Anyone moved recently - what are the costs?

[starfish4]

If anyone has moved recently, just wondering what costs you incurred. We know we will have 1% + VAT for agents fees and 1% stamp duty on £240,000, so that total approx just under £5,000.

Other costs are likely to be solicitors, survey, mortgage fees, removers - anything else? What might these costs be? We're thinking of allowing £5,000 for these other costs.

There may be obvious building works but putting any major work like that aside, roughly how much extra did you incur on things like locks, curtains, things not working that should be, little things to improve, washing line to go up, perhaps a shed? Thinking of allowing £3,000.

I moved almost 5 years ago, house price just under 200k, moving costs were 5.5k (London). This included 1% stamp duty, mortgage application fees, land registry, solicitors, chancel indemnity insurance etc. No moving costs as we did all the hard work ourselves.

Now moving into 250k+ property and anticipating around 20k but this includes selling costs, 3% stamp duty, removal costs and more expensive solicitor fees for a leasehold property.

Do not try and be cheap and save on removers. We had a cheap company do it for about £300 and they made the day a nightmare.

Legal fees were about £4500 for the purchase including stamp duty on £250k, survey was about £300 I think as we went for the mid one not the cheapest option. Mortgage fees depends on your product, anything from nothing to several thousand. We are in the SE by the way, so not London prices but still expensive. We paid an additional £50 'insurance' to the solicitors as they offered this in exchange for waiving any legal fees other than cost of searches etc if the purchase fell through. We moved in October.

I think £3000 contingency is a good idea. When we bought our first house the boiler broke within a few months - case of it could have lasted a few years or a few months, unfortunately for us it was a few months! I would allow money for an electrical check and a boiler service if the owner hasn't had one done recently, based on our first experience I wouldn't want to move without this.

You also need to allow for the person moving out being a twat. So unless the place is already empty, you really need to assume they will take every light bulb/fitting, curtain pole etc, even if they say they will leave them in the fixtures and fittings form. This house was in lovely condition when we moved in, but the last one the owners removed loads of light fittings and left them with just wires hanging from the wall. You may also want to allow time/money for cleaning when you move in, depending on the state of the house you are moving to. I think £3k would be enough to cover everything unless the survey showed some things needed doing straight away.

it is actually illegal now to leave wires hanging where light fittings should be. Even if the F and F form says they are taking the light fittings, they must replace them with at least a ceiling rose, flex and bulb fitting.

it is also a breach of contract not to leave what is stated on the F and F form. Although whether it is worth pursuing varies.

happily never had this!

Thanks for your replies. They are helpful - any others still appreciated though.

Both houses we are considering where built in the 1960s, so we would certainly want to look at electrics. Also, our last boiler broke down every year before it finally packed up, so unless it's got a fully serviced Worcester Bosch or Valliant on the wall only 3/4 years old, then would bear this in mind as not likely to last long. Luckily we have a brilliant engineer now

We have just sold and purchased and the bill was about £5000 I think to the solicitors to include stamp duty, fees, land reg, estate agent fees and removals. We are probably up to about £1000 for everything that needed doing, including buying new wardrobes.