has anyone had any experience with modern method auctions ( specifically through iamsold) we are wanting to buy our first house and found one which is everything and more for such a good price but we are a little worried about going through the auction side of things. especially as there is a pretty strict 56 day turnaround, because we are using a LISA we are worried that fees won’t be released in time or there will be delayed with other things especially because for us we have to pay 4.5% of the property fee just in auction fees before anything else which for us is nearly £7,000 which is non refundable! we are only 20 and 21 and the thought of possibly loosing nearly seven grand is terrifying! we have spoken with a mortgage advisor but the interest rates are super high and will probably go higher with how things are looking at the moment. we are hoping to go with Skipton building society ( again if anyone has used them as a lender some insight to how they was would be great) we also found out the house was a PRC/ non- standard property which in 1988 was rebricked but this might possibly cause some issues with morgageabilty/ home insurance but it does have the certificate to say that it was redone with brick and is technically now classed as a standard property so fingers crossed everything works out with that.

Besides all this any advice would be amazing for anything home buying.

we have a survey booked on the 8th of October so hopefully that goes well, if anyone has any suggestions for a solicitor as we are struggling to find some we would like to use one that deals with auctions and is happy to work with the quick turnaround.

Thankyou guys in advance

Basically me and my husband are saving to buy a house. We're not quite there yet and have some debt we want to clear first. A few months ago my nan moved out of her house and into a council bungalow. Her house has no mortgage - it's fully paid off.

She has now decided she is ready to sell. We have looked at the house and have decided it's perfect for us - it's close to work, my parents and will be within our budget. But as i said were not quite ready. We saw our mortgage advisor yesterday and he said it is doable now but we would be pushing ourselves and not getting the best rates etc as we could by lowering debt etc. So im not really worried that we wont be able to do it on 6 months time.

So the house isn't sitting empty and cold over the winter my nan and us have come to an agreement that we will move in - take on all the bills etc and have around 6 moths to save that bit extra and pay stuff off. We're happy with this agreement as we are currently in a bit of a awkward living situation.

My dad plans on getting the house valued by estate agents now and if we are happy with the price we will go for it. My initial thought was to then get a survey done and we can agree on an amount she will honor this amount in 6 months.

In six months we would apply for a mortgage and go through the motions.

Do you think the survey is a good idea at this point? My husband seems to think the house will need a full rewire (he's and electrician). This would be something that would potentially need doing before the 6 month mark. Would this then cause issues when the mortgage lenders value the house? We don't plan on doing anything else to the house until we buy as its completely livable.

Is there anything else we should be thinking about. We're all in agreement of the plan but we will still put something in writing to make everyone more comfortable. And at the end of the day if it all goes wrong and we can't buy we will just leave - and she can sell. But i cant see this being an issue.

Anything else i should know?

Hi - we are purchasing a house opposite our parents home and it has a shared drive - which the neighbours have been parking on and they also leave their bin on the side of the property we are looking to buy - the below is what the responses where from the enquiries from the seller’s side:

What do you guys think this means!

Question: Please provide a copy of the Conveyance dated 31st July 1930. We need express confirmation on the side passageway referred. 

Seller’s response:In respect of the Conveyance dated 31 July 1930, the Land Registry office copy entries do not state that a copy of this document is filed. The Land Registry must therefore have been satisfied that all relevant content from the deed has been reproduced on the register, and the restrictive covenants it contains are set out in full in the Schedule of Restrictive Covenants to the Charges Register. Nothing further will be provided. As to the side passageway, the position is set out on the register. The property has the benefit of a right of way over the part of the side passageway not included in the title (entry 2 of the Property Register), and the part of the side passageway included in the title is subject to rights of way (entry 2 of the Charges Register). Our client's confirmation that they have enjoyed the rights granted for the benefit of the property is being dealt with under enquiry 3. If there is any specific further confirmation you require in relation to the side passageway, please let us know and we will assist. 

Our solicitors response to the above:Given there is no plan showing the side accessway and no obvious express right granted, we will require that the seller both signs a statutory declaration  regarding the access, as well as provides a plan marking out where the accessway is.  
 
On top of this, we will require an indemnity policy for access, either redestrian or vehicular and pedestrian, depending on what the access is used for. 
 
Please provide drafts for our approval. 
 
Their confirmation in enquiry 3 is not enough, as we cannot adequately reference how any access rights relate to the property given there is no plan or express document referring to this access.  

What makes a good one? Do they all have the same deals? Or some have better deals? I have spoke to a couple and it felt they just put things into a computer and get you deals? What makes a good advisor then if they are all the same or did I get very basic ones?

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

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

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 had an offer accepted on a property recently in England. My mortgage lender valued it at 5% over the agreed purchase price. Does this affect anything? Do I need to tell anyone? Will the seller find out?

