Things to be aware of when moving house!

[Woodchips2]

Some 25 years have elapsed since we last moved house and things seem to have significantly changed or maybe old age has affected my memory ! The following tips are what we've gleaned recently.

• Before an estate agent or solicitor will act for you be prepared to prove your identity. Not that easy when you don't have a passport or a photo driving licence .
• Warn your bank in advance that large sums of money will come in and go out of your account or they'll suspect you of illicit activities :roll:
• You'll have to produce records of planning permissions, building regulations approvals, gas and electrical checks, FENSA certificates for double glazing, central heating commissioning certificates etc. I am starting to get into the habit of scanning these types of documents so they are easy to find in one place.
• Be prepared to answer endless questions from your buyer's solicitor about alterations, additions (especially electrical), boundaries, disputes with neighbours etc
• Be aware of restrictive covenants on your land. We built a porch on a shared drive having consulted with the neighbour, obtained planning permission and used it without any problem for the last six years. Then a smart-*rsed lawyer says we have to take out insurance against a possible claim for obstructing the joint access. In the end it's cheaper (sic) to take out the insurance than incur legal costs to argue there's no obstruction!
• I presume everybody at risk has insurance against Chancel Repair liability? If you have no idea what this is (like me) have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancel_repair_liability. In 2003 an unlucky couple got stung by the Church of England for £100,000 bill towards repairs to their local church. In the end it cost them close to £500,000 with legal costs to lose the case in the House of Lords. It's not expensive to insure against (cost us £15) but something to be aware of.
• Read the small print on furniture removal quotations especially what is included for insurance against loss or damage. Some companies include it as part of the fee and others charge extra so factor it in when comparing quotes from different companies.

I should think others have things to add to this list. Just hope the next move is to the undertakers (hammer) .

Regards Keith

 

[marcros]

I can never understand why the church doesn't enforce the chancel tax. From a money raising point of view it would surely make sense.

 

[Woodchips2]

I can never understand why the church doesn't enforce the chancel tax. From a money raising point of view it would surely make sense.

True but it would alienate an awful lot of people that may be tempted to attend church (hammer)
Regards Keith

 

[Steve Maskery]

I think if the church tried that one on me it would definitely cause me to flip. I'd do things that would ensure I would be locked away for the rest of my life. It is simply wicked to do that to people, legal or not.

 

[marcros]

well, to that degree yes- i didnt mean £100k, although the point still stands. However as the OP stated, if you buy a house now, it is a part of the searches, and you pay a nominal insurance figure to cover it. I am not saying it is right or wrong, or that i agree with it, but it exists regardless. It is like effectively getting free gas and going and buying oil fired heating. I am not sure when the searches started to highlight it, and no doubt if it was called in, the nominal insurance would skyrocket

 

[DrPhill]

We just moved, and our purchasers were too tight to get a survey. We got a letter requesting answers to a long list of questions such as 'has the building ever sufferred from subsidence, is there any evidence of subsidence or likelyhodd that it will suffer from subsidence?'. It had similar questions about damp, woodworm, and structural and wiring defects, state of the boiler and plumbing. My answer was 'Get a survey'. They did not (and fwiw I do not think that there is much for them to worry about). But the cheek of it riled me.

The best question was 'Why are you selling for less than you paid?' . I spent many happy hours composing answers in my head. Some of them over-informative (lectures on supply and demand) and some of them sarcastic ('because that is all that I have been offered - do you want to offer more?'). I think that our lawyer wisely declined to respond to that query.

Depending where you are in the country you will find 'your' agent so desparate for a sale that they will shaft you. I have never trusted that an agent would put my interests ahead of their own, but I have never seen such a blatantly disloyal agent as on our last transaction. Ah well, just part of the game.

Good luck to anyone who is moving. Despite our traumas we are now much happier than we were.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

We've just sold, and haven't yet bought. I think anyone who tries to do both at the same time is completely and utterly insane.

 

[Graham Orm]

We've just sold, and haven't yet bought. I think anyone who tries to do both at the same time is completely and utterly insane.

Agreed....having done just that 2 years ago. The stress and endless questions from solicitors AND spurious insurances that we had to take out against all sorts of rubbish was infuriating. We ended up paying out over £700 in insurances against things from problems with trees on other properties 40 yards away to blocking joint access, there were several others that I can't recall, I'm sure our solicitor was on the take.

For us the worst part was our own solicitor. Her blurb stated that she would keep us up to the minute with developments....we ended up informing her of most developments. When she was too busy to speak to me on the phone I went to her office and the very embarrased secretary came out of her office and said she was too busy to come out and see me!! We were in the latter stages of a very protracted deal otherwise I would have sacked here there and then. Disgusting! Thankfully we are happy where we are now and I can't see us moving again.

 

[mind_the_goat]

Our solicitor nearly has us cancel our purchase because of long disagreements with the vendors (their solicitor mainly) over 'indemnity insurance' for various things. Eventually agreed that they would pay for some we would pay the rest. Got completely forgotten on day of purchase and we didn't get any insurance for anything at all. Not something that casues us any propblems, and saved a bit of money.
One thing to look out for is a clause that nullifies any policy if any changes are made to the property, so now we've built an extention is would have all been worthless anyway.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Can we please stop this thread? I'm currently buying a house and it's making me nervous.
S

 

[Phil Pascoe]

:lol: I'd rather be buying than selling!

