House Moving Advice
Question:
Anyone know of any particularly good websites for this sort of advice? We know we'll need a solicitor, and we'll need a full structural survey (house in question has ad some failry extensive remodelling). What else do we need?
Answer:
The other important immediate thing is to get insurance in place on or
before the day you exchange contracts, otherwise you might find yourself
forced to complete the purchase of a piece of land on which stands a pile of
burnt-out rubble.
Then before you move in you might want to get utilities sorted - in the old
days with monopoly suppliers it was obvious who to talk to, that's rather
less clear now. Anyway, there's a good chance that even if you move in
without sorting out utility suppliers the gas and electricity won't have
been cut off so you can sort it out later; do read the meters when you move
in, though (not forgetting the water meter if there is one). You may want to
sort out the phone in advance, and/or cable or whatever else you use for
internet access. Oh, and if you watch telly you'll need a telly licence.
That's about it for what you *have* to do. Apart from the council tax:
you'll need to tell the council that you've moved in sooner or later, but
there's no great rush and it could be a couple of years before they manage
to send you a correct bill anyway.
(Oh, and everybody knows this, but just in case you don't: If the estate
agent asks you for a small deposit "to show good faith" they're taking the
piss - just say no, and pay the real deposit only on exchanging contracts.)
The other surveyor tip we picked up some years ago now is to find out who
the Building Society will be using and get them to do your survey too. Our
BS is the Cambridge and we used Catling's IIRC but it's some years ago
now. One of the houses we didn't buy did follow the sequence Jon
describes. The initial survey suggested a proper structural look at part
of the house. We got a rather more up and coming Andrew Firebrace to do
that.
Some surveys tell you things you already know. On our present house it
told us all the dangerous bits of the electrics and suggested a specialist
further survey. We'd already noticed and factored in a full rewire before
that stage.
I was thinking more of things before the actual move: we haven't had the
offer accepted yet, or any idea whether they will accept it.
We offered the asking price, but asked the estate agent to let us know
of any better offers so we could try and better them. I've no idea if
this is the best strategy (the estate agent did tell us that the only
offer they'd had so far was from an investor and below the asking price
which was "not acceptable").
Of course given we've paid for some of the bills on our current shared
house in advance (the council tax has been paid for the whole year) and
that there are some which we'll still owe a share of it's going to be a
complete faff sorting out the accounts when we leave here.
>(Oh, and everybody knows this, but just in case you don't: If the estate
>agent asks you for a small deposit "to show good faith" they're taking the
>piss - just say no, and pay the real deposit only on exchanging contracts.)
When we moved last year, a full structural survey cost about 800 and a
homebuyer cost 200. The homebuyer surveyor noticed some cracking in the
rear wall of the house and required us to have a structural engineer's
opinion which cost about 150.
So the difference is, a full structural survey will check every structural
aspect of the house and report on it in full, whether or not it needs to
be checked, which is why it costs much more.
The building society don't want to lend you money on a house with real
problems - especially if you go with "their" valuer, they will require you
to have a structural engineer anyway. I think it really depends on how old
the house is, and whether the modifications look dodgy, but I'm sure if
there's anything really suspect the homebuyer won't let it go further.
The amusing footnote is that we picked Andrew Firebrace due to a random
confusion between me and my wife over which structural engineer we'd used
when we did work on our previous house - my wife phoned the wrong
guy. However, he rolled up at our prospective house and said "I remember
this - I did the engineering calculations when it was underpinned 12 years
ago - I've still got all the plans and records at the office, and that
back wall hasn't moved an inch since then." If we'd got the
"right" structural engineer he might well have wanted to sink 6m test
holes into the back garden to investigate...
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