Owning your own home

Have you exchanged already?
In which case you should be fine to complete, subject to availability of removals.

If you haven’t exchanged yet, might be very difficult as land registry is effectively shut, and many solicitors have put a hold on approving exchanges and completions.
(Difficult to complete if vendor or buyer gets Covid, has to self isolate or becomes hospitalised)

As for your buyer, if you suspect that you have Covid, you should be self isolating even if it means completion is delayed.

Check with your solicitors as to their current views on exchanging.

For example one of the solicitors I deal with Dutton Gregory, their stance is: no searches, no exchanges of contracts, and no completions for the next 3 weeks. For as long as we are in lockdown they are unable to exchange or complete any transactions in line with government advice and new firm policy.

This may be linked with company staffing, ability to WFH (or not) and other solicitors may proceed differently, but if one solicitor in the chain has this policy, no one is exchanging or completing.

No, due to exchange on Friday. None of the solicitors have put a stop on it so far as I'm aware. My solicitor was intending to add carve-outs to the contracts in case we are not able to complete due to coronavirus (e.g. self-isolating or stricter government lockdown). Will have to ask them about any updates from the land registry.

It's a minimal chain. First-time buyer buying my place and we're due to move into an empty property owned by a developer with no further chain

Fingers crossed for you, the additional allowances made for coronavirus on the contract are a good idea.
In exceptional circumstances, as long as everyone agrees, completion dates can be moved or postponed, but need to get exchanged first!

Cheers. Had an email from my solicitor this morning saying it's unlikely to go through but he'll keep me updated. Looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for that garden.

Mate of mine is exchanging today and completing tomorrow, solicitors confirmed it this morning apparently

Same for me :/
Sounds like it's all on hold for now...

My solicitor suggested it was probably going to be the legislation going through today that would stop it. I guess they may be planning on exchanging before that goes through.

My solicitor suggested it was probably going to be the legislation going through today that would stop it.

Really? Fuck. What legislation?

I assume it's the emergency powers bill but no idea which part specifically. We shall see but at the moment I'd just like some certainty either way.

Hmmm. Think I’ll hold off throwing £200 at my freeholder for that assignment pack

200 is cheap. Mine was 400 6 years ago and that was only after I got them down from 480.

Cheap or not, £200 down the pisser if the govt. effectively bans all forms of normal life as we know it indefinitely.

That said, what would I spend that £200 on?, I can't eat it.

That’s two toilet rolls!

Those new plastic notes are useless for wiping your arse with though.

That's my understanding too.

I'll give my mortgage provider a shout too as due to my ex banking (yep...) background I've received quite a few query as to what it entails...

NB all of this is assuming there is not a wall on the first floor above where the now removed wall was

Sorry, just coming back to this comment. Thinking about it there is a wall on the first floor pretty near and possibly above where the removed wall was. What does this suggest?

Brick or block walls will have something underneath them to support them. Traditionally this would be another wall constructed out of brickwork / blockwork but it is often the case these days when people want to open up the ground floor of an older property that the wall on the ground floor will be removed and the upper part of the wall will be supported by structural steel. 100% this needs to be signed off by a struc. eng. as well as building control your solicitor should request any certification from the vendor. However I would be astounded if it wasn't picked up by a surveyor and even if they hadn't picked it up there would be a cascade of professional indemnity insurance to cover you.

If the wall on the first floor is a stud wall then you will be ok.

Cheers for the quick answer. The wall on the first floor is still there so I know that's a stud wall so hopefully not an issue.

OK, it's time for a remortgage. About the only good thing about this crisis is the low interest rates.

I'm looking at 2 years (probably fix) as I'd like to buy somewhere with a driveway soon. So the plan is to give the house a new kitchen and bathroom, tidy up the rest of it and make it less 80's looking.

I'm thinking of asking for more money to get a bit of cash to cover the materials to do the work.

Any tips and tricks on this approach?

Any tips and tricks on this approach?

Uh....in what sense? AFAIK you just tell them you want to release some equity to do some improvements.

Assuming the property values up and he meets the LTV requirements for the further advance/increased mortgage.

not essential - as long as the ‘value’ in the property exceeds the ltv requirement for the product he’s after he can increase his borrowing.

Well he might have a problem increasing his mortgage or getting a further advance, if say, he has a house somewhere like county Durham, where the house might be worth significantly less than he paid for it 12 years ago.

If I were him I'd speak to a broker to make sure he is approaching the right lender which will give him the minimum of hassle.

Broker is unlikely to suggest the existing lender who will probably give you the least hassle - should you qualify. They can tell you if you do with a quick phone call.

But yeah it’s good to shop around, but I’d have thought that was a given.