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Selling house. Want to leave vacant and save money
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the average housebuyer is totally flummoxed when viewing a property that has no furniture in it because they are unable to imagine how a room looks or works without seeing a bed or a sofa in the room
you may find an empty property takes longer to sell and fetches a lower price. That will probably instantly wipe out any council tax saving you made, and certainly wipe out utility bill savings because you'll need to leave them on anyway so viewers can see a tap running, flush the toilet, and feel the heat from the heating0 -
Even if a property still has furniture in, if it's empty it can often feel much less homely / welcoming - low/no heating means the house feels chilly, it can start to be a but musty, any latent damp problems may resurface etc.
If the house has an unlived in / unloved feel then you may find that it is harder to sell it, and/or that any offers are lower, so you may find this offsets any potential savings.All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)0 -
From a buyer's point of view, an empty house is a sitting duck which will attract LOWER offers as it smells of desparation, so you may save £4-£5k living with your inlaws, but it could cost you more than this in lower offers on your house.
Most house insurance won't permit it being vacant for more than 30 days (so you would need special insurance to cover an empty building).
Risk of squatters? Vandelism?
Not to mention having to live with your inlaws... (do they live in a mansion???).
The whole thing could end up costing you more than you save.Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)0 -
Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)
Desparation = desperation
Vandelism = vandalism
People in glass houses ...From a buyer's point of view, an empty house is a sitting duck which will attract LOWER offers as it smells of desparation, so you may save £4-£5k living with your inlaws, but it could cost you more than this in lower offers on your house.
Most house insurance won't permit it being vacant for more than 30 days (so you would need special insurance to cover an empty building).
Risk of squatters? Vandelism?
Not to mention having to live with your inlaws... (do they live in a mansion???).
The whole thing could end up costing you more than you save.Signature on holiday for two weeks0 -
From a buyer's point of view, an empty house is a sitting duck which will attract LOWER offers as it smells of desperation, so you may save £4-£5k living with your inlaws, but it could cost you more than this in lower offers on your house.
Most house insurance won't permit it being vacant for more than 30 days (so you would need special insurance to cover an empty building).
Risk of squatters? Vandalism?
Not to mention having to live with your inlaws... (do they live in a mansion???).
The whole thing could end up costing you more than you save.
I'd say close but ;
(a) there's no way they will save anywhere near £5k (or what grounds did the OP think they would, where are these savings coming from, a little bit of gas and electric traded off against storing an entire houses contents for months??
(b)They will attract low ball offers from people seeing an empty house and thinking "desperate sellers"
(c) they will lose a lot more than they might save, though i dont think they'd save anything anyway so it will be a perfect lose-lose storm.0 -
I think this is a case of penny pinching too far on the basis of flawed maths. Many councils now punish you with 150% council tax on empty homes to discourage it
Only once it's been unoccupied and unfurnished for 2 years or more.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
Mutton_Geoff wrote: »People in glass houses ...
We're talking spelling, not grammar! Apples and oranges...
(and I shall plea sleep deprivation for my terrible spelling)Should've = Should HAVE (not 'of')
Would've = Would HAVE (not 'of')
No, I am not perfect, but yes I do judge people on their use of basic English language. If you didn't know the above, then learn it! (If English is your second language, then you are forgiven!)0 -
So, we moved out of our house and left ours as vacant possession to sell after we moved out to our new property.
Our costs are full council tax, energy standing charges plus we are not using as much - so has reduced to £30 per month for gas and electric. Water allowed us to stop the account as they could see we were at another property - this was good of them as I had assumed we would continue to pay £20 per month, then insurance is required and I have to check the house regularly (weekly). So you need to calculate if its worth it - luckily for us a buyer could see the potential empty (it must have been our furniture putting people off before!!) having said that we got some low offers from some potential buyers trying their luck that we needed to sell (we didn't)
SLM0 -
You may find your insurance costs increase as the property will be unoccupied. Hence more risk of burglary (even if empty burglars cause damage) and if there's a leak, far more damage as it will go unnoticed.0
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If there's a worse idea of trying to save money to be able to move house, I'm struggling to come up with it.
We had a sale fall through in December just before we had to move for a job move. We were moving to a property we already owned so we moved with the minimum amount of furniture and stuff that we could live with in order to leave the old place furnished. A friend house-sat for a few days a week whilst we slept on an airbed and sat on the plastic garden furniture in our new house for 3 months.
We still had a couple of low offers from people who thought we might be desperate because of our circumstances (we weren't) and in the end sold it for more than the offer we'd previously accepted.Make £2025 in 2025
Prolific £229.82, Octopoints £4.27, Topcashback £290.85, Tesco Clubcard challenges £60, Misc Sales £321, Airtime £10.
Total £915.94/£2025 45.2%
Make £2024 in 2024
Prolific £907.37, Chase Intt £59.97, Chase roundup int £3.55, Chase CB £122.88, Roadkill £1.30, Octopus referral reward £50, Octopoints £70.46, Topcashback £112.03, Shopmium referral £3, Iceland bonus £4, Ipsos survey £20, Misc Sales £55.44Total £1410/£2024 70%Make £2023 in 2023 Total: £2606.33/£2023 128.8%0
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