oksleator

Thanks Jilly. Good point about the other services (there's just electricity). There's an ASHP and solar panels at the property but everything has the wrong name on it (it's all registered to their other property) so it's very hard to keep track of what's what. Our conveyancers list of outstanding questions is still enormous. I am really fed up with the vendors now. I tried to get some quotes for putting in a new water supply but you have to be acting on behalf of the property owner to get anywhere with the request forms.

Yeah you're probably right. We're having some issues with our sale now too as our next door neighbours decided to put a massive bloody dormer planning application in this week (which will definitely get rejected but not until 15th august) so that's delaying things. I think this house move is doomed.

hi hi! Sorry I haven't logged on for a while. The building regs were signed off by a So does that mean they inspected the build throughout the process? It was signed off in March 2021. We're still not much further in the process. Everything is taking ages. Another thing that has come to light is regarding water. They've just extended the water pipe from the neighbouring house (which they used to own) and don't seem to have told the water company, so it has no independent water supply, which seems majorly dodgy to me? I guess they were just going to let us move in and then discover the neighbour pays for our water (I presume it is unmetered at least). What the hell? I have kicked off about this and they have notified the water supply company about the dwellings existence, but I don't even know what the next steps of that is. Does the water company need to inspect the pipes and obtain a wayleave agreement from the landowners? The property has a kingspan sewage treatment plant for waste. This sale is an absolute mess and I don't trust them at all now.

Oof we were offered a 5 year fix at 6.1%, compared to the 4.19% for the five year fix we had before. An alternative has been proposed of a 2 year tracker at 4.99%. These are with the only building society who will lend to us, it seems. We are over a barrel and I think the vendors are going to have to share some of that expense. I had a sweaty night thinking about all the risk we're opening ourselves up to.

Yeah no idea. Anyway, we've switched broker and they seem to be on it, said this comes up occasionally and have lenders in mind who would be fine with a retrospective PCC. Hoping they come back with an ok rate! I'll report back...

Yeah they do seem to be a crock of shit!

Yeah I'm racking up the indemnities on my own sale, think i'm on four and counting, and that's just an old victorian terrace that i've done nothing to except cosmetic work. I didn't have any of this when I bought ten years ago.

Bummer. seems the architect didn't inspect during the build so he wont sign off on it. They've found someone who will issue a retrospective PCC but our lender wont accept that. It seems lenders have really tightened the noose on this in the last couple of years.

Hi thanks, I did read that one but I wasn't sure how a retrospective PCC would go down. The key criteria from our lender seems to be that someone in a professional capacity is willing to say they saw the property being built correctly during the build. If the vendor has had his architect out during the build, and they are willing to sign a PCC confirming that, then we should be fine. Those discussions are going on right now. If he didn't come out at all, then that will be a problem, unless they come up with some shady agreement between them. Which I personally would have no issue with but obviously want no knowledge of. If they can't get this, then we approach all lenders who look less hung up on this. I'll start with the ones mentioned earlier. There's a builder working on our road who does this kind of work, and he said lenders have tightened up their criteria severely in the last few years. He's sold houses he's done up without issue, but then when the purchasers have come to sell again, they've been stuck as there is no builders warranty. He said it never used to be an issue.

Okay thanks Gary, that sounds like a good one to explore!

Thanks both. The vendors have been renting it out to a friend, so it has been occupied. Not sure they would be able to claim otherwise as it's mentioned on the conveyancer forms and it's obvious from the photos. I didn't realise self build mortgages were a separate thing. I am very green in this area, I thought I was just buying a regular house! We've always lived in old houses so a new build wasn't even on our radar, I always deselect those from our rightmove search criteria, but it is the perfect house which is why we are now in this mess. Our natwest mortgage offer was 4.12% (and we're borrowing 250k). Looking at self build mortgage rates that would be a huge difference in what we'd pay - they're coming in high sixes and sevens. I think if we get forced down that route we would need the vendors to meet us in the middle to at least get us over the 10 year from build term. You guys have been so much more help than our broker and conveyancer. Thank you!

Thanks Jilly. Good suggestions. The owner is in discussions with the architect on the build so I'm hoping they come up with some solutions today. In the meantime, we will speak to some other brokers.

Yeah we've asked about indemnities and received a hard no from the main lenders. If they get nowhere with an architect, I will see if we can find a specialist broker who takes on hopeless cases, but we'd have to weigh up the risks of that especially with mortgage rates as they are (and I personally don't feel they will go down). I have a sinking feeling we will not be moving anywhere, but trying to maintain some form of hope!

Thanks, will do. The vendor is in discussion with their architect. 🤞 they pull something out of the bag.

Yeah I've laid it all out in an email to the estate agents to pass on to the buyers. Hopefully they can sort it out. I've emphasised we're still keen, we're happy to contribute to costs to resolve it, and this will likely bite them in the ass if decided to market it again to someone else. We've been poring over rightmove all afternoon and there's nothing else out there that we'd consider, so if there are any creative solutions we can come up between all of us, we'll be up for trying them.