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Property/DIY

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Original poster

Doing work before completion? Or delaying moving in

11 replies

silversixpence · 03/11/2015 12:36

We are buying a house which will be vacant in a week or two, the vendors are a building company who sold the previous owners a new build. Is it possible to get keys early in this situation? Ideally we could then plaster and paint the bedrooms and remove the grotty carpets, maybe also sand the floorboards downstairs and replace the boiler. Would be great to do all that before getting furniture in especially with 3 DC! also I am concerned about the place being empty for so long.

Alternatively our buyers are first time buyers, would it be possible to delay them moving in for a couple of weeks after completion?

OP posts:

Stoneagemum · 03/11/2015 12:45

How much rent are you prepared to offer the first time buyers for living in their house?

Original poster

silversixpence · 03/11/2015 12:48

They are cash buyers so they won't have a mortgage to pay, I think we'd have to see what they will offer if they agree. Market rate for a 2 bed flat (minimum we need) would be about 1k minimum so wouldn't want to pay more than that but the house is bigger.

OP posts:

Stoneagemum · 03/11/2015 12:55

Doing a deal with them would be less risky than paying for work to be carried out on a property that is not yours

VegasIsBest · 03/11/2015 12:56

You should check this with the lawyer who's handling your sale and purchase.

Re doing work before completion. What if you don't complete for some reason?

Re renting your existing house - I would never agree to this if I was buying a house. All sorts of potential problems with this. For example, what if the people renting then wouldn't move out?

Have you considered keeping your stuff in storage with the removals company and just staying in a hotel or short-term rental for a week or two?

Bimblywibble · 03/11/2015 13:39

I think Vegas's idea is a good one. Or leave most stuff in storage, and live in a couple of rooms to start with.

When we were FTB we did what you want to do - spent the first week DIYing the new house while still living in our rented flat. I think you'd be asking a lot of them for them to pay that astronomical amount of money for the house and not have the security of having the keys. But it can't hurt to ask.

You might be surprised what you can do when you move in. Our next house move we concentrated on getting DCs' rooms sorted first, then painted living room and playroom before unpacking those rooms. Lovely GPs had the kids (age 1 and 3) for a night and a weekend IIRC. Then we did bugger all else to the house for the next 2 years

Original poster

silversixpence · 03/11/2015 13:42

I think we will have to do similar then if renting/doing work in advance is not an option. There are three rooms downstairs so will use one for storage until we can get the bedrooms decent, it will be inconvenient but not impossible.

Any thoughts about the property being vacant? Are the owners obliged to turn the heating on to prevent damp etc?

OP posts:

homeaway · 03/11/2015 14:59

I think you have to take out insurance on the house once you exchange.

piapiapiano · 03/11/2015 16:08

Yes it is possible to get the keys before completion. We did it, we had to take out insurance and get it legally drawn up It wasn't that expensive, less than £100.
We had a strict amount of time that we were allowed to work on the house(4 weeks) and the policy stated that if the sale did not go ahead we would have to put it back to how it was.
Our estate agent sorted it out for us, but I imagine if the seller agrees you'd just need to sort it with you solicitor.

Good luck.

specialsubject · 03/11/2015 16:41

you have to insure from exchange whatever you do.

if you haven't got a boiler replacement quote lined up now, good luck finding people who will do it this side of spring...

I may be missing something, but if your buyers are FTB, can completion be speeded up? I don't normally advocate squeezing exchange and completion close together but it may help here. Then you can complete, put your stuff into storage, go into a holiday flat or similar and get some of the work done before moving in.

Seabiscotti · 03/11/2015 16:47

When we bought we exchanged and completed on the same day. House we bought was vacant.

I have to say that there is no way I would complete on a property and let the previous owner stay there. As others have said, you could ask but I would think it was cheeky.

bilbodog · 03/11/2015 17:50

The house we are in was empty when we bought and we did get permission to remove all carpets to get it woodwormed between exchange and completion. The other way is to arrange a bridging loan to purchase before you have completed on your sale but it could be costly depending on the amount involved and timescales.

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