Buying a House in England

[Diane Watson]

I am finally going back to England to be with my family after 30 wonderful years in Australia. I have enough money to buy a house without getting a mortgage but I would prefer to buy one over here so that I can move straight into it as I have a dog and my relatives aren't doggie people. Is there a solicitor in Sydney that handles overseas purchases or do I need to hire one in the Middlesbrough/Hartlepool area and has anyone bought a house in the UK from Sydney and can give me any hints of the best way to arrange it. I have found several properties on Rightmove that seem suitable and my family could check them out for me and arrange for building inspections but I'd rather deal with the solicitor face to face.

[newjez]

I am finally going back to England to be with my family after 30 wonderful years in Australia. I have enough money to buy a house without getting a mortgage but I would prefer to buy one over here so that I can move straight into it as I have a dog and my relatives aren't doggie people. Is there a solicitor in Sydney that handles overseas purchases or do I need to hire one in the Middlesbrough/Hartlepool area and has anyone bought a house in the UK from Sydney and can give me any hints of the best way to arrange it. I have found several properties on Rightmove that seem suitable and my family could check them out for me and arrange for building inspections but I'd rather deal with the solicitor face to face.

 

I would want to see it before I bought. If only flying over for a holiday.

[Patphillips47]

I am finally going back to England to be with my family after 30 wonderful years in Australia. I have enough money to buy a house without getting a mortgage but I would prefer to buy one over here so that I can move straight into it as I have a dog and my relatives aren't doggie people. Is there a solicitor in Sydney that handles overseas purchases or do I need to hire one in the Middlesbrough/Hartlepool area and has anyone bought a house in the UK from Sydney and can give me any hints of the best way to arrange it. I have found several properties on Rightmove that seem suitable and my family could check them out for me and arrange for building inspections but I'd rather deal with the solicitor face to face.

 

To me buying a house in the Uk is a slow laborious process especially if you get stuck in a chain Solicitors take so long to sort everything it can take months Plus from experience we found the pictures on rightmove stood most places in a really good light It was a reality check when we viewed ! There would probably be a few rentals where your going to maybe think of renting for a while We have a lovely 3 bed detached bungalow on the market but it's Sunderland lol

[BacktoDemocracy]

I am finally going back to England to be with my family after 30 wonderful years in Australia. I have enough money to buy a house without getting a mortgage but I would prefer to buy one over here so that I can move straight into it as I have a dog and my relatives aren't doggie people. Is there a solicitor in Sydney that handles overseas purchases or do I need to hire one in the Middlesbrough/Hartlepool area and has anyone bought a house in the UK from Sydney and can give me any hints of the best way to arrange it. I have found several properties on Rightmove that seem suitable and my family could check them out for me and arrange for building inspections but I'd rather deal with the solicitor face to face.

I would really recommend that you rent in the area before you buy, if you have family in the area maybe they could do some checking out for a rental, be prepared to have to pay a big deposit up front on a rental, find out who is a good surveyor in the area as s/he wiil give you best advice on purchases find someone who is RICS independent with an office locally, solicitors merely do the transfer and it is often a clerk who does the donkey work and will give you minimal advice except on legal matters, biggest check for you to do is about flood risks as this is becoming major prob and any hint of being in flood area may mean insurance is astronomical or non existent.

Really worth your while tto put up with all the inconvenience of being in rented and dealing with dodgy agents, take your own photos of the stae of the place before you move in and email to agent as they will try to charge for carpet cleans and damage to kitchen units whether or not.

Use a money exchange agent such as Moneycorp to do currency exchange as banks are rip offs.

I know that there are lots of probs with opening bank accounts back in the uk and lots of people on here have different views and strategies for doing it but i opened an offshore account with Lloyds international which now has charges attached and i did open one with HSBC international which has charges but even so I found Lloyds very easy to deal with when moving lump sums around and you do get a bank card which you can use immediately in the uk and it makes it easier to open accounts in the uk, look at interest bearing account rates in the uk as somewhere to hold money whilst buying house.

We stayed in holiday lets to begin with whilst we sorted out a rental and caravans are another option but i think its essentially you do some checking for yourself as the uk had changed in just the 10 years we were away never mind 30.

[Marisawright]

I would also recommend renting first. Finding the right home is a very personal choice - if you're going to live in the house for the rest of your days, you need to choose it yourself and you can't make that judgment from photos and relatives' reports.

 

Your relatives can check out rentals for you. As a new arrival, you'll have to pay six months' rent in advance, but that's fine as it will take you six months to find and move into the right property (remember the whole "chain" system in England means a sale can take a long time to go through).

