Being a first-time buyer is fun! But there are nuances..😁

[pugilist]

Being a first-time buyer is fun indeed. Let’s say I never heard before about such a pleasant thing as 'Chancel repair liability' and was a little bit shocked. But it's not a big deal.

The big deal is that I need to move out of the current rented property as the landlord sold the house. The agency(LL) already served me the 21 notice, so I have less than 2 months to move into my new house. And my solicitor said that he needs around 16 weeks to finish the buying process.

What would you do in my place? What options do I have?

I plan to do 2 things :

1) Ask the agency to let me live here till the moment when I'm ready to move into my first house

2) Ask the solicitor if he is able to speed up the process for an extra payment and guarantee that he will finish everything by the time suitable for me.

How about that?

[Homer67]

Nothing legal comes to mind other than furniture into storage and sofa surf for a few weeks.

[honeybee13]

Indeed, Homer. Or an airbnb that isn't busy out of season. Sometimes they're cheap.

HB

[Grotesque]

17 hours ago, pugilist said:

Let’s say I never heard before about such a pleasant thing as 'Chancel repair liability' and was a little bit shocked. But it's not a big deal.

I knew they should never have abolished Early Medieval Canon Law at A-Level 

[pugilist]

On 23/01/2024 at 12:56, Homer67 said:

Nothing legal comes to mind other than furniture into storage and sofa surf for a few weeks.

Is staying at the current rented property and keeping paying the rent before i'm ready to move out not legal?

 

On 23/01/2024 at 12:58, honeybee13 said:

Indeed, Homer. Or an airbnb that isn't busy out of season. Sometimes they're cheap.

HB

it sounds awful to me

 

On 23/01/2024 at 13:32, Grotesque said:

I knew they should never have abolished Early Medieval Canon Law at A-Level 

Oh, I'd vote for this one now 

[honeybee13]

You can ask about staying in your rental property but you said the landlord has served you notice? Information from Shelter.

Section 21 eviction - Shelter England

ENGLAND.SHELTER.ORG.UK

---

Find out what a section 21 eviction is and the process private landlords must follow to end an assured shorthold tenancy.

 

[Homer67]

16 hours ago, pugilist said:

Is staying at the current rented property and keeping paying the rent before i'm ready to move out not legal?

That's what I meant by 'nothing legal'. If you refused to move out until a certain date and offered the same rate of pro rata rent I think the legal/illegal edges would be blurred, after all how long does it take to actually get someone evicted?

Giving you a date to leave and evicting you are two different things.

[pugilist]

yes HB, the estate agency game me this 21 notice. the information on Shelter confirms my right to sit tight and pay my rent here till I am ready to move into my new home.

homer. Well, by law I am not obliged to move out by the Section 21 date. This is why I'll just sit tight and keep paying the rent. The agency & landlord can do nothing to remove me unless they apply for a court order which takes many months.

[Homer67]

I think that's what I'd do, try and make sure you have a bolt hole though.

[pugilist]

i will try to do so. just in case. thank you.

[pugilist]

Update.

The letting agency(the letting agency i'm renting my current house from) asked me to send them some correspondence with my solicitor to prove that we are in the process of buying a property. They say they need it to show to the landlord.
I understand that the landlord needs to be sure that we extend our stay for a reason.

I want to send them this email:
 

Dear Name of the Agency,


Following your request to share some correspondence with the solicitor for you to pass it to the landlord, I am sending you a screenshot of some of it.

Please find a scan of the letter to/from the solicitor attached to this message.

When I know the completion date I'll agree a surrender on that day

And it looks like it will be possible in around 2 months' time.

Till this time please rest assured that the rent will be paid  as usual.

Kind regards,

Mr XXXX

Do you think it's a good idea?
Or should I just ignore the agency's request, as such information may enable them to start pestering on my solicitor trying to speed them up?

[FruitSalad1010]

It appears to me the landlord is asking for evidence beyond your word that you intend to move out in the near future, something I would do myself as landlord rather than just accept that "X" say they will be gone by this date can they just stay a little longer, then weeks become months become years. Also housing chains collapse and delays can be lengthy.

The landlord may consider they have to continue with the eviction process to protect their position, they may also seek to recover any of their costs from you. From what the agency is asking it appears the Landlord may be willing to come to an agreement based upon on the fact you are clearly taking steps to move to another property.

Providing evidence that you have had an offer accepted on a property will probably result in the Landlord weighing the cost/benefits of continuing eviction through the courts, and its just a guess but I imagine they would assess it isn't worth it, especially if they are going to use solicitors.

I wouldn't provide more information than has been requested, they are asking primarily for evidence that you are in the process of buying a property, you may have guessed the reason why they want to know who your solicitor is.

They are not asking you to provide an estimated completion date (the Landlord may not be bothered) nor are they at this stage asking to agree a date for you to move out. You could try sending a copy of the offer acceptance and give them a chance to stew on that before providing your solicitors details, be mindful that your solicitor would likely charge you for any additional work so even if you were to provide your solicitors details you could instruct them not to respond on your behalf.

