Does anyone want to join me waiting for new build to be built and complete

visidigi wrote: »

First up offer is in - flooring pack for the entire house...

Not a bad start

Hope you can get some more from them. The way flooring is done is the one part of the new-build buying process that has wound me up so far.

Why they don't include anything as standard really winds me up, after all we all need flooring in a house. Even if the purchase price was higher but flooring included would be a better option, that would at least have got me started and I could have come back to it later to upgrade it or paid for improved options (like I've done with tiling) but at least I'd have something and it would reduce one large bill on moving in.

Yes, it would end up in the mortgage but overpayments could solve that easily enough.

visidigi wrote: »

Its not cheap and yes I could do it cheaper myself, but its clear that they wont lower the price and will do F&F contributions instead. We only got an upgraded kitchen in the original deal so the flooring is a very good bonus.

The mortgage has said they would lend to the price we have agreed, so all of this is a brucey bonus due to the circumstance.

I agree with you, its not till you start buying toilet roll holders, light fittings and everything else that your going to be spending ALOT of money kitting out a new build to lived in state.

I'd have loved it for them to throw in Amtico! I'm actually quite jealous, especially if it doesn't affect your mortgage eligibility. I'm using HTB so valuation & Mortgage had to match, which fortunately they did but didn't open the door for any negotiations to be had.

My only remaining hope is some level of delay that means I can negotiate for compensation, where I'm buying there was zero room to negotiate as demand is so high!

mleach101 wrote: »

Hope you can get some more from them. The way flooring is done is the one part of the new-build buying process that has wound me up so far.

Why they don't include anything as standard really winds me up, after all we all need flooring in a house. Even if the purchase price was higher but flooring included would be a better option, that would at least have got me started and I could have come back to it later to upgrade it or paid for improved options (like I've done with tiling) but at least I'd have something and it would reduce one large bill on moving in.

Yes, it would end up in the mortgage but overpayments could solve that easily enough.

Different developers do offer everything as standard. You just have to find them. We used Bovis and there wasn't an options list. Almost everything is standard.

visidigi wrote: »

Agreed a final deal on ours - bear in mind the only reason we went back to the table was our mortgage lender said it was worth less but we'll still give you a mortgage anyway (same house0. style, same estate, was value at 14k over what our mortgage co valued ours at

So we ended up with the full flooring (large tiles in Kitchen, Amtico throughout the rest of the ground floor and all bathroom/ensuites and carpets to all other floors and all stairs).

Managed to secure some other upgrades on top in the bathrooms, some seriously overpriced upgrades which we wanted but were leaving off because they wanted so much for them (how they justify some prices is beyond me).

So deal done, significant money saved - just got to let the mortgage company know whats changed - if they feel its worth changing the amounts we'll use the money saved on the upgrades to clear off the mortgage shortfall - otherwise we may take some further upgrades to the house

At this moment in time I am one of the few people on the planet that, for this month at least, love their mortgage company

Sounds like a win to me!

It's been a long road for me so far.

Reserved a new build at the end of last Summer with an estimated completion date of end of November/beginning of December. Everything went through smoothly on my end, mortgage offer received from Nationwide, valid till mid March.

I was abroad for work, so unable to keep an eye on progress. When I got back in November, I got the news that the build had pretty much been on complete hold for months due to a subcontractor making off with some funds and them having to go through the courts etc. New expected completion, February/March.

Come February, the completion was moved to May, so I had to go chasing a new mortgage. All was going well, till Nationwide changed their lending criteria and my new mortgage application was declined based on this (income not paid in Sterling, but in EURO, now long longer accepted by Nationwide). My mortgage adviser had actually been promised an offer in the mail, but after this, Nationwide just kept dragging out time, till their new criteria came into force, so I suspect they did this on purpose.

Mortgage adviser was struggling to find a new mortgage option. Only a few lenders now accept non-Sterling income and none of those are part of the HTB scheme. Because of this, I juggled my funds and come up with a 15% deposit. Adviser went with Santander, but alas they wouldn't lend me the amount I needed, because they reduce income by 25% when it's foreign income to counter exchange rate fluctuations.

After going over the numbers myself, I came to the conclusion it was the personal loan I had that was causing the most issues, without this loan, Santander would lend me more than enough, so I paid off my loan over the Easter weekend and we're waiting for it to be marked as satisfied on my credit file so we can put in a new application. Luckily with all the time that has passed, I managed to save up some more money to do this.

In the meantime, the long stop date has long passed and I threatened to pull out of the purchase. The builders came back with an offer to pay all my legal fees and stamp duty as well as remove the clause from the contract stating if I can't complete, they get to keep 10% of the purchase price. They will also wait for me to get everything in place. I have accepted this offer, so continue my fight for the house. I'm lucky the area isn't a hot spot and they don't seem to want to loose me as a buyer. All confirmed in writing to my solicitor, just in case ^^

At the moment it looks like the build will be completed late May/early June and I can get my application rolling with Santander end of this month/early May, so hoping it will go through smoothly, so I can get into the house as soon as it's complete (seen people get their Santander offer within 3 weeks on the other thread).

It's been a long, stressful struggle, but it seems there is some hope now. The numbers for my new mortgage application look good, I just need the personal loan marked as satisfied.

Don't really want to lose the house, pretty much the perfect house for me, so I was upset when I thought I had lost it. Luckily the builders really want to find a solution that works for everybody as it's the delays in the build that has caused the problems in the first place and they are a small family run company, rather that one of the big faceless corporates...

Grats to all those that have completed, I'm jealous...