Owning your own home

We are mid sale and part of the process has involved extending the lease on our flat (it was approaching 82 years). This has been completed in part, but requires the completion of the sale for the leaseholder's name to be changed over and the length of the lease to be extended.

We have now received an email from our solicitors that the landlord is going to charge us a ridiculous amount of money if the sale does not complete within the next two weeks, having already paid them an extortionate amount for overpriced surveyors, solicitors etc ... It isn't going to complete in this time & the amount is probably going to mean I just quit the whole thing and go and live under the m25). Has anyone experienced something similar?

To sum leasehold is a stupid system and I hate it.

Bear in mind that (if they work like ours) you lose 58% of the allocation before it's granted due to tax, NI etc, and that any upward fluctuations in the share price attract capital gains when you sell.

So you're getting back ~15% of your salary as an RSU, but losing 10% of your base.

If its just salary, I earn min wage

Yes but you own a company that has a contract with another company that says in exchange for goods and services your company will be a paid a certain amount. It's still a promise, but mortgage lenders get it because you own it. RSUs...you don't own them, they aren't security.

fair

I very much think they wouldn't be. They are not like regular shareholdings at all. They belong to the company until you sell them. And as Dammit says, they will withhold over 50% of the shares when they "vest" to account for tax. Then when you sell, there is usually an additional bump in your pay packet the next month to account for them having held back too much when the shares vested.

Somebody explained it to me in the following way;

Your company gives you 400 shares, 25% to vest each year.

At the end of year 1, the first 100 vest but to account for tax, your company will only release ~45, effectively taxing you 55%

Then if you want to sell those, you will get whatever the current rate is, likely also paying a fee to the company that manages it plus another charge for them to convert to £. THen your bank might charge international wire fees.

Then in your next pay packet, you'll get another lump from your company as a rebate as it is unlikely you should be paying 55% tax.

Ultimately, it's still free money, but usually nowhere near as much as when you first look at it.

good to know.. thanks

Purple Bricks with agent viewings option yay/nay?

I have a quote from local EA for 1.25% plus a few fees.

Nay - We did the viewings ourselves with Purple Bricks. I sort of enjoyed it and you can actually give answers to questions, unlike estate agents.

Oh you mean go with PB but dont take the agent option? Could do that .. will be a bit stressful and we are going on a holiday for a week next week .. but if you are saying doing them yourselves gives you an edge as a seller then yeah ..

My only confusion is the 'upfront fees' model, I feel like they wouldn't be as motivated as an EA that gets a % commission when completing the sale. Anyone on here has experience with both?

And these reviews: https://www.allagents.co.uk/purplebricks/

Bit weird given TrustPilot has amazing rating.

an EA that gets a % commission when completing the sale

Doubtful the door-openers for a big agent get any sort of % (or motivation).

I was going to use purplebricks then had a valuation from an EA 80k higher than I was expecting, but with proof they (and they alone) have recently sold two very similar flats in my block for that value in the last 6 months. I took that as a sign that a good EA is worth the extra fee if they can get you the monies. And if they don't ditch them.

Funnily enough PB has given us the highest quote with two nearby examples ..

We bought our first place last spring/summer without an agent. Vowed never to use one in the future, maybe this will change but I view them much like travel agents 20 years ago...

Go with them then.

You must know what it's worth, so much information available now.
I'd say go PB without door openers.

It seems like there is a Pay Later option now .. with this page as a link: https://www.purplebricks.co.uk/terms/service-agreement?Vid=e0019d54-bf83-4d07-8022-a82af0e0967d

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I can't compare, but purple bricks was absolutely fine and seemed like a no brainer to us... But it will all depend on your situation I guess. You still get an actual estate agent (or advisor), but you do a bit more of the work in arranging the viewings etc. It's all done via an app - you just say when you are available and people book in times.

You say what price to put your property on the market etc. I'm not actually sure what a good estate agent would actually do over PB? Everyone uses rightmove to find the property and then they just show people around? But my experience was that every estate agent didn't know the particulars of any of the dozen or so properties we looked at.

^this

I'm not actually sure what a good estate agent would actually do over PB? Everyone uses rightmove to find the property and then they just show people around?

Yep I agree, I think I will go with PB and an agent purely because both of us are mad busy atm with work etc. Premium listing on rightmove for £91? EPC for £84?

Dunno about premium, but if you bought your place in the last 10 years, chances are the EPC is still valid. You can look it up on https://www.epcregister.com/

Yes to premium (sorry lost on EPC...?)
Solved

Nah leave the EPC - unless you've drastically changed the building fabric...

Thats what I thought. Obv dont have the 'Report Reference Number'. Can dig unless there is another way to retrieve. EDIT: FOUND IT! @Sebbb the only things I can think of that could remotely be related to EPC are we had new insulation and loft boards installed and replaced every tungsten light with LED. Is it worth getting a new EPC or was PB going to charge me to retrieve it?