Owning your own home

Thats fifty over the asking.

Someone round there is driving the prices up scarily.

Well, that's at least one of them out of the way...

And a rich one, too... Far easier next time.

The first place we went for we got closed bids, we were second but the other guys were thousands over asking, I thought it was the end of the world. A couple of months later we found a lovely house which we absolutely love and would choose over the first place everyday of the week. There is a place out there for you. Good luck.

This happens. I eventually offered forty over asking for my place, just make sure I got it, as I was already pissing £18k a year on rent for my girlfriend and I, and things were dragging on.

Stick in there.

I did the same last year. We bought at pretty much the wrong time. Every flat we viewed was an open house with around 50 viewings over the weekend. Offers in on Monday morning, best and finals eop monday and then you'd know if you'd got it tuesday morning. We offered on 8 places and were outbid on 7. Often by 10s of thousands and often by cash buyers. Our first offer was 5k over asking. We were then consistently 30k over asking and the flat we are in now 45k over asking just to get it done. Things were shooting up by a grand week and it was getting stupid!
Spring is the time when more stock comes on the market so hang in there and something will come up. It's a horrible and stressful process but it's worth being patient.

I'm so glad we bought a shithole at the wrong time!

There had already been a cash buyer who had pulled out when he had another look at it, and or estate agents told us when the vendor had another offer, then when we offered more, said 'you don't need to offer that much, put in £5k less and we'll put in a good word'.

We traded the stress of that for renovation nightmares - and here we are 7 months after putting the offer in waiting to have a kitchen.

I may have mentioned this before, but we showered in a toddlers' paddling pool using a tap-hose-shower attachment for three months. No idea how I did that.

HALP, PLS!

We had a leak which we fixed as soon as we were made aware, but appears to have caused extensive paint damage downstairs (I am dubious). Our insurance says they need to claim off their own insurance for repairs to paint and plaster.

Are we liable? I don't want to stump up to fix what they're claiming is caused by a leak from us because I think they're exaggerating it.

They are tenants but I don't know if they are private tenants or council tenants.

We have building insurance as paid in our fees to Hackney Homes and separate contents cover/

I am confused.

Have you seen the damage? If they are refusing to let you see then it sounds dodgy. Also, do all dealings with the landlord not the tenants.

This.

I have seen it, considering the leak was a drip from one pipe, the damage they're showing is 2 walls of the bathroom, one wall of the toilet, one wall of the airing cupboard, ceilings in each, and one ruined light fitting.

This would suggest that if it was caused by the one leak, it had been leaking for a very long time and they said nothing.

Buildings are usually insured as a whole and paid for in your service charge. Is that what you pay Hackney Homes for? If so then the downstairs flat will do the same, so it's the same insurance policy... And if they're tenants it will be the landlord that pays the buildings insurance so it will be down to them to discuss with you, not the tenant.

Sweet, I'll get this guy to contact his landlord and get them to contact me.

Even if it is your fault, the landlord claims via their own insurance company who then reimburse themselves from your insurance company.

This would suggest that if it was caused by the one leak, it had been leaking for a very long time and they said nothing.

It may still be possible that they knew nothing about it. Unlikely but...

Our bathroom was wrecked by a leak from the flat above. One drop every 5 seconds or so onto carpet behind their toilet (so very hard to spot) but over time it filled up the void between their floor and our ceiling (spanning our bathroom and separate toilet) until it reached a point where 200+ litres came through our bathroom ceiling in one go.

In the end we didn't bother with an insurance claim as we were planning on redoing our bathroom anyway and the repair cost would have been dwarfed by the refurbishment cost and it was better to continue to be able to say "no we haven't made an insurance claim in the last X years" rather than get a bit of cash to contribute to fixing it.

Whether or not you want to get insurance companies involved depends what the cost of putting it right will be. We had a leak during some work which stained the ceiling and wall in the flat below. Cost to redecorate was ~£500; insurance excess was £350. Absolutely no point in claiming so we just paid her decorator ourselves.

@well_is_it

sorry to hear about your troubles mate. but like others said there will be a place out there for you even if you are currently mourning that place you missed out on. don't even think about going into more debt i.e. credit cards etc to afford somewhere, thats just madness.

you going to share the link then? i'm sure a few here would be interested in seeing what place someone is bidding 50k over asking for.

Spoke to Mrs Neighbour last night. It seems that they are, in principle, happy with us doing the extension work, and happy, in principle, to agree the party wall bits.

Now to talk to the bank, architect, etc again, to start moving things forward!

Cheers, yeah - we've already got some other potentials that are under budget.

I think the link has been taken down but it was on Cornwallis Road.

Rang the "Sales Progressor"at the estate agents this morning at 10:14 as had not had any response for a fortnight. She said she had a message to call the other agent (through whom our vendors are buying) and would call me back after she had spoken to them, which she would do immediately. It's now 14:10, has she called me back? Has she fuck.

Repeat this as nauseum to get a view of the last 10 months of my house purchase fiasco.

Sales progressors : are you using HAART?

Nope

@Dammit and anyone else who has used Worktop Express - would you recommend? Their price for our worktops is coming up about £200 cheaper than the kitchen supplier's.