The nervous wait to exchange....

[PardonTheWait]

Crikey.

We've been planning on buying somewhere for a while, but we get married on the 17th of next month and had put house hunting on the back burner. Idly looking at the local market, seeing what's out there and so on.

We had a chat a few weeks ago, and the conclusion was "What are we waiting for really, buying a house takes forever right? Might as well start looking."

So we looked... booked a few viewings last Saturday. We viewed one in particular that was perfect for us. Loads of potential, large garden, room for a very large garage and lots of parking, room to extend in the future but definitely large enough as is. Went back on Sunday and brought my sister, and my other half's parents with us. They agreed... Put in an offer on Monday, bit of back and forth, offer accepted on Tuesday. Mortgage advisor on Wednesday. Solicitors instructed Wednesday. Heard from the MA today that mortgage company have agreed the loan and it's just waiting for the valuation. Dad's surveying the house on Tuesday, valuation is on Wednesday.

Holy ****! We get married in less than a month! What have we done?

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Well done. Don’t worry, things will slow down quickly once the paperwork comes out.

Sounds like your at the bottom of the chain, you’ll no don’t be ready to go before the rest of it so there isn’t normally any rush on your part. Especially if the chain isn’t even fully formed yet. Once it is your still looking at a minimum of 8 weeks unless everyone is really on the ball, that’s unlikely.

 

[PardonTheWait]

Well done. Don’t worry, things will slow down quickly once the paperwork comes out.

Sounds like your at the bottom of the chain, you’ll no don’t be ready to go before the rest of it so there isn’t normally any rush on your part. Especially if the chain isn’t even fully formed yet. Once it is your still looking at a minimum of 8 weeks unless everyone is really on the ball, that’s unlikely.

There’s no chain on the house we’re buying, it’s currently unoccupied, so we’re actually hoping it will be as quick as possible because we can’t wait to move in - it’s just also really scary (and exciting) how quick it’s moved.

The mortgage broker we used is apparently an absolute diamond, and hustles everything along really well using his preferred solicitor. He certainly doesn’t seem to mess about anyway.

It’s actually helping my nerves about the wedding having something else to think about!

 

[toshj]

There’s no chain on the house we’re buying, it’s currently unoccupied, so we’re actually hoping it will be as quick as possible because we can’t wait to move in - it’s just also really scary (and exciting) how quick it’s moved.

The mortgage broker we used is apparently an absolute diamond, and hustles everything along really well using his preferred solicitor. He certainly doesn’t seem to mess about anyway.

It’s actually helping my nerves about the wedding having something else to think about!

Excellent news! It's strange how you can go from renting to homeowners incredibly quickly. One day you've decided to keep an eye out for a property... five days later you've had a mortgage approved! We had a condition to exchange and complete in 4 weeks for our first property.

We're at the end of our process but have had to lose our offer. It's not something I wanted to do but we've found a load of issues - mainly beetle rot and too small RSJs that affect the structural soundness of the house - so we've subtracted cost estimates off our offer as we're paying a large premium already.

 

[toshj]

Double post

 

[PardonTheWait]

Excellent news! It's strange how you can go from renting to homeowners incredibly quickly. One day you've decided to keep an eye out for a property... five days later you've had a mortgage approved! We had a condition to exchange and complete in 4 weeks for our first property.

We're at the end of our process but have had to lose our offer. It's not something I wanted to do but we've found a load of issues - mainly beetle rot and too small RSJs that affect the structural soundness of the house - so we've subtracted cost estimates off our offer as we're paying a large premium already.

This is the stuff that worries us. My dad is a kitchen fitter and experienced with general building work so he's doing effectively a survey for us. If he finds any issues we will have a proper survey done. So far though the house doesn't look to present any issues. It's a 30's/40's built house, looks like ex-council and from what people tell me they did build them properly back then for the most part.

 

[fastwunz]

This is the stuff that worries us. My dad is a kitchen fitter and experienced with general building work so he's doing effectively a survey for us. If he finds any issues we will have a proper survey done. So far though the house doesn't look to present any issues. It's a 30's/40's built house, looks like ex-council and from what people tell me they did build them properly back then for the most part.

They did - being that age, its possibly cavity masonry so you are looking to make sure the wall ties are ok (make sure the walls arent bowing etc) and your dad should also be on the look out for asbestos in particular. Mainly in the loft, pipe lagging, old floor tiles, artex etc. Also if it has the original garage it may well be in there - probably a sectional conrete garage with an asbestos sheet roof - perfectly normal.

Again, given the age, you are at a cross roads of how the floors may be formed - possibly suspended timber or solid -most likely suspended timber.

If suspended timber, make sure the air bricks are free and clear and that there is a sufficient amount of them - front, back and side.

If solid, make sure ground levels are below the internal brick course level otherwise you may get issues with rising damp (ideally two courses below).

Check the roof space and make sure all the rafters and purlins are in place and havent been removed to create more 'space' by some idiot.

Also when in the roof space, check to make sure the under side of the roof hasnt been sprayed with 'insulating foam' - its horrible stuff, stops the roof breathing, creates interstitial condensation and causes the roof timbers to rot. Banks hate it and often slap full retentions on mortgages until it is removed.

Electric - obivous and probs dated - get them tested fully.

Gas and associated boiler - likewise.

Loads of other stuff but those are the biggies.

Oh, and check for cracks in the corners of the rooms in particular around bay windows.

And one more thing - check the chimney stack for lean - very common but stacks take a real beating from wind and deflection can happen where by the mortar beds are eroded over time on one side casuing the stack to lean - very common. Check the flashing around the base too.

Aaaaaaand also - check for damp around internal chimney stacks as flaunching may be defective if you find it around the base of the stack in particular internally.

