We have found the perfect house and we have a 100% mortgage (I know!) in place, I just need to know what costs are now involved and what we need to approach a solicitor for.
RE: Looking to make an offer on a house - need advice
Hi, first find solicitor they usual have or have on their books a surveyor, get a survey done, get a list of what the different levels of survey give you,and bear in mind they won't bring steps to look in lofts so you need to make sure there are good safe steps.
Contact solicitor,VERY VERY IMPORTANT; they do searches, searches tell you if anyone else as a hold on any of the property, like eg; part of the drive or garden could belong to someone else, if there's any maintainance orders etc, if you are responsible for doing anything when you have bought the place, if the house is part listed or full listed building, if so you are restricted to what and how you can improve even decorate. it also tells you if there's any housing estates going up around you or other things, any trees in your garden that are listed and protected.You'll get a list of what the vendor is prepared to leave in the property i.e light fittings & shades, toilet door lock, loo roll holder, if they are not ticked as being taken, then they are taken; then you can ask them to return them as they were in the contract as being purchased with the house. Does a motorway link road pass through your gate or is there going to be a motorway run passed your gate. This is just a little of what the solicitor does, it is a veritable mine field so you really need a solicitor.They handle from start to finish, they push the vendors for you, so you can get through all this with relative ease, it can take 8 to 10 week or more.
It can look as though you are paying out for nothing but these expenses are the most important one's.
REMEMBER house buying and flitting is one of the top most culprits for stress, hold onto your tempers and you'll get through unscathed.
RE: Looking to make an offer on a house - need advice
A few things to bear in mind,stamp duty if over a certain price, council tax, water rates, gas, leccy, food, travel costs to work, the first two years are always the hardest, if you get through them the rest is plain sailing. Good Luck for your future happiness an your dream home, oh and do remember Rome was not built in a day, and that means, just decorate where you need to for time being. There's no rush. 😉
RE: Looking to make an offer on a house - need advice
Thanks a lot hunnie for that - I'll start seekign out a solicitor on Monday then 🙂
RE: Looking to make an offer on a house - need advice
In addition to all that Lyn has said, the solicitor will be able to tell you if the vendors are able to sell the house (no one else has a claim to it for example), and do all the registering with the Land Registry bits that you need to do ... so even if every letter they write is going to cost you £30 then it's worth it for the biggest purchase you're ever going to make in your life!!
RE: Looking to make an offer on a house - need advice
Good advice. We do mock solicitors for raking it in, but they do provide a useful service... and it isn't that expensive compared to the tax and estate agent fees.