Re-wiring a house - can it be done before moving in?!

[LoopyLa]

Hi all

We're looking to buy a house but it needs quite a lot of updating including re-wiring. We have a 10 month old baby & have a rough idea of the upheaval it would require. We need to sell our house so it would be a chain situation too.

My question is this really: if we bought the house, is it possible to do the re-wiring work before we move in but when it's officially "ours"? When would the people buying our house be able to move in to ours? Or is it impossible & complicated to actually do this? Thanks

If the house is vacant then it might be possible - your solicitor can arrange an agreement with the vendor to allow you to carry out specified works between exchange and completion.
On exchange the house won't be officially yours but you will have made a legal commitment to purchase and the vendor a commitment to sell. Hope this makes sense - good luck!!

Thanks DidIMissSomething! Sadly it is occupied but the vendors did say that if they had to move out for e.g a quick sale, then they could do so as they had a houseboat to live on...

As a buyer I would not be comfortable with this, not until completion date. Could you live everything up and stay with relatives whilst the work is done? bearing in mind rewiring usually requires replastering so it's not a quick (or dust free) job.

line, not live... Sorry!

It's unwise to do the work before completion as the sale could still fall through. As a seller, there's no way I'd let anyone do work on my house even if I'd moved out and left it empty.

A more practical way would be to have it done immediately after completion - get quotes now and when you've exchanged, contact them to arrange it - and stay in a B & B or with relatives and either put your furniture in storage or put it in the new house but talk to the electrician first about making sure it's not in their way. It only takes around 1-3 days to rewire a house usually.

If you're selling, your house becomes the property of the new owners from completion so you must vacate it by then for the new owners.

Sorry, when I say "contact them to arrange it" I mean contact the electrician to try to get the work done just after completion date.

You could get a bridging loan to buy the new house. This would allow you to stay in your own house and move in later - say 4 weeks - it means you buy the house and sells your a number of weeks later.

This may prove to be expensive in fees and will be a hassle.

Rewiring is messy. If it was me I would do the following:

Go ahead with buy and sell of houses with no delays. Get removal company to quote for storage - they come, pack everying into a container take it to their store and then deliver it a few weeks later. It means you don't pay twice for a removal, only the storage fees on top. Google all the holiday lets within a 30 mile area (your tourist board website is a good resource) - email them to see if they will do a month let at the time you need it and go there for a month while you do up the house.

Will make the work much more stress free and it you get a holiday let for a month you don't have to worry about the hassle of bills. Will be much cheaper than paying for a bridging loan I reckon.

I rewired before I moved in - looked like a bomb had gone off - not to be done whilst living in the house with small DC!

A week in a Travelodge or similar is a cheap adventure for DCs, and often available on sale if prebooked.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the time you've taken to answer & lots of good ideas & stuff to think about! Lovely thanks