Hi all,

FTB here; late 20’s.

My mortgage application was submitted a few days ago and I am a bit concerned my 9 month gap may be flagged up or even worse cause my mortgage to not be approved. I have an excellent credit score, multiple credit cards all on zero and use roughly 1% of my credit utilisation, never missed a bill/payment, monthly bills are modest £90 a month which includes sim only, gym, etc. No CCJ’s or defaults. No personal loans or finances.

I am currently permanently employed but I am 2 months into my current role; probation ends next month. My role now is a significant pay rise compared to my previous role plus a 20% bonus.

Prior to the 9 month unemployment gap I have always continuously been working. It’s the longest ever gap I’ve had.

I applied for my mortgage with a mortgage broker, he’s quite adamant things will be okay..

Am I overthinking things?

Putting down 10% of £349k property.

​

Hi I'm buying a 2 bed semi detached house I've noticed that lounge ceiling have some stains of water I've asked agent he said its fixed now I am attaching some pictures and I'm too much worried about this. The property have service charge of £180 per year and its freehold property build in 2013 .

Please any one can advise me on is it easy to sale property with service charges and is it worth buying house if it has leakage before I don't know actually it fixed or not but they have mentioned its fixed

Also it have some cracks outside

Hello!

Had a question regarding first stage AML checks. Our solicitor has an online portal that had “todo” lists - one of those is CredasID checks.

We got the notification last Thursday and completed the checks via their app within an hour of getting the text, however on the solicitors portal it says they haven’t received CredasID checks for AML. When i log into CredasID app, it says they have received all the requested information.

I called the Solicitor yesterday and she informed me that she hasn’t even been directly been handed our case file yet until these checks have been done, i asked how long that could take or if there has been any issues, she said it would be with the handling team to review.

Anyone else had to use CredasID or familiar with how long these checks typically take? I can’t imagine it takes a week to check someone’s passport and proof of address? Just looking for a sanity check before chasing the solicitors again

Hey all,

FTB with no chain, and the seller also has no chain.

Offer was put in on 2nd of August and was accepted on the 3rd of August.

Searches were ordered on the 11th of August and we have a surveyor going to the property on the 26th. So all is going smoothly at the moment (considering we waited 13 weeks for previous vendor to have a viewing before we pulled out). Our solicitors have been very good and efficient.

Just wondering how long these searches take? And what to expect next?

I have another update and I’m starting to feel like this house might actually become ours one day 😂
Our solicitor’s tracker has now been updated and REPLIES TO ENQUIRIES HAVE BEEN RECEIVED — completed 18 August! 🥳
So far we’ve ticked off:
✅ Money on account
✅ Contract papers received
✅ Mortgage offer received
✅ All searches received
✅ ID verified
✅ Title investigated & enquiries raised
✅ Reported to us on the contract/mortgage etc.
✅ Replies to enquiries received — 18 August
We’ve also signed our paperwork and had the witness sign, so we’re now basically at the final stretch.
The tracker now has:
➡️ Contracts signed by buyer & deposit paid
➡️ Ready to exchange
➡️** Contracts exchanged 🔥
➡️ COMPLET**ION 🏡🔑
Offer accepted 27 June, so we’re coming up to 8 weeks since acceptance.
I honestly cannot explain how tired I am of this process 😭😂 Every time I get an email from the solicitor I simultaneously get excited and terrified.
BUT… surely this means we’re properly in the home stretch now?! 🤞

Please tell me I can finally start getting excited about moving rather than worrying about another solicitor email 😂😭

If this allowed?

In my head if there are 2 solicitors working in the same solicitor firm - 1 for the buyer and 1 for the seller - they are more likely to stay on top of each other and make sure the sale goes ahead quicker

But is that still conflict of interest?

We are first time buyer, and have been clueless for the whole process with no one really to turn to so it’s been a steep learning curve.
We live in England and rent atm, and are buying a house in Scotland. Loving the Scottish process with the Home reports, solicitors etc, it has been great.
Put our offer in 4 weeks ago and will be completing/settling next week so it’s been a whirlwind.

Got the qualified acceptance through and they are literally deleting or downgrading the clauses our solicitors put in. And while I get it, none of it was alarming and seems like the standard give and take the wordings they keep using are stressing me out 🤪 irrational, probably, but we are so close now I just want the keys in my hand, not read more legal jargon

I've posted about my experience several times on UKHousing and this is the last time I ever will anywhere.

There's no other reason I am making this post than just to highlight just how traumatic, unforgiving and devastating the process can be. As a first time buyer you enter the system giddy with excitement. For me it was one of the first times I'd felt tremendous success in life. People warn you that the legal process that follows will be stressful, and you take note, but you're so high you think that nothing could be too bad, people buy house all the time and come out alive.

