Owning your own home

i mean he was on a call from about 6 last night till about 11 so i assume it isnt just working.

You need to know if the work was guaranteed and for how long the guarantee is valid for.

You need all the plans for what was done and how and a structural engineer type to tell you if it was broadly the right thing to do. They can also tell you if what the basic bitch surveyor is saying is on the money or not.

You need to know if the owner can pass their insurance policy on to you, because getting a new one will be either impossible or very, very expensive.

But yeah subsidence / underpinning is not a problem at all.

Give yourself an easy life and renegotiate before you descend in to the madness of it all; they might make life easy for you by refusing.

You need to know if the work was guaranteed and for how long the guarantee is valid for.

And how / who has underwritten it - It's worthless if the company has gone under.

We are using these guys. Came recomended by two mates. Seems all good so far, but not completed yet.

https://www.henriquesgriffiths.com/

Thanks.
It was guaranteed for 12 years which expired in 2014 (I think it was completed in 2002).
It was signed off by the council at the time.
The company which did it - Purkelly - are still in business.
Hoping to get the current insurance details v soon - was requested on Friday.
I guess then we'll need a proper survey of the work and the current state of it?

You need to know if the owner can pass their insurance policy on to you, because getting a new one will be either impossible or very, very expensive.

We have not found this, despite having the vendors insurance details and various people making a big deal out of it. A quote I got before we moved in was cheaper than the shared documents and since then our most recent (specialist) insurer just laughed and said it didn’t count as it was 30-odd years ago. I can’t remember what they said the cutoff was but it was a lot lower than I imagined (10-15 yrs).

That's fine, but we were only offered BI at about £1500 a year and were locked out of any online purchase - which is all things considered completely mental.

And the owner couldn't hand over their policy to us.

Maybe it's random and they just didn't like the look of us. But this was for work that was done twenty years ago.

Even in your situation which seems fine, 'needing to use a specialist insurer' is not on anyone's positives list when considering a property.

Yeah that’s not great. I’m using ‘specialist’ loosely tbh though https://www.homeprotect.co.uk/ and I’ve gone through the normal comparison sites to get there.
Buildings and contents is less than 1/3rd your quote. Obviously there are a vast number of variables in play!

My office wall currently. Already looks better than before they started ripping it out, given how it was decorated. Found a Frisps packet from 1995 which ties in with the loft extension above.

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Gearing up to sell our Victorian terraced house in Bristol and move to the countryside south of Bristol. Looking at the Chew Valley, which I know fairly well but somewhat worryingly there seems to be a real shortage of housing stock on the market.

Pondering whether a buying agent might be worth shelling out for, anyone used one/had any experience?

I got an email last week from the freeholder asking about customer satisfaction. I think the two attached screenshots will explain my experiences in dealing with them better than words will

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Hyde New Homes? Shower of cunts.

Pondering whether a buying agent might be worth shelling out for

For residential property, no. 99% of people wanting to sell their home will instruct an estate agent, so it'll be out there already. For commercial property and development sites it might be worth it.

surely that is a symptom of there not actually being that many houses there though...? absolutely lovely mind

@Ifonlyiwerebelgian cheers :)

My survey is booked in for 14/06, which is quite close to the deadline for stamp duty. Estate agent and hopefully seller knows this. Not really sure why I'm not getting pressure from them to get one sooner.
Found a solicitor nnow, a guy in Sheffield my mate has used recently.
Planning to pay for the surveys and get the ball rolling with the paperwork, quickly speak to seller after the survey incase anything needs doing and reflecting in the price, then finish the legal process. Hoping the surveyor has a cancellation and can fit me in earlier to ease pressure.
For me as FTB, missing the deadline is £1700 in stamp duty on the house so not the end of the world (not golf club -I'd obviously rather not pay it). For the seller, I am guessing they are moving to a £500k house so this is going to cost them £12500 if they miss the 30th June.

Edit - could get a cheap survey sooner, or get a roofer in to look at the roof (that's the big ticket item that the survey will probably throw up)

Seems to have really dropped off in the past few months, used to be a lot more on the market - have been keeping half an eye on it for the past year or two, working out what kind of place we would want.

Not really sure why I'm not getting pressure from them to get one sooner

Two weeks from survey to completion seems very tight if any issues arise. If they're buying somewhere where it's going to cost them a substantial amount not to hit the stamp duty window you can see why they'd be nervous.

Doing the survey is also seen as a real sign of intent that you want the place, committing money specific to that property.

Do all the surveyors have that backlog or just that one? I'd be looking at one that could get the survey done in the next few weeks if possible. You may well be at risk of being gazumped otherwise.

@bobble FWIW our surveyor was able to go do the survey the next day after enquiring about getting it done and sent it to us the day after that. This was within the last 30 days as well. Booking it now for mid June seems super late.

Anyone able to recommend a Bristol based surveyor please? I am booked in to use Jon at domestic surveys but based on the above may need to get someone else

@aggi will do some researching today. I'm quite stupidly banking on them having a cancellation.
They haven't said anything which surprises me (and the surveyor). Not bought or sold a house before - would the entire chain all complete on the same day?

@M4xime booked last week! Where are you based?

Anyone able to recommend a Bristol based surveyor please? I am booked in to use Jon at domestic surveys but based on the above may need to get someone else

You can always, and hold your nose, ask the estate agent to put some names forward. They will have worked with some at least and if they are pressuring you to get stuff done then they will do some work for you. Check all against the RICS site but most of them are much of a muchness.

this is going to cost them £12500 if they miss the 30th June.

Which gives you a £12,500 -£1,700 sized stick if the survey shows up anything that needs money spending on it. You don;t have to swing it, but it will be nice to have.

I used Tony at 3 Counties Surveying; good talk-through on the phone after, been in the house a week and not spotted anything he should have seen but didn't. Took about a week from booking to get him to the property, report was in-hand 24hrs later.