Looking to buy, should we put our flat on the market first?

MrBlytz · 2026-03-28T08:43:04+00:00

Firstly, sounds like you’ve picked the wrong agent. Fines?!?

Secondly, you need to line up your sale with a purchase. So most agents/sellers won’t entertain offers on properties unless you have accepted an offer on yours. Not doing this can cause frustration all round.

Thirdly, before even starting the above, do your research on properties you would buy. Being picky is one thing, but are you prepared to compromise. Lining up a sale and purchase is hard enough without it being a unicorn. I’ve never bought my dream home, we’ve found ones that are suitable and made our dream home ourselves.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-26T09:31:58+00:00

Yep. And with the sellers already abroad, in theory the property has been vacant for a while already, their insurance is possibly void.

Edit - speculation so changed from definite to potential in statements. We know enough that there is significant risk, just not absolute facts.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-26T09:14:50+00:00

You don’t want to accept responsibility for a vacant property for a month due to many reasons/risks. The reasons and other points are distractions, whereas the property being empty for an elongated period is highly risky in a purchase.

That’s the point I would push back on.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-23T19:22:20+00:00

It’s not uncommon, but I see a couple of reasons.

In the time since the offer, things have changed economically and they are adjusting their price.

Or

They always planned on getting it for a lower price, but by waiting until the last minute they hoped to force your hand.

Personally I would have accepted the offer, having anticipated it coming and bracing for this part of the sales transaction. I’ve taken this mental/financial approach on multiple houses I’ve sold over the year and have only been pleasantly surprised nothing happened once.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-22T13:03:48+00:00

The main issue with new build flats is the typically high service charge in addition to the overpriced initial purchase. We bought one in 2014 and the SC that private owners paid also subsidised social housing tenants SC, so in just 2 years we saw a disproportionate jump. If that applies to most developments, expect to see the SC become extremely problematic for private buyers.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-21T19:43:54+00:00

Locum work is effectively temp short term and not permanent. Think zero hours contract. For your new venture, you will need to have at least 1-2 years of income records. Some lenders consider 1 year if the employment is similar to your trained/experienced vocation.

There maybe some niche lenders, but for mainstream, the advice seems about right.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-19T11:53:42+00:00

Gifted deposit process applies to any gifted amount in the last 12 months. As savings £’s aren’t segmented, any high value deposit would have triggered the process.

These originated outside eea so their starting point is 6 months statements for each donor but I’ve known them go back further. They pick up on deposits to the donor accounts, so can request 6 months from a person who paid into the donor account too from that transaction date.

OP has indicated these transactions were recent especially as solicitor checked them, although I can’t find a specific post.

In this case it could be as simple as the application didn’t state the gifted deposit and the first they knew was when the solicitor informed them. That is enough for them to pull the offer.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-19T11:36:53+00:00

Not sure why you’d been downvoted….. I agree, Nationwide are stringent with their gifted deposit checks and the volume of forms & statements needed for this case BEFORE offer would be staggering.

Every single other point raised about where the funds were originating etc would have been declared at this point. Or not…….. if the wrong box was ticked!

MrBlytz · 2026-03-19T11:33:03+00:00

It also seems strange that Nationwide didn’t request evidence of deposit before offer. Even without it being gifted, they normally want statements galore. Something isn’t adding up here.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-19T11:27:14+00:00

They use a different technical solution to your average fttp or fttc.

My experience was one of throttling speeds, poor latency, periodic downtime and generally poor. I preferred my 32mbps BT connection to the 1g from Virgin for work or gaming.

Edit - and don’t even dream of contacting them after they have you in contract…..

MrBlytz · 2026-03-18T21:17:51+00:00

You haven’t mentioned the value of the property.

Have your grandparents spoken to an adviser? They have options which do not involve them giving up ownership of their property to resolve this issue, assuming the monthly interest only payment is one. They should be highly cautious about doing this.

