First time buyer, conveyancing help.

YorkieG

Another question unrelated to the original issue which has now been resolved:

I’m currently renting on a rolling contract and obliged to serve a calender month’s notice to terminate my tenancy agreement.

The property that I’m buying used to be a buy to let, currently vacant, and as mentioned on my previous post, the vendors are keen to complete ASAP, for obvious reasons: they are still paying for their mortgage on the property plus the insurance etc.

I was hoping that I will be able to move in soon, but now starting to feel less confident.

Yeah, you guessed it!

I’m entertaining the idea of asking/offering the vendor for me to move in as per the planned schedule (Pre solicitors’ competence example), except, I’d be moving in as a tenant.

Part of me is keen to move in, the other (More logical) part doesn’t want to get things mixed up with insurance and utilities as I’d be starting my agreement as a tenant then possibly paying admin fees to change to a home owner. Also, all the renewals asking when I started living in the property vs when I became the owner, getting one of those answers wrong due to the mix up if I forgot would mean a void policy.

Input from anyone on that thought would be great.

Tiglet2

YorkieG said:

Another question unrelated to the original issue which has now been resolved:

I’m currently renting on a rolling contract and obliged to serve a calender month’s notice to terminate my tenancy agreement.

The property that I’m buying used to be a buy to let, currently vacant, and as mentioned on my previous post, the vendors are keen to complete ASAP, for obvious reasons: they are still paying for their mortgage on the property plus the insurance etc.

I was hoping that I will be able to move in soon, but now starting to feel less confident.

Yeah, you guessed it!

I’m entertaining the idea of asking/offering the vendor for me to move in as per the planned schedule (Pre solicitors’ competence example), except, I’d be moving in as a tenant.

Part of me is keen to move in, the other (More logical) part doesn’t want to get things mixed up with insurance and utilities as I’d be starting my agreement as a tenant then possibly paying admin fees to change to a home owner. Also, all the renewals asking when I started living in the property vs when I became the owner, getting one of those answers wrong due to the mix up if I forgot would mean a void policy.

Input from anyone on that thought would be great.

This is asked quite regularly on here.

The vendor's solicitor is very unlikely to agree this and will advise their client not to go ahead.  It creates another level of complication as you would become a tenant and the seller your landlord, with all the associated tenancy paperwork.

What if you've moved in and then decide that you don't like it and want to pull out of the purchase?  That leaves the seller in a difficult position and one they probably wouldn't want to risk.

Your solicitor will just advise you to give your notice to your landlord when you have exchanged.  It might mean a week or so of overlap, but you could take your time with the move and that's a lot better than handing in your notice before exchange and having to move out on a particular date, which might be before your move in date of the new property.

Patience is needed.

Bumblefly

The reference number on the mortgage offer is likely to ge unique to that specific offer and its terms. The Mortgage Roll Number is likely to be unique to you/your mortgage (a bit like an account number). I suspect that your conveyancer has used the same mortgage report and updated the terms, but has omitted to change the reference number on it. I'd want the report to be accurate as regards the terms of the offer, though. 

2- yes that's correct - it is just an illustration to you of the overall terms of the offer. As above, best to be accurate and reflect your new offer. 

3- The mortgage deed is just the legal form that you enter into. It won't need to be updated (the Title Number is unique to that property and won't change. The HM Land Registry reference number is something the Land Registry use their end when they register the mortgage against your title - it tells them what entries they need to put on the title).

P.s .nothing wrong with being a details freak; in fact - it's a good thing! 

Good luck with it all and don't be afraid to pester your conveyancer... that's what you're paying them for

YorkieG

Tiglet2 said:

This is asked quite regularly on here.

The vendor's solicitor is very unlikely to agree this and will advise their client not to go ahead.  It creates another level of complication as you would become a tenant and the seller your landlord, with all the associated tenancy paperwork.

What if you've moved in and then decide that you don't like it and want to pull out of the purchase?  That leaves the seller in a difficult position and one they probably wouldn't want to risk.

