Bucket List Item 16

In less than 24 hours it seems item 16 on my bucket list will be complete! Yes, that is buying a house.

They say buying a house is the most stressful thing you can ever do. They are wrong! I guess it could be stressful if you don’t have everything in place and aren’t ready but who in their right mind starts something without being ready for it?

The only problems that come up during the whole buying process were to do with everything else and not the actual house buying. Mainly the PPI refund on the loan which was needed for part of the deposit and to clear all debts, however with some gentle persuasion to the CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland the refund went through in plenty of time and the debt cleared weeks before exchange.

The only other slight hiccup was down to the fact the house was being sold by a building contractor who had taken it in part exchange on a new home. This meant it was not lived in by the sellers for at least 6 months prior to sale which is a sub-sale (see my other entry on sub sales for that). But all was fine, it just delayed exchange until the day before completion (i.e. today)

So it looks like 29th October 2010 is the day that item 16 is crossed off the list. Just in time to ignore the trick or treaters and to set off some fire works :-)

Sub-Sales? I’d rather have a sub-way!

Seriously, is my solicitors phone broken? After a month of this going through they didn't bother to tell me that the house I am buying is a "sub-sale" and Halifax have strict criteria on purchasing sub-sales... i.e. they don't let you!

If the seller hadn't phoned me asking to see if I can pay my deposit sooner so the sale goes through smoothly I wouldn't have ever phoned the solicitor. But when I did, and asked if I could pay the deposit (I must be the only person ever to want to give someone £13,000!) they simply told me that its not ready yet due to a query with Halifax... they didn't even give up what that query was until I asked!!

Panic strikes. I've paid out money, spent a lot of time and turned down a lot of work and missed out on the other house which would have done so I can get this sorted out. Then I'm told that Halifax don't allow sub-sales. Great! Just what I need to sort out when I have 2 weeks work to do in a week and a half.

Anyway, a bit of searching and up comes Halifax's Intermediaries website which lists the criteria Halifax fail to give to those applying for a mortgage... scroll down to "Sub-sales and Back to Back transactions" and it says this...

Sub-sales and back-to-back transactions are not acceptable.

A sub-sale occurs when a property is bought and then sold on within six months, i.e. the borrower is buying the property from someone who has themselves bought the property less than six months before. The date of registration at the Land Registry is how we determine the length of ownership.

This means that the current vendor must have owned the property for at least six months before we can accept an application to purchase that property.

Brilliant, it's not acceptable. But surely the solicitor appointed by Halifax would have known this, as would the mortgage advisor from Halifax? There must be something!

5 hours later (which included an hour break for food and watching a bit of Friends) I eventually notice this little bit hidden after the "back to back" criteria (same section, if only I had read it all to start with!)

The following cases are exceptions where it is acceptable for the property to be sold on within six months of acquisition by the seller.

Where sales are by:

a personal representative of the registered proprietor; or

an institutional mortgagee exercising its power of sale; or

a receiver, trustee-in-bankruptcy or liquidator; or

a developer or builder selling a property acquired under a part-exchange scheme.

So, hopefully Halifax will get back to the solicitor very soon and say yes. If not, someone is looking at getting one hell of a shouting at and possibly something so that I can get back the money I've paid out for everything so far, plus the loss of earnings, plus the inconvenience caused...

So anyway, let that be a lesson to all. Halifax are fucking shit. And always ask about "sub-sales" and "back to back sales" if buying a house which has not been lived in for at least 6 months by the seller.

Yes this really is the most "exciting" thing that's happened to me for the past few weeks... I really need to get out more!

Oh, and the criteria they don't tell you is at http://www.halifax-intermediaries.co.uk/criteria/default.aspx