The nervous wait to exchange....

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Scam said:
However the girlfriend was researching what can happen inbetween exchange and completion and it turns out as a buyer you are essentially responsible for the property once exchanged? :confused: It's more because you are now legally bound to buy the property. She mentioned some law changed in 2018 which means basically if the house burns down after exchange you still have to buy it. Whuuuh? :confused: Any ideas? Obviously we'll get building insurance but my girlfriend was laying awake last night with visions of the house burning down or being felled by a tree and us still having to buy the rubble :eek: :(
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Yup, you are, this is why most (all?) banks insist on you getting buildings insurance to commence at exchange.
 
rG-tom said:
Yup, you are, this is why most (all?) banks insist on you getting buildings insurance to commence at exchange.
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It's pretty mad though. As one forum post I read commented "I've signed a legal document to buy a house with X rooms, walls and a roof. Not a pile of rubble" !!!

We're going for one last inspection today (for the sake of it) then hopefully exchange tomorrow. The worry is still that it'll be empty for 4 weeks until we complete. Would be slightly better if someone was living there actually!
 
Scam said:
It's pretty mad though. As one forum post I read commented "I've signed a legal document to buy a house with X rooms, walls and a roof. Not a pile of rubble" !!!

We're going for one last inspection today (for the sake of it) then hopefully exchange tomorrow. The worry is still that it'll be empty for 4 weeks until we complete. Would be slightly better if someone was living there actually!
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For the sake of a few weeks rent, i'd complete ASAP and take your time moving. I'm impatient though :D
 
rG-tom said:
For the sake of a few weeks rent, i'd complete ASAP and take your time moving. I'm impatient though :D
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We'll still have a 3 week overlap if we end our tenancy on the date we usually pay (making it easy). So that'll help. Practically a month's rent and double council tax ain't to be sniffed at! I am feeling the impatience though. Also trusting the solicitors that there no way completion can be moved after we exchange...

Edit: Will also give us time to buy some furniture!
 
Scam said:
We'll still have a 3 week overlap if we end our tenancy on the date we usually pay (making it easy). So that'll help. Practically a month's rent and double council tax ain't to be sniffed at! I am feeling the impatience though. Also trusting the solicitors that there no way completion can be moved after we exchange...

Edit: Will also give us time to buy some furniture!
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FYI, if you had it in mind (I did...) your liable for council tax until the end of your tenancy, not the date you leave the building and start paying elsewhere. I had a follow up bill from Camden about 2 years later for about 40 quid.
 
Turns it solicitor has sat on our LISA documentation for months and down nothing with it. Now we have to hope Skipton process it faster than their advised turn around for the purchase to go ahead.

On top of that they are ignoring calls from sellers solicitor and EA for an update. Feels like the only thing they add to the process is incompetence and stress. Shame DIY conveyancing isn't a viable option
 
rG-tom said:
Yup, you are, this is why most (all?) banks insist on you getting buildings insurance to commence at exchange.
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This reminds me of a story I was told a while back by a friend. They were selling their house and the estate agent involved with the purchase was in the process of dealing with a nightmare scenario. The house purchase had been complete and contracts exchanged but the purchaser had not picked up the keys or moved in, instead on completion they had booked a holiday and flew off for some winter sun. On return to the UK they collected the keys a few days later only to find out that the header tank had burst and flooded the property. Not only was there extensive water damage but the water had frozen in places and actually pushed some of the house walls out. The nightmare was that the purchaser was blaming the seller and the seller was insistent that from the date of exchange it wasn't their house anymore so how can it be their fault. I am not actually sure how it ended up but I think there was some issue about even though there was insurance in place its only valid if the property is currently occupied and because the keys had not been collected it could not be classed as occupied, I mean we all know insurance companies will do anything to get out of paying out.
 
Slade2 said:
I mean we all know insurance companies will do anything to get out of paying out.
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Sounds mental. My girlfriend did some reading up on how this changed in 2018. You have the other issue of course that the sellers still have their insurance so you're always going to get arguments from two insurance companies over who is liable. It sounds utterly ridiculous, the buyers should simply not be liable until you have completed.

