Owning your own home

Yeah, I think ours is a bit more than that but I have a lot of elec stuff.
£70/month during December up from £50 in Oct or Nov.

I moved supplier recently though and bought an electric heater for the bedroom because we'd removed a storage heater from there last year maybe and the windows were condensing too much. I might try dropping the thermostat on it - I think it's set to 17degC at the moment.
Also might try and add some more insulation to our hot water pipes and there's probably some other stuff I can try. Maybe drop the temp in the underflow heating in the lounge too.

We don't heat the bedroom/office/hallway. Just have the underfloor heating in the bathroom and kitchen on for a bit in the morning and a bit in the evening, then whack on one of the wall heaters in the living room while we're in there. Works fine. Not a big flat, and quite new and well insulated.

Less talk more pics!

As others have said, pushing down the price at the moment could be a struggle.

I think it depends on the circumstances. We got £10,000 knocked off the price after the bank valuer said the flat was worth £20,000 less than we had offered. I think their valuation was plucked out of thin air as there hadn't been many sales on the estate recently. The estate agent had a long meeting with the vendors and explained our situation to them. We would have walked away if we hadn't got a reduction.

We have just completed the purchase today after four months of (unrelated) legal complications.

Ah, you're right! And I'm a parent too, apparently...

I think the bank valuer is a different issue though. Effectively it's limiting the mortgage and the amount that people are going to pay.

Trying to knock off £10k because the windows are knackered, boiler will need replacing soon, etc is a bit more difficult. Although if you're far enough along it may happen rather than starting it all again.

I think the bank valuer is a different issue though. Effectively it's limiting the mortgage and the amount that people are going to pay.

Yes, I guess you are right. In our case the bank would still have lent because we were putting down approx. 50% in cash, but we didn't feel comfortable going ahead without some kind of reduction.

Keep faith and keep trying. Ours looked like this and then it happened. Fingers crossed for you.

We managed to knock a decent percentage off the property but it's pretty stressful. We left it till quite late on and the vendor had already agreed when they were to exchange on the next property. I'd taken insurance out against everything if it all went south but the increase in property value would've meant it was still a huge cost - i.e 5 months of negotiations and house prices rising by £1k per week (Leyton) would mean you'd need a £20k reduction in price.
They'd also lived at the property for a long time so had a decent amount of equity and so felt more able to move on price to get things going.

We'd also gone well over the listed price, so were aiming to bring it back down.

Last ditch attempt for clarity/some concrete answers is going to the council to get categorical answers on the planning permission status.

The work may have been done under permitted development legislation which doesn't require planning permission. The risk is that the work doesn't comply with PD rules. A council would most likely request that a planning application is then made for a lawful development certificate.

When was the work done though? There are time limits on when councils can take enforcement action.

I'd definitely want to see building regs approval though.

I'm in a similar situation, seller doesn't open letter for a few weeks until the estate agent physically opens the letters for him and makes him sign them.

Completely useless, considering the first buyer dropped out because no progress was made within two months, I have been waiting for 5 months and still don't have a completion date.

Couldn't get hold of my solicitor for a few days, after ringing the main reception desk today it seems out shes on holiday until the 8th. Thanks for letting me know......

The only thing that's making me continue with the process is that it was cheapest flat in the area, (7 months ago when the first offer was accepted). If was put on the market today would be on for an increased asking price that I could not afford.

There is building reg approval but (from what I understand) it's not completely clear about what work is included.

At some point in time there's been a conversion to flats (it's a victorian building), renovation of the flats, new windows, and planning permission for a new build (construction due to start soon) in what's currently a back yard area. There are conditions on the planning for the new build that are related to the flat conversions (one of which I am buying) but it's not clear if these have been met. It's now not even clear if it has proper residential usage.

The whole situation is pretty confusing as there are multiple planning applications (some approved, some denied) with various conditions on them.

My overall feeling is that the seller is a property developer with dubious credentials/working practices and retrospectively I'd probably have avoided the place but at this point I'll take it assuming it's not illegal/a total disaster. I'm feeling pretty out of my depth with it all and am just going on what my solicitor is saying. She seems to be putting in a lot of time though and I trust that if she says we need more clarification/evidence of things we probably do.