 

[david123]

12 years ago we had a church tithe attached to our old house. It took us two years to sell. It was left to me to find the insurance to cover it as my solicitor told me that nobody would touch it. I did find insurance but it, cost us an arm and a leg. then the cheeky solicitor tried to charge me for finding it. Needless to say I made him cut his costs by a third after a furious row over the phone, which ended in me telling him I was on my way over to see him. He rang back before I got there and agreed with the cut. That was just one of the problems I had with him.
We are now selling again and hope to have a smoother ride this time.

Thanks Eriba for the thread. I have taken note. Like Phil, we intend selling before buying.

 

[monkeybiter]

Can we please stop this thread? I'm currently buying a house and it's making me nervous.
S

I'm not but the Chancel repair stuff makes me nervous, I'll have to check with the land registry. I think if I received a legally enforcable repair bill for the bloody church I'd dynamite it!

Trouble is the bill would then be bigger!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Dave - the problem you will have is
1/ It's prohibitively expensive to rent if you need 3/4 bedrooms, and
2/ If you find somewhere they invariably want a twelve month contract, and either no children or no pets.
I was lucky, a friend had a large empty bungallow on the market which was not attracting any attention, so we've rented it very short term.

 

[david123]

Hi Phil
We have a fair sized caravan (for the two of us) with all mod cons. We plan to use that as a base to do our searching. We will leave the house stuff in a warehouse until we buy somewhere to live

Devon is to far away to keep popping down to look at houses, also we will be in a better position with cash and no chain, to bargain with. Still it will be nice when its all over and we can get back to a normal life again.

 

[RogerS]

Oh God....selling - renting - buying.....don't remind me. Last time we did that, we ended up driving hundreds of miles at weekends from London where we were living back to Worcestershire looking for a place to buy. Weekend after weekend...clever estate agent photo's skilfully framed to leave out the abattoir or the waste-disposal plant. Thank God for Google Streetview these days....

 

[StevieB]

I completed and moved last week. So I have a couple of other things to add to the list!

Don't believe any time estimates. We had renters buying our property and were buying an empty one. Shortest three step chain possible and estimates from sale to completion were 6-8 weeks once we had a buyer lined up. It took 12 weeks in the end - mostly waiting for surveyors to be instructed and mortgage companies to send paperwork. They apparently laid off lots of staff in 2008 in the crash and have not yet hired more now the housing market is picking up again. 3 months start to finish is good going we were told (at the end of the 3 months!). There was nothing wrong with any of the surveys and no problems with the mortgage monies - its just takes a long time for lenders to process documents.

Financial checks will take ages - companies are now being ultra cautious as regulators are taking a keen interest in their mortgage lending.

I second the opinion that all estate agents are a lying bunch of shysters out only for themselves.

Stick with it - if your buyer hasn't pulled out it is invariably quicker to hang on for them that go back onto the market (although it doesn't hurt to threaten to go back up for sale!)

Getting a survey is a must, but when you get it, it will be so full of caveats and get outs, generalised info and recommendations for further 'checks' that you will wonder what you paid £400 for in the first place.

You will soon forget the hassles of moving, so bookmark this thread to remind yourself before you attempt it again!

Steve

 

[Graham Orm]

Can we please stop this thread? I'm currently buying a house and it's making me nervous.
S

Steve, it's the apparent lack of communication that causes the problems. There are too many tiny details that require daily phone calls that can stall things that make the process crash time and again.
This new fashion of requiring insurance for everything including the kitchen sink is over complicating things even more.

I also think the solicitors have too many balls in the air at one time and don't have time to act when a call or fax comes in. You end up with the scenario of your purchaser telling you that the document was faxed, their solicitor swore it had gone, and yours, via the secretary swearing nothing has arrived yet. They're solicitors.....surely they don't lie??? It turned out ours was a borderline compulsive liar.

Good luck.

 

[doorframe]

I last moved about 13 yrs ago. My buyer was a cash buyer with no property to sell, and the chain above me was about 4 long. I took 9 months to complete. My buyer was the biggest a-hole ever. The chain collapsed due to his messing and was only restored due to my wife contacting all the parties to patch things up. If I had kicked him into touch and gone with another buyer I'm sure it would all have gone a lot quicker and smoother. The clown even went on holiday for a fortnight just before the exchange day! The conversation I had with him from his sun lounger on a beach in the Med was one I'll never forget.

My estate agent was a lying clown. And my solicitor even worse. I never want to move again.

 

[DrPhill]

Getting a survey is a must, but when you get it, it will be so full of caveats and get outs, generalised info and recommendations for further 'checks' that you will wonder what you paid £400 for in the first place.

Try to find a local (to your purchase) acredited surveyor and aski if you can walk round with him. You will learn far more, with a better sense of proportion. When writing the report he has to cover everything and be pessimistic. When talking directly to you he will be more balanced. Ours was really informative about all sorts of things that would never make it into a report. He loved houses and structures and the history. I originally hired him on the basis that the verbal report would be enough, but he afterward insisted on writing one too. I think he really enjoyed sharing his expertise in a more personal manner and the fact that we were interested in the building rather than just the investment.