Owning your own home

From what I’ve seen, IMO, all subjective etc Foxtons prices are always the highest, I wouldn’t even look at a property they sell, but that’s just me, also every single one of their people I have met I have been repulsed by.

Stick to 8% unless it’s defo your dream home.

packing box chat update: after going to 4 local supermarkets and being told to "come back on monday around 10pm" (fuck that noise) we went to the recycling depot at the end of the road and armed with a rake, liberated 6 tasty cardboard bois, all from pro moving bsns's. job done.

csb

so flatbuyers survey for an ex council leasehold flat, do I go with the Halifax one, or should I go for a someone on RICS site in forest hill?

Lidl boxes are the best and they are normally v happy for you to take them

good to know. tescos, sainos, co-op and iceland round our way couldn't gaf.

Kite packaging / rocket Van / big yellow storage.

Buying a house takes an unnecessary length of time.
31 October offers were accepted.
(Bit of background, we are buying an empty house, the seller of the empty house is buying our flat to rent out)
Tomorrow will be 3 months since this was started and still have no move date.
Initially when we instructed solicitors we asked if 7 Feb was doable, and told yeah no dramas. That's next week and we haven't heard much from them in the last few weeks.

How soon can exchanges and complete happen? (As in, do you get a call from the sols saying "ready when you are, chump" or do they milk more time)

what else do your respective solicitors need to do? are all the searches and enquiries done and everyone's happy? if so, light a fire under their arses.

to be fair, 3 months isn't a long time at all.

Totally anecdotal, but I've bought two houses and the only way I ever got anything done was relentless (like daily) chasing of solicitors and estate agents; I'm sure they hated me, I didn't care.

One we did in a month (no chain, seller emigrating) the other took about six, but was horrifically complex.

I found if they (solicitors) were left alone they simply wouldn't do anything. I had to drive exchange and completion dates out of them.

All done before Christmas (searches, etc) all questionnaires done too, got queries back and dealt with.

I thought 3 months was ages, it's not like they need to write to land registry and get some lackey to trawl through the filing to find the plans, it's all online. Seems like they are unwilling to be swift, but I am digressing.

Cheers, we let it slip since the Christmas break, should have been on their case from 2nd Jan, but you live and learn.
The ministry of home affairs has the reigns on this one though, so she will be on their case now.

apropos none of the above - the cheaper the solicitors, the more they'll appeal to folks trying to save a few notes on conveyancing fees, the busier they'll be, the less likely they are to make you a priority.

the firm that handled our sale / purchase have been amazing. daily updates, alerts on text and email when something changes, a progress dashboard available online and a single point of contact for the entire process. not cheap but worth it.

Understandable - to be fair you'd have got nowhere over Christmas in any case I imagine. It sounds like in your case (which looks unusual!) you're at relatively low risk of being gazumped or anything like that. It's a horribly stressful thing to go through though.

apropos none of the above - the cheaper the solicitors, the more they'll appeal to folks trying to save a few notes on conveyancing fees, the busier they'll be, the less likely they are to make you a priority.

This. I wouldn't try to save money here again in the future. Frustratingly it's not obvious that a transaction will be difficult on the day you engage them though so you're not sure up front whether you need a more diligent / responsive one.

if it makes you feel better, I exchanged at 4.30 pm one day, completed midday the next. Right up to the wire of someone up the chain clusterfucking everyone. Still waiting on the contractually obliged deed of variation bits and bobs from our sellers 3 months down the line, but the move happened and our solicitor was a hardass but allowed it all to happen. I never want to move house again after the whole experience, but yeah - all is not lost.

We are using a local film of solicitors, the seller is also using the same firm (different branch) (we had a conflict of interest discussion)
Should be straight forward, but what is in this world?

Still waiting on the contractually obliged... I never want to move house again

Ours simply decided not to bother paying off a bunch of the charges on the house (contractually obliged after our completion); when we came to remortgage two years later we found they were still there :)

I like to think that it was the seller who was personally responsible for having to pay everyone's costs from the ensuing legal drama, rather than some anonymous insurance company.

we exchanged last week. am i correct in my assumption that anyone titsing about and fucking up the sale process at this stage of the game is liable for some pretty hefty penalties?

completing on the 23rd of feb. we've already started packing.

IANAL but I think if you pull out of the sale after exchanging you forfeit your deposit.

well lets hope it doesn't come to that.

we need to install a new door on le new place as a matter of urgency. the current one is made mostly of glass in a metal frame with a single yale lock. whilst it might be period specific, it's clearly redolent of a simpler, more innocent time. anyone got any recommends for custom door manufacturers? i'm supposing it ain't gonna be cheap.

If this does happen just hope your deposit on the place your buying isn't bigger than the deposit you'll receive from the buyer that pulls out.

If you haven't exchanged on the place you're buying then you could be quids in, but most people lose out since the deposits usually get bigger as the chain goes up, the person chain free or downsizing at the top stands to win though.

Three months is pretty average on a reasonably straightforward buy.

If it's an empty house you're moving into and you're ready to go you could exchange and complete on the same day or a couple of days afterwards.

I went to Oz for 5 weeks in the middle of my purchase.
hippy does not wait for you, you wait for hippy (usually at the top of a mountain, the fat prick).

Going on Friday to sign some shit (not the big signatures though) going to spend this week chasing everything with the hopes that Friday can be exchange and Wednesday complete.

Next time I'm going to iron out a timeframe early doors.

Oh it's that one is it?