[bristolman]

I would definitely want to see the house first. Don't believe everything you hear about buying a house here, it was 3 weeks from putting an offer to moving in for us.

Also a chain isn't a thing peculiar to the UK, they exist everywhere there are houses for sale.

[Gbye grey sky]

I would definitely want to see the house first. Don't believe everything you hear about buying a house here, it was 3 weeks from putting an offer to moving in for us.

Also a chain isn't a thing peculiar to the UK, they exist everywhere there are houses for sale.

 

True, and as a cash buyer you can move quickly and if you find/choose a house with vacant possession you can complete in a few weeks though posting documents will take a little longer than if you were in UK. You are also in a great bargaining position.

 

Personally I would also need to view in person before buying a home. A mistake would be costly and you are placing a large burden of responsibility on family members.

 

I would be surprised if you found a suitable conveyancing solicitor in Australia. Skype calls to a local solicitor can suffice I am sure.

[dmjg]

True, and as a cash buyer you can move quickly and if you find/choose a house with vacant possession you can complete in a few weeks though posting documents will take a little longer than if you were in UK.

 

Youd think that would be the case,

 

But we sold a vacant possession to a cash buyer.

 

Every document they asked us to fill out was printed, filled, scanned and back to the solicitors within 12 hours.

 

The only snail mail packet was the signature for the actual sale, it was back within five days of being emailed to us.

 

Sale agreed mid oct. Mail early nov. Completion end jan.

 

Very displeased with the whole system, and percieved stalling tactics on behalf of the buyers solicitors.

[dmjg]

I would definitely want to see the house first. Don't believe everything you hear about buying a house here, it was 3 weeks from putting an offer to moving in for us.

Also a chain isn't a thing peculiar to the UK, they exist everywhere there are houses for sale.

 

Chain isnt an issue in Australia.

 

You just get bridging finance for a few months. Yes you pay a double mortgage, but its generally not for more than a few months.

 

The day the sale is agreed, it becomes binding, with a few days cooling off period. Subject to finance being given and building inspections, generally.

 

A deposit is given and a completion date agreed, it can be anything from 30,60,90,120 days.

 

Job pretty much done. If anyone pulls out then, deposit is lost and the pullee can be sued for breaking a contract.

[Guest]

I think it's fairly unlikely you will find a solicitor in Sydney that specialises in English property law & if you do you would pay a premium. I cannot see any advantage at being able to meet face to face and you could easily use an online conveyancer such as these http://www.1stpropertylawyers.co.uk

 

As it happens I'm selling a house in Middlesbrough at the moment and given that I live in Scotland I faced a similar issue as Scottish property law is very different. I have a solicitor based in Newcastle dealing with it, I have never met them, everything is being done by email/post/telephone and it's very straight forward.

 

As others have said I would be more concerned about not seeing the house rather than not seeing the solicitor.

[Guest]

Chain isnt an issue in Australia.

 

You just get bridging finance for a few months. Yes you pay a double mortgage, but its generally not for more than a few months.

 

The day the sale is agreed, it becomes binding, with a few days cooling off period. Subject to finance being given and building inspections, generally.

 

A deposit is given and a completion date agreed, it can be anything from 30,60,90,120 days.

 

Job pretty much done. If anyone pulls out then, deposit is lost and the pullee can be sued for breaking a contract.

 

Same in Scotland - even a verbal offer is binding supposedly though I have no evidence of that standing up in court. For that reason it is your solicitor that puts in the offer for you and if accepted then it's a done deal.

 

I'm selling my dad's house in England at the moment and have been told it should take 6-8 weeks to go through as there is no chain - fingers crossed.

[Gbye grey sky]

Youd think that would be the case,

 

But we sold a vacant possession to a cash buyer.

 

Every document they asked us to fill out was printed, filled, scanned and back to the solicitors within 12 hours.

 

The only snail mail packet was the signature for the actual sale, it was back within five days of being emailed to us.

 

Sale agreed mid oct. Mail early nov. Completion end jan.

 

Very displeased with the whole system, and percieved stalling tactics on behalf of the buyers solicitors.

 

True. Once a solicitor spies covenances they can nit-pick for months as in our case. The solicitor for our buyers did the same and managed to make a straightforward sale take 4 months to complete.

 

Buyers could have over-ridden her but they pay a solicitor and then have to follow their guidance I suppose. Maybe our buyers wanted the delay....who knows?

 

In the end we exchanged contracts just a week before emigrating. At any time up to then the buyers could have changed their mind and walked away leaving us back at square one with no compensation.