The nervous wait to exchange....

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The 500k bracket is prime for sellers not budging as much on price at the moment. Why would they when buyers are saving 15k on stamp duty too?!

It's mostly circumstance dependant though, as ever, and will come down to who is more desperate to sell/buy.

Yep - 18 months on the market suggests they are not overly fussed about selling. Hoping the EA overshares why :D
 
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So we had our survey back (actually on the 31st but went to spam folder), all seems to be fairly good but they have found a few things they recommend getting quotes on before we exchange contracts:
J4QvZkQ.png

There are no real comments regarding the main roof from what i can see, will query this with them.
But is there really anything here I should be getting quote about, that the vendor would entertain as recourse for lowering the asking price? I might try the electrics/gas if they haven't got certificates but again this might be refused!
 
Soldato
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6 and 7 are fairly standard lines, I wouldn’t expect there to be any certificates unless they are recently installed. Boiler servicing is take it or leave it for me, take a view in the age and condition of the system. It’s not really something you can ask for a reduction for if it’s working, I certainly wouldn’t entertain it.

5 and 9 would be the biggest concerns for me.

Is the ground level too high in places and why? E.g. does a patio need ripping up and lowering? That could be expensive.

How much work is needed for 9 and is it already factored into the asking price?

Are the windows new? If so they should be certified.
 
Soldato
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For 6 and 7, getting electrics tested isn't insanely expensive, but the vendor may request you pay for someone to attend to do it. If the house is reasonably new I'd not expect them to find much unless the people who lived their were doing cowboy electric work.

On my purchase I asked them to get the boiler service as they hadn't ever done it, house was only 7 years old, but it had gone 6 of them without one. Again not insanely costly to do it, the vendors paid for that.

If it had been serviced more recently I'd probably not have asked, but was best to check the boiler was operational as expected as they can cost a bit to replace.
 
Soldato
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Thanks, am i correct in thinking that I should be contacting our legal rep to get information about these things?

Yeah it should go to your solicitor.

You may struggle to get money off things though, a lot of people aren't going to just agree to discounts out of the blue.

As @b0rn2sk8 said though some of those could lead to bigger jobs, especially if the patio is too high up.

Some of them just seem to be BAU things though, cleaning moss and gutters and things, can't cost the earth to do that kind of stuff.

How old is the house do you know?
 
Soldato
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We had to go 15% with Danske as our mortgage broker couldn't even get the application in to HSBC@10% after trying for 8 days solid.

Habito told us to go direct. We had a call with HSBC yesterday (took about 50 mins to get through then 30 mins on the phone), where we secured a new MIP for a higher amount than Habito and also booked in a 2 hour Zoom call with a mortgage advisor on the 25th. It's the earliest they can do so we'll just need to suck it up. In the meantime we need to send over payslips, identification etc.

Interestingly enough we were credit checked (only soft check mind you) during the call, which Habito didn't do.
 
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Yeah it should go to your solicitor.

You may struggle to get money off things though, a lot of people aren't going to just agree to discounts out of the blue.

As @b0rn2sk8 said though some of those could lead to bigger jobs, especially if the patio is too high up.

Some of them just seem to be BAU things though, cleaning moss and gutters and things, can't cost the earth to do that kind of stuff.

How old is the house do you know?


Yeah, not planning on asking for any discounts on stuff like cleaning of tiles, esp on the garage as i can do that sort of thing! Just the damp course and the boundary walls and whatnot could end up being silly expensive so would probably need to get a professional to look at that!

house was built in the 60s i think and extended in the 70/80s (at least according to the survey)
 
Soldato
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You’ll be able to work out that the issue is with the damp course very easily. Just pop round with a tape measure and see where is less than 150mm. You’ll then be able to see what needs to be done to fix it. If it’s only a few mms I wouldn’t be too worried, if it’s significant then it may need correcting.

I’d expect it’s because a path, patio, driveway or garden area has been changed after it’s been built and increased the ground level slightly.

If the damp course is being bridged or splash back from a hard surface landing above it then I’d also expect to see damp inside so it may not be an issue or be pretty minor.
 
