The nervous wait to exchange....

[Biz.Kid09]

We nearly gave up with my other half. We budgeted 500k for a first time house and have deposit etc ready, we’ve been maxing out our life time isa for a few years now and when we started the budget/max house price was comfortably in our range.. silly us to forget about that limit and learn that it is now set to 450k. If we wanted to take out our savings we’d lose the “benefit” which I accept but also would get fined on top so we have to find a property for under 450k which seems difficult where we live and everything goes massively over asking. E.g of a 3 bed bungalow, last year sold for 325k, now back on the market for £450k. Literally less than a year since it was sold.

so the government penalising us for taking out our savings is a pig. On top of everything else. As an example:

put in £4k a year
Government end of tax year adds £1k
Have £5k in total

decide to buy a property under the limit? Fine you get the £5k

decide to go over and have to take the money out? We’ll deduct the £1k bonus you got to help you to buy and we’ll also penalise you £250 for the privilege.

so your £4k ends up being £3750.

just a kick in the balls. And when you have a good chunk in there you end up losing thousands. Stupid system.

I know the feeling, I have been topping up my LISA since they started and I now have a considerable sum in there that will cost me a big chunk to take out unless I can find a property for 450k which isn't going to happen.

I have other savings and count my blessings the LISA was capped at 4k or I would be in real trouble. I can fortunately afford to purchase a house without the LISA cash and will instead see that on the other side (when I retire )

When I first started looking at properties, 450k seemed even too much but career progression for us has allowed to us stretch ourselves further. Sadly the career progression came too late in the sense I couldn't take advantage of the "covid" relief and take my money out penalty fee. Id be more than happy to return the 'bonus' to the gov but taking the 25% hit is a very bitter pill to swallow.

 

[jonneymendoza]

All these terms must have been made available to read before you joined the scheme, right? Or I'd hope so anyway.

i think so but doesnt make it cool though

 

[Deleted User 298457]

I know the feeling, I have been topping up my LISA since they started and I now have a considerable sum in there that will cost me a big chunk to take out unless I can find a property for 450k which isn't going to happen.

I have other savings and count my blessings the LISA was capped at 4k or I would be in real trouble. I can fortunately afford to purchase a house without the LISA cash and will instead see that on the other side (when I retire )

When I first started looking at properties, 450k seemed even too much but career progression for us has allowed to us stretch ourselves further. Sadly the career progression came too late in the sense I couldn't take advantage of the "covid" relief and take my money out penalty fee. Id be more than happy to return the 'bonus' to the gov but taking the 25% hit is a very bitter pill to swallow.

I know this all too well. I was so, so, so lucky that we were ready to buy just before the first official failed Brexit attempt. The property we offered on had been 525...then 475...we offered 450 and walked away as the limit was imposed by the LISA. They asked twice about increasing before reluctantly accepting. The property (market dynamics alone) was valued at 517k 2 years later. I'd be forced to pay the penalty fee if it was my time again as 450k gets you naff all now.
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Does anyone know the score for accepting an offer on your house and then backing out? I'm worried we will never find the house we want to move to. Do we still pay our estate agents?

 

[shiver]

Does anyone know the score for accepting an offer on your house and then backing out? I'm worried we will never find the house we want to move to. Do we still pay our estate agents?

Likely need to check your contract but usually no or there would be a nominal fee I think. Often you would need to pay them if you do end up selling to that buyer, even if you've changed to a different estate agent etc.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Is it the whole of the UK where house prices for anything decent is half a million minimum?

 

[ci_newman]

*When we were looking for a new place we found one house we loved. We called to book a viewing, they booked us in and called back the next day to say they'd accepted an offer. 3 weeks later it was back on, so we booked again, and AGAIN they called to say they'd accepted an offer. We didnt get to see it at all. Why do people cancel viewings? they don't know what we were willing to offer for that house? Based on this, we promised to let everyone who wanted to view our house make an offer before we made a decision, and boy am i glad.

On the other side of the coin, last summer when we were buying a house we saw a house on a Friday and made an offer but the vendor said they were going to wait for all viewings over the weekend and give us an answer on Monday.

However on Saturday we went to view another house, made an offer and it was accepted straight away.

When we spoke to the EA again on Monday they were livid that we were recinding our offer - turns out we had bid the highest. However their "wait" for a better offer meant we had found another property in the meantime and were no longer interested in theirs. After seeing the property on Saturday, we weren't going to sit around and wait for the original vendor to decide (or not) whether to take our offer. As far as we knew, they would have accepted someone elses offer instead of ours.

The market is moving too quickly at the moment to sit around and wait for decisions (within reason).

 

[Macky]

Is it the whole of the UK where house prices for anything decent is half a million minimum?

Define "decent". But, no. That's a pretty ridiculous question even with the market as it is.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Is it the whole of the UK where house prices for anything decent is half a million minimum?

Mainly the South, i.e. you get closer to the power house that is London. You'll get shed loads of people justifying insane pricing by going 'well it's cheaper than Zone 1,2,3,4,5,6 and bigger'. It is an investment to live close to rich people as well, as you get more certainty around quality of schooling, less crime, lots of high paid unskilled jobs etc.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Is it the whole of the UK where house prices for anything decent is half a million minimum?

It depends on your definition of ‘decent’, if you want a large detached house on a big plot in a good area, then yes, that will be half a million these days.

If it’s anywhere near a thriving city then it would be more and the south east will be considerably more.

