house buying, why so difficult!!

[toby2449]

ah well, me & mrs t thought now would be a good time to buy a house since prices are low-ish & we guessed people would be chomping at the bit just to sell.

So, after alot of phone calls, paperwork, more paperwork, yet more paperwork we got mortgage approval in June. The house hunting begun!

so looked at a few places, put an offer on one, & got it accepted, 3 days away from singing the contracts we found all sorts of issues with the place, the fact that every plot of land around it had planning permission & all their proposed septic tanks wouldn't be within EPA guidelines, which means had we went ahead with the sale our house would have been un-saleable according to our engineer. (& if it rained really heavy we'd be in alot of sh&te!)

so, ok licked our wounds (we were devastated-loved the place!) looked some more & found a gorgeous little 2 bed bunglow on 1 acre of land, put an offer in & through a bit of negotiations got it agreed. And then the "fun" started.
Mortgage company valued the property incorrectly & undervalued it, had to make several calls to get them to agree to their mistake.
So valuation ok, we sat back & waiting for the letter of offer, erm not so said our mortgage company, house is 100 years old we need a full structural survey
Fine we said we'll get one, erm not so said our solicitor, he wanted to see all the paperwork (deeds, land etc) for the house before he'll allow us do that
Fine we'll wait for the sellers solicitor to pass on the paperwork, & we're still waiting despite several phone calls
And then, the mortgage company who we've gone with approved us for a 95% mortgage (one of the last companies to offer 95% here), however they've stopped doing 95% & might only offer us 92%, so our mortgage advisor is fighting our case, should know by tomorrow if we have to stump up a 5% deposit or 8%!

the joy of being a first time buyer!

[Harvey]

I sympathise, but just wait until you're selling also - you get pain on both sides then!!

[fay66]

Fun really starts when said solicitor hasn't done his part correctly, & 15 years down the line when selling, you find that a part of the land you thought was yours, that you've always used, and is within the boundary of your property, isn't recorded as yours at the land registry

I finished up having to pay a whacking great insurance premium to indemnify my purchaser in case at any future date things went pear shaped, and someone else claimed ownership
Unfortunately over the 15 years the solictors had joined forces with others a number of times, the individual concerned had retired & no one wanted to know.

Brian
8227

[Harvey]

All too common. First place I bought, the solicitor neglected to check there was a counterpart lease... the landlord could have forced me to pay for all repairs to the building - including those to his part! On selling, it cost me £200 for insurance to cover the risk. 

The first place I'd tried to buy had an unofficial loft conversion that the other leaseholders were very unhappy about - that would have been a can of worms. I only found out after I'd had all the surveys done.

The flat I've just bought had a room missing from the records at the land registry, and officially my ownership would have started at the top of the stairs inside my front door. My solicitor was thankfully more awake than the 1st one I used!

Keep up the hunt, though! You'll find that you love the place you ultimately buy best of all. (There is a psychological influence at work which guarantees this  )

[toby2449]

thanks guys, well got a call from the mortgage company & they're sticking to the 92%, so we have to make up the difference, i nkow its only 3% but in money terms its a good few grand. so i'm having to sell my alfa 147 to release some cash & clear that loan.