January 10, 2016, 3:32 pm
Hi,
First time buyer here, due to get the keys on the 22nd so looking into getting my buildings & contents insurance in place now.
On my mortgage it states "The minimum buildings sum insured required is £245'000"
Does this mean I put in £245'000 as the rebuild cost? I've already done a quote and used the £174'000 rebuild cost that ABI gave me based on my property value of £250'000
Should I put £174'000 or £245'000 as my rebuild cost for my insurance?
Thanks in advance
↧
January 10, 2016, 3:39 pm
My parents have lived abroad for over 5 years and are planning to sell their former family home which they presently rent.
I've tried to find out for them but can't tell if they would have to pay Capital Gains Tax on it or they are exempt. Most info seems rather confusing so wondering if anyone knows off the top of their heads.
Thanks
↧
↧
January 10, 2016, 4:42 pm
Hi there, new to this so forgive me if I'm posting in wrong section.
We have been approved for a property 2 bed house under the shared ownership scheme, it is a re sale property. We have just provided the HA with our AIP, however during the process of obtaining the AIP our IFA pointed out an issue we weren't aware of previously, the property was built in 1994 with 99yr lease, so the lease that remains is 77yrs, our IFA advised us that because of this we could only get our mortgage over a 25yr term as anything more the lenders wouldn't lend because of the lease, this of course rang alarm bells for me, so did some research. I found a lease handbook on the housing associations website, it stated in there that any property with a lease lower that 80yrs could pose a problem when it came to resale or remortgage, it also stated that as shared owners you have no statutory right to extend the lease. I have also looked on other forums and have seen people say that a property with a low lease is not a good idea as too many issues when it comes to selling and some being left with negative equity etc, the HA are going to be issuing us with a formal offer letter for the house but now my instincts are telling me to reject the offer as we do not want to be stuck where we are unable to move on in a few years!! This is all a new process for us as we are first time buyers, not very savvy when it comes to this kind of thing although the trying to do as much research as possible also the HAhavent been much help just trying to rush us along. So any guidance, opinions welcome.
Ta xx
↧
January 10, 2016, 4:53 pm
I've just bought a house and have been told the title deeds will contain history of the house.
I have something called a 'title register' and also a 'title plan', the register just has the name of the previous owner and their purchase price / date, is this the same as a title deed?
I don't want to order title deeds if it's the exact same thing as the site i'm ordering from charges £30.
I'm interested in finding out when the property was built, can't seem to find much information online and insurer, estate agent and surveyor both have different estimates.
↧
January 10, 2016, 8:59 pm
Reason being I have 8 thousand saved up and I currenly live on a ex council estate and can get a cheap flat which needs minimal work for about 16-20 thousand, minimal as in needs redecorated and the wooden floor is a bit worn.
I have never owned a flat before but need to start somewhere I was wondering about things like credit as doubt I can get a mortgage, current rent is £275 a month so if I somehow got hold of money it would be paid off within a few years.
But then I have to worry about potential repairs and such.
I am age 33 and single
Any advice?
↧
↧
January 11, 2016, 4:01 am
My mum's husband died a year or so back (her 2nd marriage, lasted 15 years) and it seems there was a bit of a can of worms. Apparently he was very controlling with financial stuff and kept a lot of things hidden from my mum which only came to light after his death.
When they bought the current house, it was as joint tenants. Just after doing this, the husband insisted on wills being sorted out as one of his children was being difficult about money and was convinced my mum was just after her dad's money. The idea was apparently that some legal document would be drawn up that ringfenced the husband's initial contribution to the property purchase such that his children alone inherited that at the time of his death. Both wills were set up and my mum was told to sign various documents at the time, which she did thinking that they were all to do with the wills and this agreement on ringfencing this bit of money for his children.
Fast forward 15 years and when the paperwork started appearing after his death, it turns out that he'd apparently been trying to set up a tenancy in common back then. My mum had absolutely no idea what a tenancy in common was, neither did anyone ever talk to her about it back then. She just assumed that the house was hers now after his death. Apparently one of the documents that she was told to sign at the time the wills were being set up was actually a declaration of trust in which it refers to the ringfencing of his part of the property purchase price for his children and apparently also alludes to what could be constituted as tenancy in common instead of joint tenancy. She was not allowed to read the document back then and neither did she get any legal advice about what he was up to.
It also turns out that his will refers to tenancy in common (hers doesn't) and furthermore there is no restriction on the land registry that refers to any such tenancy in common.
Unsurprisingly, his children are now trying to insist that severance has occurred and his share of the property forms part of his estate to be held in trust for when my mum dies. My mum is insisting that no such severance has occurred and that the house is hers, therefore they only get whatever is agreed between the trustees (the two children and my mum) from his other assets and not the property.
