The nervous wait to exchange....

Soldato
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Ah we're just getting a pretty standard 'off the shelf' sofa and Pax wardrobe from Ikea and it's pretty much always in stock so we should be good to go - hopefully. The bed/mattress are from John Lewis and again something we hope, after looking online a lot, that we should be able to have it delivered quite quickly.

We've been upgraded to whirpool appliances and we changed from gas hob to an induction one but we've been told to go through with a fine tooth comb! Luckily there is going to be a fair bit more of building going on so they'll be there for a while. A friend moved to the site last year and said the whatsapp group (which I have no intention of joining) still has people complaining about skirting boards etc but we have a rough idea of things to look out for

We thought getting a new build would give us less headaches... we're not so sure now haha.

'upgraded' to Whirlpool? my god, what was in there before???

On a lighter note, hope you get in soon. Love a good new build with unused toilets etc - nothing quite like it :)
 
Soldato
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'upgraded' to Whirlpool? my god, what was in there before???

On a lighter note, hope you get in soon. Love a good new build with unused toilets etc - nothing quite like it :)

The stickers they put over them are such crap though, when you're previewing them before move in date the stickers aren't there, then they add them.

Like I'm sure someone at some point has probably used them, and if not, just a waste of a sticker!
 
Soldato
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'upgraded' to Whirlpool? my god, what was in there before???

On a lighter note, hope you get in soon. Love a good new build with unused toilets etc - nothing quite like it :)

There's nothing wrong with Whirpool in the years I used to sell them! Well, when I was a kitchen designer at IKEA it's the only appliances we had but they seemed good enough :p I believe it was indiset in there which we changed from

Unused toilets? We're just excited to be able to use the toilet (and have a downstairs one) that has a door that actually closes properly and not a bi-fold door like my grandmother currently has which refuses to shut unless you barricade yourself in.

Here I come numb legs! :D
 
Soldato
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We thought getting a new build would give us less headaches... we're not so sure now haha.

Biggest headache is really with the contractors they use. The design can be good but if the people implementing it do a bad job, then it just leads to a poor finish.

If you ever go to a higher spec/smaller developer you'll see that it's possible to build something a bit better, the larger companies don't seem to care much about the finish and more about the cash.

NHBC are also funded by the builders, and have really generous tolerances. So the builder could build the whole house wonky and everything all over the place, but as long as it's within NHBC tolerances they are allowed to tell you it's fine.

Some examples of things they get up to:

http://www.new-home-blog.co.uk/tolerances-used-by-builders-to-defend-poor-quality-new-homes/

If they took more care and attention on the builds, they'd have way less complaints and issues, but money is king and a lot of the trades people they get are paid per job, so they get them done as quick as possible.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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9,158
Ah we're just getting a pretty standard 'off the shelf' sofa and Pax wardrobe from Ikea and it's pretty much always in stock so we should be good to go - hopefully. The bed/mattress are from John Lewis and again something we hope, after looking online a lot, that we should be able to have it delivered quite quickly.

We've been upgraded to whirpool appliances and we changed from gas hob to an induction one but we've been told to go through with a fine tooth comb! Luckily there is going to be a fair bit more of building going on so they'll be there for a while. A friend moved to the site last year and said the whatsapp group (which I have no intention of joining) still has people complaining about skirting boards etc but we have a rough idea of things to look out for

We thought getting a new build would give us less headaches... we're not so sure now haha.

My advice would be to get a professional snagger in to review. We did this (it's not super cheap, but glad we did) - they found just over 150 faults in a 2 bed apartment. All fixed by the builders eventually, but it included things we just wouldn't have known to look for.
 
Soldato
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Yeah we are going to get my partners father in to go over it for us as he's in the business of buying and selling houses so he should know what to look for more so than us.

We did think about getting a professional snagger in but her dad got offended :rolleyes:
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Mar 2004
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15,686
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Fareham
Yeah we are going to get my partners father in to go over it for us as he's in the business of buying and selling houses so he should know what to look for more so than us.

