If you have ever been made or made yourself bankrupt and you are considering buying a property either now or in the future you should obtain a Certificate of Discharge. Banks and Building Societies will want to see a copy of this and also a letter from the Official Receiver stating that they have no further interest in your assets. These take a few weeks to come through and hold up the processing of your mortgage application form. This could result in you loosing the property if there are other people also interested in it and can obtain a mortgage more quickly.
For details of The Insolvency Service leaflet on When will my bankruptcy end? and other information click here
Financial Advice - Bankruptcy •
I have made an offer on a property and have applied for a mortgage. Part of the mortgage agreement is that a survey is carried out on the property. The basic valuation survey was £250. To have a homeview survey which goes into more detail cost £450. I decided to go for the Homeview and asked the Building Society to go ahead. I believed that I would be notified of the date and time of the survey.
I rang the vendor for something totally unrelated to the survey and was told that the survey had been carried out that morning. The vendor was very unhappy about the way that the survey had been carried out.
I had instructed the Building Society on Wednesday, the Surveyor had contacted the Vendor late on Thursday saying he wanted to inspect on Friday morning. As the Vendors work and were unable to change work arrangements with so little notice and not wanting to hold up the process they told the Surveyor that the estate agent had a key.
The Surveyor called into the Estate Agent on Friday morning and as they were busy and could not spare anyone they gave the key to the Surveyor.
The Vendor feels that her home has been violated as a stranger has been in there with no-one to see what he was up to. I had areas of the property that I wanted the Surveyor to look at for me and give me an opinion as to whether work would need to be carried out and whether it might be structural or cosmetic.
I have spoken to the building society both their helpdesk and Customer Complaints departments and both have said this should not have happened and in the very least the Surveyor should have notified me that he was carrying out the survey and the date and time.