Owning your own home

Welly well. Seems our application ... how did the broker put this? "The lender is happy with the case and will move to offer on completion of the valuation". Surveyor now instructed.

*cautious celebratory fist-pump.

Now officially out of contract on rental flat, landlord has said we can stay till middle of November at an increased rate. Yep he wants a rent increase for two weeks. Whatever. Have called his bluff by witholding November payment till he tells us exactly how long we can stay and how much he's charging. The goon.

Sorry, getting both, but lender is awaiting result of valuation before approving.

My survey/valuation is apparently happening today.

My flatmate has handed her notice in at our place, so she'll be moving out in 4 weeks. I'd like to be able to do the same (we have a six-week notice period, so I'd be a little behind) so that we can time bills, deposit etc, and so I don't have to deal with a new flatmate just for a couple of weeks. Also, there's about to be a load of plumbing and roof work done which will be a pain, and she'll be popping around all the time.

But I'm too nervous to do it in case the sale falls through. Any ideas, or shall I just suck it up?

So, it turns out, I'm being evicted. Letter waiting for me when I got home, got to be out on December 18th. Guess she wants to let it out as a whole, so when my flatmate handed in her notice she decided to turf me out. Saves me writing a letter. That sort of thing is exactly why I wanted to buy in the first place...

Hopefully you won't have to couch surf for too long Sparky.

Our valuation was approved yesterday. Now I guess the solicitor gets to work?

All this house buying is hard work. But this (all things being equal) will be our house for the next 10-15 years or even longer so I won't be going through it all again in a hurry!!

Hopefully you won't have to couch surf for too long Sparky.

Our valuation was approved yesterday. Now I guess the solicitor gets to work?

All this house buying is hard work. But this (all things being equal) will be our house for the next 10-15 years or even longer so I won't be going through it all again in a hurry!!

Nice work. I've caught you up, it seems: got my approval today. Race you? First to make a cup of tea in new place and post photographic evidence?

Ha sounds good! Im hoping we'll be in by Christmas at least I can start work on a few things over the holiday period that way.

We're in Paris for the rest of this week but once Im back I'll start chasing.

So, it turns out, I'm being evicted. Letter waiting for me when I got home, got to be out on December 18th. Guess she wants to let it out as a whole, so when my flatmate handed in her notice she decided to turf me out. Saves me writing a letter. That sort of thing is exactly why I wanted to buy in the first place...

Not entirely sure but I think you are entitled to 2 month's notice.

If you really want to be an arse and you need somewhere to stay for a while up to when your new home purchase is complete, you could just stay put. Your landlord would have to go through the court system to evict you. This will take at least a couple more months. You wouldn't even need to pay rent!

It takes even longer if you do keep paying rent though.

And yes, a normal contact would be two months that way, check yours, and pop into Wandsworth Council's Housing Department at the top of Garrett Lane and let them know. It's Housing Aid you'd need to chat too, they hate landlords that do things like that, and write them lovely letters. I know, I've seen some of them. :)

Not entirely sure but I think you are entitled to 2 month's notice.

If you really want to be an arse and you need somewhere to stay for a while up to when your new home purchase is complete, you could just stay put. Your landlord would have to go through the court system to evict you. This will take at least a couple more months. You wouldn't even need to pay rent!

or you could let it slide for a month or so then point out that the notice served is invalid due to the fact the period is too short therefore forcing her to re-serve with a full 2 months from the date of the new notice.

This is all assuming I want to stay. But hopefully the sale will go through on the flat.

I was thinking more of covering any gap that may arise between your moving out date and completing on the purchase.

Do you think it will take that long? I was hoping it would only be a few weeks away: mortgage is approved, survey is done, solicitor appointed (although now on holiday...).

You wouldn't believe how long this shit can take.
It took 13 weeks between exchange and completion on my flat, during which time, as far as I can tell, fuck all happened.
That was on a new build, with no chain

With ours the Solicitor held everything up for months.

I thought it was the, now current, managing agent who delayed ours, combined with the previous owner's rubbish solicitor.

True, to qualify my previous post, it was their solicitor, and the managing agent not responding to our solicitor.

Basically, people with no financial motivation to get stuff done, unsurprisingly are slow at doing stuff.

Pimping your own articles Sparky? Tut tut ;)

The way that I look at it (and I suspect that many others are the same) is that I don't really care about the end price. To be frank, at the moment, my house value could have dropped 20%, and I'd still be up over having rented. I don't think that I've even seen that point of view in an article about house prices, which is a shame, as it's an interesting point, although not one that holds for everyone.

Really? That's all you saw in property supplements during the mid 2000s.

Do you think it will take that long? I was hoping it would only be a few weeks away: mortgage is approved, survey is done, solicitor appointed (although now on holiday...).

Being a leasehold and particularly a new lease may drag things out.

You wouldn't believe how long this shit can take.
It took 13 weeks between exchange and completion on my flat, during which time, as far as I can tell, fuck all happened.
That was on a new build, with no chain

The norm is to set a completion date on exchange, usually this would be 4 weeks or so to give time to arrange removals, etc. This could however be on the same day.
I completed the purchase of a couple of flats bought at auction 7 days after the fall of the hammer but all the legal work had been done prior to the auction date.
In the case of a new build I guess the completion date could be extended due to the property not having been finished and ready for occupation but the builder wanting exchange to happen to encourage lenders to release funds for the project.

Best of luck peoples. I still haven't heard from my landlord yet despite numerous messages left and cessation of rent payments. Thought that would grab his attention but apparently not. Have been told that the sellers aren't planning on emigrating until January so presumably we'll be couch surfing from either mid or end of November until then. Not too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Got a lender's survey taking place on Tuesday on a flat my wife and I are trying to buy in Leyton. First timers and learning fast. Nervous as hell - especially as we can't afford the money pr energy to go through this over and over. I just hope it all slots in first time around. Reading some of the notes of caution about time frames etc on this thread leaves me with the jitters and no mistake.

I'd love to be in by Chrimbo. What does everyone reckon is the most opportune point to give notice on our current place? We're renting off a very close friend so have no intention at all of screwing things up for her.

Legally you are required to give a month's notice and this should end on the same day as the rental period. The point in the purchase process that you can almost guarantee that the flat is yours is at exchange of contracts. Up until this happens either party can walk away from the deal.
Either party can still walk away from the deal after exchange but that can be expensive as you have entered a legally binding contract.
Prior to exchange, your solicitor will want to know when you want to complete. If the flat's currently occupied by the owner, it's likely they will want at least 4 weeks to sort our removals and etc. Even if they don't you can still insist on at least 4 weeks if that suits your giving notice.

If your current landlord will allow it then try and allow for an overlap. Sometimes a couple of days may well be enough, but I found that a week was perfect.