Soldato
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Yeah, not planning on asking for any discounts on stuff like cleaning of tiles, esp on the garage as i can do that sort of thing! Just the damp course and the boundary walls and whatnot could end up being silly expensive so would probably need to get a professional to look at that!

house was built in the 60s i think and extended in the 70/80s (at least according to the survey)

Yeah for the electrics then I guess it could be getting into re-wire territory at some point. My parents are in a 60's house though and I'm not sure they've ever done it. Any electrical check will probably advise you that very little of the electrics are up to code, but a lot of that will be based on the age of the property and how much has changed since then.

For the boiler worth checking how old it is, and when it was last serviced. It may have just lapsed a bit.

For discounts against work, I'd potentially see if you can speak to the surveyor and ask if any of it would likely need large expenses against it. They can't give you exact figures but they may be able to give you estimate ones, then you can get quotes from relevant trades to fix things and use that as bargaining material.

i.e. if the boundary stuff is £2k worth of work and it needs doing, then I think that would be fair to bring up.
 
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xudsyqT.png

This is the main image attached to the discussion about the damp course, they have hinted that it would benefit from the introduction of a 150mm shingle trench, but it's possible this would need to be implemented around the whole house which sounds expensive!

Boiler is roughly 15 years old, but was apparently "top of the range" when fitted since the previous owner was a british gas manager (of course they were)

Would expect the electrics to require renovation at some point given house age, as you say!
 
Soldato
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This is the main image attached to the discussion about the damp course, they have hinted that it would benefit from the introduction of a 150mm shingle trench, but it's possible this would need to be implemented around the whole house which sounds expensive!

Boiler is roughly 15 years old, but was apparently "top of the range" when fitted since the previous owner was a british gas manager (of course they were)

Would expect the electrics to require renovation at some point given house age, as you say!
That looks like it's a porus section already. How does it being converted to shingle improve damp proofing?
 
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That looks like it's a porus section already. How does it being converted to shingle improve damp proofing?

I have no idea, maybe? It's not something i profess to know one iota about!
Will be speaking to the surveyor tomorrow so hopefully he'll be able to shed more light on his commentary
 
Soldato
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After a bit of advice with this one really. Started the process of selling/buying in Feb. Got to this point now where we are stuck, a section of the garage is not in the boundaries of the house we are buying. It seems to be in no mans land. Its been this way since it was built 30 years ago.

My solicitor suggested we get an indemnity policy on it, which the seller did to the tune of a max of £260k if someone comes and claims the land or whatever. Now my solicitor has decided they want the seller to claim the land themselves (which can take months), plus it is his deceased parents house which will make it even more complicated I am guessing?!

I have told the solicitor I am happy to accept the risk as long as the indemnity policy will pay out for us to rebuild the garage and slight loss of value of the house.

Question is, am I doing the right thing? Anything I am overlooking? I am just starting to lose the will here as my solicitors is full of non helpful people who just seem intent on dragging this on!

Pic for reference

l1RJp4V.jpg
 
Soldato
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After a bit of advice with this one really. Started the process of selling/buying in Feb. Got to this point now where we are stuck, a section of the garage is not in the boundaries of the house we are buying. It seems to be in no mans land. Its been this way since it was built 30 years ago.

My solicitor suggested we get an indemnity policy on it, which the seller did to the tune of a max of £260k if someone comes and claims the land or whatever. Now my solicitor has decided they want the seller to claim the land themselves (which can take months), plus it is his deceased parents house which will make it even more complicated I am guessing?!

I have told the solicitor I am happy to accept the risk as long as the indemnity policy will pay out for us to rebuild the garage and slight loss of value of the house.

Question is, am I doing the right thing? Anything I am overlooking? I am just starting to lose the will here as my solicitors is full of non helpful people who just seem intent on dragging this on!

Pic for reference

l1RJp4V.jpg

I'd just roll with the indemnity policy if it covers you well enough.

Really what are the odds someone will come and try and claim it anyway? If it was going to be anything the land owner would probably just sell you the little bit you'd need to complete the plot.

Probably cost less than the stamp duty you'd pay if you don't complete whilst it's basically free.
 
Soldato
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Nottingham
Why does this all have to be so stressful...

Had an offer accepted in March. Mortgage approved, then COVID! Mortgage offer was to expire in June, but got a 3 month extension. Seller is moving to a new build that won't be completed now until October/November. However I've been told current lendor won't extend mortgage offer any further. But I can can re-apply to them... why so much stress!? Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.
 
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