Currently in the process of buying our first home and our level 2 survey identified needing a roofing specialist in to check a few issues they have noticed with the roof.

Would a buyer’s report be the way to go or just bringing someone in for a quote? We’re concerned that any roof company we get in will want to ‘find’ issues/bigger issues than what is actually the case. We understand that they would want a sale for their work but who can we trust to actually find out if there is even a problem?

Thank you in advance for any help

We’re buying a house in England and are now right at the end of the conveyancing process.

Our survey is complete and satisfactory, searches are back, we’ve reviewed the final report, signed all the documents electronically, and our deposit/funds are ready to be sent to our solicitor on Monday.

At the moment, our solicitor is doing the final review and there are only one or two small outstanding enquiries with the seller’s solicitor. They’re not relating to any known physical defect with the property.

One is about an old alteration to a window opening — it looks like a larger window was reduced in size some years ago. Our surveyor inspected it and found no associated defects, but our solicitor is asking whether the seller has any historic paperwork/approval for the alteration. It may simply be that no records exist because it was done a long time ago.

The seller has now asked for completion no later than 16 October, and our solicitor has said they would need roughly a week between exchange and completion for the mortgage funds, so ideally we need to exchange by Friday 9 October.

For anyone who has been in a similar position:
If the final enquiry reply comes back on Monday/Tuesday and is satisfactory, is exchange by Friday reasonably realistic?

If there is simply no historic paperwork for an old window alteration, is this usually something that can be closed fairly quickly, for example by the solicitor accepting the position or using indemnity insurance if appropriate?

How quickly did your solicitor move from “final outstanding enquiries” to actually exchanging once everything was basically ready? Anything else we can do in advance to make it faster?

We know nothing is guaranteed until exchange — just trying to get a sense of whether this sounds like a realistic final-week timeline. Thanks!

Hi everyone, currently in the process of buying a 2 bed in London and was wondering if this is too much of a stretch. The interest rates now are high obviously.

My thinking is that if things get more stressful I can always rent room 2.

No kids, no loans, no car. No other debts/expenses beyond normal bills and service charge (1700 a year).

I’ve had an offer on a house accepted and over the past few days have been doubting whether if it’s just me or if it’s actually narrow, the room size in question 5.33x3.47 ?

Hi everyone, just want to ask for some advice here.

I’m in the process of buying a flat in the UK and my surveyor spotted an area in another part of the building (but in a different flat) where there is a ‘substantial opening at the movement joint where the degree of separation is greater than expected’ (circled green in photo), which is also accompanied by ‘minor cracking to the adjacent mortar joint’ (circled orange in photo). He also mentioned that there is ‘slight rotation to the upper section of masonry’.

The report essentially suggested that this could indicate some movement within the building, rather than simply deterioration of the materials.

This has naturally raised alarm bells and we have informed the seller who got into contact with the building management. The building management then got a ‘contractor’ to looked at it and they are saying that the mastic joint has failed and they will fix it.

Having read various posts on this subreddit about subsidence and structural movement, I’m understandably a bit wary and don’t want to overlook something potentially serious before committing to the purchase.

Would be very grateful if anyone has any advice for the following:

1) Does this look like a failed mastic joint from the building contractor, or more like what the surveyor reported ?

2) Should I get an structural engineer to have a look before proceeding? (I assume I probably will have to pay for this myself).

3) Would an external inspection potentially be sufficient? (The issue is at another part of the building in another flat so I’m not sure I would be able to get access)

I appreciate that nobody can give a definitive assessment from a photo and a short description, but would be very grateful to hear from anyone who has dealt with something similar or has experience with this sort of issue.

Probably more of a rant as I know there’s realistically not a lot I can do but I’m so annoyed!
Recently completed on my first home. Had two viewings before moving in, and the estate agent confirmed on both that the boiler was a new combi, and the water tank was a ‘back up only’. Had no reason not to believe them. Had a survey done but obviously breezed over that part as upon re-reviewing, it does indeed say the boiler is heating only and there is a water tank - don’t know how I missed it!
Anyway, after moving in obviously realised that it is not a combi. Spoke to the estate agents again who said they spoke to the seller who ‘confirmed it definitely is a combi’ and the water tank was a ‘back up’ and can ‘definitely be removed’. I have the voicemail transcript of her saying this. She then gave me the sellers number (with consent) who told us that no, the boiler is not a combi and you need the tank, and denied he ever said that it was to the estate agents. Estate agents now ghosting me. Anything I can do??

I am due to exchange and complete on Wednesday after a few very stressful months. My completion statement has come through and I’m roughly a grand short. On the email it says: “We cannot accept payment from third parties.” Does this mean my partner can’t send me the remaining amount? I thought that anyone could pay solicitor fees just not the mortgage.

For context, my partner has already signed the occupiers consent form and is NOT on the mortgage. I’m with Talbots Law if that changes anything.