I've more or less been through the stages of grief, I'd like to think probably more than once. I don't have the energy to feel angry anymore, all I feel is numbness, exhaustion and a need to move on, and in any case it was almost a foregone conclusion that this would fall through a month ago so I've had time to accept it.

To explain, there is a high chance my FTB purchase of a flat will fall through after a mammoth 14 months of legal hell and after two mortgages the clock is about to run out. Almost the entire reason why it couldn't get over the line is because the sellers, a wealthy family of property investors, decided to cheap out on solicitors by instructing Muve.

Here's the entire saga, which I've tried to keep brief:

June 2025: First viewing. Offer accepted on a flat in Manchester.

July 2025: My solicitor instructed. I learn that the sellers have gone with Muve.

September 2025:

The sellers are still getting their documents in order. With no updates for weeks, I continue waiting and threaten to pull out if things don't get a move on.

3rd October:

I learn that at some point since offer acceptance, one of the siblings has died, meaning probate has been granted and they are awaiting a death certificate.

31st October:

4 months from offer acceptance, my solicitors are now able to proceed with the searches.

December: I don't hear back from anybody after 6 weeks of me and the agent repeatedly trying to get an answer out of my solicitors and hearing nothing back. It transpires that Muve kept claiming they'd sent the management pack, but my more competent solicitors told me it was the wrong document that Muve had misunderstood to be the management pack, and they'd been chasing the actual document for months without any response.

January: Searches are complete, report of title done. With my first mortgage offer deadline looming on 4th Feb, I get a one month extension.

26th Feb: Virtually everything is done. There is one hold up where sellers need to remove a unilateral charge from the title deed.

6th March:

My first mortgage offer expires. I secure a new mortgage of 3.83%, one week before the US started bombing Iran and sent interest rates skyward.

April to June:

To skip all the fine details, this period is taken up by Muve demonstrably not understanding the due process of removing the unilateral charge. To be fair, the situation is complicated, whereby the beneficiary of the unilateral notice is a company that is dissolved. However the process regarding this is situation something that I, a person with no legal expertise whatsoever, managed to find out after a few prompts into Gemini. My solicitor apparently assists them by sending them a step by step guide, and they still submitted the wrong form to the Land Registry, wasting around 6 weeks. Now needing to clear up their mess, there's a back and forth between various parties that gets more complicated with every turn, made worse by Muve's apparent inability to assign a single caseworker to a file.

Around this time, I warn everyone that I will not be remortgaging. It's my way of saying If they cannot get it over the line by the 28th August expiry date, I will let the sale fall through.

25th June:

Muve announce that a UN2 has been submitted to the Land Registry along with a Global Deed of Transfer from the affected parties signing off the removal of the charge.

26th July: After radio silence I find out through the Land Registry customer service number that their 15 working day notice period was sent and there was someone that filed an objection, something which neither side bothered to tell me or find out.

Fast forward and some a few more persistent calls later, they tell me they have served a second 15 day notice period after, I assume, some changes were made in response to the objection. This one ends on the 20th August.

On the 28th August, my second mortgage offer will expire. The title deed may be cleared by the 21st, but this will leave just one week to get the updated title deed, exchange and complete. It will be a nail-biting finish. My solicitors say they may be able to do it, but even if they do, I have lost any faith that Muve will cooperate quickly enough. There is a scintilla of hope that some miracle may happen, but I am now looking at other properties, gloomily re-entering a house hunt amid higher asking prices and a much worse mortgage market, about to face an enormous legal bill.

As I said, I am going to keep the venting to a minimum, but I cannot finish this post without highlighting that spending 8 months manipulating yourself into thinking that next month will be "THE MONTH" is extremely bad for your mental and physical health. Do not ever think like this. I have never been so stressed in my life; I have had about 8 colds, sore throats and mouth ulcers this year, as my immune system is weak and needs rebuilding.

Although I'm seeing out the mortgage till the end because of the gold dust interest rate, viewing other properties has been an unlikely source of therapy as it's served as a distraction. I've only just come to realise the stress has all come from wanting to be in control and not having any - now though, I've just sat back, trust that people will act in my interests and do their job, and will accept whatever outcome, and it's actually made me feel a bit better. All I want now is closure.

All I really want to say now is this: do not ever, ever, use Muve, and do not ever enter a property sale where Muve has been instructed.

Thanks for reading.

Hi,

Are we likely to complete in 10 days if there are still some outstanding enquiries? The sellers solicitor have mentioned they are ready with the onward purchase, but taking alot of time to reply to our enquiries.

