Tuesday, May 23, 2006
house #10
- Roof stuff (invoices, 10 year guarantee, quote for further work) came through the post.
- Signed mortgage papers and posted them off.
- Lease had been resent to me as I didn't initial the plan last time. Did this and posted it back to solicitor.
- Phoned Halifax to pay for survey, mortgage man not there
- Phoned Halifax to pay for survey, mortgage man on another call (will ring back)
- Mortgage man phoned back. Took my payment details. Will arrange a valuation for hopefully Thursday.
Training:
- 25 mins at lunch time. Felt pretty good. (just tried to measure it on the map.. came up with 4km / 2.5 miles)
Monday, May 22, 2006
house #9
- Paperwork on roof did not arrive with today's post. I can't proceed any further with the mortgage and survey until I see it - for fear of wasting another three hundred pounds if the paperwork turns out to be a pile of crap. It's now been two weeks and four days since the seller claims that she received this paperwork from the builder.
- Phoned solicitor for confirmation of when this was sent. No answer, left a message.
- Tried solicitor again. No answer.
- Tried solicitor again. She tells me that despite leaving "strict instructions with the girls for it to be sent out urgently" on Friday, it didn't get sent. She tells me it will be with me in tomorrow's post.
- Phoned Mortgage Advisor to ask about decreasing the amount I want to borrow (increasing deposit). He's not in that office, given number of Blyth office
- Phoned Mortgage Advisor in Blyth. No problem with changing amount to borrow, just send a note when I send the paperwork back (which I can do when I get this roof stuff from solicitors).
Training:
- Think I'll have a day off today, as my legs are tired.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
house #8
- Nothing happened
Training:
- 20 mins run in the evening. Not a great success, think I'm going to take tomorrow off running to give my body a rest.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
house #7
- Paperwork on roof did not arrive with post. This has now taken 2 and a half weeks to get from seller to me via two sets of solicitors.
- Went to local Halifax branch to fax proof of ID, address, income to Halifax branch in Newcastle
Training:
- Bike to Swansea and back.
Friday, May 19, 2006
house #6
- Phoned solicitor, no answer, left a message
- Phoned agent, no answer.
- Solicitor phoned back. The roof stuff will be in the post to me tonight.
- Solicitor said she has letter from Halifax and has simply replied that the lessee(me) can insure, i.e. avoiding all the rubbish that we went through last time.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
house #5
- Paperwork has arrived from
- Still no sign of paperwork from seller.
- Estate agent phoned me to warn me to hurry up with the purchase of the house, as they are putting new places on the market at a higher price than mine - the implication being that the seller could pull out and try to get a higher price.
- 20 min run at lunch time into a strong wind.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
house #4
- Phoned solicitor to ask if she had any expected paperwork from seller's solicitor. She had not so I asked her to phone them.
- Papers from Halifax that I was expecting with yesterday's post, still haven't arrived.
- Solicitor phoned back to say she has phoned seller's solicitor and apparently the paperwork is 'on the way' to her.
- Walk to the post office and back. Can't see any other action as it's pissing down.
- Run up the stairs 20 times.
- Walk to Clydach and back for a meal in the pub.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
house #3
- Phoned solicitor to inform her that I had spoken to seller and seller said they had left paperwork with their solicitor. Solicitor busy, will phone me back.
- Solicitor phoned me back and informed they had not received anything from seller's solicitor.
- Solicitor promised not to cause so much trouble with new building society
- Run at lunch time. 25 mins
- Bike from Glais to Godregraig and back on NCN 43
- Helping to move a range cooker through a garden, over a fence and in through a window
Monday, May 15, 2006
NCN 47 : celtic trail high level route : Neath -> Pontypridd
Cycled from Neath to Pontypridd on Saturday on the National Cycle Route 47. Plenty of up hill and forestry roads. View supposed to be good, but couldn't see much due to the fog. I cycled right past a wind farm and wouldn't have noticed were it not for the noise (ironically from petrol generators, I think the site is still under construction.) From Pontypridd I cycled to Llanharan. Darren gave me a lift from there to the train station, and I cycled back from Neath to Glais.
