Search the Community

Hi guys, looking for some advice please. I've paid about 12k in aug 2021 deposit and reservation fee for a studio flat in Liverpool. After 5 months waiting on updates I started chasing agents and developers. 3 months later they informed me that the council has rejected the plans due to the Nationally Described Space Standard and is required redesigned of the development. All studio flats had to be converted in 1 beds. The difference between studio flat and 1 bed flat was roughly £60k-80k and they required us to pay more deposit of 38k or pull out and receive all money back in 5 months which is today. I've decided to pull out. 3 weeks ago I've emailed to the solicitor whom I paid the deposit asking for updates. His reply was that he's been chasing with developer also and he received a reply from developer property solicitor saying: "Further in the above matter and below, our client has advised they hope to be in a position to return funds in January 2023." Me, as an investor I have not been updated by the agent or developer regarding the above statement. Today I sent to them an email before action informing them that today is the day of payment and I'm not willing to wait any other minute more. I'm sure they won't pay. If they do not return the money, what are my options, complain to the estate agents ombudsman, start court procedures? Any thoughts or advice gratefully received  Thanks

Hello All, We had invested in a off plan property where the development is running more than two years behind and we have little reason to believe that any work is going on at the site. The structure is in place and some work has been done in constructing the apartments. It also seems that the developer has finished / diverted funds so that they are not honouring the 'right to complete' after the long stop date. We are trying to figure out what exactly happens in a situation like this? My sense is that the developer is going to declare their company bankrupt to get out of any liabilities. does anyone know what follows the bankruptcy process and what happens to this half finished development. And how can they recover all or part of their original investment. thanks in advance.

Dear Hubbers, I am in need of guidance on specialist mortgages and risk - very grateful if you could take 5 mins to look at my 3x questions below. Situation Reserved an offplan city centre flat (reservation paid, no deposit paid, not exchanged contracts). B2L mortgage declined by three separate high street mortgage providers. Only 1 of 3 valuers actually conducted a survey. Reasons for rejection centred on: Development being 'too investor led; not enough owner-occupiers' Ground rent being greater than 0.1% of sales price, and Undisclosed issues with cladding Notes on the development: In 2017 the developer and lead contractor went into administration. New developer and builder brought in with strong track record. Previous developer provided a rent guarantee which turned off many lenders. No rent guarantee is provided by the current developer. Ground rent 0.14% of purchase price Cladding is Alsecco brick slip system Investor to owner occupier ratio is 60:40 Mortgage brokers have advised me: High street lenders have low risk appetite and their valuers are likely to have ruled out this development back in 2017 due to the rent guarantee and also that it is an investor led project. Their evaluations are yet to have been updated. The valuers' feedback is likely relative generic e.g. cladding. Specialist mortgage lenders are likely to consider the development and will charge higher fees (extra c£1,500) and higher interest ( extra c1.4%pa). Individual investors would use a specialist lender if they believed a development was purchased at discount and has strong chance of capital growth - thus they are willing to pay higher mortgage costs in order to realise that discount and growth. Developer / my solicitor unable to provide details of mortgage providers for other investors in the development. I can't help but sense that if I purchase this property I am shooting myself in the foot: I have to pay a lot more for the specialist mortgage; run the risk of having to get another expensive remortgage; and the risk of struggling to sell the property as I'm limited to cash buyers or investors with specialist mortgages. Why would I purchase it and pay more mortgage costs when I could just purchase a resale property in the knowledge that I can get a high street mortgage at lower rate and also have lower risks of remortgage/resale? Both the resale and this offplan property are subject to the same house price growth and rental growth rates of that given area. ...And yet individual investors must be using specialist mortgages and seeing financial success - the property investment firms cannot exist solely on cash buyers. What am I missing? Where do I go from here? 1. Continue with purchase + use specialist mortgage lender + risk remortgage and resale. 2. Cancel purchase + look for another offplan 3. Cancel purchase + buy a resale Questions: 1. What will the mortgage availability be like at remortgage, say after 2 years? I assume I would be limited to the same specialist mortgages as I still have the same constraints: > 0.1% ground rent, high number of investors and cladding. And therefore accept higher interest rates. 2. Is my resale market, in say 5-8 years, much smaller if I have taken a specialist mortgage? I assume, as the same mortgage constraints will stand in 5-8 years, that my only resale market will be investors: cash buyers or investors with specialist mortgages. As a result, I will not be able to demand a higher price for the unit, which seems a pretty illogical exit strategy. 3. Why would I use a specialist mortgage, as an individual investor not under a limited company, if it will cost me more and I run the risk of not getting a remortgage or resale? The only rationale I have for doing this would be if I was confident that the unit was purchased at discount and that it was worth paying higher costs to be able to realise this discount in a future sale. However I'd still have the ground rent and cladding issues - if they are indeed the real issues or just generic issues given. A lot of detail there - thank you for bearing with. Look forward to hearing your advice.

Hi - I have recently secured a plot in Manchester through RMP properties. However, our broker through the developer of the development has been having issues with obtaining mortgage offer from three lenders now due to different issues the surveyors raised regarding the development. Not all make sense but not much we can do as the issues are not to do with us and more based on surveyor's point of view of the development itself. in your opinion, is it worth trying with a fourth lender or do you think with three failed attempts, alarm bells should really be ringing and should just pull out even though will lose some amount of fees and reservation deposit? I am concerned that even if we managed to get an offer with fourth lender, in the future it will be difficult to sell as buyers might have same issues with obtaining mortgage. Anyone has has experience in this? I am first time property investor and this whole process has been very demotivating ...