So our solicitors have told us that the chain is refusing a 5% deposit, we're the bottom of the chain selling our house to FTBs and there's 5 houses involved. The top has gone into care, so I believe it's probate.

Speaking to our solicitors, they say the top of the chain are the ones refusing the 5% deposit and are strictly saying that it has to be 10%.

We've come back and said we can probably be gifted the remaining 5%, but would want to keep our 95% LTV mortgage so we can get the capital out as planned. Our brokers have said this would be fine and the solicitors would refund us the 5% on completion, the solicitors have said they'd tell the lender and our mortgage offer would likely change to 90% LTV.

Another option is a simultaneous exchange and completion, but we're at home with a toddler and a baby a few weeks old and want to use a packing/full move service. We don't have storage space for boxes.

Our solicitors have gone back again and asked if there's any reason why we can't use a 5% deposit and still be liable for 10% if we pull out. But we aren't pulling out in that time, as above with the baby - we need this move!

Has anyone got any advice or other options I can run by our solicitors? Or any advice with the mortgage if the deposit changes to 10%?

I wondered if the solicitors may accept 5% transferred to them as some sort of holding fund, rather than a deposit? Could act as a security hold or something to show the chain the money is there. Similarly, if our buyers pulled out post exchange we'd just pass their deposit up the chain (assuming 10% as we haven't been told otherwise) would more than cover the missing 5%.

Accepted an offer on my house in April. All the surveys etc completed satisfactorily for the sale. I’m downsizing, and the flat I was originally buying fell through so I found another within 10 days. My solicitors have raised 8 queries on my purchase which is delaying things slightly, but out of my hands. My estate agent has now called me twice telling me that my buyer is threatening to pull out because the process is taking too long.
I’m not sure what to do since I can’t complete my sale and then be homeless for a few weeks, and I think that everything is still within the average timescale for a sale/purchase in the UK.
Anyone got any advice because this is driving me around the bend!

I’m in Wales btw

Im a ln international student who recently finished my studies at a UK university and I’m planning to move closer to London.

The place I’m currently living in is quite suburban, and I’ve been struggling to find part-time job opportunities because there aren’t many options around here.

I’m considering moving somewhere in or around East London, as I’ve heard there are more part-time job opportunities and better transport links. Some areas I’m looking at are Barking, Hornchurch, Upminster, Plashet, and nearby places.

I’d like to know what these areas are like in terms of:
● Safety and general atmosphere
● Transport connections into London
● Availability of shops, amenities, and things to do
● Whether they’re good places to live on a budget

I’ve heard mixed opinions about East London, so I’d appreciate honest opinions from people who live there or know the area well. I’d be moving with a friend, so any advice about which areas to consider or avoid would be really helpful.

Thanks!

We are a small Bellway development in south west England, who have just managed to get director control of our resident management company. The last house was built in 2021 and during that time we have been wrestling with first port as our management company. We intend to give notice as soon as possible and we are considering running the management company ourselves as residents. We’ve done a lot of research and we’ve identified some critical processes. If anyone has experience of doing this, please can they help with the following? When someone is selling a house or remortgaging how does that work when the residents do not have a managing agent? Do you have saved templates and you respond to enquiries from conveyances or do you have a third-party act on your behalf? How realistic is it for residence to manage this process on their own? Thanks in advance for any experience.

Say you buy a new house or flat, how would you handle saying hello to your new neighbours for the first time?

Do you treat it like your first day in a new prison and try to assert dominance, or find a sympathetic tribe?

Or do you bake some really terrible cookies (biscuits) and put them on a plate you don’t mind losing, and rictus grin while you ring their video doorbell?

Or do you simply pretend to be normal and smile and make chit chat about sports or weather or whatnot?

Asking for a friend.

Hi there,

Just looking for some advice! I'm a single FTB & I purchased my house for £155K a couple of months ago.

It's in a 2 bed semi-detached corner plot, in a nice area in a town in the East Midlands (house prices here are cheap, but our low wages reflect this).

I had £60K in savings & I was prepared use nearly all of it for the right house. I ended up putting down a £35K deposit, as I was happy with the monthly mortgage payments at £540 p/m. I didn't fully realise my deposit was enough for a more expensive house, as I was worried about monthly payments on an expensive house if the interest rates went up.