I'm due to be meeting my mum's solicitor with her in a week or so in order to try and sort all this out. I'd be interested to hear some views on this that I may be able to discuss with her solicitor next week. I've done a bit of reading on this online and it appears complex. There seems to be no "course of dealing" that indicates severance, there is nothing on the land registry and the only thing that could be held up is the declaration of trust which she signed thinking it was part of the will/ringfencing exercise and didn't know it was anything to do with tenancy in common. Strangely though, her solicitor appears to be treating it as a slam dunk that the property is held in common purely on this declaration of trust that exists, even though she has pointed out (and demonstrated by presenting early email exchanges between my sister, me and her about this and solicitor notes from when she took free advice and was first told about the existence of the declaration of trust, which she'd known nothing about up until then).
↧
January 11, 2016, 4:26 am
Hi all, new to this forum and need a bit of advice :-)
My husband and I are currently saving a deposit for our first home. We have £8k saved and aiming to have saved £20k total by the end of 2016. We are aiming of a deposit of between £20k and £25k to put down on a property priced between £220k and £230k (so minimum 10%). I am keeping an eye on house prices in our area on Rightmove.
I know its a bit early to think about fixed rates, but i want to be prepared for when the time comes, then at least I know what we need to be working towards. I am not sure whether we should go for a 2 year fixed rate or a 5 year fixed rate. Obviously the repayments on a 2 year fix would be cheaper, but we will need to pay remortgaging costs in 2 years' time. Whereas the payments on a 5 year fix will be higher, but then at least we will be protected against interest rate rises for longer and we wont have the costs of remortgaging for a while.
I am wondering if it may be a good idea to fix for 2 years, then hopefully when the time comes to remortgage, we will have built up a bit of equity and be able to get a better deal with a better LTV. I know we will have to pay remortgaging costs, but I am thinking this may work out cheaper compared to paying a higher monthly payment with a 5 year fix.
I know no one can predict what will happen with interest rates, but I'm not sure if interest rates will increase enough initially to justify tying in at a higher rate for 5 years. Regardless, we will definitely make an appointment with a broker when we have enough deposit saved to discuss our options.
Any thoughts would be appreciated! Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble, just trying to get my head around everything!
↧
January 11, 2016, 4:50 am
Our mortgage broker has contacted us asking about life insurance when our purchase completes.
I already have life insurance through my employer which pays 8 x my salary if I die.
I am also in the Income Protection Scheme (from memory I believe that if something happens to me and I cant work again I am paid half my annual salary until I reach retirement age).
So Im thinking surely we don't need more life or income protection insurance?
Also would we need any other insurance for the mortgage? I think its called level term insurance??
↧
January 11, 2016, 6:14 am
I am buying my first property. Got the offer accepted, mortgage offer received and survey done. My solicitor received paperwork from the vendor's solicitor last Friday. All searches will be ordered today. There is no chain, the vendor has a second house where he is moving - does anyone know how long I will be waiting approximately from now? I have a 2-month notice on the property I'm renting now and not sure when is a good moment to hand it on. Thank you!!
↧
↧
January 11, 2016, 7:22 am
I have just been offered by my shareholders to but me out of the company, they have offered to pay my mortgage or money to that effect. OWE £69,000 or near, would it be best to pay mortgage off or to put into a high intrest account and pay direct debit, or are there other ways, also what about capital gains, are there ways of getting around it or making least payment ??
thank you .
↧
January 11, 2016, 7:22 am
I have a tenant who receives rent from the government for her Autistic son. The rent is paid directly to her and she is supposed to pay it to me every Friday. For the past year her payments have been very erratic and because of this and identity theft ordering catalog goods in my name I have decided to serve 3 months notice for her to vacate the property. Now I am not getting any rent at all. Does anyone know who i need to write to in order to have the rent paid direct to me?
Thank you in advance for any advice.
↧
January 11, 2016, 7:28 am
Hi
I am in the process of selling my house and the buyer has insisted that I leave all of the light switches behind :D. Not sure exactly why I would remove these anyway but I've told my baffled Estate Agent that this is fine! I presume the buyer has previously bought a house where someone removed the light switches...crazy!
Anyway this raised another thought, what exactly am I expected to leave behind? Just wanted to get people's thoughts? I would expect to take any furniture, and leave all fixtures and fittings that are screwed down - curtain rails, loo roll holders, fireplace etc, basically anything that would cause damage to remove.
But what about fixtures that would leave behind things like screwholes, for example I have big mirrors in the hallway and living room that I want to take to the new house...removing these would obviously leave behind the screws sticking out of the wall. Would I be expected to leave these 'as-is' or would there be any expectation to 'make good', i.e. remove any screws/plugs, fill and paint? I don't even have the original paint to be honest...
Just wondered what people had done themselves?
↧
January 11, 2016, 8:17 am
Good afternoon :)
I've been at my rented flat for two years now, and every year the agents phone and email me saying the tenancy needs to be renewed, so it's this time of year, again. A yearly AST is the longest they offer.
I was really considering letting it lapse into a periodic one, but it was made clear to me that I would be kicked out if that happened.
So, like many people, I'm forced to sign yet another renewal if I want to keep the roof over my head this winter.
