The nervous wait to exchange....

Soldato
Joined
20 Jun 2005
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3,824
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London..
Hope all goes well for you tomorrow.

Had an interesting one yesterday.. Chain of about 4/5 properties with ours being the last. The cowboys at the start of the chain didn't request the mortgage advance the day before completion (which means it can arrive any time during business hours :o). Ended up arriving around 4pm :p Money worked its way up quickly thankfully, our transaction completed at around 5:10 and the mortgage redeemed around 5:25 with 5 minutes to go before the cut off. Fun stuff!

All went well on friday!
Completed and moved in now. Old flat is empty an ready for the next person. Exhausting to say the least! I don't want to do that anytime soon!
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jun 2010
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6,566
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Essex
Not good :(

Surveyor just rang me after leaving the property after doing a full structural survey. He said there was evidence of historic movement, and suspects it will probably continue to move, but because of the age (1875) he said it's probably quite typical. What's more concerning is the damp, he said there's evidence of rising damp at the ground floor, issues with condensation internally, and the ventilation in the loft of the main structure and the extension (1980s) is poor because there is mould issues, with spongy rafters and insulation. Asked him for a rough ball park of putting right the damp issues he said £20k. It wouldn't benefit from cheap small interventions, rather, big work. Not what I wanted to hear... I've also heard surveyors can be incredibly conservative to cover themselves. And as I like the property so much I'll probably get a damp specialist to inspect it and give a proper diagnosis and cost of remedy.

Does anyone know what the best way is to source a damp specialist, specifically in solid stone walled houses.
 
Associate
Joined
5 Jun 2013
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1,531
Homebuyers report came back with only one area we're not sure about, the roof lining.

The felt lining under the roof coverings is damaged in places. There is a risk of
penetrating dampness and repairs are now necessary. It may be that the only way
to carry out the repairs effectively is for the roof to be stripped and a new lining
installed.

Queried the severity of it and he came back with the following:

There is some localised damage to the felt underlining to the main roof. This is not unusual but does require repair. We recommend that you obtain quotations for the repairs from a competent roofing contractor who should be able to provide a quotation for the works. It is likely that some of the covering may need to be removed and reinstated in order to repair the lining.

Going to go back to get in the loft and have a look at the linings to see how damaged and where, but I cant imagine local contactors would be that interested in going round to quote (and trying to arrange this with the estate agent) on a place we're still buying, so no prospect of any work to be done soon.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 May 2007
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12,804
Location
Ipswich / Bodham
Completed on Friday, at pretty short notice after exchanging on notice some time ago (reference here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...t-to-exchange.18591082/page-192#post-31836722)

Ut3LMUr.jpg

The agents were absolutely useless (William H Brown), and we were only given 10 days notice before completion. If we'd have been moving in instead of buying as a second home we'd have been absolutely stuffed. We're now in a race to get flooring down and the whole placed furnished by December so we can start using it and also take some bookings for 2019.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2013
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8,565
Found out that the sellers solicitor has been sitting on some questions for a month whilst I was been chasing every week. Resent yesterday but very annoying, I was wanting to be moved in in mid August. Can't wait to move out of my folks place :D
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Apr 2007
Posts
23,414
Location
UK
Completed on Friday, at pretty short notice after exchanging on notice some time ago (reference here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...t-to-exchange.18591082/page-192#post-31836722)

Ut3LMUr.jpg

The agents were absolutely useless (William H Brown), and we were only given 10 days notice before completion. If we'd have been moving in instead of buying as a second home we'd have been absolutely stuffed. We're now in a race to get flooring down and the whole placed furnished by December so we can start using it and also take some bookings for 2019.

Wow it looks beautiful :) Congrats! :D
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
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21,201
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Does anyone know what the best way is to source a damp specialist, specifically in solid stone walled houses.

Give Heritage House a ring and see what they say. Most damp proofing companies just want to come out and spray stuff/seal things up and that doesn't work on old buildings.

We moved into a similar aged house (1874) and the surveyor said similar things (although no rising damp). We went ahead with the purchase anyway and touch wood things have been ok. We had a roofer round after we moved in and he suggested the roof would last another 20 years compared to the surveyor who recommended a whole new roof. He also commented on how there were loads of spiders and webs in the loft and that they wouldn't be there if it was actually damp.