Your solicitor will just advise you to give your notice to your landlord when you have exchanged.  It might mean a week or so of overlap, but you could take your time with the move and that's a lot better than handing in your notice before exchange and having to move out on a particular date, which might be before your move in date of the new property.

Patience is needed.

Thank you for your help, and I agree, I do need to be patient. It has been a rough couple of years to get this stage, I have been trying to save up, and have actively been searching for properties for over a year now, seeing the end but not being able to get there is frustrating.

I’m also trying to get a new job where I’d be earning more money, a rare vacancy has opened up and I’m pretty confident I’d be hired for that job, reluctant to apply however as I’d be unable to commit to a start date for a new employment before my first mortgage payment has been made (I am aware that my mortgage application’s approval came dependant, and subject to certain criteria and conditions being met, one of which is how long I have been employed by my current employers, so don’t want to risk committing to a new job before my mortgage is actually active).

With regards to the overlapping, I’m actually planning (Or at least going to try) to overlap a week, alongside being a details freak, I’m also a clean freak and cleaning the new property would be a lot easier without boxes in the way.

My current landlords’ agents are a little greedy but are generally OK, I have been keeping the place spotless since I moved in and I’d like to think they’ll try to cooperate, if not, then I’m happy to sacrifice a month’s rent if I had to, but will make sure potential tenants understand what kind of character they’d be dealing with.

Apologies for blabbering unrelated info, I’m just a little frustrated at the pace things are going, but I understand and appreciate that an extra month or so is not going to be the end of the world.

YorkieG

Bumblefly said:

The reference number on the mortgage offer is likely to ge unique to that specific offer and its terms. The Mortgage Roll Number is likely to be unique to you/your mortgage (a bit like an account number). I suspect that your conveyancer has used the same mortgage report and updated the terms, but has omitted to change the reference number on it. I'd want the report to be accurate as regards the terms of the offer, though. 

2- yes that's correct - it is just an illustration to you of the overall terms of the offer. As above, best to be accurate and reflect your new offer. 

3- The mortgage deed is just the legal form that you enter into. It won't need to be updated (the Title Number is unique to that property and won't change. The HM Land Registry reference number is something the Land Registry use their end when they register the mortgage against your title - it tells them what entries they need to put on the title).

P.s .nothing wrong with being a details freak; in fact - it's a good thing! 

Good luck with it all and don't be afraid to pester your conveyancer... that's what you're paying them for

You are very accurate, both the reference number and the roll number are generated by the lender, I have noticed however the timestamp included on the reference number varies slightly between the copy my conveyancer received and the one I had, but it seemed to me that it was just a timestamp for when the documents were physically printed out, the prefixes are identical. Everything is now in order and numbers match, so that's one obstacle over.

I would always insist on things being accurate, like most people say, a house purchase is THE most significant purchase of anyone’s lifetime, it certainly is for me, and I wouldn’t want to get myself in extra debt or any legal disputes with lenders over technicalities.

I’m trying to be firm but polite with the people handling my case, I work in a job where everything goes wrong all the time and I appreciate that having an unhappy existence insisting they’re right is never helpful, specially when they are not right, and that’s why I came here asking for information before ‘demanding’ anyone to do what I think is right.

Numbers are easy to figure out when they aren’t right or don’t add up, I’m hoping the conveyancer will handle the rest a bit better.

Being a details’ freak can be a good thing, but it can also be exhausting, and working long hours then trying to concentrate on all this definitely is exhausting

Thank you for your detailed answers, and your kind wishes, means a lot!

user1977

YorkieG said:

Bumblefly said:

The reference number on the mortgage offer is likely to ge unique to that specific offer and its terms. The Mortgage Roll Number is likely to be unique to you/your mortgage (a bit like an account number). I suspect that your conveyancer has used the same mortgage report and updated the terms, but has omitted to change the reference number on it. I'd want the report to be accurate as regards the terms of the offer, though. 

2- yes that's correct - it is just an illustration to you of the overall terms of the offer. As above, best to be accurate and reflect your new offer. 

3- The mortgage deed is just the legal form that you enter into. It won't need to be updated (the Title Number is unique to that property and won't change. The HM Land Registry reference number is something the Land Registry use their end when they register the mortgage against your title - it tells them what entries they need to put on the title).

