Owning your own home

fresh air and crossed fingers? it was cheaper than installing proper brackets and a lintel and I like taking a gamble

Put some skyhooks in!

Or air brackets.
Both would be suitbale in this situation....

we found our place in the end by finding human estate agents

I call shenanigans

really? it might be an issue if you come to sell.

why would it be an issue - its all be done properly in line with building regs etc

Carpet fitter anyone? Just want to do one room, going to do the underlay myself.

the vendor can actually take out an indemnity policy and give that to the buyer. that's what happened to me. did a bodge job like princeperch and i bought it 'warts and all'

The indemnity only protects you from building control, it's not insurance against structural failure.

true, but if the chimney has been removed for some time (and initially wasn't done with building regs approval) i'm sure its fair to assume that it won't just randomly collapse....will it?

That's like building your house near areas of historic mining activity, it's fair to assume that they won't randomly vanish down a big hole.

Best to make sure the work is structurally sound at some point.

Who's on the approved list of friendly mortgage brokers?

A friend is looking to extend an existing mortgage from 25% LTV (at 1.5ish%) to 45% LTV (at 2ish%), but the existing mortgage provider has only offered 35% LTV at 3%

Or are there any budding IFA's with alternate ideas of how to raise a lump of collateralised long-term debt

My Dad is an IFA with all the exams and letters after his name.
He's helped a few from this thread negotiate various stages of mortgages and investment etc.

plus one; had a nice chat with him.

I used a guy from check a trade to do our stairs last week in a rush to get it on the market, he was a bit meh. Boot marks up the freshly painted walls that I had to touch up but he did it quick - DM Flooring was the name.

It's true, but I think they are quite unique.

On the subject of chimneys, our builders found the main chimney breasts had been taken out and that the stack was being supported by a shelf and two strong-looking shelf brackets.

Then they took the ceiling out of the extension and found the chimneys there had been held up by rotten wood and rust nails nailed into brick - which they pulled out by hand once they'd removed the chimneys.

I don't think they're worth the risk. If there's any kind of chance of tonnes of brickwork crashing down on your bed/kitchen then I'd recommend removing it.

Looking at Bramley on the Kirkstall/North side of Bramley Park at the moment. Somewhere on a happy medium of the canal towpath and the station. I work in the city centre but have lots of friends in Bradford.

If the remaining chimney breast is unsupported it's going to come down at some point - might be long enough to become someone else's problem, of course, but a surveyor should spot it and then it'll be a point used to negotiate the price as the new buyer will likely want to get it fixed as part of the purchase.

^zackly

In the end I think he was away when we needed to move on our mortgage, but we had a v helpful chat, and I would definitely recommend WJPrince Snr - we will be remortgaging through him eventually!

Thanks - I'll PM for contact details, of that's ok

You must be kidding but it's not helpful to others. If you're not kidding then you need to get a structural engineer to look at that and advise asap.

Our offer was rejected, I am disappoint.
I need someone to blame, I might go take a poop on the slimey agents desk.

... but I'll give it a couple of weeks just in case.

#cantletgo

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/11467864/Its-the-worlds-biggest-house-for-sale-and-its-top-secret.html

it's lonely at the top

I'm slightly surprised that anyone would think that a responsible person would take a chimney down without supporting it.