Dreading the whole thing

An EPC is an Energy Performance Certificate.
Buying and selling property is not for wimps 😥

You can use an independent EPC assessor. You don't need to use the estate agent. The certificate is valid for 10 years. I did when I moved 6 years ago. It was £60 then. Not sure how much it would cost now.

Our DD and SiL had three sales fall through before they moved. It was truly awful. And they lost a lot of money paying for surveyors and solicitors fees each time, it amounted to £5000.
The system is not fit for purpose Allsorts.
In Scotland you have to arrange a survey up front then pay a 10% deposit which the buyer will forfeit if they duck out of the sale. Am assuming that there are extenuating circumstances. One buyer who let our DD down when the sale was almost to the point of exchanging said they had heard a dog bark when they last visited so didn’t want to go ahead. Their neighbours don’t have a dog.

A house is way and by far the most expensive purchase we ever make and if it goes wrong it can destroy someone's life, so the process needs to be slow and fairly difficult because so much has to be sorted.

The Scottish system is superficially simpler, but I have heard of people spending £s thousands on surveys for houses and then make their offer only to be outbid again and again. If house buying isn't difficult then the reisks are too high.

We bought and sold last year. We were on the market for 18 months because the market was generally so sluggish, Once we got a buyer things were more or less straight forward. Our purchase was straight forward as well. We did not need a mortgage, although our buyer did.

Yes, we and our family have had difficult sales, but the majority have been straight forward.

The one thing that shocked me was what a con and how useless the EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) is, unless you are living in a house built in the last 20 years.

The training for EPC assessors is minimal. A couple of days max. The person who did ours was the same person who came and took the photos of our property for the brochure. She had a small computer with a simple uestionnaire on it. That could only cope with absolutely bog standard built modern houses.

We lived in an old house and bought an old house. The house we sold was as fully insulated as it could be with extensive double glazing, roof insulation etc etc. We bought a house with not a shred of insulation in it, no double glazing, doors and windows so ill-fitting that the sun was shining through the gaps of 2 or 3 centimetres wide. It still had the olf fashioned tungsten bulbs every where. Both houses were given a Grade C rating.

Rant over, Ah that feels better!

In Scotland, it is the vendor who pays for a single survey which is available to any potential purchaser, so although it can be frustrating to be in a "closed bid" situation if there is more than one interested party, the potential buyer has not spent anything if they don't get the property.

Honestly it's hell!

I did all this 6 years ago during covid while OH was at the end of his life. I have lost count of how many times the sales fell through.

I would only go through it again if it was absolutely necessary - as it was for me as I needed the downsizing money to pay for my OH's care. If you are able to stay put, then I would do that.

It is slightly irritating when people parrott the glib assertion about old people taking up big houses that families need - many would be happy to move if it was not so stressful at a time of life when it is harder than ever to cope with.

We are currently selling a house in Scotland. Yes the vendor does pay for the survey which is available to those who successfully offer for the house. Offers are put forward in the Scottish format ( formal note of interest) and potential purchasers should have their solicitor already on board. If there is more than one offer it goes to a closing date, when all offers are in a sealed bid, written format.
When we’ve sold in England we have always sold and then bought, most of our moves have been due to relocating.

We sold last year, it was not without its challenges, however 9 months in our new home and the pain is a distant memory.

My advice is only sell to someone who is not in a chain. In other words, someone with cash who is currently renting. As for you yourself renting, it is possible but fraught with difficulties. You’d need references and you’d have to pay for furniture storage.

Gran22boys

My advice is only sell to someone who is not in a chain. In other words, someone with cash who is currently renting. As for you yourself renting, it is possible but fraught with difficulties. You’d need references and you’d have to pay for furniture storage.

Easier said than done. OK if you are selling a starter home, but once you are selling further up the market, the probability of finding a first time buyer with £500,000 to spend gets remote.

And before the 'how many people can afford to spend £500,000 brigade, we are all living in tents.' brigade start up, I would point out that in Oxfordshire, where we used to live, the average house price is over £450,000. Although in our village there was a nice flat development that usually sold for under £200,000. In Cambridgeshire, where we now live it it is over £350,000.