Question is, what happens if I sign the new AST and then need to move out halfway through, say lose my job, or need to relocate. They don't do break clauses. It kinda sucks being a tenant, seems like there is a lot of protection for the landlord, but if something happened to me, I would still have to pay rent for the whole duration of the AST. I'm a pessimistic person and always plan for the worst case scenario. Any thoughts or advice please?
↧
↧
January 11, 2016, 8:18 am
So were completing on our house on the 22nd of January but we will be staying in our rented flat whilst we rewire, repaint and re-carpet as thatll be easier to do before moving our stuff in.
So therell be an overlapping time where well need to pay for utility supplies to both properties.
Never done this before so I wanted to check on the best way to do this?
Do I start a second account with a supplier, or is the person on the other end of the phone likely to understand setting up temporary billing for two addresses?
Anyone got experience of this any pitfalls to avoid or things to take advantage of?
↧
January 11, 2016, 8:33 am
So, I found someone who I want to swap with, we are both with same housing association so thought that would simplify things, I was wrong lol
I'm so confused and slightly annoyed
Every where I read it says that the final forms are signed the week before the move is due to go ahead so we can make the final arrangements etc
Had phone call today, they want me to sign the forms on moving day at 1230 at my current home
We had already agreed date, with housing officer agreeing, and I'd booked a removal man wants to start at 8!
I said I think it's a bit odd to do forms on the day, my removal man wants to start early
She went onto say that I could go into the office early in the day to sign and then go home and get ready, but how does that help if I then have to wait around for them to visit the other people, costing me a fortune
I can't keep messing my removal man around, the housing officer has changed the date twice already so she can fit all the checks in and if I have to go to someone else it will cost so much more
Am I right in thinking forms should be done before moving day? Surely they can't expect me to do everything in one day, waiting for call back but she's insitant it has to be on the day
Feel sligtly better for the rant but stressed at how it will work
↧
January 11, 2016, 9:59 am
I've been trying to contact the sales office of a Taylor Wimpey site near me since Thursday, and they just never answer the phone, return voicemails, answer emails, etc.
The site is Northfield View in Suffolk.
I've even tried their Customer Services dept for the East of England but again just get voicemail.
Tonight we tried to just go visit the site - but of course it's impossible to find with satnav as the post code for it is not accurate.
Is it even possible to buy a house from these guys!?
↧
January 11, 2016, 10:48 am
Hi all,
I have been looking into this help to buy ISA and to be honest, I think its a waste of time. I was really into the idea and then I noticed that you can only save a max of £200 a month. So basically it forces you into 5 years of savings to earn the max of 3k bonus from the government.
1. What if you want to save more because you can and don't want to take 5 years to buy a house?
2. 3k is going to be worth nothing in 5 years.
So suffice it to say I wont be bothering with that as I plan to have a deposit in 2 years. So my next question is, how do i maximize my savings. I am extremely crap when it comes to understanding investments and things like that and I don't do well with numeracy. Bottom line is my mother has just paid off her mortgage and has kindly offered to allow me to stay there rent free so I can save up the money for the deposit. I'm looking at being able to save 1k a month.
So can anyone advise on what I can do with this money to maximize it?
Thanks
James
↧
↧
January 11, 2016, 11:21 am
So first, a little about myself.
I am 26, partner is 37. I am employed by the NHS, partner is a self-employed builder.
We have a 115,700 mortgage, we have done a huge extension and are hoping the property is now worth 240-250k, meaning we will have 124-134k profit.
We have 1 £10,000 loan which we pay off @ £300PCM.
We are now wanting to get into property developing, and are faced with 2 options -
A) Re-mortgage our current property, pay off the outstanding loan and use the rest to buy another property to do up and sell on, whilst keeping our current property.
B) Sell our current property, walk away with 120-130k in the bank, pay of the 10k debt, rent somewhere. The rest of the funds will be used to renovate properties (1 every 3-4 months) and then hopefully turn the 120k into a lot more over a few years, and then re buy somewhere else when we have say 200k.
Has anyone ever done this?
Partner, as a builder is so keen, I on the other hand am nervous, what a gamble!
↧
January 11, 2016, 11:39 am
Hi,
I am looking to purchase a property with help to buy.
I want to put down a 40k deposit with a mortgage of 220k.
What is the maximum equity I can get on the help to buy to raise it to to amount required?
ThAnks
↧
January 11, 2016, 12:12 pm
My retired father has a house he rents out and now wants to gift to my brother and I. My brother wants to rent the house out, but honestly I don't want the hassle of being a landlord and worry about the joint ownership issues and potential for us falling out.
My brother is happy to buy me out of the house, but I worry about capital gains tax. The way I see it, we have a couple of options.
1. My father gifts the house to the two us and my brother buys me out, or
2. My father sells the house to my brother for 50% value and he gifts the money to me so I never owned it.
We do not believe the house has gone up in value since it was purchased, so don't think my father has any capital gain to worry about if he sells it. 50% value is under the stamp duty threshold.
Does anyone know if either of the above is better from a tax perspective or have I missed something?
Cheers
↧