Owning your own home

will do! very minor tweaks, only put wider bars and a concor on it

I'd send a letter recorded delivery with the unopened letter from them attached. State date of purchase and the lack of a forwarding address. Last thing you want is a judgement against the address that you'll never know about and then coming home to changed locks.

Anyone had any delays getting a mortgage valuation done at the moment? I know it was silly busy back in the first half of the year but i thought we were over that now?

Having wasted 3.5k on fee’s mostly caused by 12 weeks of delays and an aborted sale/purchase we are now back to square one as we have just been told 6-8 weeks before our buyers lender can do a valuation?? this puts our own purchase in jeopardy as i doubt they will like that news. there was talk of an online valuation but no idea if the deposit is high enough for that.

Seriously thinking it’s time to cut the losses (6.5k) and pull the plug as it’s been a year trying to move now and has pushed us about as far as we can handle.

Sorry just seen this, thanks that's a fair point. We will go to a shop together and try some. It's more important she likes it, it's for her.

Forum favourite tado can get to fuck, 1st one weve fitted and it’s getting returned. Wouldn’t pair! Times were better when folk didn’t want internet controls

No idea about tado but Drayton Wiser just seems to work and is from a company known for heating systems.

Good luck however you go.

What actually happens on the day of completion? Would it be possible for my brother to pick up the keys for me or is there something that I'd need to do in person like sign something?

Probably depends on the agent, but in my experience by that stage they couldn’t care less, could send a chimp and they’d hand over the keys.

Maybe best to ask first though.

Nothing is signed, that all happens on exchange. Formally your lender would probably be unhappy about someone else picking up the keys but I don't think an estate agent would care.

We had to show ID before the estate agent gave us the keys to our place. But YMMV

I walked in. Shouted the address of the new house and was handed a key and bottle of champagne. No id and I'd never met the agents as my wife dealt with them.

We had the same. No ID required before getting keys on a tacky estate agent branded key ring and an even tackier branded card signed by three people we’d never spoken to from the agency and not at all by those we had.

Totally understand it’s not really a special day for them but did leave me thinking a lot less of them…wouldn’t be hard at all to get a stock of nice cards signed by everyone and a cupboard of cheap fizz to hand over to people.

(Was more impressed by Nationwide’s welcome box having taken out a mortgage with them which included mugs, biscuits, free boiler service etc - all adverts from partners really, but a lovely touch)

we have just been told 6-8 weeks before our buyers lender can do a valuation??

Happen to know which lender?
The big one I work for is currently getting the majority back within 10 working days. Your buyers lender might be waiting on various proof of ID/affordability, etc before instructing the valuation.

I remember Halifax did a box with a mini bottle of fizz, a packet of posh crisps and a mini tool kit. That was nice (if a bit meager considering the cost of the fucking mortgage). But still, more than most. Atom gave us nothing.

What happens on the day is different everywhere.

The next day, though, they are guaranteed to start posting flyers through your door, asking if you want to sell.

I'd spent so much time with the estate agent that I just wandered in and they handed them over. By that point they'd already handed me the keys a couple of times so I could go in and check everything worked and measure up and stuff.

(Was more impressed by Nationwide’s welcome box having taken out a mortgage with them which included mugs, biscuits, free boiler service etc - all adverts from partners really, but a lovely touch)

WHAT. Bastards didn't get me anything (apart from a very good rate to be fair).
The EA (Homecastle in SE25- would recommend) did give me a moving in box with tea, coffee, sugar etc and some cleaning products which was very useful!

Spoke to our mortgage advisor yesterday who said Halifax are the fastest by a country mile right now, with everyone else waiting weeks for stuff to happen

Don’t get the oil based one - i found it hideous to use and gave a poor finish. I was working in winter and it had lower min temp / higher humidity rating for application. It has bubbled in a couple places too.

Water based is forum spec I think

yep! I used the water-based stuff, went on easily enough (did uPVC window frames, door, and sandstone sills/gateposts) - albeit done in Spring

Halifax didn't give us anything! But the estate agents did - a box of goodies (coffee mini-bags, few coupons/ads, bar of AND liquid soap, mini sanitizer... post-covid!) and a bottle of fizz. We had just walked in and introduced ourselves for the first time in person.

wouldn’t be hard at all to get a stock of nice cards signed by everyone and a cupboard of cheap fizz to hand over to people

If they did that they would wind up people like me so maybe better to leave it.

Halifax are the fastest by a country mile right now

Are their rates competitive? It seems like the lenders aren't good at balancing their pricing and processing capabilities, so they'll go to the top of the best buy table with a cheap deal and blow themselves up with the resulting volume. At least that's what Platform did when we were buying.

I don’t know to be honest, I haven’t checked for a while. It’s a good point though. It’s all very well finding a cheap deal, but if it’s so popular that the process means your purchase falls apart due to delays then it’s worth nothing. Plenty of that going on right now apparently.

Top tip... order the right amount of tiles. Did +10%, but they had to cut a few too many... so....I'm a tit

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