And breathe.

 

[PardonTheWait]

And breathe.

Very detailed, thank you. I’ve passed it on to my dad.

 

[Russinating]

Exchanged last Thursday, complete this Friday, yay. Think we're almost there with the packing, and looks like we'll be without t'internet for a week but that's not terrible.

 

[toshj]

We're at the end of our process but have had to lose our offer. It's not something I wanted to do but we've found a load of issues - mainly beetle rot and too small RSJs that affect the structural soundness of the house - so we've subtracted cost estimates off our offer as we're paying a large premium already.

We dropped the offer and it was accepted. Now into the last bit - exchange and complete!

 

[PardonTheWait]

Dad went round today to do a survey of sorts. He's not happy with the damp situation in the kitchen, says there's a fair bit of black mold behind the kitchen units and they have warped at the back. He says also that the rendering on the outside of that wall is slightly blown so he suspects rising damp due to a breached or damaged DPC. Spoken to the agents and we're going to each send a damp-proofing company in to survey it.

Really had me on the back foot earlier, so I'm going to really try and not think too much about it until we hear, but it's definitely got us worried. How much is it going to cost, are they going to accept less money to account for it, etc etc. We're really at the upper limit of what we're prepared to pay for the house, so if it's going to be a big cost to us we will have to pull out which would be a shame.

Nothing to be done but wait I guess, could be a total non-issue or could be a show-stopper.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Isn't damp normally caused by leaking roof's and gutters rather than a DPC failiure?

 

[PardonTheWait]

Isn't damp normally caused by leaking roof's and gutters rather than a DPC failiure?

No knowledge at all prior to today, and it seems quite the hot topic online, with all sorts of opinions flying around, so it's difficult to really gauge it for me? If you listen to one person, it's always the DPC, always rising damp, if you listen to someone else, rising damp doesn't exist and you need to open a window. No clue personally.

Dad's no expert on damp proofing either but fairly clued up in general. He's a kitchen fitter and has done a fair bit of building work for himself.

I see a million reasons online, from serious to easily fixable non-issues. The company we've asked to go see it seem to have a good reputation for being reasonable and honest, so between them and the agent's preferred company hopefully we can get some information.

With any luck it will be something simple. We'll see.

 

[Marky]

Crikey.

We've been planning on buying somewhere for a while, but we get married on the 17th of next month and had put house hunting on the back burner. Idly looking at the local market, seeing what's out there and so on.

We had a chat a few weeks ago, and the conclusion was "What are we waiting for really, buying a house takes forever right? Might as well start looking."

So we looked... booked a few viewings last Saturday. We viewed one in particular that was perfect for us. Loads of potential, large garden, room for a very large garage and lots of parking, room to extend in the future but definitely large enough as is. Went back on Sunday and brought my sister, and my other half's parents with us. They agreed... Put in an offer on Monday, bit of back and forth, offer accepted on Tuesday. Mortgage advisor on Wednesday. Solicitors instructed Wednesday. Heard from the MA today that mortgage company have agreed the loan and it's just waiting for the valuation. Dad's surveying the house on Tuesday, valuation is on Wednesday.

Holy ****! We get married in less than a month! What have we done?

Haha congrats! That was the quick and easy part though unfortunately

 

[agw_01]

@PardonTheWait, I'm no damp expert but this guy's YouTube channel is well worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC55-NfrPh-SAT3wgwUFtruw

His videos about causes of damp and its treatments are very interesting.

 

[PardonTheWait]

@PardonTheWait, I'm no damp expert but this guy's YouTube channel is well worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC55-NfrPh-SAT3wgwUFtruw

His videos about causes of damp and its treatments are very interesting.

Quite the character! I'll have a watch.

 

[samcat]

There’s no chain on the house we’re buying, it’s currently unoccupied, so we’re actually hoping it will be as quick as possible because we can’t wait to move in.

We had no chain on either end.. Previous owner was moving out with her partner and I was buying.
3 and a half months. ******* useless solicitors (ours, large regional one that the estate agent persuaded us to use)

 

[fastwunz]

No knowledge at all prior to today, and it seems quite the hot topic online, with all sorts of opinions flying around, so it's difficult to really gauge it for me? If you listen to one person, it's always the DPC, always rising damp, if you listen to someone else, rising damp doesn't exist and you need to open a window. No clue personally.

Dad's no expert on damp proofing either but fairly clued up in general. He's a kitchen fitter and has done a fair bit of building work for himself.

I see a million reasons online, from serious to easily fixable non-issues. The company we've asked to go see it seem to have a good reputation for being reasonable and honest, so between them and the agent's preferred company hopefully we can get some information.

With any luck it will be something simple. We'll see.

Are the floors solid or suspended?

 

[PardonTheWait]

Are the floors solid or suspended?

I think the living room floor is suspended. My dad reckons the kitchen floor is concrete - I hadn’t taken note of it though.

Edit: sorry just spoke to him, he said he originally thought it felt very solid and assumed concrete but his photos show and air brick below that level. And it’s part of the original house so it should be suspended.

 

[toshj]

Our estate agent is driving me nuts. We're not in a chain (probate) so we're not under a time pressure to conclude our purchase.

We went back in with a lower offer which was immediately accepted, and therefore need to get a new mortgage offer approved. The estate agent asked me when the mortgage advisor thought the new offer would be through... and then emailed the advisor directly 30 mins later. There are different ways for intermediaries - such as EAs - to complete deals. They either need to hand-hold parties through the process and drive the execution, or they need to take a step back and loosely guide both parties to completion. We need the latter approach, as we're still thinking things through, yet he's exerting a load of unnecessary pressure at the moment. I do like him, they've been very good throughout, but he's driving me nuts at the moment.

Grrrrrrr