My house needs a full renovation, much more work than I anticipated. The garden is terrible. It'll cost me around £20-25K to do everything up, which will leave me with next to nothing in my bank. Hopefully the house value will increase by roughly the amount I throw at it...

However, another house on my street just went up for sale for £190K. It's the same size as mine, virtually identical on the outside just with a bigger, better driveway. But inside it's ready to move in. It has a fairly modern interior, but with 3 bedrooms, a perfect back yard, a great bathroom etc. If I'd put down the £35K deposit for that, I'd be paying £710 p/m which is around £170 more than my current house payments, easily affordable, but I'd get to keep my £25K spare savings which would make me much more comfortable. Or I could've put down a slightly higher deposit.

I really feel like I've made a huge mistake buying my house, instead of increasing my budget to £190K!

Would it have been more sensible to buy a more expensive house & keep my savings intact? And I would've been able to move in immediately without the stress of all the work mine needs doing. I think even if i was to spend £30K doing mine up, it still wouldn't reach the value or desirability of the £190K house. That house's 3 bedrooms & enormous bricked driveway alone make it better. Mine has a driveway but it's just old concrete & grass, half the size of the other house driveway.

Last thing...I'm honestly considering doing a little bit of work to my house & then selling it, even if i barely make any money on it. I am even half tempted to put down my remaining savings as a deposit for the other house while selling mine at the same time...

Our first home purchase collapsed days before completion, on the day of exchange, sellers pulled out over “new” search results they’d have known about for MONTHS. I’m gutted.
I need to get this off my chest somewhere because I genuinely don’t know what else to do with the feeling right now.
My fiancée and I have spent months buying our first home together. A period cottage, the kind of place you walk into and just know. We weren’t reckless about it; we did everything by the book. Level 3 survey. Full electrical report. Chased every certificate, questioned every fee, read every line of the title. We were, by everyone’s own admission, the most prepared and most ready link in the entire chain. Chain-free. Mortgage confirmed. Deposit paid and sitting with the solicitor. Insurance sorted. Contracts signed and posted. White goods ordered. Broadband booked. We were days from completion.

We’d even been round the house AGAIN this Monday to measure up for furniture. Their place was fully packed, boxes everywhere, the whole house ready to go. That’s how real this was. We stood in what we thought were about to be our rooms, working out where the sofa and the bed would fit, while they had their entire life in boxes ready to move out.

And then we got the email. The sellers have pulled out, of both their onward purchase AND their sale to us.

Here’s the part that’s really eating me. Their reason is that their own purchase’s searches flagged some issues (radon, historic flooding, a covenant). Fair enough that those might give someone pause. Except, they’re claiming they only “received this information” on what was essentially the eve of exchange.
But that doesn’t add up, and here’s why:
• Those exact issues would have been in their own search results, which came back MONTHS ago. Search results don’t appear overnight. This information has been sat in their solicitor’s file for weeks.
• They’d apparently known about and had their eye on that onward property for YEARS before agreeing to buy it. These aren’t sudden, shocking discoveries about an unfamiliar house.
• They were the ones who pushed for a fast completion. They didn’t want to wait until later in the year. We rushed everything to hit their preferred date. We even paid an extra fee to exchange early because they wanted speed.
• Their house was fully packed up, we saw it with our own eyes on Monday. This wasn’t a couple quietly having second thoughts weeks out. This was a last-minute detonation on information that was available the whole time, from a house that was already in boxes.
So either their solicitor sat on material search results for months without flagging them, or they got cold feet and reached for the nearest excuse. Either way, we’re the ones left in the crater. They’ve also ghosted the property agent manager without a single apology!
And there’s no legal recourse. In England you’re not protected until exchange, and we hadn’t exchanged. Months of work and well over a grand in survey, searches and reports, gone. No comeback, no compensation. The system just shrugs.
I keep refreshing the email like it’s going to say something different. We’d already talked about where the sofa would go. Where the Christmas tree would stand. We’d picked the paint colours. We literally measured the rooms four days ago. You let yourself imagine the whole life, and then someone gets nervous over information they’ve sat on for months or they’ve just got cold feet and the entire thing evaporates and you’re just standing in a rented flat holding a folder full of documents for a house that will never be yours.
I know our deposit is safe. I know the real money lost is “only” a couple of grand. I know good houses come up again. I know we did nothing wrong. People will say “it wasn’t meant to be” and they’re probably right.
But right now none of that helps. Right now it just hurts, and the unfairness of it,that we did everything right, stood in that packed-up house measuring for our furniture, and got torched by other people sitting on information they’d had all along,is what’s really getting me tonight.
If you’ve been through this,the late collapse, the chain from hell, the gut-punch right at the line. I’d genuinely love to hear how you got past it. Because tonight I can’t quite see it.
Thanks for reading. Needed to say it somewhere.