I don’t live in the south east and I’m at least an hour away from my closest thriving city in rush hour and a modern (aka relatively compact) 4 bed detached on a small plot will set you back £450k+

 

[jonneymendoza]

Mainly the South, i.e. you get closer to the power house that is London. You'll get shed loads of people justifying insane pricing by going 'well it's cheaper than Zone 1,2,3,4,5,6 and bigger'. It is an investment to live close to rich people as well, as you get more certainty around quality of schooling, less crime, lots of high paid unskilled jobs etc.

I guess so yes. i am looing in london and bare minumum for any kind of house is 500k...

 

[Deleted User 298457]

I guess so yes. i am looing in london and bare minumum for any kind of house is 500k...

Don't be put off by two bed flats. The Victorian conversions often provide much more square footage for your money.

 

[Scam]

All these terms must have been made available to read before you joined the scheme, right? Or I'd hope so anyway.

@grudas and @jonneymendoza I feel for anyone who got dragged into the LISA mess. I did too. First opened it because it was the sensible thing to do as a potential FTB - even Martin Lewis was telling everyone to open one whilst you can. Long story short, once my partner and I took the plunge to buy together it went straight out of the window. I feel very aggrieved at the penalties on LISAs. For the government to actually penalise people who are simply saving for their first home is absolutely disgusting. I ranted about it on here but was mostly met with indifference (because I live in London ), I found one of my posts which explains the problems better than I need to type again;

Totally agree. With house price inflation as it is, anyone looking to save for a property at the higher end of the limit would need to think twice about using a LISA. You could save for 5 years and by the time you have enough, said properties will have inflated over the limit and you'll be stuck. Not only will you not be able to use it anymore, but you'll lose more money than you put in!

Or if you'd opened one with the intent of buying on your own.. then your circumstances change and you want to buy with a friend or partner. Can't.

Or if you just happen to live in the south east where the average house price is around £420k, yeah.. probably can't.

There's absolutely no need for the upper limit. The LISA only lets you put in £4k per year so if they were worried about rich kids rocking up with inheritance, or lottery winners or second home owners taking advantage.. well you can't.

I wanted and raved about it I'm this thread because I had to close mine when I started house hunting with my partner. I took a punt and closed it before end of April so only got the 20% penalty. I did (for the sake of it) make a formal complaint to the bank, and wrote to my MP.

The government needs to understand that if they want to pursuade people it's worthwhile saving, they need to stop inflating the housing market with daft schemes like this, and stop penalising people for simply trying to do the right thing and save hard. It does my nut.

I did actually write to my MP and complain, so I urge you to do the same. a lot of people are already calling them the next insurance mis-selling scam, and I believe it.

 

[jonneymendoza]

I had planned a viewing for this weekend and i just got told it has been canceled as the owners have recieved an offer already?!?!

Is it not best for the owners to have more people viewing the property?

THe more people that view it, the better?

 

[koolpc]

Guess they received the price that they were looking for.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Guess they received the price that they were looking for.

Guess so

 

[Unseul]

I had planned a viewing for this weekend and i just got told it has been canceled as the owners have recieved an offer already?!?!

Is it not best for the owners to have more people viewing the property?

THe more people that view it, the better?

If they have a well placed buyer come in, it makes sense to just go for it. Wasting time could see that buyer find somewhere else, or pushing peoples budgets can more likely see them fail later in the process.

 

[jonneymendoza]

If they have a well placed buyer come in, it makes sense to just go for it. Wasting time could see that buyer find somewhere else, or pushing peoples budgets can more likely see them fail later in the process.

Yea i supose so. Its just difficult right now to organise viewings during the week as me and my partner work from 9-6pm and the area's we are looking to buy are not walking distance from where we are right now

 

[maj]

Does anyone know much about housing law? Can a new build builder remove our reservation and put the plot back up for sale due to length of time the chain is taking? Our house sold in September and both myself and buyer used same solicitor thinking it would make the process easier but it has been anything but. The buyer and his solicitor have made things very difficult by not communicating with each other causing further delays to the sale (my solicitor hasn't been perfect but they've got the job done albeit slowly). The builder have threatened to put our reserved plot back up for sale if they don't get confirmation today that buyer is in a position to exchange by Monday. To me this seems incredibly unfair as we've done everything we've been asked to do as the seller and anything outstanding is with the buyer and his solicitor.

The house we're buying is complete and ready to be moved into and has been ready to be moved into since the start of the year so to potentially lose it all due to circumstances out of our control is very frustrating.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Short answer, yes if you have not exchanged and you have no recourse.

 

[ci_newman]

Does anyone know much about housing law? Can a new build builder remove our reservation and put the plot back up for sale due to length of time the chain is taking? Our house sold in September and both myself and buyer used same solicitor thinking it would make the process easier but it has been anything but. The buyer and his solicitor have made things very difficult by not communicating with each other causing further delays to the sale (my solicitor hasn't been perfect but they've got the job done albeit slowly). The builder have threatened to put our reserved plot back up for sale if they don't get confirmation today that buyer is in a position to exchange by Monday. To me this seems incredibly unfair as we've done everything we've been asked to do as the seller and anything outstanding is with the buyer and his solicitor.

The house we're buying is complete and ready to be moved into and has been ready to be moved into since the start of the year so to potentially lose it all due to circumstances out of our control is very frustrating.

It will have been part of your reservation contract that you are ready to exchange within 30days of the house being ready.

I actually bought my new build due to this issue, the previous reservation was nullified as the buyers chain collapsed and the builder put it back on the market within 48 hours (and was sold to us 24 hours after that). To be fair I felt pretty rotten about it, but the house builder told us they'd had three other calls that day with people wanting to reserve it after we did. If it wasn't us, someone else would have snatched it.