Right.......
My wife and I have finally sold our flat. It has been on the market since Feb 2008 (Shared Ownership on The Royal Arsenal). Have sold for well under the original valuation but with the market being the way it is, didn't really have much choice. Done well to make a small profit in my opinion.
We haven't made enough on this place to put down a decent deposit on the sort of property we are looking for so we have decided to rent for 18 months - 2 years.
The guy buying our place has said he wants to be in before Xmas. Things are moving along nicely, survey done no problems, contracts sent out to opposite solicitor - nothing queired yet, so hopefully things should complete without anys issue.
We have found the perfect place to rent, suprisingly there is a bit of a shortage of 3 beds houses at present. Well in SE9 there is. Made the mistake of taking my 5 year old daughter the first viewing and she is now in love with the idea of moving to the new place....
The letting agent has "kind of" agreed to hang on, if we can move in 4 weeks.
Having spoken to our solicitor today it looks like the sale might not complete till 2-3 week of January. Housing Association are dragging their feet.
Obviously, the letting agent will not wait that long.
Would you risk it all? I.E move out and into the new place?. We can afford to pay for both properties for a month, maybe 2, but after that things would be tight.
Having only ever bought - chain free - I have no experience of the selling process. At this stage what could go wrong?. I'm 99.9% certain the buyer wouldn't pull out.
What to do?.
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Comments
Dont trust anyone, anything could happen?
I would request a non-refundable deposit of a few K if they want you to keep it for them as a safeguard.
Too much can still go wrong.
Beat me to it ...,exactly what I think ... you cannot run the risk.
If it went the way of the pear then you're tied in to a xx month long contract on the rental place and there is always the possibility of the sale falling through.
I sold my shared-ownership place in June after finding a buyer last Dec. It went on for 6 long months after everything looked fine from where I was. Nothing did go wrong, just solicitors not communicating, waiting on postal stuff, the buyer wanting this and that looked at. It all contributed to a protracted sale of a property with no chain at either end!
IMO, sit tight and wait for the exchange before committing to renting somewhere. Best of luck.
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I wouldn't, the risk of the sale falling through or rumbling on another few weeks will leave you out of pocket. Also bear in mind that your letting agent by agreeing to delay a month is doing so from a position of weakness rather than altruism, if he had another tenant lined up he'd let the place to them without a second thought, it might be that this property will still be available in a week or two's time. If not then there'll be others.
All you can really do is go back to your solicitor, outline your problem and ask for the reason for the delay and get them to pull their finger out, and tell the letting agent that while you are still interested in this property that you can't commit until the contracts have been exchanged.
This man speaks sense.
If it's meant to be then it's meant to be - but it's a risk!
Hope it all works out buddy
Good luck!
Had this done to me, also wanted the washing machine. I was buying our new house from the brother in law, he had an old washing machine, I swapped it over and on the last day in the old house, I put it in a bedroom upstairs!
The best advcie I can offer is to start from the positon that everyone else involved in the process (the buyer, their solicitor, your solicitor, the mortage company and the surveyor, etc, etc) is a complete and utter twunt then base your decisions on that.
Solicitors have been back on and have said they see no reason for things not to complete before Xmas. Letting agent is happy with that for the time being.
Funnily enough another place has up come that will be available mid January. Is an extra £100 a month but would rather have that than be lumbered with mortgage + rent and rent!!!!.
Anyone thinking of shared ownership, be warned. Affordable Homeownership my arse!. We'd have been better stretching ourselves with a big mortgage.
Example of costs during this sale. Housing Association solicitor want £600.00 upon completion - basically for transferring the lease to someone else. Our solicitor contacted them to ask them for a couple of minor details. They wanted £86.25 just to answer the questions. Utter scam.
Spot on advice, stay put - if you miss out on the 3 bed house, there will be others.
Remember that it is also a good idea to make an offer on rented accomadation. I have never failed to get a reduction of around 5 - 10 %, if a property is empty it is not making money (that could be well over 1k a month), they want you and your money. You can rent wherever you like, politely make the agant aware of that, even if it is not entirely true.
Also, much as it it is very hard to do, you give the orders to your children, not the other way round. Not saying that I am not a soft touch with the kids though :-)
Yes and No, Clem. I had my S.O property for 4.5 years and found it very affordable. I think it depends on which S.O company you buy through. Also, costs differ when you sell on but, to be honest, they'll all skim the cream off the top.
I wouldn't go slating S.O. If it's right for you it's right for you.
Talk to many people - and they will be under the impression that Housing Associations are created as some benevolent non-profit making, charitable trust status organisation
Housing Associations are big business - and they exist for one major reason = to make big profit.
Huge government funding (taxpayers money) is readily available, and commonsense planning controls largely swept away. Like any big business, maximised profit is the thing.
They are the social housing equivalent of Barretts or Wimpy Homes.
And they won't develop any site unless it's hugely profitable.
And one way or another, we all pay.
nothing to add to that
If you can move somewhere in the interim and have it lined up as your fall back option then go ahead with the move as it might be the thing that helps the chain to complete. But not if it your only option is to complete as you are putting yourself at the mercy of dodgy buyers and I would imagine there are plenty around. I would agree that you should ask for a guarantee from the buyer to take your property off the market.
Sorry Steve but that is utter guff. I know several people and myself that have sold S.O properties. If anything you have a guaranteed sale as people are shown the property rather than having to go looking for it and there are huge waiting lists in most London boroughs for S.O housing. The price it sells for is also a non-negotiable figure that you cannot make an offer on so if you get a decent valuation (like I did), then you can walk away with a very healthy amount of money (like I did).
Like I said in my earlier post, it's horses for courses...
Similar here in Queensland. You pay a small deposit and then once you have completed your survey and got finance (within 14 days of signing the original deal) you then pay your proper deposit (usually 10%) and if you pull out between then and settlement (which is normally 60 days from the original deal being signed) you lose all your deposit.
It makes things much easier and stops all the wankers out there trying to screw you at the 11th hour.
The UK property laws are a farce, its way too complex and leaves too many gray areas.
It's evolved this way so a whole army of solicitors, lenders, administrators and others can leverage money from your pocket.
Same with the taxation complexities.
It's the system. And it's designed that way.