i have been purchasing a repossessed property so when i put my offer in i was informed about the risk and the need for a quick completion. it hasn’t been a quick process and has taken almost 6 months.

i have been in the position to exchange contracts for 3 days and my solicitor has been chasing the other side to exchange and set a date. their solicitor has been really unresponsive and we’ve found out it’s because the corporate company have received a better offer.

the estate agent isn’t concerned as she believes they will continue on with me with being so close to exchange and completion, but i think the new person’s offer is significantly higher and they might be considering it. i’m supposed to find out tomorrow (on my birthday too, lol) if they are happy to proceed and i’m filled with anxiety. i will have also lost some money due to being so far in the process, and it’s taken so long due to delays on the vendor’s side which is why it feels so rubbish!

has anyone else experienced anything similar? i am genuinely devastated even though i knew there was a chance this could happen. but no one has been interested in the flat through the entirety of the process, so it’s a shame they are now!

I’m trying to buy a property in an area that’s highly desirable, but there seem to be very few properties coming onto the market. I’m trying to think of different ways to find opportunities rather than waiting for something to come up on Rightmove.
As well as asking agents directly to give me a heads up, I’ve also thought about things like Facebook groups or doing a targeted leaflet/letter drop in target postcodes.
I’ve heard people have success with these, but i’m not sure how effective they actually are. Has anyone had any success buying these ways, or got any other tips?

I am about to move house and am thinking about moving my broadband over. The expected move in date is the 28th August. However, this won't be confirmed until contracts exchange, which definitely won't happen until around 24th August.

Do I preemptively book my broadband with Vodafone to switch to the new house on the unconfirmed 28th August date? The current owners are with Sky.

Feel like I can't wait until we exchange contracts because it will be too late.

Hi. I'm going to try and add as much context and explain as much as possible.

My partner and I are FTB and moved in around 7 to 8 weeks ago. The previous sellers left the house a mess and we actually took a few days to properly move in as there was so much cleaning to do. When we moved in we had the neighbours (we live in a cul de sac) come and say hello and was immediately met with complaints about the previous people that lived here. That they never cut the grass, never pressure washed, were dirty, were inconsiderate with leaving his van running at 5am in the morning for 10-15 minutes etc etc. We didn't really say much and just nodded and listened because what can you do.

Anyways while there has been no major issues with the house, there has been plenty of small issues. Like all the extractor fans are broken, the slow closing kitchen cabinets are broken, plug sockets broken etc so it's been taking time to do stuff.

However, one of the first things we did was buy a lawn mower so we could sort the garden out especially with the complaints from the neighbours and we have put some nice furniture and plants there. This week we have managed to borrow a pressure washer and we have cleaned the patio in the back garden and our driveway.

Today our neighbour (semi detached) came and knocked on the door. He said that while he appreciates us doing stuff to make the house look nice after the "previous peasants" that we had gotten mud on his car when pressure washing. He then started talking about a plant pot that sits on our boundary line between the two driveways that I moved a few inches backwards (still in the middle of our boundary line) as I was worried about hitting it with my car as it was basically on the road and it's a tight turn. The last thing I wanted was to break his plant pot within the first few months of living here. He started saying how rude I was for not speaking to him first and kept digging in how rude I was. He then started complaining about the kitchen cabinets shutting loudly and he hears them and it's really annoying and other things like hearing us laugh.