The 28th completion date was also proposed by them

Hi, first time posting here, we're buying a 1930s-1950s ex-council end terrace house and it's been about 2 weeks since offer accepted. The level 2 building survey was performed on Thursday and we got the results yesterday. As a rough summary of what was found:

Level 3 (Requiring attention, urgent):

• Main walls (Defective pointing/spalled brickwork around kitchen window)
• Walls and partitions ("Dampness detected, damp survey now required")
• Floors (Requires investigation due to dampness detected in walls)
• Fireplaces/chimeybreasts (Dampness detected)
• Other (Fire alarms not checked, bathroom requires better ventilation)
• Electricity (Safety check needed)
• Gas (Mild corrosion on one place on a gas pipe)
• Water (Mild wear on one place on a water pipe)
• Heating (Old radiators)
• Drainage (Cracked pipework on soil vent pipe)

Level 2 (Requiring attention, not urgent)

• Chimney stack (Missing pointing, cracked flaunching, perished masonry)
• Roof coverings (Some slipped/defective tiles, no secondary lining installed beneath coverings)
• Rainwater pipes (Downpipe discharges onto ground)
• Windows (Defective ironmongery & gaskets, worn mastic)
• Outside doors (Defective gaskets, worn mastic)
• Joinery & finishes (Loose components)
• Roof structure (Torching has fallen in some areas, not adequately insulated/ventilated)
• Ceilings (Minor cracks to finishes)
• Built-in fittings (Worktop sealants need reapplying)
• Woodwork (Some creaking on staircase)
• Bathroom fittings (Sealant near tapwork needs reapplication)
• Boundaries (General disrepair)

Obviously, there's a lot here and this has been very scary on first sight, but I'm trying to be realistic and breaking things down to what may be routine maintenance and what are serious problems to deal with.

From my perspective and that of my dad (electrician) and a best friend (chartered civil engineer) it seems to be mostly a lot of small, relatively easy to fix issues that will be dealt with during general renovation, but the main concern is the damp findings, which we are unsure about. The purchase area has had more than a month of no rainfall, 30C+ weather, gardens that slope away from the property and previous DPC injections - we viewed the property again on Saturday and found no signs of damp at all. We're trying to understand whether damp could actually be an issue or whether this is due to unsophisticated measuring equipment and clauses to protect the surveyor, as every almost 100 year old property may experience some damp.

We're basically looking for some more outside opinions - this house is at a great price, in a great area, a long-term rental that has been recently renovated and we want to understand whether we may be ignoring anything serious due to the purchase opportunity, or whether we've had a particularly thorough surveyor!

I'm moving to a new place in a couple of weeks and I'm starting to realize just how much stuff I've accumulated over the years.

It's not a huge move (2-bedroom flat), but I've got a fair amount of furniture, boxes, and a few awkward items that definitely won't fit in my car. I've been looking at local man-and-van services, but the reviews seem all over the place, and getting quotes from different companies has been pretty time-consuming.

Has anyone here moved recently and found a company they'd recommend? Ideally I'd like something reasonably priced, reliable, and with decent communication. Any tips or companies worth checking out would be really appreciated.

Hi all!

FTB. We plan to buy a 2-bedroom flat on the outskirts of London with a budget of £200-250k. Every £ counts for us, so my question is how would you negotiate a price?

Mention flaws and throw a smaller number?

Ask openly whats the min price the seller would accept?

Drop ridiculous 10% off offer and try to find a middle ground?

Or maybe propose a few £k less as an offer at the end of the meeting with the agent?

Any tips are welcome!

How long is a reasonable amount of time to respond to simple enquiries? We have several outstanding queries with our seller that have gone unanswered for nearly 6 weeks.

We’re 12 weeks from our offer being accepted and feel like nothing is happening up the chain. Our chain is very small - Us FTB’s > Sellers buying an empty ex rental.

Are we being unreasonable/unrealistic to be considering pulling out as we aren’t getting any useful information from the Estate agents and sellers are ignoring enquiries?

Hi ya
I am a FTB
Survey completed and nothing major flagged. Searches result expected by end of august.
My seller has raised enquiries these days and he is not sure about dates.

I have two months notice in current tenancy so if I put notice today my last day would be mid of October.

Should I give notice today then?

We're buying a share-of-freehold flat in a conversion in London. There are eight flats in the building, so the freeholders collectively have responsibility for major building decisions.

During the purchase, a damp survey came back with significant findings. We didn't immediately walk away — we took it into account, renegotiated the price, and ultimately agreed in principle to meet the seller halfway. At this point, we had no idea subsidence was even a factor.

