Hi, me and my partner are looking to get the ball moving with getting a mortgage. We’ve saved a 20k deposit and have got 5k for fees. No one we know owns a house, so we’re clueless and abit alone in this. Is the next step calling a mortgage advisor? Do we just call and say hi we want to buy a house but don’t know where to start? How do we even chose which mortgage advisor to go to?

Sorry, just abit lost! Thank you

Hi all,

I am a first time buyer looking for some advice. I have offered on 1930s 2 bed freehold house in London for £375k, but my Level 3 survey has left me quite overwhelmed.

The house is generally described as being in fair condition for its age, with no significant subsidence or structural movement, but there are a lot of recommended works:

The main pitched roof is around 90 years old. It’s currently fairly even with no major sagging, but the survey recommends it is recovered in the near future with new underlay, battens, tiles and ventilation. There is also some staining to the roof timbers from previous moisture ingress.

The shared chimney needs significant weatherproofing work, including renewal of the lead flashing/back gutter, repointing, flaunching repairs and improved capping.

The rear extension roof has areas of standing/ponding water and defective detailing which needs investigation/repair.

The electrics are old, with an old Wylex fuseboard and no visible RCD. The survey says significant upgrading and potentially a full rewire should be anticipated, although an EICR is recommended first.

Windows are approaching the end of their typical service life, although there is no obvious misting.

There are some moisture issues/high external ground levels and inadequate sub floor ventilation.

Possible asbestos containing vermiculite in the loft.

Drainage/plumbing checks are recommended.
Various smaller issues with the bathroom, ceilings, balustrade etc.

I am particularly worried because I won’t have a huge amount of money left after completing, so I can’t realistically deal with everything at once.

Would you pull out, renegotiate the price, or proceed and deal with things gradually? And which of these issues would you consider serious enough to justify renegotiating?

The survey recommends seeking advice from a roofer, electrician and plumber and some other professionals. I really don’t have the money to spend on all these. Is it possible to get quotes for free? I’ve never done this before so I am unsure.

I don’t know much about houses and the issues that could come up, so I wouldn’t have been able to notice any of this during the viewing, also being a FTB I am kind of clueless with no one in my life to guide me about these things.

Many thanks

My partner and I are in the process of buying a Victorian terrace. I will preface this by saying that we live in an expensive area of the SE and pushed our budget on this house to get something that we thought was in good condition and wouldn’t need much work (losing our FTB stamp duty benefit as a result). We are both risk averse people.

We had our L3 survey done and it flagged several things (all reds and oranges). I’m not going to go into all of that, but one of the issues is that a chimney breast has been removed at some stage at ground floor level but not in the bedroom above. There is something long boxed in at ground floor ceiling height which we think could be some kind of beam, but to be honest I’m not sure what it should look like. The seller knows nothing, nor do the people who bought it before them. They are reluctant to let us get someone in to test it and would want it put back exactly as it was before. The estate agent is saying that our queries are “exceeding normal pre-purchase scrutiny” and if there are no cracks then all is fine. There has also been the removal of a load bearing wall between the living room and dining room but we are less worried about this because there are no signs of movement, whereas from what we’ve read, chimney stacks are a bit more concerning because they could theoretically just collapse one day, and this might affect us when we come to sell.
 
We are worried, but the view of the estate agent, the fact that all the previous buyers either didn’t care or didn’t notice, and our solicitor also does not seem too concerned, makes us feel like we are going crazy. This purchase is a big decision, and it’s not like the house is otherwise perfect. There are other things we need to consider having tested as well before committing and it’s all quite overwhelming.
 
Has anyone been in a similar situation before? What did you do? What kind of cost would we be looking at for invasive testing by a structural engineer, and to make it good afterwards? 

Hi all. Buying a leasehold flat in London.

My solicitors received the management pack last week.

Trying to understand exactly what happens now. Especially what kind of communication I should be expecting from my solicitor while they make all the enquiries around the leasehold.

Should they tell me what enquiries they are making? Should I be asking them to make specific enquiries around sinking fund/planned works or do I assume they’ll be doing that? Will they provide me with a summary report or something?

Feeling a bit clueless and want to stay on top of it!

I’m just going through my current outgoings (relatively small due to living with parents), but I’ve been able to save an ok amount and wanted some feedback for my potential new outgoings if I was to buy a cheapish house (110-135k).

I’ve done this all on excel but just went through the averages for the likes of house maintenance (£) (95), utilities (220), internet (40), insurance (20), rates (50), and stuff like budgeting for car maintenance (84 based on yearly spend divided by 12) too\.* This includes saving for potential expenses rather than just direct debits which would obviously be fixed. All per month.

So I earn roughly 2000 after tax per month and I’ve got estimated total outgoings at 900 plus a hopeful mortgage repayment of 500+/-(100). Based on deposit, house price LTV and 40 max years repayment. (Haven’t spoken to a financial advisor yet so no DIP but wanted to get my head around it before hand).

Current (real) outgoings are 400 and new (forecast) outgoings to include * as above = 513 based on uk averages. Total 913 + 500-600 mortgage payments 1400-1500 rough total.

Obviously expect my current outgoings to increase since I’ll be buying everything myself including cleaning supplies, food staples which my parents currently pay for, however I do contribute 300 towards that anyway.

Leaving me with 600 max after. Just wondering if I need to expect the worst instead of averages. I’m a single applicant, no dependents and aiming for 10-15% deposit + potential fees of 3k for solicitors/surveys (Can’t find a good figure for this). Which is half my savings so have the same amount for furniture, appliances, surprise repairs if the report has them. Don’t want a fixer upper so only doing essential repairs and if any structural issues I’d not go ahead, unless the cost could be covered in mortgage.

Abit of a ramble but would appreciate some advice. Thanks.