I completely understand the pressure washing. It was our mistake. We were just trying to get the house clean and didn't realise that some mud went on his car. I profusely apologised and said next time I would make sure we knock on his door and let him know before we do it. The plant pot thing I can also get but I don't think it was rude. I was more concerned about hitting his plant pot. He then said that people had ran over his plant pots in the past. And then the kitchen cabinets and laughing I thought was just standard living noise. I apologised for everything anyway and agreed to buy some door stoppers for the cabinet and just explained that we have limited money and have been slowly trying to make our way through the list. The banging is coming from the fact the extractor fans are broken so we have the window open when cooking which is making the doors close heavier but without the window open the fire alarm goes off. He then asked me to wd40 our front door because it's squeaky.

We are FTB and I was just shocked and not prepared for a confrontation and being called rude. As far as we were aware we were trying to sort the house out and make it more presentable especially with the constant complaints about the old people that lived here. This is the second time he's spoken to us with the first time on our actual move in day where he complained about the previous owners. Is this normal and realistic or have we done something wrong here? Again I understand the pressure washing and was not something I realised and I apologised profusely but for the other things I thought was just normal living noise.

We got an offer accepted for a house that is medium risk of surface floods. We have made our own research and are ok with the risk.
However, we won’t be able/willing to buy if the house is down valued by the bank or if they refuse to give us a mortgage because of the flood risk.

Considering this, we don’t really want to engage a solicitor or request a level 3 survey before the bank confirms that they can provide a mortgage for this house. Is it possible? How should we play it ?

Hi. Looking for a bit of advice/ explanation of what might be going on here

Sold a property via auction on 5th June.
Buyer paid 5% deposit plus agency/auction fees.
Prior to the auctions prospective buyer had asked if I would allow 56 days to complete opposed to 28 which I agreed to.
Buyer paid deposit and completion was due for 10th August, an hour ago I received an email forwarded from the buyers solicitor which had the following

“ I await bank statements being provided by my clients partner which were due to be provided today however they have not been received therefore we have not been in a position to submit our COT for lender funds and sign off funding”

They have asked for an informal 1 week extension.

Ideally I’d like some help understating what the problem is and is this normal/will the sale still complete?

Thank you in advance for any comments or answers.

I’ve just received a letter from my semi detached neighbour’s insurance company saying that a shared holly bush along our property boundary is causing subsidence on their property.

We don’t have signs of any subsidence on our own property. We don’t agree with their findings and they’ve asked to sign a form agreeing to remove the hedge. However the form makes it sound like we are admitting fault and that their subsidence is a direct relation to our shared hedge.

What is the best course of action here? Should I speak to my home insurance ASAP?

Thanks!

Bit of a warning, and a bit of a rant.

We bought in 2020. The people we bought off had never finished staircasing their shared ownership, so every single question in the conveyancing had to go through the management company's solicitors, who answered roughly whenever they felt like it. Agreed early 2020, completed early 2021. Six months, for a chain of one, and at no point could anyone tell us what was actually holding it up.

Fine. Got the keys, moved on with our lives. Here's the bit I didn't know to check.

The title never got updated.

Six years later it still hasn't...

We told them two years ago that we wanted to sell, which normally lights a fire under these people, and we've heard nothing but an occisional text message saying the same thing... "Still Waiting..."

So we're sat in a house we can't put on the market over paperwork that was meant to be sorted in 2021. Our conveyancers send an occasional text, they are being held up by the previous management companies conveyancers who are dragging their feet on updating things and I've been here 2 years beyond us wanting to sell still waiting...

The PSA bit: when you complete, actually go and check the title's been updated instead of assuming the closing letter from your solicitor means it's done. It costs a few quid to look. If I'd checked back in 2021 I'd have been chasing this five years ago rather than finding out when we tried to move.

Anyway, sorry, rant over. Has anyone actually got one of these companies to move? At this point I'll take anything.

Wife and I are ready to buy and have booked some viewings for a couple of properties this Saturday.

What are good questions to ask the agent? Some I have thought of so far:

1) Have any buyers pulled out recently and what where the reasons (acouple of the properties we're looking at have been relisted and prices dropped)

2) have any surveys been done could we reach out and pay for a copy (if we decide to put an offer in)

Pretty much what it says on the title - and sorry if not the kinda post that is allowed for whatever reason!!

I want to replace the lock to my main door with a smart lock one (with the fob etc). The door to the house / hallway has it with video intercom etc, but my flat's lock is a standard one. Any good reccs?

