Owning your own home

Baring Hall Hotel. Definitely CB's potential local, dunno about the rest of you.

This in buckets

This place is seriously cool

It is important to note that the quality of the pub is not necessarily indicative of the quality of the surrounding area ;)

Anyone got experience/very rough idea of costs for replacing old metal framed single glazed windows for UPVC?

£thousands. Depends if it needs scaffolding or not. Leasholders in our block were charged in the region of £12k some ten years ago, but I expect they paid the CityWest tax.

Aware it would be thousands, just wondering if there is a vague estimate per average sized window. Is it possible to do it in stages? IE living room (including French doors) and master bedroom to start with then at a later date do the rest?

the problem with deviating from building regs is when building control come to sign-off, or if non-notified, when a pre-sale survey is carried out by a good surveyor. at best a negotiated reduction in sale price, at worst a building control order to rectify

This just happened.
They took down a wall and now building control have come to sign off and bah-bow.
Not compliant with building regulations due to top floors not having a means of escape
from fire.

From agent: Please note the vendor has informed me he would not take on any costs to do any work.

FARKING ELLE!
Time to get negotiating.

Any recommendations Forum?

Need a bit of advice... And please word any replies as if you are addressing a slightly slow child.

I'm retuning to England soon and my fixed rate mortgage will have run its course, I will need a new one right? Only problem is I have no job and don't really plan on getting a perm one again- so I'll be freelance with a 6 month gap in earnings (between quitting my last job and coming back). I also want to borrow more money to get a bigger place (and the moon on a stick). My flat is worth X, which I borrowed 3/4 to buy which was 4 x my sallary I think. It's now "worth" X x 1.8 so I only owe 1/2 new X. I would like to borrow pretty much the exact amount of money that the flat has increased in value by.
So, if that makes sense, at all, anyone done anything similar? I'm thinking I might have to stick with my current mortgage people and just lie about work- say I have a job earning more than I do?
Repayments won't really be an issue whatever, it's just bloody convincing mortgage folks they won't. Yet to miss a payment in 5 years.

Find a specialist broker. I'd suggest it'll be hard to convince someone to lend it to you without being able to show your earnings. Will you be renting out the flat or living in it?

@rodabod and @6pt

if the brickwork cleanerupper is any good i'll pass on their details

Cheers!

Your mortgage will continue, but at a different rate. You don't have to do anything. The new rate should be detailed somewhere in your mortgage details.

We lucked in when our fixed rate ended, the new rate was 2% above Bank of England base rate, which has been 0.5% ever since.

Douchebaggery has begun; the property agents pushing to use their property lawyers versus 1st property 'because they are not good'. Any ring of truth to that? Their lawyers cost twice as much.

I have 3 people at work who highly recommend 1st property for the ease, speed and price.

Get quotes to rectify, reduce offer by quote.

Any ring of truth to that?

Probably not. You knew that anyway :)

Yeah. Argh! Any builders on here wanna talk to me about a quote?!

I call bollocks.

Someone is looking for a referral fee.

I'm in my new flat. Smaller than I remember...

Who do they make bedrooms big enough for a double bed but no other furniture?

Both bedrooms are the same size.

Just bat through and pay the mortgage on the post fixed rate.
It sounds like getting a new mortgage will be more than a faff...

Check what your new rate is though, because there is a chance your payments will be up by 2 or 3% of the borrowed rate.

I'm retuning to England soon and my fixed rate mortgage will have run its course, I will need a new one right? Only problem is I have no job and don't really plan on getting a perm one again- so I'll be freelance with a 6 month gap in earnings (between quitting my last job and coming back).

This is not a problem - you can probably remortgage with your current lender without them doing any checks on you. And as Andy says, if you do nothing you'll just pay more, maybe, each month.

I also want to borrow more money to get a bigger place (and the moon on a stick).

Slightly more of a problem if you don't have a job and can't show earnings easily.

My flat is worth X, which I borrowed 3/4 to buy which was 4 x my sallary I think. It's now "worth" X x 1.8 so I only owe 1/2 new X. I would like to borrow pretty much the exact amount of money that the flat has increased in value by.

If you mean you need to borrow roughly the amount your place has increased in value by, it might be possible to 'release' the increase in value in cash by remortgaging the place with your current lender or another. I think this is called an advance. It has tax implications, mind. Is this what you were planning on doing? You might be able to do this with your current lender without them doing deep checks on you. Or maybe not. Ask them. Assuming you want to keep both properties?

Hmm, you may just have to suck it up and carry on paying the new rate - as a freelancer they'll need a year's accounts at the very least to offer you a new mortgage, I suspect. I had a variation of your situation recently - 2yr fixed ended, but was now working as an LTD instead of a sole trader, so only had a year of accounts. Broker said the best I could do was get a new 2/4 year fixed with the same lender. Which wasn't the end of the world -think I'm on 1.99% now, vs the 3.98% I was bunged on to when the 2 year fixed ended.

In on the actual date they say. Congrats!

As for size; in our flat, everything (literally everything) has to have storage capacity.

Bed - drawers underneath
Sofa - ottoman and sofabed
Desk - compartment for cables / power & mac mini
Coffe Table - pallet with drawers in

etc etc etc

Good luck.

Cheers everyone, sounds like solid advice all round. The advance thing sounds like what I want to do, but not to keep both properties, would sell current and hopefully find a new one with the extra money. If at all doable. I'll get chatting to my current mortgage provider upon my return. Thanks again all!

Still technically Walthamstow and Walthamstow technically RULES