract the ones relevant to you (eg no car? ignore updating DVLA!)

Pointless re-inventing the wheel here!

FinallyStoppedLurking

bex2012 said:

firsttimebuyerhelpme said:

It isn’t a new build, we are looking at getting new doors but hadn’t planned on doing this immediately! Maybe we will look into it sooner rather than later. Thanks 

You dont need to change the doors, just the locks. The old barrels should be able to be taken out and new ones installed.

I think they meant they wanted new doors not they needed to from a security perspective. 

Cash-Cows

Post on here that you think you've overpaid.