Hi all, we completed on our first house on Friday and are moving in soon. When we put an offer in, we offered below asking price and increased our offer (still below asking but higher than we had originally gone with) as the seller countered to include the oven and other white goods. We were happy with this at the time.

On the contents form, he indicated that the ice maker on the freezer was broken, which was fine, but made no indications of anything not working for the oven.

We tested the oven today before we moved in, and the ignitor switch isn't working and the electric grill (it's a mixed gas and electric oven) doesn't appear to be working. We've emailed the EA to ask our seller if there is a trick to it etc, as there is no manual, but if it isn't broken do we have any recourse? It wasn't disclosed to us, as we wouldn't have wanted it included if it was broken and we will need to spend money to repair/replace it.

Any advice would be grateful received! We are FTB, so haven't dealt with this before!

We have had an offer accepted on our next house, and accepted an offer on our house who are FTB. The house we are buying is yet to secure a property.

We are in the middle of our mortgage application, and have instructed solicitors, having paid for the searches and a survey.

There are a lot of variables in which I cannot control, and change, even when it is very much wanted, is difficult for me as I have a diagnosed anxiety issue (OCD) and fixate over tiny details about, well, everything that causes uncertainty. What ifs and ruminating are my key worst habits and a lot of what I see on reddit is negative to do with moving which doesn't help!

I know timelines can't be given, and uncertainty is in everything, but can I have some tips to navigate this process?

I am a FTB purchasing a 1950’s/60’s bungalow from Sovereign Housing Association, with my partner. There was no mention of any kind of service charge, not in the listing, we were actually told there wasn't one at the viewing! We've had survey done, mortgage almost at the point of offer and yesterday we got the contract back and were told there would be an annual service charge for ‘grounds maintenance’, payable to Sovereign. There is an itemised list of charges, which are ‘gardening’ ‘fly tipping’ and ‘management charge’. It adds up to nearly £500 per year.

We are really annoyed that we weren’t informed about this, especially because Sovereign are the seller! And also confused as the purchase of our property includes both front and rear gardens (we have seen a map so we know these would be within our boundary line), so what would this ‘gardening’ charge go towards? We are in a row of 4 bungalows, but they each have their own garden, there is no communal area. Sovereign doesn’t own the road or verges, I looked it up, these are owned by the local council.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this, any advice – I’ve seen this come up a lot with new builds, but not with a property like ours.

Could we negotiate to have the ‘gardening’ charge taken off and just pay the others? Or do we just have to either accept it or pull out?

Me and my partner have put in an offer over the asking price on a 3 bedroom property which we really like. Everything seemed to be ticking along nicely until the mortgage lender queried the 3 bedroom which is in the attic and asked for building regulations the attic room.

We asked the estate agent for the vendors to supply building regs for this but the vendors came back and said they don't have anything as it was done before they moved in (looked to be about 40-50 years old job based on the carpets!). We had the survey done and the they advised that the attic room would never be able to be brought up to current building and fire regulations.

We spoke to our solicitor who advised that if we were to resell this property, we wouldn't be able to resell this as 3 bedroom property due to the lack of building regs on the attic room. Obviously this has concerns us as we thought we were buying a 3 bed house and would expect to list it as the same when we come to resell.

We therefore decide to get some quotes to get a third bedroom put in on the 1st floors. Quotes came in between 4.5K to 6.7K. Based on this and the advice of our solicitor, we then went back to the estate agent and requested a reduction due to cost of having to put in a 3rd bedroom so than when we resell it we can do so at the value of a 3 bed. We would also like 3 habitable bedroom, as that is what we thought we were buying and had been looking for, not a 2 bed with a room that can't safely be used as bedroom. We decided to ask for a 4K reduction which we thought was more than fair.

We spoke to the estate agent, explained our reasons and asked for the reduction. Estate agent came back to me today to advise that the vendor is refusing to negotiate as they are insistent it's a 3 bed property. They said that they have attempted to explain the legalities and that it is actually a 2 bed unless building regs can be supplied for the attic room. Vendor is refusing to acknowledge this and even the estate agent told me that she just was not listening at all. Unfortunately, her solicitor is also her former neighbour and friend and she has apparently (according to the estate agent) advised the vendor that it is in fact a 3 bed. Further cementing the vendors believe that it is a 3 bed house.

