FTB Costs

daisychainx

My boyfriend and I are looking to buy a house in the near future. He’s got his deposit etc. sorted already and I have an okay amount saved towards this. I want to split the deposit and all other fees 50/50 but also want to have a bit of a buffer in my savings once all is said and done as a safety net! I’m effectively trying to work out how much I need to have before we start looking in order to cover the deposit, fees and furniture etc. whilst leaving myself this buffer so we can place a rough timescale on the buying process before renewing any rent contracts etc. 

I know how much we’ll need to cover the deposit for properties we’d be looking at, stamp duty is easy enough to figure out and obviously the amount for furniture is down to us but I am struggling to come up with a pretty good guess on how much we’d need to cover all the other costs associated with buying a house such as solicitors fees. Is anyone able to give any advice or experience on what to expect here? It would be really appreciated  

Irishpearce26

Hi well done for getting the ducks in a row, some people may say how long is a piece of string! Key things Stamp Duty depending on the value of houses you are looking at as FTBs you wont pay anything as you'll be exempt. Typically i would say anything in the region of £2-3k for solicitor fees. Then you need to think about  homebuyer surveys (£200-600) house insurance for the new house, any work that may need to be done after surveys however this can be negotiated with the seller dependent on what needs doing. Also moving costs such as hiring a van or having a removal company do it for you £100 - 600).

The best thing to do is ask for quotes to give you a good idea.

All the best with it all and its not as daunting as you think. This forum is priceless for any query you might have so make sure you use it along the way.

MovingForwards

Email at least 3 law firms, tell them the area / county you will be buying in, the potential cost of the property, type of property eg house / flat, and whether it's leasehold or freehold.

Also say whether or not one or both of you will be using a help to buy equity loan, LISA or help to buy ISA. You don't need to say you're not buying this year.

Ask them for a full quote, broken down, then you know how much you currently need to save. Then closer to the time, ask again if it's a different year from when you first asked.

Also, ask them how much a declaration of trust will be. This sets out who gets what back if you split up.

Costs vary depending on where you are in the UK.

daisychainx

Thanks both. I wasn’t sure if I could email for quotes without having anything in place - seems a bit daunting but you’re right, probably the best place to find out! 

Good to see some rough figures though so I can plan the last few months of saving

WiseOwl00

I'm up North buying a 3-bed semi around £200,000, and these were my fees:
Mortgage advisor: £150 (you can get fee-free brokers though)
Full structural survey - £500-£600.
Solicitor fees - £1100 (solicitors usually charge to claim a help to buy ISA bonus, ours charged £50 per ISA. We had two ISAs so £100. We also had to pay £180 of the solicitor fees early on in the process for the searches, the rest gets paid on completion).
Deposit - 10% of house price (over £20,000). 5% deposits are currently only available for certain government schemes as far as I am aware, and there are limited 10% deals due to the pandemic. We were actually lucky to get a 10% deal, I know quite a few people who wanted 10%, but had to get 15% as the bank had tightened their criteria due to the pandemic. They had to find the extra 5% last minute. Not sure how long this will go on for, but good to bear in mind. 
First mortgage payment  - first mortgage payment can significantly more than the rest of the payments due to something to do with interest. Ours will be almost double. 

The bank will also do a valuation of the property for the mortgage, some charge for this but ours was free. Then there might be some other payments along the way depending on what house you buy. Some people want additional surveys (e.g mould, electrics, boiler checks) before they buy - sometimes they will be paid for by the seller, sometimes by the buyer. I'm not buying a new build, but I know people who have had to pay reservation fees and the cost of extras (i.e tiling, carpets, fences, etc) for new builds. 

daisychainx

Thanks @WiseOwl00 - that is so helpful! Really good to know about the first mortgage payment, I had no idea that could be more expensive than the rest so I'll keep that in mind. Hope the rest of your buying process goes well and enjoy your new home