That first home

Remember that feeling? It’s all yours, tiny, falling down and comes with that pungent smell of years gone by! (Or even cats, dogs or worse!)

You have a modest regular income, solid credit record, and a burning desire to have and hold your own little kingdom. Great! perfect mortgage candidate, Right? Wrong! Recent figures show how the credit crunch (don’t you hate the sound of that phrase?) has turned the mortgage product upside down.

We are constantly hearing how first time buyers are being left out in the cold, how do you get on the proverbial ‘property ladder’ if at every turn the bottom rung has been cut! It is clear that with rates of 7 to 8 percent on offer, first time buyers are subsidising equity richer, affluent homeowners on low tracker rates.

First time buyers once the lifeblood of the market, are feeling ignored as lenders lean towards the lower risk borrowers. As a first time buyer, it’s all about the compromise, perhaps not quite living in Bell Air or having that lovely open plan loft living. The ‘compact and Bijoux’ apartment may have to do for now. That may still be tenable for some, having savings or parents that are fine with handing over their retirement fund, so that the little darlings may move on. Others are not so fortunate.

What’s the answer? Who knows, but with two teenage children at home, the possibility of them not moving on to that old property ladder is pretty scary!!

Keeping warm is a costly business

Just over a week ago, we were all huddled up in our house wearing hats scarves and even skiing thermals! t was -5 outside and, clearly not much warmer inside. The fire was lit and the central heating was going at full throttle, sounding like a 747, but did it make any difference? No, as we all shivered and moaned, it reminded me of scenes from Dr Zhivago (setting light to the chairs for a morsel of heat!)

Our house, in the midst of the lovely Herefordshire countryside is a Georgian rectory, a little piece of history. Lovely in the short summer months, come winter it turns into a fridge. All heat, desperate to escape flees from every “original feature”.

A new study by the Energy Saving Trust shows that, even in an average year, a family in a three-bedroom Victorian/Georgian will pay £250 more in energy bills than a family in a three-bedroom new-build semi. With the price comparison service Energyhelpline predicting that British families will pay £1.9 billion in extra heating charges as a result of the cold snap, it is clear that the discrepancy will be even greater by the time that the next batch of bills arrives.

When environmental campaigners talk of “toxic heritage”, it is houses such as ours that they are making reference to. We may be able to do certain things to bring our houses in to the 21^st century, energy efficient wise, but the cost can be more than the house is actually worth!

In recent years there has been a vogue for knocking down walls to create an open-plan space. But of course, these older properties aren’t designed for this. Originally you had smallish rooms with a single radiant heat source — and a door. If you wanted to keep a room warm, you closed the door. The idea that it’s desirable to heat a whole house to a uniform temperature is a very modern one.

I wonder whether this cold bitter winter will propel a boom in sales of the new build. Who knows, perhaps it will. A May 2009 YouGov survey carried out for the New Homes Marketing Board found that would-be buyers were increasingly concerned about eco-efficiency: it was their third-most important criterion behind having a garden and somewhere to park a car.

I have given some top tips on trying to retain some of the heat in an older draughty property! Stop draughts by blocking gaps between floorboards and around skirting boards; around poorly fitting sash windows and doors; around the loft hatch; and unused chimneys (buy a chimney balloon to block it up). Remember letterboxes and keyholes, too Make sure you have the recommended 270mm of loft insulation Look into installing secondary glazing if you can’t afford to replace the windows Solid wall insulation, either internal or external, is an option, though the former will compromise room size and the latter is hard to fit in a way that is architecturally acceptable

Keeping warm is a costly business

Just over a week ago, we were all huddled up in our house wearing hats scarves and even skiing thermals!

It was -5 outside and, clearly not much warmer inside. The fire was lit and the central heating was going at full throttle, sounding like a 747, but did it make any difference? No, as we all shivered and moaned, it reminded me of scenes from Dr Zhivago (setting light to the chairs for a morsel of heat!)

 

Our house, in the midst of the lovely Herefordshire countryside is a Georgian rectory, a little piece of history. Lovely in the short summer months, come winter it turns into a fridge. All heat, desperate to escape flees from every “original feature”.

 

A new study by the Energy Saving Trust shows that, even in an average year, a family in a three-bedroom Victorian/Georgian will pay £250 more in energy bills than a family in a three-bedroom new-build semi. With the price comparison service Energyhelpline predicting that British families will pay £1.9 billion in extra heating charges as a result of the cold snap, it is clear that the discrepancy will be even greater by the time that the next batch of bills arrives.

 

When environmental campaigners talk of “toxic heritage”, it is houses such as ours that they are making reference to. We may be able to do certain things to bring our houses in to the 21^st century, energy efficient wise, but the cost can be more than the house is actually worth!

In recent years there has been a vogue for knocking down walls to create an open-plan space. But of course, these older properties aren’t designed for this. Originally you had smallish rooms with a single radiant heat source — and a door. If you wanted to keep a room warm, you closed the door. The idea that it’s desirable to heat a whole house to a uniform temperature is a very modern one.

