In This Guide
Apply for a mortgage
Buying at auction
Buying in Scotland
Conveyancing
Find and view
Negotiate
Plan your purchase
Success and failure
1. Successful purchase
2. Don't forget
3. What is gazumping
4. Consequences of gazumping
5. Preventing gazumping
Surveys and valuations
To buy or not to buy
Success and failure
Don't forget
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Exchanging contracts can sometimes have a profound effect on a homebuyer. The sheer relief of crossing perhaps the most significant home buying milestone can lead to a feeling that it's time to relax, sit back and savour the remaining days in your current home. Not that it will be at all possible, given the mayhem that is likely to be going on around you. It is not going to be very easy to get peace and quiet with packing, cleaning, moving and a million and one other things still to be done.
Amongst those other things that are outstanding are a few financial affairs that you should make sure you get in order:
Some lenders will insist on the presence of a life assurance policy
before they will lend you money and endowment
mortgages have an element of life assurance built into them.
If you share the responsibility for repaying your mortgage with
your partner, or have family that are dependent on your income,
then it is something that you should be thinking about. You may
already have a policy, but you should check to make sure that
it is still appropriate. If you arranged it at the time of a previous
property purchase, it may no longer provide enough to cover your
mortgage if something happens to you.
Your new household
insurance policy should be arranged on the same day as you
exchange contracts. If anything happens to the property you are
buying after you exchange but before you complete, you can find
yourself liable. Many people do not realise this and fail to get
the appropriate insurance. Another reason to sort this out early
is to make sure that your possessions are covered in transit.
No matter how careful you are, you can guarantee something will
get broken or lost during your move. It's a lottery when it comes
to the identity of the item(s) in question, but you'll be kicking
yourself if it is something valuable and you later find it wasn't
covered by your policy. Read
more about household insurance.
People get very blasé about money when they have plenty of it.
When it dries up for one reason or another, financial affairs
take on altogether different appearance. You may not feel that
you need to worry about this, and some people probably don't,
but be aware that circumstances can change suddenly and if you
are not sure if you could get by, it may be worth considering
some of the options open to you. For
further information click here.
You can find websites for the providers of these - and many more - financial products in SiteFinder.
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