Owning your own home

We are about to exchange contracts on a new build property.

Currently our contract says that the ANTICIPATED completion date is the 31st October, although the potential for building delays mean there is some uncertainty about the precise date, and our longstop date is 28 February 2021.

We have a generally good relationship with our rental landlords, who want to get builders in after we leave, and have verbally kept them updated throughout the process. However we have just received a snotty email from the landlords saying that they will be contacting the estate agent to arrange checkout for the 30th of October. Obviously this is awkward since even in the best case scenario would mean a 1 night gap between properties, without accounting for delays or the fact it would be easier for us if we had a slight overlap.

We are on an assured shorthold tenancy agreement with a one month period. Am I correct in thinking that under normal circumstances this means that the landlords would need to serve us with a 2 month notice period (so 2nd Nov from today) but that current COVID rules have extended the notice period to 6 months?

If so then I will write a friendly letter telling them to GTFO and informing them that they are welcome to serve notice if they like, but if they want us out before March 2021 it will be on our terms, not theirs.

I think if they sent the email on Friday the extended notice was only 3 months. From Saturday on it's 6 months. But either way you're OK.

However we have just received a snotty email from the landlords saying that they will be contacting the estate agent to arrange checkout for the 30th of October.

Ha ha yeah they are fucking idiots.

As above on the assumption the EA serves you notice correctly today, you'll have three months notice and then probably no ability to force you out because the process isn't really operating at the moment.

I'd reply just linking them to .gov.uk page on the current law.

https://www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants/section-21-and-section-8-notices

Assuming you are in the England, anyway.

Goes without saying that you should still pay the rent as per normal.

Booked in valuations with two agents, very interested to see what they say.

About to make an offer on a flat with a share of freehold. Anything to be aware of or that we should be asking?

Have already asked if there's a reserve fund, and a Deed of Trust to agree on any work. Other than that, is it just a bit of a gamble hoping that our neighbours won't be shits?

Other than that, is it just a bit of a gamble hoping that our neighbours won't be shits?

Totally. Big world of potential nightmares. Fine if they're not total cunts.

Worth asking about how the estate is managed - share of freehold means it's the residents choice but are they using an agent, if so which one, and is there a directorship up for grabs? Usually you'll find out a lot from whichever busybody does the organising (me in the case of our block) and they're usually happy to chat to potential residents. You'll get a lot from asking them 'anything I should be aware of or unwritten rules I should follow'.

May have some forward progress in our chain.
The growing, comfortable apathy I've been enjoying towards the purchase has been minorly eroded by hope as a result, so going to attempt to revert back to apathy.
It doesn't help that the property it is on my commute and as a result I see it too often.

I'm not overly concerned with treating my home as an investment

That’s nice in theory but if, when you want to move, the place you wanted has gone up by 50% and yours is (only!) up 20%, it doesn’t really help you.

That’s why it sucks - there’s no choice but to treat your home as an investment... because it is whether you like it or not.

Things seem to be progressing, the survey was carried out on mine yesterday and I believe the other is being carried out next week.

Sept is looking less and less likely though. It's incredibly hard to not be frustrated with the snails pace of solicitors though.

Virgin have said that it will take them 2 weeks to instruct a surveyor, ??? for the suvery to take place, then 2-4 weeks post survey to finalise their decision, so god knows how long ours is going to be delayed now.

Our buyers application was sent off last monday, survey on saturday, and the surveyor that came here said he fed back to the mortgage company within the hour, so fuck knows what virgin are playing at

Seems not much has changed in seven years.

When I bought my flat, two identical offers were decided on which party got the lender's survey arranged quickest.

I was lucky I had a great IMA on the case, who knew it could take Virgin up to two weeks. Halifax typically did it immediately, even though their rates were marginally higher. I had offer accepted next day.

Can anyone recommend a plasterer that would come to Clapton? If so feel free to dm.

Thanks

From what I've been told theres a huge backlog on surveys currently. On my house the earliest they could book was 4 weeks in advance,

Our sellers are gna be climbing the walls, hopefully they dont pull out

Can anyone recommend a plasterer that would come to Clapton? If so feel free to dm.

(An electrician would be good too..)

The same thing crossed my mind, but I'd guess everyone is in the same boat right now.

i do feel somewhat bad for them, <2yo child and wife in london until we exchange, husband abroad started a new job since beginning of august, and they cannot see each other because of covid in between, they were hoping for 5 weeks to exchange from August 18th, no chance unfortunately.

Or you live where you want to live, for as long as you want to live there. And when you do want to move, that's when you look at what you can afford at that point. There's no point worrying about the possible price increases in somewhere you might want to move next while you are happy where you are.

I agree with this 100% first and foremost its a house, a roof above your head, and an alternative to renting.

Only if I was buying a second home would I be concerned about potential losses.

My buyers are in a similar position, no backwards chain and no forwards chain so should be relatively quick process (you'd think). They've handed notice in on their rental as they were informed we should complete this month. That's looking less likely now...

yeah, i am the chain (first time buyer -> us -> moving abroad), and looks like our mortgage is going to be what holds the whole thing up, feels bad. fingers crossed 😂

Eugh... so we wrote a polite email to the landlords pointing out the legal status of the notice period and saying that they could officially serve 3/6 months notice if they wanted but that we wouldn’t be serving our 1 month notice until we had confirmed our completion date for the new property. Either way, the date would not be 30th Oct.

They replied copying in an email thread from February(!!!) saying “ you did give us official notice that you would vacate the property on the 31st July 2020 ” followed by some jibber jabber about verbal agreements, them doing us a favour letting us stay longer, saying we could live with my mum and “we trusted you”. In the email thread my fiancé indeed says “we would like to officially state that we can move out on 31st July 2020 at the very latest.” but that was 7months and a world ago.

I’m more than a little irritated and my fiancé is going to be an hour late for work after a fit of anxious apoplexy worrying about baliffs coming round and taking our things.

As the email thread says we DID have a prior agreement to move out in July, but no formal notice was lodged (at least I don’t think it was... we never received anything formal and I don’t think an email counts as formal notice in our part?).

Since then, in case they haven’t noticed, circumstances have changed somewhat. COVID meant our previous house purchase fell through, and also meant that our landlords could not sell their second home in Mallorca. We all agreed to sit tight and see what happens. Since restrictions have been lifting we have managed to secure a house, we have been friendly and open about our progress but have always stressed that we do not yet know the completion date. Also since restrictions lifted the landlords have sold their Mallorca house and flip flopped about whether they were going to move to Scotland (in which case they would continue renting our flat) or whether they want to knock through into our flat to make an extension. It was only a couple of weeks ago that they came back from Scotland having failed to buy a house and firmly deciding they wanted access to our flat.

Throughout this time we’ve been entirely friendly and open about our house buying but have always stressed that we don’t and can’t know the final completion date until the house is built.

And the suggestion we could live with my mum is doubly irritating. Yes we have discussed that as an option but (A) that was pre COVID, my mum is vulnerable and sheltering, and my fiancé is only partially WFH and (B) it’s none of their fucking business.

Twats!

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I have parked in a neighbours space for ten years - through two different neighbours being resident in the flat associated with the parking space. Is there any way I can convert this established use into ownership of the space (of some kind) as I strongly dislike the neighbour?

They replied

They should have called you. Idiots.

You probably should have mentioned in the previous post that you'd already agreed to leave earlier. Check your tenancy agreement - if it says you can give notice by email, well, you can understand how the LL might have interpreted that as notice, even if the format of the notice was unconventional.