For a variety of reasons I've got to being a pensioner and have never bought a house through an agent in the UK.
I've just had an offer accepted on what appears to be a well presented and maintained 1960's extended (floor level only) bungalow.
Yes there are lots of websites but I'd appreciate some of this groups experiences especially with solicitors and surveys plus anything else you'd do differently if you had known what you know now.
Whatever you do, don't go with the EA's "recommended" solicitor. The EA works for the vendor, and their pet solicitor will be kicking them back.
Get recommendations from friends/neighbours for who they used.
Surveys - well, you're here, so I'm guessing you can figure your way around a house pretty well... Do you need to pay somebody £5-6-700 to give you a rough overview of what's what with it?
There's three levels of survey.
- Valuation. A mortgage lender will insist on that, at the least. "It's a house. It's worth £x"
- Home buyer's report. Quick once-around, is it falling down? Pretty colour-coded document results. "It's a house. It has four walls and a roof. It's not actively falling down. The electrics and gas are untested - RED!"
- Full structural survey. Frankly, the only one worth considering, but even then really only if you think you might have missed something yourself. Even then, they won't move anything - even rugs - to actually look in depth.
- Don't do your own conveyancing. (I for one won't do business with you if you are)
- Get a proper structural survey
- Shop round for a solicitor. Don't be intimidated - they're just tradespeople like anyone else
- If anyone mentions subsidence or flooding, run, do not walk, away
Note: these days there are specialist conveyancing firms, that are often be tter value than a general purpose solicitor. More likely to get a fixed cos t service from them. Some are online based. Always read reviews of course.
In one case, I found the estate agent recommended a conveyancing firm under their own branding, and it actually was good value (kickbacks withstanding !), and less hassle since the EA and conveyancing firm had a hotline to eac h other and access to the same computer system.
Simon.
It's still poacher-acting-as-gamekeeper, though.
And that will often (usually?) be a drive-by.
Cheers
If this is England or Wales, your offer is not binding until exchange - so you still have an "out".
Me:
Get a torch and a camera. Go and have another look in daylight. Look under the sink, everywhere where there is visible plumbing, look at the consumer unit and poke your head into the loft and spot some lighting wiring.
You should be able to assess if it looks "decent and newish" or "old, bodged and crappy".
Walk around the floors and look for bouncy or wobbly bits.
Look at the roof from the ground (binoculars if you have access).
Look at the brick work, pointing etc.
Windows and window frames.
Look behind furniture next to an outside wall for tell tale damp patches.
===== That's quite a lot you can look at visually.
Surveyors? Well - they might spot something - I would say it's worth engaging a good one.
But in addition, you can also pay for an electrician to do an EICR (electrical installation condition report) - that'll be 200-300 ish.
You could also pay a GasSafe person to do a Gas Safety check and boiler inspection.
You could also get the drains CCTV surveyed.
Out of those, the EICR offers the most useful check for the money IMO, over and above what you can see yourself.
The important thing is take your time - refuse to be rushed. Take some pictures. Mark on the agent's floor plan where the sockets and rads are. This will let you spent some time planning your layout when you move in.
If you think it could do with an immediate paintjob, I recommend paying for moving with a few days storage as a buffer and getting the place hit in one go by the painters. Book a carpet clean too. It is all so much easier to do when the place is devoid of furniture.
Of course, most people don't do half these things, but some do do some of them, so I merely present as a pool of ideas, not as a "must do list".
As for solicitors - many are useless and slow. Try to find one with a reputation of being ruthlessly efficient - they do exist.
Yes that's true. That company were thorough in trying to keep you on side f or future business, etc. Since they were under the same branding, bad conve yancing could affect the reputation of the estate agent business as a whole .
I suppose in that business you have to decide whether you favor buyer, sell er, or try to be balanced, depending on the source of income and various ot her business related factors, including where you wish to sit in the market place. If you try to rip off buyers for the benefit of sellers that may get you more commission income but you will soon come unstuck.
The person who sold the house to me had also bought the house with the same company, so on a sample size of one, perhaps their idea was working.
Simon.
The Environment Agency have flood prediction maps available to check.
