Owning your own home

In response to Question B - couldn't you both just appoint solicitors and crack on? Ultimately an agent is just a gobetween, imo...

I get on with the neighbours, is it worth persuading them to sell outside of their current Winkworths agency to save each other cash?

We tried this (as sellers), but closely reading the contract T&C's it effectively says that the agent selling fee applies to all sales introduced by the agent for up to 6 months after initial listing. I assume sticking the listing up on Rightmove/Zoopla counts as being 'introduced by the agent'.

Yes, he's hardly got the reputation for being a tenants friend has he? Bearing in mind this is in Lambeth where the council are over ruling all of this and selling off bits of Crown Estate, Cressingham etc. However, my block isn't on the list (it's getting listed).

Thanks

Can anyone recommend a plumber in SE to supply and fit a hot water pump please? Mine is on its last legs and keeps revving up for no reason scaring the shit out of me.

Pete and his team have done various bits for us over the last 3 years including boiler inspections. He's Dulwich/Nunhead area if that helps.

http://www.pmbennison.co.uk

Ok, big breath.

We’ve just had a lot of work done to our top floor flat. It’s almost finished, but one of the cracks that was properly filled and sanded and painted has reappeared.
Apparently our downstairs neighbour is about to commence with 6 weeks renovation and building work. Including knocking down the (clearly structural) outer wall at the end of their flat (our shared end wall).
They got the middle flat to sign a party wall agreement.
They didn’t even inform us of the work.
Clearly there is the possibility of our newly plastered and decorated kitchen having damage caused.
Then we’ve just found out that there was an attempted break-in last weekend. They haven’t informed either us or the other flat.
We know all this because the builders on the different jobs have been chatting.

Oh and we’re supposed to be buying the freehold with these people fairly soon.

Anyone know a good property lawyer?

That’s great thanks, I’m in Peckham so that’s ideal, will drop him a line in the morning.

Update: Estate agent called today and informed us vendor is sick with anxiety and so is pulling the house off the market because of our unwillingness to have a 10 week gap between exchange and completion.

I said if the vendor is happy to complete in 2 weeks we are happy to exchange contracts now, otherwise we'll wait until October if she is planning on renovating the house she is moving to. For this estate agent told me I was "out of order". I thanked him calmly and wished him well.

I don't understand some people!

Sorry am I understanding this correctly that the vendor wanted the money now and was only going to give you the keys in Oct?

If I am paying for something now, I want it now. Isn't it the very basic of buying something?

Surely money only changes hands on completion. Exchange just locks the seller / buyer in with a legally binding contract.

Tbh I don't really think the principle of asking is unreasonable, as for eg when we moved we were staying at my folks so pretty flexible. But ultimately you've said no.

What I'm not getting is why they don't rent a place for the 10wk period, stay with friends or even God forbid, live in the house while they do it up - my folks lived out of one room in a derelict building with newborn me. Why on earth didn't they didn't flag their timelines from the start?

Also renting a place can't be about not having money, because otherwise how are they going to afford to buy the family members house without selling their house? Personally I'd ask the direct question of why they can't rent for the interim, and offer a compromise of 4wks.

There's also the 10% deposit at exchange, so I wondered if the seller needed the money to do the renovations on the new place but that can't be the case if they're just taking it off the market.
We waited what seemed like an eternity to exchange after our offer was accepted (14 weeks!) but once we'd done so it was the standard two weeks to completion. Not ideal for us or the seller (they had to rent in the end and we stayed with friends/family) but it sounds like this seller wants to have their cake and eat it.

They don’t get that 10% until completion. It’s held by the solicitor as security against failure to complete.

10 weeks is too much risk of a revaluation. I’d say do it in a rising market but don’t risk it in this one.

Oh, I'm sure I remember us getting the deposit on the place we sold before the bulk of it but it's all a bit fuzzy now!

What I'm not getting is why they don't rent a place for the 10wk period, stay with friends or even God forbid, live in the house while they do it up

Because they are dicks

For this estate agent told me I was "out of order". I thanked him calmly and wished him well.

The agent is clearly a dick, too.

#cuntagent

we're being stalled and we're not entirely sure why, could be genuine problems getting the information we need, could be something else going on.

What happens when your mortgage offer is close to expiry? we had 16 weeks and are on week 11 so going to need to do something about that soon

Depends on your provider, some places with give you an extra month with no issues. Others will want a fresh valuation.
We have just gone past our 6 month expiry and they (yorkshire BS) have said to call when we have a date and they will make a decision.

We got our solicitor to call the underwriters and explain the situation, might be worth doing that.

Pissing off estate agents is one of the great pleasures in life.

we're being stalled and we're not entirely sure why

Is the problem with your side somewhere, or theirs? If it is at their end, have you set a deadline?

Im not entirely sure whats going on, we had one outstanding thing to clarify, vendors solicitors were working on it.

We managed to get the information we needed directly from the council, our solicitors told them don't worry about it, we thought we were ready to just get going with exchange but vendors solicitors just arent progressing.

Estate agent says the vendor is pushing them to get going but we dont seem to be going anywhere.

Update 2: Seller pulled out. I called her directly, and she said she just changed her mind last minute. So, after a £200 mortgage valuation fee, a £1500 mortgage fee, $430 survey, £925 solicitor fees for work done to date our seller just changed her mind. Solicitor did take out insurance for £1500 for fall through protection, which might be laden with tricks when we attempt to claim.

Have just asked mortgage broker if we could port mortgage to another house if we find one in next couple of months. She has said yes, but we have to pay her £500 fee if we want to (the initial mortgage broker offer was free, but I think she realises she has us by the balls).

Any advice?

Any advice?

Shit on her door step

Tempting.