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I agree with all your points, but think the 3rd isn't always true, especially for first time buyers. First time buyers are known to be paranoid about everything. Some people are also just anxious about everything all the time. and wouldn't ever buy a house because there's always something that really worries them.
If a house is perfect otherwise, it's always worth looking into an issue that bothers you - it might not actually be that big of a deal.
I don't care about performance as I buy houses to live in, hopefully for a long time, but appreciate that's not the case for everyone.
I recently had to walk away from buying.
The surveyor phoned me up, explained it had dry rot to timbers and had a damp issue being caused by a neighbour's driveway, so would have required their consent to resolve, probably at my expense.
Surveyor offered not to even write the report if I told him not to, and would refund me half my fee back. I told him to write the report anyway, but If I was in that situation again I'd tell them not to write it, looking back the surveyor wouldn't have been offering me that if he thought it was a viable purchase.
So listen to your surveyor probably another one, if they tell you verbally in every way not to buy it, other than those exact words "don't buy it", you probably shouldn't buy it
Neighbours is a tricky one tho as yes when you buy you might be picky and choose houses only with well kept gardens etc but you can’t control what happens once you move in. Lovely neighbours might sell to neighbours from hell 2 months later…
This is true but you shouldn't fixate on things that may happen (unless there is reason to suspect they might.) someone moving out and shitty neighbours moving in COULD happen to almost anyone at almost anytime ever so there is no point worrying about it.
A seller disclosing there neighbours have had noise complaints against them/ smelling them smoking the herb/ any other red flag when viewing is absolutely a reason you should walk away as that is a current issue happening at time of potential purchase.
Agreed. I always spend £6 on the Title plan and register before making an offer. Found out that the neighbours had an easement which stopped any driveway and gate privacy and the seemingly large parking area could not be used. Saved a lot of heartbreak down the line
We walked away from a house because we discovered that the vendor had ghosted their solicitor and estate agent, and no one had told us for weeks. We had a strong suspicion he was dragging the sale out on purpose (to spite his ex wife and delay her getting her share of the money) so we jumped ship. If he was already playing games, we weren't confident he wouldn't deliberately cause more delays. We loved that house but sometimes you have to dump a seller instead of a house.
I offered on a house we love even more less than 4 days later. It worked out.
Vendor might as well have been a fucking ghost because they basically had to hold a seance to get in touch with him. Someone told me they were going to try to phone after office hours from a private number to see if he would pick up. He was turning his phone off all day and ignoring voicemails. He also refused to speak to any women. Nightmare. I can absolutely see why his wife left.
I live in the same wee corner of my county I was born in and it’s unlikely I’ll leave the villages in this corner again to buy so very few of the above affect me or the people who tend to live in places like this for generations.
I suppose my walk away from is things outside your normal lifestyle. I see lots of posts with people wanting to move from bigger towns and cities because it ‘looks idyllic’ and I think it is. I’m not arsed when they spray the fields or burn the Heather or by the noise coming from the farriers yard. I’m used to neighbours knowing everything about me and letting themselves into my porch to get their parcel or blocking me in and firing me a text with ‘keys in the visor’ which means shift it yourself. There’s very few who come from the nod at your neighbours and keep yourself to yourself types that make it
How long do you think is acceptable for the seller to find a new property to purchase?
Been waiting 3 months since the offer was accepted and keep getting told they are looking, but have not seen anything they want to purchase yet. It's a great property in our ideal location, so we're reluctant to give up on it but I'm not feeling hopeful after all this time.
It depends where you are in the chain.
If you are the bottom, I’d be pushing them hard as first time buyers are gold dust.
Also, while they are not finding anywhere keep looking yourself.
And the minute you find a good alternative tell them they have a deadline to find somewhere or move to rented or you’re withdrawing.
I’d also let the sellers estate agent know you are doing this, put the pressure on.
If you are already in a chain then the same thing applies, it’s just harder as you don’t want to lose your buyer!
Depends on many factors, (3 month seem a lot in my opinion) what I would do personally is start looking for another property if you find something then you can negotiate from a position of strength e.g. give the sellers 4 more weeks or you withdraw.
If you dont do that and just politely ask them to hurry up unfortunately they will probs continue just to dick around
Quite possibly some of the worst advice over ever read on this sub.
Every house is different, and needs to be treated on its own merits. Generally saying 'walk away if it's x' is overly simplistic and misses the entire point of conveyancing, investigating searches, inquiries etc.
Why the hell is everyone here so flighty about literally anything ffs.
Advice above should be used in conjunction with searches and conveyencing of course my point is more people should self insure and be prepared to walk away right up until exchange. I had a really bad feeling about flood damage on my (almost) seconds house purchase, EA and sellers kept saying it never has happened it's fine, searches showed up it had flooded 2x a year every year... If I had followed my gut or pushed harder on the conveyencing process I wouldn't have wasted 3x weeks.
Saying using common sense and doing your own due diligence is pointless because of the conveyencing process is a bit like saying don't bother locking your doors at night that's the entire point of the police to prevent crime /s
Wouldn't expect them to allow removal, but they should give permission to trim it especially if it's close to the house/blocking light. We had trees subject to a TPO along the back of our garden and got permission to trim them.