[pugilist]

On 03/03/2024 at 00:42, FruitSalad1010 said:

It appears to me the landlord is asking for evidence beyond your word that you intend to move out in the near future, something I would do myself as landlord rather than just accept that "X" say they will be gone by this date can they just stay a little longer, then weeks become months become years. Also housing chains collapse and delays can be lengthy.

The landlord may consider they have to continue with the eviction process to protect their position, they may also seek to recover any of their costs from you. From what the agency is asking it appears the Landlord may be willing to come to an agreement based upon on the fact you are clearly taking steps to move to another property.

Providing evidence that you have had an offer accepted on a property will probably result in the Landlord weighing the cost/benefits of continuing eviction through the courts, and its just a guess but I imagine they would assess it isn't worth it, especially if they are going to use solicitors.

I wouldn't provide more information than has been requested, they are asking primarily for evidence that you are in the process of buying a property, you may have guessed the reason why they want to know who your solicitor is.

They are not asking you to provide an estimated completion date (the Landlord may not be bothered) nor are they at this stage asking to agree a date for you to move out. You could try sending a copy of the offer acceptance and give them a chance to stew on that before providing your solicitors details, be mindful that your solicitor would likely charge you for any additional work so even if you were to provide your solicitors details you could instruct them not to respond on your behalf.

Thank you for your opinion. I really appreciate it.

Hopefully the searches won't turn up anything odd, and everything will be over in April.

[pugilist]

Update

15th March the eviction notice period expired, and I paid my next month rent along with sending them the message discussed above. After a short while they just emailed me back this dry phrase "Thank you for your email."

In two weeks' time I'm gonna need to pay the rent again, and I have such a feeling that shortly after that date the contracts will be exchanged and all the payments will be made. 

Now my main concern is, if possible, not to end up paying rent after I move out.
 

[pugilist]

I received a “mortgage information questionnaire” from the solicitor to to ensure them that my instructions match with the lender’s
requirements. They want me to fill it. It is mostly straight forward, but there are some things that I'm not quite sure what to tell them.

I'd appreciate if you guys spare some of your time to comment on the main points.

There are two questions which I would like to clarify:

 

1) Please provide your quote for buildings insurance and confirm that you will supply the on-risk
policy on exchange of contracts.
If you are arranging your own Buildings Insurance the interest of your Lender should be noted on the
policy. Before completion we will require sight of your Building Insurance Schedule and I would be
grateful if you could please telephone your insurance company and ask them to put in force the
buildings insurance schedule when I inform you of a date upon which exchange of contracts will take
place.

 

I haven't got any buildings insurance yet. As far as I understand they want me to get it somewhere and give them a sort of reference number. Am I right? How long will it take me?

 

2) Will there be any persons over the age of 17 years residing at the property other than you?

And this one is a very weird question. Because I have no clue yet. I mean it is only me and my wife who are buying the property and going to live there. But we do have in mind to take another person to live in one of the rooms sometimes. We really do not know when he may move in. May be at the same day with us. May be never. May be it will be someone else at some point in future for a brief period of time or may be for a long period.

But, well, I'm really at a loss what to answer, because the solicitor specifically mention the following:

Please note that you will be in breach of your mortgage conditions if you do not advise us of any
adult occupiers.
 

I just don't know what to answer in the questionnaire. If I answer that there won't be any other adult occupiers, but by the time of exchanging contracts or after exchanging contracts the guy will let me know that he would like to rent a room in my house and that he will move in at the same day with us, would it be a breach of my mortgage conditions ? I really do not understand what they want from me.

 

I am not going to let the property, but I didn't expect that it would not be up to me to decide if I want to occupy the property personally or I want to let it. Look at that text:

Although in many respects the interests of the Buyer and the Lender are the same (in particular they
both want the property to be acquired with a good and marketable title) there are circumstances in
which a conflict of interest may arise because information comes into our hands which you would prefer
us not to tell the lender, such as:
a. The price is lower than you told the lender (because this means that the property is worth less
than the lender thought)
b. You are receiving a Cash Back or other inducement from the Seller (again because this
suggests that the property is worth less than the purchase price)
c. You have decided to let the property rather than occupy it personally
d. Your financial circumstances have changed – for instance you may have lost your job (because
you may not be able to keep up the repayments on a reduced income).
Because we owe you a duty of complete confidence if a conflict of interest arises, we will ask for your
permission to disclose the circumstances to the lender. If you withhold permission, we must cease to
act any further in the transaction either for you or for the lender and return the lender’s papers advising
the lender that a conflict of interest has arisen. This signifies that something unusual has occurred and
the lender will probably withdraw the Loan Offer
 

I never though about having Mortgage Protection. Can I have it at some point in future or if I don't have it before completing of the purchase I won't be able to do so later:

If you are having Mortgage Protection to cover your mortgage payments and life premiums in the event
of critical illness and/or redundancy this needs to be put on risk on completion.