The whole system needs a total overhaul. It is not fit for purpose. Problem is that there is no proper contract until right at the very end, when contracts get exchanged.
Up until that point either seller or buyer can just pull out of the process.

When I sold my house in East London in 2019, the original buyer pulled out on the day I was actually getting in removal companies for their quotation. I was in tears.
BUT.....lovely lady at Estate Agents Office asked me to give her one more month ( I wanted to stop everything), and within less than a week she had found a new buyer, who paid me more than the one who had pulled out - and my preferred choice of flat was still on the market and ten grand cheaper than when I had first viewed it. Both sale and purchase then went through within three months and the pain (like childbirth) became a distant memory.

Do ensure that whatever you are selling looks good for someone to buy. Always worth paying out a bit of money to have hallway painted (this is what the buyer first sees), garden tidied up, everywhere clean and neat. First start is you getting rid of stuff.

Some people like to be do their own showing to prospective buyers, but I found it easier to be out and to let the EA do that, less tension for me. You want honest feed back if people decide not to put in an offer.

Do not think it is going to be a quick process, it took me nearly five years preparing to put the house on the market. Allow at least 12-18 months for the process to take place. Don't get too fixed on what you want to buy, until you have a really firm offer on your existing property proceeding, you are not really in a position to make your own offer.

Most people are NOT cash buyers, many who claim to be just mean that they will not require a mortgage, and will be paying in full from the sale of their current property. They will usually still want a good survey.

Get your own paperwork in good order. If you have had any work done on your property in the past few years, sort out receipts and certificates. You will need official ones for such things as replacement windows, chimney sweeping, central heating/boiler servicing. etc.

work out your monies.......You will have to pay for Estate Agents fees, your own surveys, solicitors both for sale and purchase, removal expenses and probably new furniture when you do finally move. These all take a big bite out of your sale monies.

Take a deep breath and go for it.......Most of us who did finally do it are so happy with the result.

Allsorts - to answer your question about moving to rental accommodation, my sister-in-law did exactly that . She sold up , moved to a rental apartment and stayed there.
She says the stress of owning a house and all that goes with it has completely disappeared. If there’s any problem, she just calls the landlord and it is dealt with. No doubt, the rent she pays is dead money, but she is happy.

I would give the opposite answer to crazyH, though I am no expert, and only going by 2nd hand observations.

The problem with going into rented, is tht unless you buy a house with no chain, you are still in a chain so to speak.
Albeit at the bottom.
Like sometimes, a first time buyer[if not already a tenant].

Now I have reread, crazyH sister-in-law stayed in rented.
I take it from the op, that you are meaning to do it temporarily until house completion date?

^The whole system needs a total overhaul. It is not fit for purpose. Problem is that there is no proper contract until right at the very end, when contracts get exchanged.
Up until that point either seller or buyer can just pull out of the process.6

I disagree, when someone is committing to purchasing something as expensive as a house with all the ramifications of legal complications and so on. I absolutely think that either side should be able to drop out up to the last minute.

Many of the delays and problems are caused by other people in the process; surveyors, solicitors, complications that turn up in leases when they are read in detail.

We have just completed our seventh house purchase and we have assisted our children n 4 more and, yes, some of them have been horrendous, but I would rather that than find I am committed to purchasing a house that turns out to have problems that did not show up on the seller's survey, or because a local government decision halfway through, makes the house a liability or a government decision leads to a massive collapse of the housing market

^The whole system needs a total overhaul. It is not fit for purpose. Problem is that there is no proper contract until right at the very end, when contracts get exchanged.
Up until that point either seller or buyer can just pull out of the process.6^

I have often wondered what people would want changed.

Perhaps a different thread about that?

I do see that having a house survey done late in the process is not helpful to anyone.

I totally understand your feelings. I sold with the intention of putting most of my goods into storage and renting a flat in the new area where I would then find my final house. In fact I sold and then found a new build that I could quickly move into, just staying with No 1 son for three weeks. When selling instructed the Agent to only show my house to those who had already sold, I didn't want tourists. I then gave a deadline by which they had to have a survey, exchange contracts etc, as some sellers like to drag things out. As I know full well you can get all the admin for a house purchase done within three weeks, so I won't put up with malingerers. I always priced my houses competitively to attract buyers keen to proceed. There are unscrupulous buyers who want to get your house off the market and secured for them while actually still looking at others in case something better comes up. I was ruthless in putting a house back on the market if prospective buyers were tardy. I avoided chains both in buying and selling. I was a cash buyer for my last two houses, that was helpful in making me an attractive buyer. I'm now in my final house so can relax!

