Owning your own home

Even the simplest thing can be fucked up by conveyancing solicitors.

I bought a share in a flat from my brother (the other half of the flat was owned by my other brother). Brothers 1 & 2 -> Brothers 1 & 3.

We used solicitors at the same firm to make everything simple. Couldn't have been easier. Needed simple and quick conveyancing, legal minimum on searches/etc, and a declaration of trust. You'd think they wouldn't be able to fuck that up.

My brother's solicitor went on holiday for two weeks and gave all her work to someone else. No problem we thought, except that after a week or so of hassling for updates we find that she'd given the work to my solicitor, so she (my solicitor) couldn't work on it at all due to conflict.

Our solicitor was "A B" at firm "X&Y". Another two weeks were lost due to the mortgage company faxing through some important paperwork for "A B" to "A X" which just happened to be the name of the daughter of the X of "X&Y" and did do some stuff for them on and off. So the paperwork was duly placed in her pigeon-hole for no-one to see, every time they faxed it through. If I remember correctly the mortgage company and the solicitors office were actually just hundreds of yards away from each other, just to highlight the stupidity of the delay.

They then tried to claim some stupid amount for postage between solicitors (one of their standard charges they add to any conveyancing bill), despite the two solicitors sitting 10 yards apart.

Oh, and they told me stamp duty wouldn't be payable, then presented a final bill with it on (luckily I'd assumed it must be payable and had the money ready).

Bah. Thank fuck that's in the past.

after 20 years of siting on other peoples shitters, it's amazing to finally be able to build your own. all yours, to how you want it.

priceless (well not really but..)

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the tiling is all wonky

(i got in there before anyone else)

haha only kidding that looks great and well done

one doesn't simply get 100% perfect tiling on houses older than this century, something i had to learn quickly. bloody door frames are in worse condition, but hey we wanted character :)

We had this too - only not our solicitor but theirs. Why are they allowed holidays?

Also the 'quick sale' lark - took about 3 fucking months despite having cash ready.

Also the 'quick sale' lark - took about 3 fucking months despite having cash ready.

One day I'm going to own a bar and treat customers purely based on their profession.

Any conveyancing solicitor looking for a quick pint is going to be sorely disappointed.

Looks great!

I like that the mirror matches the cistern brackets. Good attention to detail!

Great looking shower, is it screened or wet room?

Thanks tommmmmm. It's not a wet room, 1400mm glass is due tomorrow, was supposed to be last week, alas. It's walk-in still

Spent the day sanding, in homeage to Richard Sachs.

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Nice work! You did it all yourself?

My shared ownership landlord has thrown a big spanner in the works with regards to me selling my flat. Basically they have unilaterally removed the option for me to staircase to 100% and sell the whole flat in one transaction until they have exercised their option to spend 8 weeks trying to find someone who qualifies for social housing but also somehow has a quarter of a million quid to spend. Which isn't going to fucking happen is it?

It looks like therefore I need to staircase and then buy the other half to own the flat outright. Does our forum-recommended solicitor do staircasing? Can someone recommend one that does?
I'm also going to need financial advice because I'll need a mortgage that I will then need to redeem early without incurring huge fees.

Shared ownership is a fucking con. Don't do it. It's nothing more than a 99 year assured tenancy with a huge downpayment on an option to buy the property. You pay rent on the half you don't own but are responsible for 100% of the maintenance, service charge and management fees, and then they fuck you over in every direction when you want to sell.

Awwwwwww JEAH...

God, that's awesome.

It was a rat infested, damp shithole 8 weeks ago...

Can I come over and nap on your rug?

Of course you can babe...
Do you malt?

Yeah tres bloody bon that.

It'll be a toy strewn mess this time next year, with a guard in front of the wood burner.

We have got a cage for it to go in until the age of 18...

Sadly I have begun to malt from some parts of my head, yes.

Photoshop. The horizontal line in the cutout is too straight.

This is tilegate all over again.

what an entirely unhelpful comment.

None of this was apparent in 1998 when I bought the place.

Well if you bought it in 1998 you've probably made 100k in equity or whatever its called, which is 100k you wouldn't of had if you hadn't bought shared ownership. Doesn't sound much of a con to me... (although I know nothing about these sort of things really).