I'm going to give it the winter to see how things actually fair and see if more work is actually needed.

We do have some evidence of damp on some internal walls but these seem to be around radiators and i'm not sure if that's caused problems in the past and ruined the plaster.

Do you have a link to your property (happy if you want to trust it), i'd like to see it as it sounds similar to ours with a modern extension :)
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Jun 2010
Posts
6,566
Location
Essex
Give Heritage House a ring and see what they say. Most damp proofing companies just want to come out and spray stuff/seal things up and that doesn't work on old buildings.

We moved into a similar aged house (1874) and the surveyor said similar things (although no rising damp). We went ahead with the purchase anyway and touch wood things have been ok. We had a roofer round after we moved in and he suggested the roof would last another 20 years compared to the surveyor who recommended a whole new roof. He also commented on how there were loads of spiders and webs in the loft and that they wouldn't be there if it was actually damp.

I'm going to give it the winter to see how things actually fair and see if more work is actually needed.

We do have some evidence of damp on some internal walls but these seem to be around radiators and i'm not sure if that's caused problems in the past and ruined the plaster.

Do you have a link to your property (happy if you want to trust it), i'd like to see it as it sounds similar to ours with a modern extension :)
Will trust you it. Bare in mind from the photos it has render over the masonry, which if I can remember correctly may be a contributing factor to the damp problems too.

Sent, lmk if you get it ok.
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Oct 2009
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19,892
Location
Wales
The agents were absolutely useless (William H Brown), and we were only given 10 days notice before completion. If we'd have been moving in instead of buying as a second home we'd have been absolutely stuffed. We're now in a race to get flooring down and the whole placed furnished by December so we can start using it and also take some bookings for 2019.
FYI that's entirely normal for new builds. Surely you read this in the contract you signed? :p


Lovely looking house though.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Apr 2013
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12,371
Location
La France
A number of the houses we have looked at recently have been market-returns thank to chains breaking.
One which was sold in March and just returned as it's all fallen apart and taken X months for the information to work it's way up.

Is there a lot of that going on at the moment or is it always a constant risk of house selling?

I guess as a buyer if I made an offer and agreement on a house and a better one came up I would feel bad but it's a business decision at the end of the day.
I wouldn't be gutless and not return calls and letters for 2 months as seems to be what vendors are telling me happened to them.

Chains are an absolute ****. We thought we were days away from exchanging with Buyer #1 almost 2 months after accepting his offer when his buyer pulled out.

Buyer #2 was some sort of Walter Mitty as we accepted his offer (after our estate agent had supposedly checked his situation) only to be informed 36 hours later that he wasn't in a position to buy.

Quite frankly, my kids can just bury me in the woods surrounding my new home as I'm damned if I'm going through this again.
 
Associate
Joined
6 Apr 2006
Posts
1,383
Hopefully exchanging tomorrow (should have been Monday/today) to complete this Friday. Provisionally booked a Luton van and a day off....

We were only told last Friday to expect this Friday so ten days would be generous. We have been pushing this through so 7 weeks from offer accepted to now is pretty good.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2003
Posts
16,309
Buying a nee build from a well known builder in my local are

Small family builders over 70 years history

All going well house is near completion midde october.

Today got urgent message off solicitor kicking up a fuss saying there is no s104 agreement for the drains and i need to seriously consider the ocnsequences - basically consider that water bostd dont accept the sewers and cost to put right is with me

I get on well with the builder so rang him to discuss, he was alarmed and said we dont have the s104 because obviously your house and a few others are being finished and severn trent dont inspect u til the site is complete but there is an application in with them.

Plus he has a road and sewers bond with the nhbc to cover and issues should he swann off to spain or go into liquidation


So to me it sounds like solicitor hasnt checked properly??
 
Soldato
Joined
14 May 2009
Posts
4,182
Location
Hampshire
So after saving for the past 2 years, my wife and I finally put an offer on a house the other day and we've just found out that it's been accepted!

We are first time buyers so we're very excited but also very very nervous/scared!

Our offer is at the max of our AIP so fingers crossed Nationwide actually give us the full amount.

Now I've got to sort out a solicitor, get a building survey booked in and the other million things you need to worry about.

Won't be moving till January due to ISA being locked till then so the next 4 months are either going to go very quickly or very slowly!

Any advice for a FTB that might help me?
 
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