We did think about getting a professional snagger in but her dad got offended :rolleyes:

Oh one question I did have, what are they doing for heating/cooling?

In my Linden house the central heating was done off an unvented boiler with a tank upstairs.

For cooling they did nothing, the house would hit about 28-30C internally in this kind of weather, which was fun.

There was also an MVHR system, which was used to recycle the air inside the house. They put this in because none of the windows had trickle vents + triple glazing. They put this in to handle fresh air.

Thing they didn't tell us was that this system was very noisy and it could not be turned off without flipping the switch in the fusebox. When showing me the house it was turned off at the fusebox, and they told me it couldn't be heard (yeah, guess that's true if it's not turned on :rolleyes:). Absolute bunch of jokers had no end of headaches with them!
 
Soldato
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Finally lost it with this horrendous solicitor. Was quite happy at first but after lockdown my file got passed to someone else and they have been utterly obnoxious to deal with. I'm not normally a complainer but this was the third or fourth email I'd got full of passive aggressive insinuations that we are being difficult.

Demanded the file gets passed to someone else or I'll take the business elsewhere, would be a pain in the arse at this point but I'm that sick of the treatment I've been getting.

</Rant>

Cannot wait until this is all over.
 
Soldato
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1 Jul 2007
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5,392
Bridging Loans,

Anyone entered into this gamble? Found a house we like, seller doesn't want to accept an offer from someone with a property to sell. Thinking a bridging loan might be a compromise to the situation, at a cost to us.
Trying to run some quotes to work out costs but they all want to do call backs etc.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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13,997
Location
Sandwich, Kent
Bridging Loans,

Anyone entered into this gamble? Found a house we like, seller doesn't want to accept an offer from someone with a property to sell. Thinking a bridging loan might be a compromise to the situation, at a cost to us.
Trying to run some quotes to work out costs but they all want to do call backs etc.
Our estate agent (also the agent for the house we're buying) advised me not to make a formal offer until we'd sold our house.

That way, you're in a position where if someone makes an offer £5k less than your asking price - you can make the same offer up the chain.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2007
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5,392
Our estate agent (also the agent for the house we're buying) advised me not to make a formal offer until we'd sold our house.

That way, you're in a position where if someone makes an offer £5k less than your asking price - you can make the same offer up the chain.

Maybe it's the difference in the Scottish system, I think we were advised it was up to us. For the place we bought we didn't have to sell anything and used negotiable exchange as our leverage before, we just don't want to have sold our place and have no where confirmed to move to as I get the impression exchange dates are agreed and set pretty early on in the process.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2007
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5,392
We got really lucky. Our house sold within a day of going on the market. Meant we could put that offer in on the property we wanted to move to really quickly.
Again maybe a difference in systems, up here it's essentially blind bidding if it goes to closing date. There's very few negotiations about price between buyer and seller if an offer is accepted before closing date, again in my experience and knowledge of the market. I think in our current house we put in an offer before closing date, it went to a closing date and we only upped our offer by £500 or a random amount, no idea if we had secured it before or after.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Jul 2008
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7,684
My solicitors are advising all clients to go with SIMS (Simultaneous Exchange and Completion on the same day). I don't really understand why despite that they have tried to explain it to me. They state it is due to COVID and that if we exchanged with say a week gap, if I got ill and had to go into hospital and could not complete on the day, then I would be liable to huge costs etc. I understand that... but the other example used was that if a lockdown occurred and I could not complete. Surely in that case all members of the chain could also not complete and therefore would all be in breech of contracts? So how does that work? SIMS is stated to me as recommended for my own protection and my solicitor are saying that they will proceed with a week gap between only if I sign a disclaimer that I have gone against their recommendation. My sellers solicitors have proposed a one week gap.

This has been a rollercoaster since January and I'm absolutely sick of it. :( So close to the end now. Welcome any advice.
 
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