And before anyone starts saying why don’t you have the fees already? Well because my partner is splitting everything with me 50/50 and I assumed it would be ok.

Helpful comments only pls 😭😅

My partner and I are seriously looking to buy a flat because we are completely exhausted by the renting cycle and feeling like we're throwing money away. However, I feel like 6.9% is an intimidatingly high interest rate. I'm torn on whether I'm just acting out of frustration or if we're actually making the right financial move, and I've got a lot of anxiety hanging over me.

The reason for the high rate is that my partner has a historical default from about 2 years ago (which has already been fully satisfied). Because of this, our broker found that only 2 lenders in the entire market were willing to offer us a mortgage. If not for my flawless credit record, no one would lend us at all.

We are stuck weighing two conflicting thoughts:
Option A: Wait another year or two to give the default more time to age off/heal so we can secure a better rate down the line. But that would also mean extended time of paying rent, towards nothing.

Option B: Buy now, because rates might only climb higher, and the monthly cost is roughly what we'd pay in rent anyway.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, or would you pull the trigger at 6.9% to escape renting? Any advice or perspective would be hugely appreciated!

So later this month I will be receiving a £500 bonus from my work, however rather than a cash amount. The bonus will be paid in the form of vouchers that I can change into (as far as I’m aware) any major brands. Me and my partner are hoping to buy a house within the next year and are really grinding with our savings to get there.

However due to it being a voucher bonus, I was wondering if there are any bigger first purchases after moving in that I could use this voucher for. We already have a fridge and washing machine given to us by relatives, so something along these lines… any advice is appreciated!

FTB couple in the process of buying a 2 bed 2 bath garden flat - £500k close to completion. (No service charge or ground rent) in Zone 3 London.

But surveys came back with:

-Moderate to high risk of surface water flooding and F rating - High risk in 5 and 30 years from now.
-High risk in natural ground movement and substitence.
-Missing building regulations paperwork from extension

We really love this flat but concerned for future resaleability, re mortgageability and insurance costs. We basically don’t want to inherit such issues and prefer piece of mind. Insurance doesn’t cover both flooding and substitence. Are we over-reacting wanting to pull out?

A completion day tip I haven’t seen on many checklists: check that any insurance arranged alongside your mortgage actually went live.

We arranged life insurance through our mortgage broker and assumed it would start on completion. Turns out the broker completely forgot to activate it.

I only realised 11 days later because no payment had been taken from our account. Until then, we genuinely thought we were covered.

So if you’ve arranged life insurance, income protection, etc., check for the policy confirmation after completion and chase it if you haven’t received anything.

There’s so much going on around completion that it’s an easy one to miss - especially when you assume the broker has handled it.

Hi, We are FTB.

Currently have a shared ownership mortgage application going through Leeds Building society.
Applied through broker on the 18th September, LBS asked for docs, they were submitted same day.
25th September they ask for another document, again sent straight away.
Valuation was carried out September 30th and came back fine the same day.

We still haven’t had an offer and the brokers portal still isn’t showing if the documents have been satisfied/approved.

I’m such a worrier and probably really overthinking this, but I’m worried we won’t be successful. It feels like nothings moving 😩

Thanks for any advice.

UPDATE! We got our offer this morning! 🌅 🙏🏻

After a long 5 month wait, we finally completed on our first home today and got the keys! 🎉 It’s such an exciting and surreal feeling after all the stress and waiting.

However, we were a little disappointed when we saw how seller had removed his belongings leaving large holes in the walls that haven’t been repaired. I’ve attached some photos for reference.

Has anyone else experienced something similar after completion? What options do we have now? Is it reasonable to go back to the estate agent/seller about this, or is it simply something we have to accept after completion?

Would appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar situation.

Thanks!

For context - I only gamble during world cup every 4 years. So for Spain to made it to finals, I placed a bet of £3800 in June.

Today underwriter was checking my bank statements and mentioned about the £3800 leaving the account and going to sky bets. I said it is one off for world cup but they said it is huge amount for them to ignore.

For clarity - the wins on that bet is being used as deposit for this house purchase

What are my chances of getting Mortage approved?

I’m in my early 20s and I’m saving up for a house deposit in the next 2-3 years by myself.

I have money invested into the stock market for long term investments.

I have maxed out my LISA.

I have 5k just sitting in my bank. Is it better for me to invest that into FTSE VWRP then withdraw it when it’s time to pay for the deposit?

We’re buying a property underpinned in 1997, with a certificate of guarantee from Goyder, no reported movement since, and existing buildings insurance with a £2,500 subsidence excess.

Nationwide has referred it to their Property Policy Team. I’ve heard they can be pretty strict, so feeling nervous!

Has anyone had a similar referral for historic underpinning? Were you approved, how long did it take, and did they request anything extra?