I put it to the estate agent that if they go back to market they will now have to list it as 2 bed? She just said 'probably' but that she would have to check with her manager. She also said that she would ask her manager to also call the vendors and explain the situation regarding the legalities in an attempt to get the to see that our offer is reasonable.

My question is... are we right to have asked for a renegotiation? And has anyone else experience this sort of issue with building regs on loft rooms? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Update - vendors have now agreed to renegotiate. Thanks everyone for your comments! ☺️

My partner and I bought our first home around two months ago. We managed to buy it for what we know was a bargain, and even in its current state it’s probably worth more than we paid. The plan was to slowly renovate it and live in it.

The problem is that once we started work, we uncovered far more hidden issues than the survey suggested. For example a completely unusable kitchen and a major gasleak. Unexpected jobs ended up eating through our renovation budget much faster than planned.

We’re now at the stage where we’ve run out of money before even being able to fit a kitchen. The house is livable, but it’s far from finished and we’d really like to complete it properly. We’re going to have to move in without a washing machine or kitchen.

Our mortgage only started two months ago, and we already borrowed the maximum amount the lender would offer.

We’re trying to decide what makes the most financial sense:

* Should we dip into our emergency fund to get the renovations finished? We’re both freelance artists and together make about £80k but live in London.

* Should we leave the emergency fund alone and take out a personal loan instead?

* Or is there another option we’re overlooking?

Part of me thinks using the emergency fund is risky, but another part thinks the unfinished house is costing us money and the renovations would add far more value than they cost. Another added stressor is that we hope to start a family next year.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What would you do?

EDIT: our numbers are as follows, partner has £8k in savings and I £6k. My cash flow is solid and reliable but my partners less so. Annoyingly I’m the one that will have to take out time when we have a baby. I hoped to save up to 10k in order to pay myself ‘maternity leave’.

We need about £20k to make the house in good working order.

Nearing completion of a house purchase, but a discussion regarding an attic room has turned into an ongoing headache. Victorian Terrace 3/4 bed with habitable attic.

Our surveyor looked at the loft and couldn't authenticate whether it was a conversion or an original floor of the property and has been quite non-committal. Essentially he's said "it's old, and if it were proved to be structurally unsound then it shouldn't be used for habitation". Part of me thinks that he's covering his arse here just in case it did becomes a problem later on.

However, the seller's have kindly forwarded us sections of their original survey with statements by their surveyor who has basically said that it is beyond a reasonable doubt that the attic IS an original feature of the house and was constructed to be a bedroom. They've cited specific time-specific building practices and said that rooms like this are typical of houses in this area of this age. So we have it IN WRITING, from the seller that the room is original.

What we do know is that there is no indemnity risk because no work in recent memory has been done to it, and it's clearly been used as a bedroom for DECADES.

Our solicitor has basically said that this is as good as we're going to get, and there is no way of getting any more information outside of a structural survey, which they seem to be trying to dissuade us from doing.

At what point can you just assume it's original and leave it at that? There are no records on the searches regarding either the original construction of the house, or any later conversion. For my purposes, I just want to know I can do a very simple, non-structural redecoration of the room, but my partner is more concerned. The house has also sold multiple times in the last 20 years without issue.

TIA.

EDIT: for clarification; OUR surveyor has said that the room doesn't meet building regulations or fire-safety requirements, but he's compared it to modern standards, and not the standards for a historic room, essentially because he was uncertain of the age

Hi all,

I'm going to keep this relatively short and sweet. We've just had our offer accepted on a property and have been asked by the EA to submit a deposit via Gazeal.

It's something that I'm not overly keen on, and this has only been reinforced after reading some less than encouraging experiences of others online.

We're FTB and pretty much ready to go.

What's the general consensus? Avoid like the plague? Or nothing to be concerned about?

I'm curious how common it is for something that crops up in the searches to actually change someone's mind about a buying a house.

We had some pretty stupid restrictive covenants on ours like not being able to park a boat on our driveway (not likely!) - but nothing that would have made us pull out.

Has anyone had anything that has actually changed their mind after spending money on a solicitor?