Owning your own home

So the wife and I bought our one bed freehold house in Camberwell 2 years ago in May, absolutely love the house and the area, but now that we're both full time working from home it's become a bit of a squeeze. As some of you are aware we thought about selling up and heading off to west of Ireland (both Irish) where property is cheap and infrastructure is non existent. The more we looked into it, it just didn't make financial sense (3 years left on our fixed term we'd have to buy out of, salaries lower, tax higher) so we decided to explore outside the m25 in the UK (Banbury to be exact), but my car broke down on the way to a viewing and 5 hours in a layby outside Milton Keynes made me realise I don't want to live outside London unless it's Ireland.

Last night we looked at a 2 bed leasehold flat with twice the floor area as our house, advertised for 30k less than we'd hope to get for ours. What's the catch? The service charge is high (£2,600pa), and its in a transport link dead spot (relative to rest of london), not that it matters too much to us. Anyway we fell in love with it and want to make an offer.

Questions:

1. Are we insane to offer on the first place we've seen?
   
2. I've asked for details on breakdown of service charge, if its likely to change based on historical data, recent major work, projected major work, lease length - anything else to consider with leasehold property?
   
3. We're getting out place valued by the EA we bought it through later today, already have a purple bricks valuation and will get one from EA managing property we like too. Can we make an offer before we advertise our own or is that a black mark against us in the eyes of a vendor?
   

If the place is right, it is right. So don't worry about it being the first one you viewed. You've bought before and you know what you want now so wouldn't be too worried about that. Maybe look a bit in the area there, is it really only because of the transport links it's so much cheaper? What about other shops/amenities?
Important one that you haven't brought up is the length of the leasehold, bearing in mind that you need to own a flat for at least 3 years before you can extended it. If the flat has got less than say 85-90 years on it, best to do some research on costs involved there.

It's a little further out than we are, se25, so I'd guess that's one factor, and it's a bit of a stroll to the nearest shops, but it's near crystal palace, norwood junction and selhurst, so not a million miles out.

Asked about lease, theres 120 years on it.

I think there's value in South Norwood way. Plus hills route.
Have you considered Penge and that area?

When was the place built?

Is there a sinking fund?

Is it possible to RTM or buy the freehold?

Does it have cladding?

Is there a residents association?

Is it all private owned?

blah blah blah?

but my car broke down on the way to a viewing and 5 hours in a layby outside Milton Keynes made me realise I don't want to live outside London unless it's Ireland.

That sounds like a scene in a Ken Loach movie.

A pal of mine lives in that area, and while it is quite out the way with no shops or bars/cafes how often do you realistically need/want to go to such things? My friend doesn't have much interest in them and loves her massive cosy family home. And as you mention Crystal Palace is close and that looks pretty decent.

1. If you like it you like it. And realistically the whole process takes a while, you can still go and view some others and make sure you're not making a terrible mistake.

2. Who manages it.

3. You can make an offer but it may not be worth much. We had various responses when we were looking and ours either wasn't on the market or we hadn't yet received an offer. They ranged from "we'll take it off the market for a month whilst you try and sell yours" to "no viewings unless you've already accepted an offer on your place".

dawsons heights then?

we decided to explore outside the m25 in the UK (Banbury to be exact), but my car broke down on the way to a viewing and 5 hours in a layby outside Milton Keynes made me realise I don't want to live outside London unless it's Ireland

Bucking the trend of replies here but you owe it to yourselves to do your research a bit more thoroughly before committing.

Banbury is a bit grim though.

Would love a place there but jeez they've shot up in price in the last 2 years.

I never even got there to see for myself.

I guess what puts me off anywhere else in the UK is that we'll have no family nearby, or friends anymore. It will literally just be to get a bigger home that we don't actually need right now.

It took that long on the a5 for the epiphany moment.

I'm biased but I feel Norfolk is underrated, some nice places out that way and still pretty cheap. The coast and the broads are beautiful too. Locals less so.

Oi!

Am Banbury born and bred.

But true though.

@Colm89 if you do consider OX16 again I can help with any local knowledge. My family settled there from West of Ireland. And I get back there every month.

Having made the escape from London we settled for Suffolk though.

Who's the freehold? If it's the council I'd keep clear.
check what major works ahve been done and what are expected in the next 10 years (roof, electrics, water) etc.

I would look at some more places just to be sure.

Camberwell is a nice area with relatively high property prices - you will probably be able to get more house for your money in a lot of areas you might not have considered.

I would do one of those rightmove/Zoopla map searches with filters by price, minimum bedrooms, flat/house and see if there are other places that might also wow you - or confirm your decision.

Moving out of London shouldn't be a hard decision, it's divisive and binary, when you're sick of it, go, if you're not, stay, otherwise you'll just be pining for it and seeing the worst in anywhere you end up

What is the benefit in a delay between exchange and completion? Is it the extra certainty that exchanging gives you so you can be definite in organising removals, etc or something beyond that? I assume if there's a substantial chain it is more difficult to find an agreeable date.

All going well I should have a minimal chain (first time buyer buying my flat, me buying a house that is chain free) so I assume a week or so between exchange and completion would be OK. Anything I'm missing here?

It's less a benefit and more an essential period of time to organise shit. Two weeks is about right.

They can ask for longer even if you're ready to rock n roll

We used to be in SW9 and we moved to SE25 5 months ago, very same reason. We both love it (and Gary the greyhound does to). The area is not at all like London, but people are super friendly and we have a park 3 steps away! P.S: feel free to drop a PM if you want to come a check the area and local park... Heads up it is pretty quiet, but there is one good pizza and a small craft beer place... Quite a lot of property for your money, as houses often go under asking price. Also rougher but much cleaner than Lambeth!

Good to know! We also have a greyhound so might be introducing them to each other soon fingers crossed!

Brilliant!! Keep us posted! We have contact for local dog care, etc...

don't want to live outside London unless it's Ireland

Yep

No advice about the house except do the due diligence and ask all the questions. If you’re satisfied then great. I looked at loads of places when we bought, only 2 felt right

We had a Section 20 notice last year, as part of which every flat had to move data/phone cables in order that the work could be started. I've not been round to check recently but a generous estimate is that 50% of the flats have done the required work, with the remainder still showing the jaunty red cardboard tag above their doors, attached to errant cables.

I'd been holding off paying as until the cables are moved the work can't start, and at the current rate of cable moving the work won't start until 2021. I asked why I should park my money with the managing agent for possibly years, and got no answer.

Then early this year we had a letter from the managing agent saying that they had to re-tender for the works, and they'd let us know what the new figure would be.

I had assumed that this suspended the S20 payment whilst they went through the tender process and then awarded the contract, and provided a revised figure to all the lessees.

However, today we received a letter saying that our S20 invoice had been passed to a firm of solicitors to extract the cash from us.

Which presumably means they want us to pay the old, not obsolete sum, then (presumably) a top-up for the new amount, whatever that is.

Is this kosher, or should the re-tendering suspend the process until we actually know what the cost is going to be?