Common pitfalls when buying a property and how to avoid them.
The past year has seen a boom in property sales powered by the global Coronavirus pandemic. With many people being forced to work from home, properties that provide space to accommodate working from home and family life are at a premium. In the fast-moving property market, it’s important to act quickly to secure your dream home, but in doing so you need to avoid a few common pitfalls. So, let’s dive in and look at some of the common pitfalls that buyers fall into and how to avoid them.
1. Failing to complete essential searches.
While it can be tempting to save a little bit of money and time and skip some searches, this could be a false economy as searches are designed to help highlight potential unseen risks of a property purchase. The three main searches that should always be carried out when buying a house include: local authority searches, environmental searches, and water and drainage searches.
With some searches taking months to complete, buyers can be tempted to forgo searches to speed up the conveyancing process, but this could result in problems such as:
- Having a house that is difficult or impossible to insure.
- Paying too much for your property
- Having a house that is hard to sell in the future.
Your conveyancing solicitor will be able to advise you which searches are essential as well as providing advice on additional searches that may be worth carrying out.
2. Not checking work has been signed off.
From extensions and loft conversions to new electrics and gas combi boilers, you need to be sure that any work carried out on the property was done properly. For properties that have been extended you should check that the relevant planning permission was obtained and that the work was certified by building regulations. Failure to check these things could result in potential headaches down the line and even the need to apply for retrospective planning permission or to have remedial work done to bring the building up to specification.
3. Misunderstanding restrictions and clauses
There can be a range of restrictions and clauses that are set out in the deeds of your property and failing to understand the implications could prevent you from making future changes to the property. From restrictive covenants that set out restrictions for the way that you can use your building or land to ground rent clauses for leasehold properties, failure to do due diligence can result in future complications.
4. Parking restrictions
Are there any local parking restrictions in place that could affect your ability to park near your house? While many houses in the countryside have off-road parking, homeowners in towns and cities are generally not so fortunate. On street parking may seem fine, but daytime parking restrictions or permits could make it difficult to park near your home during peak times.
With the help of a professional conveyancing solicitor you can avoid these pitfalls and many more and look forward to settling into your new home.