However, some common sense can help - is there a river or lake anywhere around - is the house up a hill from that water? Does a web search show a history of flooding in that area (old newspaper reports too).
As for subsidence - in theory subsidence can be perfectly well remedied. The problem is *you* do not know who was involved and whether they were any good (unless it's you getting the subsidence fixed). Can be awkward with insurance too. So I tend to agree with Huge...
I don't mind any kick back providing their price to me is still competive, so I'll be shopping around but prices on the net all seem around the same.
Doesn't mean I'm any good though :( Took me a long time and wrong routes to sort a roof leak.
And if the windows are alleged to be double-glazed, try opening/closing them to see if they do so properly and pull-in nicely when closing so they seal properly. Same with uPVC doors.
Amongst other things it does seem a "closed shop".
And I though tradespeople were honest!
I do have a concern in as much as the whole estate was a quarry and this house (or at least its back garden) is right up against the quarry wall. So I guess I'd want a view on drainage. The estate has been there 50yrs and I'd guess a quarry floor would be fairly solid?
England. Yes very different to Australia where I have bought & sold two houses.
Good one is the operative word. Whilst I might see a lot I might miss the important thing.
Not included in a builder's survey? It's a combi-boiler ~ 6yrs old.
Thanks - good points there.
Yes, all of this.
Look at any brickwork to see if any settling has occurred.
Half an hour with an O/S map can be helpful.
This is from personal experience. Our present house had, in theory, had historical 'seasonal movement' issues fixed. Two rounds of further rectification (stopping short of underpinning) later I wouldn't touch a house that had had previous movement issues with someone else's shitty stick, even if they did have documentary evidence it had been fixed. It causes *enormous* issues with both buildings and contents insurance. It's only in the last couple of years (this has been going on for ca. 15 years & we last made an insurance claim 10 years ago) that we've been able to change contents insurer, and the previous one was reaming us. We can't change buildings insurers at all.
If there is literally a cliff at the end of the garden, I might be worried about landslides, or falling rocks. But you say its been there for 50 years. I would still like to inspect what is at the top of the quarry wall.
Simon.
And different to Scotland.
IME full surveys do not include any services (apart from a very cursory comment like "electrics look old".
And Bing maps have the OS available (unlike Google Maps).
I'm a bit stuck too with the last of my refurb - bit more wiring and the
2nd layer of roof insulation. Because insurers now regard an open building notice as "not in good repair" this limits my choice to a few companies that have sensible underwriters who are happy to agree that having a safe, functional weathertight house with only 3 "improvement" level works pending is actually OK.The rest are morons. Lying's an option, but as there's a paper trail, probably unwise.
Unfortunately the current insurers are not the cheapest. So one big push is planned this year and early next to get the building cert then I'm good.
The annoying bit is 15 years ago none of the pending bits were notifiable works anyway. But it's hard to book "proper works" with the BCO and try to leave off the fluffy bollocks like adding roof insulation when he's going to be walking around!
My solicitor was suggesting, a very long time ago, that I should have a full survey done for a place I was buying. I responded that the report would be so full of caveats that there would be great difficulty in taking action in the event of trouble, and selecting a surveyor based on the adequacy of their insurance seemed to be rather missing the point. "Not necessarily" he replied "We have a number of such cases on our hands at the moment." At which juncture I felt that he had made my point for me.
Chris
Surveys seem to be almost valueless in most cases. You get a list of discla imers that leave more or less nothing of value. If examination has revealed no signs of structural problems, no flying freehold, the taps work etc, wh at really will a survey add. Other than interpreting some structural issues the rest its not hard to check yourself.
Same goes for the usual house risks, eg flood, mining subsidence, explosion etc.
I think you need to know something more than that. There's new neat unsafe wiring and old mucky safe wiring. Take a pic of the CU & board and show us.
If you find those, interpretation is still needed.
I think you'd get better mileage from showing us a pic of the CU & board.
bit OTT if they work though
Can the OP not paint?
no, buy a carpet cleaner, one with a solution pump. It'll save you a whole set of carpets, probably more than once.
Be aware of people promising to be fast then proceeding at a rate of snail.
NT
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