Owning your own home

Had our own mini house warming

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1 Attachment

Awesome. Did BBQ today. Was good.

Did the guy in Lycra stay in it all day?

Who lives in the little cage?

He did, and the cage is occupied by a red-rumped parakeet called Mimi. She's the green blob by the yellow water feeder on the left.

Oh I can just about make her out.
Hello Mimi!

What have people paid to have a single lock in a upvc door changed before?

Just in the process of re-bitchass-mortgaging, managed to knock a QUARTER of the price off our monthly payments, that is going to be massive when it kicks in

Have you considered reducing the term (years) rather than reducing the monthly costs? Over the life of the mortgage, you could save serious £££.

We're just waiting for our final paperwork but we're reducing the term by 5 years, and the rate by 50%.

5 year fixed (20 year term) @ 2.19%. We save ~£40k over the life of the mortgage (assuming we don't change again in 5 years)

Assuming you have the keys for the current lock (as in you haven't locked yourself out) it's a really easy job. You most probably have a euro cylinder lock which will be held in with a single screw. It's literally a 5 minute job. Just make sure you get the correct length cylinder.

We did a variation on this theme - kept the term as it was, dropped the interest rate significantly, then kept the payment the same, effectively over-paying every month.

The advantage of this is that the overpayment gets taken off the capital, whilst the standard payment goes toward the interest (mainly, at first), and it drops the term exactly as in Souls example but without being committed to it, so we could change the repayment amount to the actual figure if we needed to at some point (as unlikely as that is).

Briefly, but we need to take a relatively short term view with maternity leave to cover and debts to pay. We will reduce the term of the mortgage down the line, and there's possible inheritance in the long term.

Carpe diem!

I own 2/3rds of a freehold.
The couple in the downstairs flat own the remaining 1/3rd.

In order to complete our sale my solicitor has come back to me with two ID1 forms.
One form needs to be filled out by each of downstairs freeholders, then they both need to present at their solicitors with their passport and spare passport photo's to have the doc verified and stamped.
They will be charged for this and we pick up the tab.

I am assured this is standard Land Registry anti-money laundering process, but it seems a bit on top.
I'm also wary of the fact that we weren't asked to do this when downstairs went through a sale/purchase.

Any experiences on this...?

The "probably" and "just make sure" parts of your response are exactly why I'm getting someone in who will get rid of those and provide a guarantee. Anyone else used a locksmith and can compare costs?

Ground rent situation has been sorted. Hopefully we'll complete this century.

Does your lock look like this?

Do you have access to one of these?

Have you been quoted a particular price? I wouldn't be surprised if it is in the region of £125-150. £50-60 call out, £50-60 for time on site, rest parts.

I reckon its a job you could do yourself......

http://youtu.be/udgnrM11fX8

£20 quid for the new lock.

I've literally just done this very thing today. If you have a screwdriver and the keys then it's a five minute job + going to the shop to get a £6.50 replacement. They're designed for easy swapping.

Where do you live? I'll do it for a tenner.

£20 quid for the new lock.

£20? Only if it's gold plated.

ding ding ding, give that man a banana!

I had a nose last night and there are two little push buttons that detach the seat, under there two silver covers and under there the heads of two flat head screws...

£5 for a mole wrench to open it again

Our first mortgage payment went out today.
This shits real!