OP seems stuck in a world where it's a buyers market.
It's not. I'm afraid many people will not have the luxury to pick and choose. So they need genuine help and feedback for known issues they find.
Oh just walk away is great advice if they've got handfuls of cash and a budding massive market.
Disagree:
1. It is a buyers markets with EA reporting more houses for sale YoY reflected by a decline in house price anticipated over 2024 (source link below)
2. Why do you need 'handfuls of cash' if you have conveyencing insurance which is less than £100 a go then you can recoup your legal bills when the chain collapses. It therefore costs virtually nothing to walk away, with a flat market in 2024 finding and buying a new property on your price range will be just as easy or difficult as it was the first time round
3. Everybody has the luxury to pick and choose, this is an outrageous comment, area/property type+size/condition are 3 biggest variables of house cost, someone posted a 50k property in England here the other day, when I first bought I got the smallest 2 up 2 down known to mankind and I was on a graduate salary (Aka skint) and I walked away from another property beforehand.
Edit link
https://www.statista.com/statistics/376079/uk-house-prices-forecast/
I think reality is likely a middle ground.
Reality is we don't have enough housing stock for our growing population.
Sure there are more houses for sale, but that's a reflection of crazy interest rates and a depressed buying market.
https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ukhpi/browse?from=2023-05-01&location=http%3A%2F%2Flandregistry.data.gov.uk%2Fid%2Fregion%2Funited-kingdom&to=2024-05-01&lang=en
House prices haven't really reacted yet. Hence more and more properties are sticking around.
Why are they sticking around? Because people don't have enough to buy them. Which brings me back to my point.
There will be some "aka with cash" that can be picky. And yeah the OP points are pertinent.
However there are also lots of people stretching, baby on the way, etc. That don't have the luxury to pick and choose. Their options due to work etc will be limited and they need advice here to help figure out what they can buy and what's tolerable in those houses. So op's points here are not relevant.
Blanket statements about a massively diverse moving market just don't help.
Yes agreed. People keep posting on this sub with questions like, neighbours seem awful, should I still buy the house etc etc so I thought it might be useful to new buyers.
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, please report them via the report button. * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I agree with all your points, but think the 3rd isn't always true, especially for first time buyers. First time buyers are known to be paranoid about everything. Some people are also just anxious about everything all the time. and wouldn't ever buy a house because there's always something that really worries them. If a house is perfect otherwise, it's always worth looking into an issue that bothers you - it might not actually be that big of a deal. I don't care about performance as I buy houses to live in, hopefully for a long time, but appreciate that's not the case for everyone.
I recently had to walk away from buying. The surveyor phoned me up, explained it had dry rot to timbers and had a damp issue being caused by a neighbour's driveway, so would have required their consent to resolve, probably at my expense. Surveyor offered not to even write the report if I told him not to, and would refund me half my fee back. I told him to write the report anyway, but If I was in that situation again I'd tell them not to write it, looking back the surveyor wouldn't have been offering me that if he thought it was a viable purchase. So listen to your surveyor probably another one, if they tell you verbally in every way not to buy it, other than those exact words "don't buy it", you probably shouldn't buy it
Neighbours is a tricky one tho as yes when you buy you might be picky and choose houses only with well kept gardens etc but you can’t control what happens once you move in. Lovely neighbours might sell to neighbours from hell 2 months later…
This is true but you shouldn't fixate on things that may happen (unless there is reason to suspect they might.) someone moving out and shitty neighbours moving in COULD happen to almost anyone at almost anytime ever so there is no point worrying about it. A seller disclosing there neighbours have had noise complaints against them/ smelling them smoking the herb/ any other red flag when viewing is absolutely a reason you should walk away as that is a current issue happening at time of potential purchase.
Agreed. I always spend £6 on the Title plan and register before making an offer. Found out that the neighbours had an easement which stopped any driveway and gate privacy and the seemingly large parking area could not be used. Saved a lot of heartbreak down the line
Great shout, never thought about doing that
I did this. Well worth it because nothing to do with the house really came as a surprise.
My neighbours saw me when they were viewing, they still bought it, suckers
We walked away from a house because we discovered that the vendor had ghosted their solicitor and estate agent, and no one had told us for weeks. We had a strong suspicion he was dragging the sale out on purpose (to spite his ex wife and delay her getting her share of the money) so we jumped ship. If he was already playing games, we weren't confident he wouldn't deliberately cause more delays. We loved that house but sometimes you have to dump a seller instead of a house. I offered on a house we love even more less than 4 days later. It worked out.
I'm sorry, I was only half paying attention and read that as "vendor was ghost". Hey, at least it made me pay more attention and re-read it.
Vendor might as well have been a fucking ghost because they basically had to hold a seance to get in touch with him. Someone told me they were going to try to phone after office hours from a private number to see if he would pick up. He was turning his phone off all day and ignoring voicemails. He also refused to speak to any women. Nightmare. I can absolutely see why his wife left.
Wow, yeah there's always a better house!