I wonder whether this cold bitter winter will propel a boom in sales of the new build. Who knows, perhaps it will.

A May 2009 YouGov survey carried out for the New Homes Marketing Board found that would-be buyers were increasingly concerned about eco-efficiency: it was their third-most important criterion behind having a garden and somewhere to park a car.

I have given some top tips on trying to retain some of the heat in an older draughty property!

Stop draughts by blocking gaps between floorboards and around skirting boards; around poorly fitting sash windows and doors; around the loft hatch; and unused chimneys (buy a chimney balloon to block it up). Remember letterboxes and keyholes, too Make sure you have the recommended 270mm of loft insulation Look into installing secondary glazing if you can’t afford to replace the windows Solid wall insulation, either internal or external, is an option, though the former will compromise room size and the latter is hard to fit in a way that is architecturally acceptable

 

Separation and your home

It may not be your first thought when you split up, but what to do with the property, will at some stage have to be dealt with.

If you are fortunate enough to own your property outright, then the matter can be dealt with quite simply by a formal deed of Transfer, signed by both parties and lodged with the Land Registry.

If your property is in a mortgage, however, this could complicate matters. If the remaining owner is insistent of keeping the mortgage in its current form (either with or without further borrowing to deal with any buy-out) then the Lender must be approached for their formal consent. Dependant upon individual circumstances, a financial review may be undertaken to ascertain ability to maintain repayments and limit of available credit. Once the Lender is satisfied that the remaining owner can satisfy its lending criteria, formal consent to the transfer will be given. In addition to both the remaining owner and outgoing owner, the Lender will execute the Transfer deed formally releasing the outgoing owner from their liabilities and obligations under the mortgage.

Should an alternative mortgage product be preferred by the remaining owner, the existing Lender need not be approached for consent. On completion of the new mortgage, repayment of the existing mortgage will automatically cancel out any interest they would have had in the transaction. The re-mortgage element would be dealt with simultaneously, the remaining owner taking on a fresh mortgage product in their own right (as if they were an original sole owner).

We have an extremely experienced conveyancing team that are used to dealing with all manner of property issues, including those that arise during a separation.

Can you sell your home on Twitter?

You may be forgiven for thinking that snow would put a halt to all thoughts of property purchases… not so. I know this because I read it on Twitter (always one to keep up with the young and trendy!!)

“No one cancelling property viewings,” Ed Mead, of Douglas and Gordon, tweeted, “Good sign of commitment maybe”.

Although I am an incredibly busy person, (boss may actually read this) I have managed to follow a few Estate agents on the social networking site.

Jackson-Stops and staff have tweeted that they have been instructed on a site in Chelsea for a family home with swimming pool. Regular tweeter David Adams, of Chesterton Humberts, claims that 85 per cent of country-house sellers plan to move in order to reduce mortgage debt.

Embarrassingly in this modern digital age, I am just flirting with twitter; my interest was aroused recently, when it was mentioned to me by my very cool friend Anoushka, that she had actually bought a flat on this very site.

How I hear you ask …

She posted a tweet asking if there were any good investment properties in the Bristol/Bath areas. Home selling portal Rightmove tweeted back, and she subsequently bought an investment flat that was advertised on its website.

Sounds easy, is this a sign of things to come, I wonder?

Not so according to Ed Meads, “Twitter is a complete waste of time for anyone trying to sell anything. There are many agents out there trying to sell properties via tweets, which is a complete no-no and a turn off for any self respecting twitterer.” He goes on to state that one benefit is, it does give an agents snapshot of exactly where the market is in a specific location at any one time.

I wonder if you can sell your house via Face book, Friends reunited or even Bebo?

The recent closure of Wolstenholmes may have left many clients with a Stamp Duty Tax liability that could have been avoided.

Manchester conveyancing solicitors Wolstenholmes has been closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

 

We have been receiving telephone calls from disgruntled Wolstenholmes clients for some time. They have been complaining that you could not get hold of their Conveyancer, or anyone else for that matter, for some time. They clearly didn't have the infrastructure set up for handling so many transactions.

The timing is unfortunate given the 31st December deadline for the Stamp Duty holiday for properties with a price of £175,000 or less has now passed. Buyers who now have to pay Stamp Duty as a result of the Wolstenholmes closure may be able to make a claim on the SRA Compensation Fund if they can prove that their property transaction could have completed if their Conveyancer had acted quicker.

The recent closure of Wolstenholmes may have left many clients with a Stamp Duty Tax liability that could have been avoided.

Manchester conveyancing solicitors Wolstenholmes has been closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

 

We have been receiving telephone calls from disgruntled Wolstenholmes clients for some time. They have been complaining that you could not get hold of their Conveyancer, or anyone else for that matter, for some time. They clearly didn't have the infrastructure set up for handling so many transactions.

The timing is unfortunate given the 31st December deadline for the Stamp Duty holiday for properties with a price of £175,000 or less has now passed. Buyers who now have to pay Stamp Duty as a result of the Wolstenholmes closure may be able to make a claim on the SRA Compensation Fund if they can prove that their property transaction could have completed if their Conveyancer had acted quicker.