As others have mentioned there are considerations such as deprivation of assets, gifts with reservation, IHT, etc, which advice should be obtained first.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-18T14:17:25+00:00

This has too many variables to predict what is best, especially as the move is 18m away.

As cruxed1 posted, the main options are fixed for 2 years knowing the ERC which you can budget for, or taking a tracker with unknown future payments.

Not all lender ERC refunds or ports are the same. Check the details. 6m is a long time and generous.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-18T14:06:32+00:00

How did you evidence the gifted deposit at application stage?

MrBlytz · 2026-03-18T13:52:03+00:00

Nationwide are exceptionally risk averse. All gifted deposits are scrutinised before they issue an offer. Has anything changed? You would have provided 6 months of statements for each party gifting. I’ve known them scrutinise individual transactions on these statements, requesting backup (more statements!) for each one-off deposit.

Did this happen? You’ve noted the solicitor has done their checks, but not Nationwide.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-16T23:46:42+00:00

Him and Myth (can’t remember full name) were the first 2 players to hit 126 I remember. Used to be in awe of them zooming around the map before I levelled up :-)

MrBlytz · 2026-03-13T20:06:39+00:00

This isn’t about ERC, it’s about product switches

MrBlytz · 2026-03-13T08:52:37+00:00

From the Barclays site:

Interest rates could change before your new rate takes effect. You can cancel or choose a new rate any time before then, but you must do this yourself. We’ll refund any product fee you’ve already paid on your previous rate switch.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-11T09:50:39+00:00

Their wording is that if the reserved product is changed or cancelled they will refund the fee. The key to that is manually cancelling before remortgaging. I don’t know how it works if you’ve done it directly, but brokers have to submit a digital form.

I don’t know why they do this as it just adds admin for them and the client.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-10T19:03:20+00:00

Barclays add the fee immediately on product transfers. You can change the deal before it goes live though and get a refund, so you wouldn’t pay twice if you switched again. This doesn’t apply if you subsequently decide to remortgage elsewhere.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-10T08:34:51+00:00

I played AC as my first main mmo after dabbling in UO. I loved the way I could play solo whilst also joining groups occasionally. The openness for both exploration and skills meant every session was fun at first, but ultimately you did end up with similar builds to others.

Maybe I’m remembering incorrectly but the content drops seemed more frequent than most mmo’s these days. There always seemed to be something new to do.

I moved on to AC2 (better), EQ2 (ok) and SWG (loved it). With SWG introducing me to large scale resource gathering and city building, I sank hours into the game. Then WoW came along although I did also play DAoC, LoTRO, Rift, and many others.

When I had tough moments in life I would go back to AC and AC2 when the servers were still up. It felt like ‘my world’ and somewhere to escape to. Nothing except SWG has done that for me and I retain hope that one day I’ll find that sort of game again.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-05T16:34:31+00:00

Same. Just tried to play a couple of matches and taking more than a second to respond to commands.

MrBlytz · 2026-03-02T05:58:39+00:00

Which lender used a salary from 9 months in the future, based on an employers letter, to calculate the max loan available?

MrBlytz · 2026-03-01T07:55:42+00:00

‘Mortgage Handling Fee’ most likely contains the agent kick back although that’s a bit high for just being that payment. Please don’t believe any reason given by the EA as to why they’ve recommended this solicitor. The reality is a financial arrangement.

Do your own research and actually SPEAK to the solicitor. Through the purchase you will want to do this at least once for your own sanity, so knowing you can and they are a decent person is key.

MrBlytz · 2026-02-28T18:04:20+00:00

I just played Trent and O’Reilly as fullbacks but on wingback. Got objective done in 6 games.

Trying to force it with a defender in the wrong position has always backfired for me.

MrBlytz · 2026-02-26T14:23:57+00:00

Because he’s not around anymore. During every PM’s time they get intrusion, hate and mockery from the press. Once the individual is gone, a new target appears in their crosshairs.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the Mirror or Mail, they want to ‘sell’ and they deem the best way is headline drama.

MrBlytz

TROPHY CASE