Flipping heck
For the price of a 2 bed garden in zone two you could get this................
http://auctioneertemplates.eigroup.co.uk/LotDetails.aspx?LotID=810078&a=5&c=brn

We didn't heat the bedroom but our heavy breathing was causing so much condensation to form that below the window had to be painted. Heat it up a bit and the condensation is no longer a problem. I could probably reduce its use if I closed the bedroom door but then less fresh air.

We run the underfloor in the lounge all the time - but again thermostat on 15-18C and it gets lots of sun warmth.

Heated towel rail in bathroom is on all the time (can't see a thermostat for it so no idea what temp it's at).

Our hot water is now a small unit, much like an elec shower. This probably chews juice but I don't use hot water.

Hmm, it's probably just jacked up because of the heating being on now.

Not sure about the state of insulation.

That's why I sometimes think of moving back up North. 6,000 sq ft house plus triple garage for under £600k http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/38160364?search_identifier=78edf5bc7380050be2cfe9d05b00e4ef

If I apply the same logic I'll get a much smaller place in Mumbai than here for the same money.

Thanks for the surveyor tips.

Don't know if this is a bit more left field, but does anyone know how lenders constitute "having lived abroad".

I take it to mean 1) no UK address and 2) a non-UK address.

So if I've been off galvanting for a year but kept a registered UK address and never had a fixed non-UK address then that should be fine.

If I've been living in my flat in Marbella and have just popped back. Different story.

Or am I wrong?

@hippy Your towel rail is on all the time? That's a towel inferno waiting to happen. U mad bro?

That place in Lancashire is mad. It's do-able as a cycling commute to Manchester, too. Want.

Or Norwich. Always Norwich.

Yeah go on then...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55594103.html

It's designed to be left on all the time. It doesn't have a switch.

Bro do u even thermostat?

Sent this to a neighbour who was asking about damp control measures the other day. Thought some peeps on here might find it useful:

The main problem is that the building wasn’t designed for double
glazing and now that everyone has it, there is no proper ventilation.
This means moisture from showers, drying laundry and cooking stays in
the flats. Then because the external walls don’t have a cavity that we
can insulate it means when it’s cold outside, the inside of the
exterior walls get cold to the touch. This in turn means when the
heating comes on, the warm damp air in the flat will condense into
water droplets on the cold walls. We looked into getting the
building insulated and had lots of surveys done but for a variety of
reasons, it’s just not possible. So it’s really down to individuals to
do what they can in their flats. We’ve done a whole raft of things to
try and get it under control and seem to be finally winning the battle
after two very damp and mouldy winters. These are all the things we’ve
done:

• Bought a dehumidifier which stays on pretty much full time from autumn to spring
  
• Stopped drying clothes in the flat and bought a little tumble dryer which sits in the porch and vents out the front door.
  Stuff that can’t be tumble dried gets hung up outside or by a window
  with the heating on
  
• Fitted a new bathroom extractor fan with a humidistat (which switches on automatically when it detects moisture)
  
• Fitted a heated towel rail in the bathroom which stays on all the time
  
• Fitted a “tube heater” in the walk-in cupboard in the bathroom which stays on all the time. That’s really helped. It used to
  be damp and mouldy in there and now it’s warm and dry
  
• Bought a Karcher cordless “window vacuum” with which we hoover up all of the water off the tiles and bath after we shower.
  This has made big difference!
  
• Bought a new thermostat and checked all the radiators are working properly. We have that new Hive thing which is quite good as
  you can move it around the flat to make sure the temperature is even.
  Keeping the temperature constant rather than having big fluctuations
  through the day seems to help keep the condensation under control too
  
• We try and keep windows open as much as possible although this isn’t easy in a ground floor flat. I’ve bought ventilation locks
  so I can lock them open a crack but haven’t fitted them yet though.
  Doesn’t seem to be much point when it’s damp outside too And that’s
  about it. I think we’re winning the war though. Much less black mould,
  no damp smell and the windows don’t get soaked with condensation
  anymore. The walls seem to be staying dry too. I’m sure our
  electricity bill will have quadrupled come spring but I don’t care.
  

http://www.theguardian.com/careers/gallery/2016/feb/02/the-10-happiest-cities-to-work-in-the-uk-in-pictures?CMP=fb_gu

Not really. Underfloor is on a thermostat, but only two hours in the morning and two in the evening. My Withings scales tell me how warm the bathroom is all day via an iPhone app (not other rooms, obv) and it averages just over 20C - so I don't think it even comes on, really.

Kitchen floor does come on. But that's it.