Week 1

I’ve been bouncing around the UK on holiday for the past week, but I’m pleased to report a good slug of progress during week 1:

  • Mortgage offer issued (including the lender doing their survey)
  • My solicitor cracking on with the leasehold-related aspects of the sale

They don’t call it “fleecehold” for nothing, as both the freeholder and the management company wanted around £200 inc VAT for their “pre-sale information pack”. I refuse to believe either of them will spend more than an hour pulling some stuff together and e-mailing it to solicitors, but nice hourly rate if you can extract it…

Next week is likely to be all about prodding solicitors to start the searches (this involves local authorities, the only participant in the process with no commercial reason to move at any speed). And arranging for a full survey of my own to make sure nothing nasty is lurking.

I also sprung £6 at the Land Registry for a copy of the deeds to the place I’m buying. Much like accountants, the Land Registry always puts in a second entry to undo the first rather than altering history. So I got to wade through a solid paragraph of waffle about the land the house is on and its use being restricted as part of the first registered sale in 1910. But the good news is that there was a further paragraph undoing all that.