Owning your own home

This is excellent information.
Thank you

Oh which one?! There were so many...

This is my fave...

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-61322566.html

The one tenderloin was apparently going to buy

The 600k of burnt shell?

Actually got details of my one when i was purchasing it and that was haringey council. let me see if I can find it.

475 but yes

Ahh that one.. brave buyer!

Another day, more bullshit and lies from L&C.

They claimed last week our application had passed the underwriter stage and was at the point when an offer can be made. Spoke to her today and she claimed, oh no, underwriter comes in two stages time (application made well over a month ago) followed by a hard credit check which is only ever made (by this lender apparently) at the point of offer.
"we've already had two hard credit checks"
"oh no, that must be from someone else"
"nope, from the lender with a note saying 'mortgage application'"
"really? oh that's strange, don't know then".

Actually she didn't say "don't know" she just waffled and changed the subject until she thought I'd forgotten. I do feel like I want to go another broker now but feel that it would hurt the application to pick it up elsewhere or starting again afresh would take even more time. Even though we've inevitably lost this house. Utter twats.

That sounds bloody awful... how do these people get away with such incompetence?

My broker was recommendation fro ma friend, a tiny bit odd (keys on the floor) but everything goes swimmingly...

Something similar was used on the other half's previous house.

It was not the right choice for a Victorian property.

Mortgage approved! One step closer n all that

This is my fave...

That's properly grim.

Sounds like they will come through eventually. And this house may not be lost, the next people in all likelihood will go through similar shit you are now, so the race lead is still yours.

Honestly not sure how you're drawing that conclusion (that they'll come through) but I like the optimism nonetheless.

Because underwriter stage is the last stage before mortgage offer. I remember my MA telling me that they operate at their own pace, can't be chased ( I was trying to chase it up), but they do eventually come through and that should be it in terms of the decision.

Anyone moved to Margate and had building work done? My sister has been totally fucked over by every tradesmen she’s used, any suggestions for reputable people would be gratefully welcomed!

Which would be fine were it not for the fact that the MA said we had already passed the underwriter stage last week and is now saying it's not for another 2 'stages'.

Foxtons were almost tempted to try over 575 but felt that was crackers

Standard MO for Foxtons:-

• Appeal to greed by quoting a ludicrously high valuation to get people to sign up to them
  
• First few weeks you'll have lots of viewings but no offers as they show a bunch of people round who won't be interested because it'll be nothing like what they've asked Foxtons for, out of their price range or in completely the wrong area
  
• Then suggest you drop the price (to roughly what was a more sensible valuation)
  
• Eventually sell it (despite being incompetent fuckwits)
  
• Profit (for Foxtons)
  

You'd think that people would cotton on to this though?

Most people move house, what, every 10 years or so? Long enough to forget the tricks I suppose.

Sounds about right. I saw a place from then that’s since dropped 50k. Although they claim to achieve asking price 90% of the time.

But yeah, not usually a fan.

Our survey (on a 150-year-old three-bed in Hither Green) came back over the weekend. Generally, as expected, the house is in very good nick. But here are the things that a naturally cautious surveyor identified as "needing urgent repair"

1. External walls rendered to the ground, therefore probably negating the original slate DPC
   
2. Parapet walls at roof level require re-rendering
   
3. Moss on tiled roof needs removing ("needing urgent repair" — really?!)
   
4. Two rainwater downpipes in bad order
   
5. High damp readings on ground-floor walls indicate possible, ahem, "rising damp"
   
6. Wooden staircase needs strengthening
   
7. Combi boiler should never have been installed in the bathroom
   
   

We have had an offer accepted at £5k under asking price. We have since had two valuations done.

1. Mortgage lender (without even visiting — not really credible): £33k under our offer
   
2. Surveyor: £7k under our offer
   
   

So I think we're justified in asking the vendors to lower the price — but by how much? And how do I broach the subject without turning the whole thing sour?

Get a builder to put pound signs next to everything on the surveyors report. Ensure they are 'thorough'.
My guess is that it will come to £20k ish...

Reduce your offer by £10k because you are a nice dude.

Probably the best thing to do is pretend internally and externally that you don't know how any of this shit works but your builder says it will cost £xx to fix so you'd like the seller to contribute £X which is small beer and I hope that's OK.

Basically ^ this, wot @WjPrince says. It might be what they are expecting.

At a glance, there's nothing in the surveyor headlines that isn't shit that happens to houses. The boiler is an interesting one. You can put boilers in bathrooms, it just has to be done right. The Why it was put there is more interesting than the fact that it's there.