The nervous wait to exchange....

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We have been looking for our first house purchase and seen a place we really liked.
Made an offer, after a few back and forth negotiated a deal.

Environmental search came through and there are couple of issues raised for flood and ground instability which is making me uneasy.
It says
potential risk of surface water and river flooding within 250m of the
property
But no historic flood events since 1992
Low risk of Groundwater Flooding within 250m of the property

potential for natural ground instability in the area within
50m of the property - Moderate


Flood issue is not a big problem i think but the ground instability concerns me. Thinking of getting a full survey done.
 
heeeed said:
I’m so utterly fed up with solicitors. They just seem to lie and lie and lie. The fact that they only to talk to their client means you don’t really know where the lie is originating from in the chain. I presume I therefore can’t really complain to any ombudsman unless I think it’s my solicitors that have lied.

I’ve lived in a fully packed house, furniture pulled apart, holiday cancelled being told 1 poxy piece of paper is sitting on someone’s desk for the most basic rubber stamping for the last 2 weeks. Told we complete and move on a day or so notice at the agreement of all the chain. Then today we are told that paper was only put in post today.

When you’re paying good money it’s frankly unacceptable
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Yeah the industry seriously needs regulation - if it wasn't for our estate agent putting the boot in we'd have got nowhere and our solicitor was one of the better ones!

Avathar77 said:
Flood issue is not a big problem i think but the ground instability concerns me. Thinking of getting a full survey done.
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I definitely would - a lot of this stuff is a bit overly cautious in outlook and flooding you can generally get a good feel for worse case by eyeball - but ground instability is no joke.
 
Avathar77 said:
We have been looking for our first house purchase and seen a place we really liked.
Made an offer, after a few back and forth negotiated a deal.

Environmental search came through and there are couple of issues raised for flood and ground instability which is making me uneasy.
It says
potential risk of surface water and river flooding within 250m of the
property
But no historic flood events since 1992
Low risk of Groundwater Flooding within 250m of the property

potential for natural ground instability in the area within
50m of the property - Moderate


Flood issue is not a big problem i think but the ground instability concerns me. Thinking of getting a full survey done.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't under estimate the flooding either. Living in a city which floods I would check insurance quotes and think about any resale value if its relevant to you.
 
Jimbeam3678 said:
I wouldn't under estimate the flooding either. Living in a city which floods I would check insurance quotes and think about any resale value if its relevant to yo
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Spoke to the mortgage advisor and was told to wait till the bank makes the offer as they have already done a valuation and may raise any flag if there.
I have already checked the home insurance and compared to where we are now, it is about £30 per year higher than our current house we rent. Not high considering the house we made the offer is bigger and has an extra bed room.
 
Avathar77 said:
We have been looking for our first house purchase and seen a place we really liked.
Made an offer, after a few back and forth negotiated a deal.

Environmental search came through and there are couple of issues raised for flood and ground instability which is making me uneasy.
It says
potential risk of surface water and river flooding within 250m of the
property
But no historic flood events since 1992
Low risk of Groundwater Flooding within 250m of the property

potential for natural ground instability in the area within
50m of the property - Moderate


Flood issue is not a big problem i think but the ground instability concerns me. Thinking of getting a full survey done.
Click to expand...

Considering we've had some of the worst floods in history since 1992, if it was me in your shoes i'd be less concerned.

But i would check the historical flood maps to see how close the surrounding properties were from being flooded.

I've found this site an excellent resource: https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk/map?

Wrt the ground instability, the environmental search should detail what it is exactly near your property that might cause potential instability - infilled land / old mining pits etc.
 
Semple said:
Considering we've had some of the worst floods in history since 1992, if it was me in your shoes i'd be less concerned.

But i would check the historical flood maps to see how close the surrounding properties were from being flooded.

I've found this site an excellent resource: https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk/map?

Wrt the ground instability, the environmental search should detail what it is exactly near your property that might cause potential instability - infilled land / old mining pits etc.
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I found that site to be useful too - thank you for pointing that out!
It does show that water levels can rise to the back garden but not up to the house(about half way).
This is what it says for ground instability - i dont think it says what it actually is?

b4xHoVs.png
 
Rroff said:
Yeah the industry seriously needs regulation - if it wasn't for our estate agent putting the boot in we'd have got nowhere and our solicitor was one of the better ones!
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As a solicitor I can promise you that we are one of the most (if not the most) regulated profession in the UK. The SRA (our regulator) happily strike off solicitors at regularly intervals. Estate agents are the "profession" with very little regulations...