P.s .nothing wrong with being a details freak; in fact - it's a good thing! 

Good luck with it all and don't be afraid to pester your conveyancer... that's what you're paying them for

I wouldn’t want to get myself in extra debt or any legal disputes with lenders over technicalities.

You seem to be overthinking things (or overthinking the wrong things, perhaps!) - if your solicitor makes a mess of the mortgage deed, that's primarily a problem for your lender (if/when they try to repossess) - not you! In that situation it might even be to your advantage...

YorkieG

user1977 said:You seem to be overthinking things (or overthinking the wrong things, perhaps!) - if your solicitor makes a mess of the mortgage deed, that's primarily a problem for your lender (if/when they try to repossess) - not you! In that situation it might even be to your advantage...

That would be ideal wouldn’t it? Keeping a property that I failed to pay for, and the lender repossessing the wrong property!

I was talking about higher overall debt due to longer mortgage term, I’m paying higher monthly payments in favour of reducing the overall term and therefore the amount repaid.

YorkieG

Tiglet2 said:

Your solicitor will just advise you to give your notice to your landlord when you have exchanged.  It might mean a week or so of overlap, but you could take your time with the move and that's a lot better than handing in your notice before exchange and having to move out on a particular date, which might be before your move in date of the new property.

Patience is needed.

Things are moving rapidly now.

I have a date, but it is the day AFTER my tenancy expires (Day X is rent payment due, therefore day X-1 is the end of tenancy).

I should have clarified this, and the solicitor should have known, but it is good to know that day X for completion is achievable.

My last opportunity to serve notice falls during the weekend, and the solicitor is probably enjoying their Friday evening off work now without any reply, so I’m going to take a leap of faith and forward my notice to the tenancy agent over the weekend, with the hope that they would be flexible enough to allow me a day or two overstay (Paid for pro rata , of course, or even a full extra week).

I don’t trust my rationality at the moment, so please let me know if I’m missing something or if I need to delay my notice till the exchange took place as suggested in an earlier post (Which would mean cost of just under 4 weeks extra rent incurred).

YorkieG

I now have a completion date (Although pending a search that the pros forgot to order), going through the documents I was presented with so far, I stumbled across the following:

All the documents I have received so far indicate a single Title number (Mortgage Deed, Searches, Copy of Register of Title, Title Plan, Copy of Transfer (TP1 as it was a part of a development) and crucially, the Agreed Contract.

Through the HM Land Registry website, I ran the post code and to my surprise, I found 2 variations of entries for the address I’m purchasing.

One matches the description of what’s on the above documents, the other is related to the parking area (All other properties in the same post code have an identical parking arrangements and a SINGLE entry).

Both entries have matching ‘Last Sold’ dates and values, meaning both are owned by the vendor I’m purchasing from.

The Title Plan I received highlights the boundaries of both the dwelling and the parking area.

Correct me if I’m wrong, as it stands, the vendors are to remain as legal owners of the second entry not being transferred across to me if there’s no reference to it on the Agreed Contract.

I have brought this (Along with other questions) to my solicitor's attention, of course there’s no reply yet, but I would like to know what to do.

The vendors are keen to complete before April (Presumably due to tax reasons), I will be withdrawing from the sale if they refuse to transfer ownership of the second entry relating to the parking space, or if they asked for extra funds to do so, that is a simple scenario.

If they (Along with their solicitors) made a genuine mistake and willing to cooperate, how do we proceed?

Lender is happy to lend the money for the dwelling as it is, Mortgage Deed is in place, signed and ready, so my assumption is that redrafting the Agreed Contract to include both entries (Or creating a separate contract transferring ownership of that title) would be sufficient to fix the problem and move forward with minimal disruption to both finances and time.

Or am I being too naive/optimistic and there’s more to be done? (Searches, drafts and the rest of the slow, expensive process).

Thank you in advance.

user1977

You don’t say whether you were expecting the parking space to be included, or have only discovered it existed via your sleuthing?