However, our acceptance of the revised price was explicitly conditional on six outstanding points being resolved before we proceeded. These weren't new attempts to renegotiate — they were enquiries intended to establish the full picture of the property's condition. Several of the requests were simply for existing correspondence to be forwarded to us. Then we heard essentially nothing for over a month.

Out of nowhere, the estate agent called and said we "had everything we need", and that unless we moved towards exchange by the end of that week the seller might pull out. We checked with our solicitor, who confirmed we didn't have everything requested. Most importantly, we still hadn't received the structural documentation relating to a subsidence claim we'd only just become aware of through the conveyancing process.

After we pushed back, a structural engineer's report was finally provided. This is where our view of the situation changed. Until then, we understood we were dealing with a historic subsidence issue for which remedial works were being undertaken. The report appears to show something rather different: movement is still ongoing, the suspected cause remains in place, and further structural intervention may ultimately be required.

What the structural report says:

- The building sits on London clay, and movement is described explicitly as ongoing
- The external steps have moved approximately 20mm relative to the main body of the house over the last four and a half years, with the most recent readings suggesting movement is continuing
- The main body of the building shows around 2mm of movement between monitored points over the same period
- Part of the front garden wall became sufficiently unsafe due to ground movement that it has already been demolished
- A council-owned tree has been identified as the likely cause and its removal was recommended, but the council refused
- If the trees cannot be controlled, the engineer discusses underpinning or geopolymer resin injection, and says that surface repairs alone will not prevent cracking recurring

What we still don't know:

We don't have a final invoice for the remedial works or a complete breakdown of what has actually been done. We've been told the council will cover the cost, but the only evidence we've seen is an email from the seller rather than any formal documentation confirming liability or payment.

We were also sent photos by the estate agent showing work that has been carried out. From what we can see, cracks appear to have been filled. There is no visible evidence of any underpinning or more substantial structural intervention.

The biggest issue for us is the tree. We've been told an application was made to have the council-owned tree removed and that the council refused — but despite repeatedly asking, we've seen no correspondence showing when removal was requested, what exactly was requested, why the council refused, whether the decision was challenged, or what the proposed long-term solution is now that the tree remains. When we asked about this, we were simply told it "was dealt with by the loss adjusters." That doesn't tell us what actually happened.

The share-of-freehold structure also worries us. If movement continues and the building later needs underpinning, resin injection, another insurance claim, or legal action regarding the tree, we're potentially dependent on cooperation from seven other flat owners. We have no idea whether the freeholders are aligned on how the issue should be handled.

Our solicitor has also warned us that we shouldn't rely on informal assurances from the seller, because if those representations later prove inaccurate our practical legal recourse could be very limited.

So we're being pressured to exchange while structural movement is apparently still occurring, the suspected cause hasn't been removed, we don't have the underlying correspondence about the tree, we don't have complete documentation for the remedial works, and the only evidence of work done is photos showing crack-filling.

We appreciate that subsidence isn't automatically catastrophic, particularly in London, and we're not looking for reasons to panic. We were prepared to buy knowing there had been a subsidence claim. What has spooked us is discovering the issue may still be active, combined with the reluctance to provide documentation and the sudden pressure to exchange.

Our questions:

1. For anyone who has bought or sold a property with subsidence, how concerning would you find this situation?
2. Is ongoing movement with the causative tree still in place fundamentally different from a historic, resolved subsidence claim?
3. Would you insist on seeing the council correspondence and full documentation for the remedial works before exchange?
4. Does having eight share-of-freehold owners materially increase the risk if expensive structural work is required later?
5. Given the whole picture, would you continue with the purchase or walk away?

Hi, we are First time buyers and most of the properties we see in our area have an onward chain. I understand the dynamics of the chain and the risks associated with it. How realistic is it to price in a discount on the asking price as someone with no chain but willing to wait for them (for a fixed amount of time) to complete their chain? Will such a ‘waiting premium’ (discount) be a valid point in pricing negotiations?

Update: thank you all for the responses. It has been helpful!

We have been given a mortgage on the condition that we pay £10k of debt within 30 days without using credit to pay it off. I.e balance transfer or another loan.

However we have literally tied up all our money in this house purchase and the money we set aside for our furnishings etc is going towards the £10k debt and that leaves us with about £2k.

What are the conditions to this agreement? Ive checked the t&c’s but like i need to buy sofas etc and was planning on getting it on finance now because literally our savings have been wiped out.

I know they wanted proof its paid, but will they wait for it to show up on my credit file before considering the condition met? Am i free to use other credit during or after the period.

And please i dont need any criticism, im well aware of what im doing. I just would like to know if anyone has any knowledge of the agreements.