Owning your own home

You pay 100% stamp duty, management, maintenance, ground rent and service charges, all of your freeholder's legal costs,

This is true. But all these costs can easily be outweighed by the desire to have a fixed abode and the rise in value.

Let's say you buy 40% of an average (!) £500k house for £200k. You stay there 10 years. At an average of 7% growth a year when you come to sell your bit is £390k. Ain't no way you'll pay £190k in repairs and costs.

If you're in an area where prices don't rise much then @BQ is right tho.

^ this. My experience wasn't as agonising as BQs but it wasn't great. Having said that financially it 'worked' through luck more than judgement.

We've completed :)

Will probably pick the keys up tomorrow, go and measure everything up and create an uber spreadsheet of works, costs and priorities.

Trying to sort insurance for the bikes - with bikes do I put the value to replace?

Exchanged....complete next Friday

What a massive releif !

Well done both!

Shared ownership is a total scam. You're not buying a share of a home, you're renting it and paying upfront a huge amount for an option to buy at a later date. You pay 100% stamp duty, management, maintenance, ground rent and service charges, all of your freeholder's legal costs, and stand to lose your home and all your money if you fall behind on the rent. You are also beholden to a housing association, which is the kind of landlord interested only in building and renting/selling but not in maintenance, addressing complaints, being efficient or professional, leaving you to enjoy your home in peace, or being helpful when you want to sell. You will get shafted at every turn, so only enter into it if you intend to staircase to 100% as soon as possible.

It got me on the housing ladder back in 1999, but I will be fucking glad when I complete on my sale (assuming East Homes' catastropic incompetence and inefficiency doesn't lose me my buyer along the way)>

A friend of mine has learned all of this the hard way. The latest bit of shit that has flown her way is the "landlord" has come after her for earnings she's made from letting her spare room on Air B'n'B. They are threatening to chuck her out if she doesn't cough up.

^^congrats dudes.

Any surveyors care to put my mind at ease/inflate my panic attack?

We're having a loft conversion done. Terraced/town house. No dormer, velux windows.

I've just read about needing party wall agreements if there is to be any cutting into the party wall to support the floor reinforcements. The builders mentioned nothing about needing this when they came to quote, and have said nothing about it since we signed the contract and paid the deposit.

Builders have been onsite since this morning, installing the windows, and I've just read about party wall agreements. I asked the bloke who's in charge, he reckons there's no need - they won't be 'cutting into' the wall, and no RSJs required, just putting bolts in to support a beam that the joists will be attached to. Is he right? Or should I have got my neighbours to agree to this?

The latest bit of shit that has flown her way is the "landlord" has come after her for earnings she's made from letting her spare room on Air B'n'B.

Restrictive lease agreements are certainly something to look out for. Would this have happened with a standard 'lodger'? - not sure what they could ask her to 'cough up' for unless the lease had some clause about rights to earnings. Usually they'd just tell her to stop it. Which is fair enough, as people don't really want a steady stream of strangers accessing their communal hallway.

It looks like I am better of looking further afield... I am apply for a job that is a grade higher than my current one and 5k+ more a year, so if I got it (highly unlikely) then all would be much brighter...

see below

you shouldn't need a party structure notice, provided they are just bolts for joist hangers. it might be a good idea (if your relationship with next door is sound) to have a schedule of condition done (photos will prob be fine) given the potential vibration, etc.

do you have any drawings?

pm me if you want

people don't really want a steady stream of strangers accessing their communal hallway.

Are you going to get Building Control to inspect?

Re: Shared Ownership. I'm currently doing this in Leyton. We have 1/3 of our current home (would've liked more, but due to wife's employment status/pregnancy at the time of going for it we didn't have a great choice of options). It was sold to us as a £270k 2 bedroom flat at the time. Some people didn't complete after the we moved in and the flats were revalued and put on the market again with the 1 bedroom properties starting at £290k so on that basis we'd already had a good increase on our properties value within the first two months.

Fast forward nearly two years and all is fine with it. There have been some issues with the landlord dragging their heels getting communal works done, but if you can spare the time to keep nagging things will get done as expected. We also got a handy £500 rebate on our service charges last year when they worked out how much of the service charge they'd used from residents.

There are several new developments popping up around the area now and 1 bed starting prices for £280k and £350k for two that I've bothered to look for info at, so I'm pretty confident my part investment in our 2 bedroom place will increase a decent amount by the time we're looking to make our next move.

Weyyyy!

And yes re insurance - or that's what I was advised to do with John Lewis but may be different with dif. providers.

Also - it took me about a week to forget about the spreadsheet of work/costs/priorities and just slump into living in a building site. Stay strong. Be 'the ones'.

Thanks, good news. By schedule of condition, you mean take photos of their side of the wall to provide evidence of any damage caused by the works?

Yup, it's being done to building regs.

zackly

Just had my cheeky cunt of a buyer chip me to the tune of 17 grand based on his mortgage valuation. So tempted to tell him to fuck off, but it was overvalued and I hate the fucking flat and want rid of it.

Besides, revenge is a dish best served cold, and I know where he'll be living...

There will be other buyers though - Tell them to fuck off.

I told the agent if he tried any further reductions he would be told to fuck off.
As it is I am going to leave a spoon in the sink. That will show him.

yep - tell him to suck your dick and wait for someone that isn't advised by a cunt

and just where to leave the mashed prawn mix for best effect

Boom Ting. Congrats!