If you can prove a solicitor is lying then they will subject to an investigation and potentially struck off. Please see this. https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/content.page

The problem with conveyancing (I don't practice in this area, but I am going through a purchase/sale of my own) is that solicitors charge very little for the service and indemnity they provide. If it goes wrong, solicitors not agents pay the price through their insurance. This means that more often than note the quality of service has taken a bit of a dive as the costs/profits have been taken out. This would be the same in any business.
 
No one can really tell you this, it’s down to your own individual risk tolerance. When looking historically the rates are low but have been this way for some time.

Rates could go up but they could go down. They might not change at all. They could go in any direction with all outcomes of Brexit.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
No one can really tell you this, it’s down to your own individual risk tolerance.

Rates could go up but they could go down. They might not change at all. They could go in any direction with all outcomes of Brexit.
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Very true, but I can't see them going down too much, they are already rock bottom. I don't think they will rocket up any time soon either. But it's probably only an extra 20 quid a month to fix for 5 years, so maybe worth it for peace of mind.
 
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Avathar77 said:
I found that site to be useful too - thank you for pointing that out!
It does show that water levels can rise to the back garden but not up to the house(about half way).
This is what it says for ground instability - i dont think it says what it actually is?

b4xHoVs.png
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What does "contact 4" reference to?

The survey we just had done on the house we're buying shows all ground instability areas surrounding the property:

qBkw86V.png


IvanDobskey said:
Very true, but I can't see them going down too much, they are already rock bottom. I don't think they will rocket up any time soon either. But it's probably only an extra 20 quid a month to fix for 5 years, so maybe worth it for peace of mind.
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That's why people couldn't tell you whether to fix or stick to variable rate :). We've taken the same approach, i'd rather pay that slight bit more and know for the next 60 months exactly what i'm paying on my mortgage, than to find out in a few years that you may need to be paying considerably more.

Could it work out cheaper over 60 months if you went variable - absolutely, but at the same time it could cost you more and you'd then be kicking yourself at why didn't you take a fixed term.
 
IvanDobskey said:
More than anything it is annoying with the fixed deals they usually put big restrictions on overpayments. Best one I can find allows 10% per year.
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Really? Is that not enough?

10% per year is pretty common.

If your mortgage is £300k, then that allows for a £30k overpayment in that year.

If you can afford to make that sort of overpayment each year, along with everything else, then might be worth just shortening the term.
 
Semple said:
What does "contact 4" reference to?

The survey we just had done on the house we're buying shows all ground instability areas surrounding the property:

qBkw86V.png




That's why people couldn't tell you whether to fix or stick to variable rate :). We've taken the same approach, i'd rather pay that slight bit more and know for the next 60 months exactly what i'm paying on my mortgage, than to find out in a few years that you may need to be paying considerably more.

Could it work out cheaper over 60 months if you went variable - absolutely, but at the same time it could cost you more and you'd then be kicking yourself at why didn't you take a fixed term.
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No idea what contact 4 stands for. but below that it says
"Next Steps
This section has highlighted that ground stability is an area of concern, meaning that your property may be affected by subsidence or land-heave. If you would like any further information in respect of the above findings we recommend that you purchase our Homecheck Mining and Subsidence Report. Please contact your Search Provider or our Customer Services Team on 0844 844 9966 or email [email protected]."
 
Semple said:
Really? Is that not enough?

10% per year is pretty common.

If your mortgage is £300k, then that allows for a £30k overpayment in that year.

If you can afford to make that sort of overpayment each year, along with everything else, then might be worth just shortening the term.
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Mortgage is for 75k over 18 years. So can make 7.5k overpayment in first year, but obviously less each subsequent year.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Mortgage is for 75k over 18 years. So can make 7.5k overpayment in first year, but obviously less each subsequent year.
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Ah yeah i guess with a smaller mortgage i can see it being a bit of an issue.

Can you not decrease your term to increase your monthly payments? I'm not actually sure what the minimum term for a mortgage would be, but would have thought it would be well under 18 years.
 
Don’t forget that the overpayment limits are only for the fixed period, at the end of the fixed period you can pay a further lump sum before remortgaging if that’s the route you go.

That said a £75k mortgage over 18 years is small by today’s standards. Most people taking that amount over a long term don’t likely have enough money to be making significant overpayments. If it’s going to cause a problem then consider taking it over a shorter period.

The quicker you pay it off the less money it costs at the end of the day.
 
Thanks for the tips guys.
Is 75k really considered a small mortgage? Seems a lot of money to me :p
Small compared to the value of the house I guess.

House we are buying:
 
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IvanDobskey said:
Mortgage is for 75k over 18 years. So can make 7.5k overpayment in first year, but obviously less each subsequent year.
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similar situation for me. £75k mortgage, 10% over the first 2 years. After the 2 years the amount per month goes up by £50 but I can make unlimited overpayments so will decide whether I shop around or just stay with them and over pay each month to get it paid within a couple of years
 
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