Edit: I realise in your example that the purchase was complete. If the buyer had done their due diligence in surveys etc then I'm afraid they probably haven't got a leg to stand on! It was a landlord, right? :p
 
Scam said:
Sounds mental. My girlfriend did some reading up on how this changed in 2018. You have the other issue of course that the sellers still have their insurance so you're always going to get arguments from two insurance companies over who is liable. It sounds utterly ridiculous, the buyers should simply not be liable until you have completed.

Edit: I realise in your example that the purchase was complete. If the buyer had done their due diligence in surveys etc then I'm afraid they probably haven't got a leg to stand on! It was a landlord, right? :p
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I think the property was actually empty when it was sold and the seller had inherited from a family member gutted it and put it on the market so, rather than a landlord I would imagine it might have needed some work anyway. I think the issue was really around the buyer not picking up the keys so technically it was still empty, I would imagine jetting off to somewhere sunny is the last thing most of us would do when faced with moving house. Most of the time the removals lorry is waiting down the road for you to return with the keys!
 
Second day promised people would come over to do some work in the house ....it's a good job I'm working from home otherwise if be royally piddled off!

Wife's about ready to release the kraken and kill everyone on site here now, she really isn't happy with the hole process.
 
Arsonist said:
All action stations, although I/my solicitor seemingly don't have a clue!

Supposed to be exchanging contracts this Monday and completing on the Friday. But he only mentioned to close my HTB ISA yesterday and is now saying there might not be enough time to get the closing statement from the bank to apply for the bonus in time, so might all get delayed. I'm paying through the nose for this service, kinda think he might have mentioned this sooner!! It also took him until just last week to ask my parents to sort a whole load of paperwork out to proove where their gifted deposit came from (depite only being about 7% of the total deposit). Massive panic their end as they're 400 miles away, can't exactly 'pop in' to show proof of ID etc...

However if the letter arrives Mon/Tues or Weds, then should all be good for completion on Friday, 1 week today! Will have 6 weeks crossover of rented place and new house, so plenty of time to get the bathroom ripped out and re-done, decorated hopefully throughout etc. Fingers crossed Natwest pull through and send me my letter by Wednesday!
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I've mentioned my HTB ISA about three times to my solicitor and not been given anything, due to complete on the 11th as well. I hope I'm not going to have an issue.

This whole process has aged me about 5 years in 3 months. I hate it.
 
Janesy B said:
I've mentioned my HTB ISA about three times to my solicitor and not been given anything, due to complete on the 11th as well. I hope I'm not going to have an issue.

This whole process has aged me about 5 years in 3 months. I hate it.
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Yep, I've gone extra grey for sure, it only gets better with the snagging!

Have you done the HTB Portal loan stuff yet? Speak to your mortgage advisor, solicitors need a kick from the right people sometimes.
 
Delvis said:
Yep, I've gone extra grey for sure, it only gets better with the snagging!

Have you done the HTB Portal loan stuff yet? Speak to your mortgage advisor, solicitors need a kick from the right people sometimes.
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The what now, nope! It's annoying as I mentioned this repeatedly from the start.

Edit* Well in a turn of events I've just realise the bonus is for up to 250k outside of London so I'm not eligible. Not sure how I overlooked that, nor did I ever envision paying that much for a property when I first opened it :D
 
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Janesy B said:
The what now, nope! It's annoying as I mentioned this repeatedly from the start.

Edit* Well in a turn of events I've just realise the bonus is for up to 250k outside of London so I'm not eligible. Not sure how I overlooked that, nor did I ever envision paying that much for a property when I first opened it :D
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Shame you didn't transfer it to the lifetime isa, that's 450 anywhere isn't it?

250k is laughably low now!
 
Max £4000 deposit in a year and you can only claim 12 months after your first deposit. Never mind.

Probably explains why the solicitor and mortgage advisor didn't say anything :D
 
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