(0) comments
house #2
should have started this months ago, as pretty much every day has had some of this:
(1) comments
- Phoned solicitor to ask why she tried to cash my cheque once, let alone three times - resulting in a blocked account and 75 pounds in bank fees. She said it was an error on her part, she will destroy the cheque.
- Solicitor phoned back to tell me that cheque, once given to their bank would keep on being submitted by the bank to my bank until the end of the universe. She could not stop it, could I? Also she said she had spoken to insurer and thinks I can take out a block policy on the building in my own name without affecting downstairs.
- Solicitor also informs me that she still hasn't received the paperwork on the roof that she was expecting from the seller!
- Phoned bank to have cheque stopped (more fees), and they also told me that my account would become usable later today
- Phoned insurance brokers to ask about possibility of me insuring the whole block. They think it unlikely, but will phone Norwich Union and get back to me.
- Insurance brokers phone back and doesn't think it's possible. I try to explain the Tyneside lease to them as I understand it and they don't believe me. I ask them to give me a quote for joint insurance of the whole property.
- Insurance broker phones back with quote for joint policy
- Phone the owner of downstairs and try to explain my position. She already has insurance, so there is no reason for her to change. She will make some enquiries and get back to me.
- Owner phones me back. She didn't get much info from the insurance company. She doesn't think it's possible to get a block policy and wants me to clarify something with the quote I got
- Owner phone me again. She has spoken to the seller's soliciters and now does not see why a block policy is needed, so she is not interested in continuing with this. Advises me to change building society
- Halifax phones back. I ask about Tyneside flats, no problem. I ask about the insurance, no problem. He tells me that he's been doing this for 10 years and never had a problem. I tell him that the local A&L branch would say the same thing, but I still got buggered by the head office. They give me a quote for a mortgage that is about 140UKP more expensive than the A&L one (repayments over the first 2 years). Will have to pay 300UKP valuation fee again. Would proceed with the application, but the man's computer has broken down. He will phone me back.
- Email solicitor to tell her that downstairs will not take out block policy and that I will change to Halifax.
- Tried to phone seller on home number and mobile number to chase up status of guarantee on roof.
- Halifax phoned back. Approved me for mortgage, sending paperwork in the post.
- Tried seller again on home number, get answer machine. Left message asking for her to phone me back.
- Seller phoned back and informed me that her solicitor had the paperwork for the roof. She didn't know why this had not been forwarded to my solicitor.
Friday, May 12, 2006
house
- Solicitor phones to say there is a problem in cashing the cheque I have given them. I tell them of course there is a problem, the money isn't in my current account - I only gave them the cheque to hold on just incase everything went through while I was out of the country. We are nowhere nearer completion that we were 4 months ago, so why do they need to cash the cheque?
- Solicitor also tells me that she is not happy with the lease arrangement (old news) and she has written to tell me this and lay out her concerns again. I tell her 'thanks but no thanks' I understand her concerns, but I do not care. I ask solicitor about problem with building's society and she doesn't know where we are with them, but doesn't think we can get the money from them. I offer to phone building's society
- Check bank statement and find that the cheque has been rejected twice and I have been charged 50 UKP in fees
- Phone head office of building society and try to explain the problem to them. They insist that it has to be a block policy. I tell them I have spoken to regional office and they have never had this problem before, they tell me it has to be block policy. I tell them there are probably 100s of places that do not comply with this, that they own in NE. They tell me it has to be block policy.
- Phone regional office of building society again. They don't understand why am having problems with head office. They will investigate.
- Regional office phone back to say that my solicitor is right all along and that this is a loop hole that everyone normally ignores. They didn't realise themselves that it was a problem. Seems like I have reached a dead end with building society
- Phone solicitor back to discuss options. Discuss possibility of approaching downstairs again about block policy, about starting again with a new building society, I am worried that the same thing will happen again and so suggest that I also change solicitors. I will think about it.
- Phone local branch of Halifax about new mortgage. This is same building society as downstairs are using, so we can use this as an argument over issues with the insurance. They will phone me back on Monday.