Allsorts I would probably do what you suggest, i.e. try to get your own sale exchanged and stay elsewhere whilst you buy if this is possible. This was what we intended to do, though in fact we found somewhere quickly and only needed to stay somewhere for a short time. Buying when you have actually sold is so much simpler and makes you a much more attractive purchaser.

Not really following your original question, but as M0nica suggests EPCs are utterly pointless and are done by people with minimal training. They charge upwards of £50 which is really money for old rope - several estate agents have told me in the past that they have never had a potential buyer ask to see the report.
We have a small rental flat with a low score which means that once our current tenant leaves we will have to raise the score to be allowed to let it again.
The EPC assessor suggested that to raise it we put in a system to collect the heat from the used shower water, which would mean completely ripping apart the bathroom and spending many thousands of pounds. The only thing that we could use this heat for would be to heat more water - but since the flat is small and really only suitable for one person this would simply produce a tank of tepid water which would go cold before a shower was needed again.
Another alternative could be double glazing, but the flat is in a listed building and the council would not permit this.

The thought of ending up in temp accom. is what really puts me off trying to move although I really should move from this rural location into a town. I've had to move into temp premises inbetween house moves before but I had my DH with me so we put up with it together, just don't think I could face it on my own. We ended up in rented home for 18 mths before finding our latest home, a very long time without all your possessions or clothes for changing seasons.

Downsized last Summer. Apart from all the decluttering, emotional rollercoaster and admin it was relatively painless.
We sold to first time buyers and the couple we bought from were moving to a new build so a short chain.
Both estate agents involved were local family firms and communication was really good.
7 months on we are so glad we made the move when we did. We have upgraded the bungalow and that’s almost finished.
The outdoor space is amazing so looking forward to the Summer.
Overall, our move went really smoothly.

We sold our bungalow twice - in April 22 and April 24. Both times the sales fell through in the October of the same years because the chain was so long in both cases and eventually they snapped when someone near the top of the chain got fed up of waiting. We learned a new phrase during these failures to sell "Non-proceedable". It was quoted to us by our solicitor who said that once your buyer pulled out/fell out of the chain your offer on the house you were buying had to be withdrawn because you were non-proceedable! It was to speed up the house selling process! What rot! We spent/lost nearly £10,000 on solicitors fees and surveys etc as the sales process continued and the chains got longer because estate agents wouldn't let you view a property until you had got an offer on yours. Now Labour has has tanked the economy and introduced anxiety and uncertainty I can't see the housing market recovering for a long time

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The Seller should be the one responsible for an uptodate Full Professional Survey when selling their property.

Signed authenticated copies should be part of their property details and given to all interested buyers along with said property details.

This would speed up the purchase and help avoid unnecessary expenses and possibly gazumping.
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Luckygirl3

Honestly it's hell!

I did all this 6 years ago during covid while OH was at the end of his life. I have lost count of how many times the sales fell through.

I would only go through it again if it was absolutely necessary - as it was for me as I needed the downsizing money to pay for my OH's care. If you are able to stay put, then I would do that.

It is slightly irritating when people parrott the glib assertion about old people taking up big houses that families need - many would be happy to move if it was not so stressful at a time of life when it is harder than ever to cope with.

We often thought that a bridging loan would help "old" people to get moved. But of course it was impossible to get one. Even though our new place was only one third of the price we were selling at!

Riversidegirl Yes, bridging loans are very expensive, even if you can get one and you know when they will end. We knew one old couple living in a valuable home who ended up losing a lot of money when they bought a flat and sold their house. The house took the best part of 18 months to sell and the interest rate was ruinously high. In the end they did have a lovely large flat but had no capital left from their house

Barbadosbelle

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The Seller should be the one responsible for an uptodate Full Professional Survey when selling their property.

Signed authenticated copies should be part of their property details and given to all interested buyers along with said property details.

This would speed up the purchase and help avoid unnecessary expenses and possibly gazumping.
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Absolutely.