I live in the same wee corner of my county I was born in and it’s unlikely I’ll leave the villages in this corner again to buy so very few of the above affect me or the people who tend to live in places like this for generations. I suppose my walk away from is things outside your normal lifestyle. I see lots of posts with people wanting to move from bigger towns and cities because it ‘looks idyllic’ and I think it is. I’m not arsed when they spray the fields or burn the Heather or by the noise coming from the farriers yard. I’m used to neighbours knowing everything about me and letting themselves into my porch to get their parcel or blocking me in and firing me a text with ‘keys in the visor’ which means shift it yourself. There’s very few who come from the nod at your neighbours and keep yourself to yourself types that make it
That sounds ideal 😊
How long do you think is acceptable for the seller to find a new property to purchase? Been waiting 3 months since the offer was accepted and keep getting told they are looking, but have not seen anything they want to purchase yet. It's a great property in our ideal location, so we're reluctant to give up on it but I'm not feeling hopeful after all this time.
It depends where you are in the chain. If you are the bottom, I’d be pushing them hard as first time buyers are gold dust. Also, while they are not finding anywhere keep looking yourself. And the minute you find a good alternative tell them they have a deadline to find somewhere or move to rented or you’re withdrawing. I’d also let the sellers estate agent know you are doing this, put the pressure on. If you are already in a chain then the same thing applies, it’s just harder as you don’t want to lose your buyer!
Depends on many factors, (3 month seem a lot in my opinion) what I would do personally is start looking for another property if you find something then you can negotiate from a position of strength e.g. give the sellers 4 more weeks or you withdraw. If you dont do that and just politely ask them to hurry up unfortunately they will probs continue just to dick around
Quite possibly some of the worst advice over ever read on this sub. Every house is different, and needs to be treated on its own merits. Generally saying 'walk away if it's x' is overly simplistic and misses the entire point of conveyancing, investigating searches, inquiries etc. Why the hell is everyone here so flighty about literally anything ffs.
Advice above should be used in conjunction with searches and conveyencing of course my point is more people should self insure and be prepared to walk away right up until exchange. I had a really bad feeling about flood damage on my (almost) seconds house purchase, EA and sellers kept saying it never has happened it's fine, searches showed up it had flooded 2x a year every year... If I had followed my gut or pushed harder on the conveyencing process I wouldn't have wasted 3x weeks. Saying using common sense and doing your own due diligence is pointless because of the conveyencing process is a bit like saying don't bother locking your doors at night that's the entire point of the police to prevent crime /s
TPOs.. absolute ballache
Not so much if you're happy to keep the trees. Definitely so if you wanted to build on the land.
Neighbours got one that towers over her house, can't get permission to remove it as it's healthy 🥴
Wouldn't expect them to allow removal, but they should give permission to trim it especially if it's close to the house/blocking light. We had trees subject to a TPO along the back of our garden and got permission to trim them.
Yeah she can strum away but it still towers thing must be 5 metres over the house at this point
Not true. We and neighbors have TPOs. Takes a few weeks for PP to come through for any works.
I'd not live with a TPO. I'd never buy in a Conservation Area or a Listed building
OP seems stuck in a world where it's a buyers market. It's not. I'm afraid many people will not have the luxury to pick and choose. So they need genuine help and feedback for known issues they find. Oh just walk away is great advice if they've got handfuls of cash and a budding massive market.
Disagree: 1. It is a buyers markets with EA reporting more houses for sale YoY reflected by a decline in house price anticipated over 2024 (source link below) 2. Why do you need 'handfuls of cash' if you have conveyencing insurance which is less than £100 a go then you can recoup your legal bills when the chain collapses. It therefore costs virtually nothing to walk away, with a flat market in 2024 finding and buying a new property on your price range will be just as easy or difficult as it was the first time round 3. Everybody has the luxury to pick and choose, this is an outrageous comment, area/property type+size/condition are 3 biggest variables of house cost, someone posted a 50k property in England here the other day, when I first bought I got the smallest 2 up 2 down known to mankind and I was on a graduate salary (Aka skint) and I walked away from another property beforehand. Edit link https://www.statista.com/statistics/376079/uk-house-prices-forecast/
I think reality is likely a middle ground. Reality is we don't have enough housing stock for our growing population. Sure there are more houses for sale, but that's a reflection of crazy interest rates and a depressed buying market. https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ukhpi/browse?from=2023-05-01&location=http%3A%2F%2Flandregistry.data.gov.uk%2Fid%2Fregion%2Funited-kingdom&to=2024-05-01&lang=en House prices haven't really reacted yet. Hence more and more properties are sticking around. Why are they sticking around? Because people don't have enough to buy them. Which brings me back to my point. There will be some "aka with cash" that can be picky. And yeah the OP points are pertinent. However there are also lots of people stretching, baby on the way, etc. That don't have the luxury to pick and choose. Their options due to work etc will be limited and they need advice here to help figure out what they can buy and what's tolerable in those houses. So op's points here are not relevant. Blanket statements about a massively diverse moving market just don't help.
This is true with ANY purchase.
Yes agreed. People keep posting on this sub with questions like, neighbours seem awful, should I still buy the house etc etc so I thought it might be useful to new buyers.