Advice on house move

I would welcome advice and information please. Although probably better posted to the Plusnet Communities forum I thought I might get some useful advice here.

My daughters are each in the process of purchasing houses in London SE23 (coincidentally in the same road but at opposite ends) and are due to complete their purchases later this month. Both want to go with Plusnet (they are current Plusnet customers, albeit ADSL, in their present shared flat which they will vacate at the end of the month). Both wish to go with Plusnet's 40/20 FTTC product which shouldn't be a problem, one is 200m from the PCP and its FTTC twin and the other even closer, the PCP and FTTC twin being immediately opposite.

Their question isn't one of price but rather procedures regarding their respective moves and timing. One of the properties had an FTTC connection prior to the sale. I/we have no idea as to the identity of the previous phone supplier or ISP at either property. Does this matter?

a) At what point should they contact Plusnet for the provision of a phone line? Can this be done prior to completion and if yes, how soon before?
b) What is the likely timescale for the phone to be connected.
c) What is the likely timescale for the FTTC connection to be enabled 1) for the property where the previous owner had FTTC, and 2) for the property with no previous FTTC connection.
d) Can the FTTC connection be ordered at the same time as the phone? (I believe the answer here is yes.)

Thanks

I'd suggest ordering as soon as contracts are exchanged and to make sure that there is at least two clear weeks between exchange and completion to allow this and other other arrangements needed to be put in place.

Is it definitely FTTC as there is some FTTP around that area also?

In reply to a post by Ribble:

Is it definitely FTTC as there is some FTTP around that area also?

Yes, FTTC for both. My younger daughter missed out on a house nearer to Honor Oak Park station which had FTTP.

Edited by deleted (Wed 03-Sep-14 10:15:35)

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

Don't do anything until completion, if it falls though, which we all know is possible then it's a waste of money. I put a phone line into a property and had to leave 3 days later.

Why leave it until the day you move in (completion) which will almost certainly mean a period with no phone or broadband - probably at least two weeks.

Unless you were using a totally useless solicitor if the deal falls through after exchange of contracts because of the action of another party you will get full costs reimbursed.

I believe only and up until moneys have been transferred is everything complete and only costs associated with the transfer are recoverable.

Anything the buyer does outwith the contract, ordering things for the house, are surely not the responsibility of the seller?

Edited by deleted (Wed 03-Sep-14 19:38:42)

After exchange there are usually fairly strong penalties for failing to complete on the given day (failure by either buyer or seller). Exceptional circumstances such as death might override those. Before exchange you should assume nothing.

But it sounds as if pcoventry76 has had some pretty bad recent experiences, so maybe he knows the realities of things better than I do.

You are correct.

I moved just over a year ago and our solicitor made it very clear about the penalties of failing to complete on the agreed date once contracts had been exchanged.

My guess is that (like may people do) pcoventry76 cheap-skated and used a conveyancing firm. I made that mistake once in the past - they were useless and we suffered a loss (thankfully not very big) as a consequence. Also the vendor for our recent purchase used a conveyancing firm which delayed the process unnecessarily by about a month - our solicitor had to do a lot of extra chasing.

There is a reason why conveyancing firms are cheaper than solicitors!

Edited by jelv (Wed 03-Sep-14 21:21:53)

And exactly what were the penalties?

If the buyer fails to complete ... http://blog.aboutconveyancing.com/2009/12/purchase-c...
A typical contract will have something like ...
If the Buyer fails to complete at the end of the Notice period, he forfeits the deposit of 10% of the purchase price. If the deposit paid on exchange was less than 10% the Seller is entitled to pursue the Buyer for the shortfall. The Seller may also sue the Buyer for breach of contract and damages.

As I mentioned above, there are no penalties (in England) for pulling out before exchange. Things are sometimes rushed so that exchange and completion are (almost) at the same time.

These are apparently from The Standard Conditions of Sale, so I would expect any contract to include it whether drawn up by solicitor of some semi-professional conveyancer. Quite a substantial penalty, especially around here where you are lucky to get a cheap house for £200,000, so penalty is £20,000.

Edited by StephenTodd (Thu 04-Sep-14 14:51:07)

Quite a substantial penalty, especially around here where you are lucky to get a cheap house for £200,000, so penalty is £20,000.

And in London SE23 upwards of £500K, quite a lot up. So against a minimum £50K plus costs the loss of any pre-payment to PN pales into insignificance.

Pretty standard.

But what about claiming damages for pre-ordering telephony services or measuring for curtains and having them made? I doubt you could claim for those.

I suggest that the identification of the suppliers of all services, eg phone, broadband, electricity, gas etc, should be included in the Conditions of Sale; and if possible, checked by the buyer whilst viewing the property.

Too late apparently for your daughters, unfortunately.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Pretty standard.

But what about claiming damages for pre-ordering telephony services or measuring for curtains and having them made? I doubt you could claim for those.

As said above: "the loss of any pre-payment to PN pales into insignificance".

Also, the penalties I quoted were for failure to comply with the contract by the buyer. It seems things are much more complicated when the seller reneges.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t... (55 page thread)

Post deleted by zrerz

In reply to a post by eckiedoo:

I suggest that the identification of the suppliers of all services, eg phone, broadband, electricity, gas etc, should be included in the Conditions of Sale; and if possible, checked by the buyer whilst viewing the property.

Too late apparently for your daughters, unfortunately.

What exactly would that achieve? They know which suppliers they intend using for their services and all are different from those
used by the vendors with the exception of council tax and water/sewerage where there is no choice. Incidentally such details would normally not be included in the Conditions of Sale but rather in the enquiries before contract if thought to be relevant.

As an example, in one of the properties the vendor used BT and had FTTC, my daughter will be going with Plusnet so other than confirming that the property is connected to an FTTC enabled cabinet this means little since the connection will have been terminated when she completed her purchase. As to the other property, the landline has already been terminated and only ever had an ADSL connection despite being <25m from its PCP and its FTTC twin.

Morning

I should have enlarged my original comment to make it clear that I meant the existing suppliers to the Sellers, so that your daughters knew whom to contact if problems arose, during and after their purchases.

One of my daughters carries out house conveyancing and also my reading of queries to newspapers etc have made me aware that problems in that area arise quite frequently, so being aware of which companies are supplying the existing services to the sellers would possibly speed up the transfers.

Edited by deleted (Mon 08-Sep-14 06:44:20)