Owning your own home

Who knew this day would come. We just signed the contract on a terrace house in Enfield. A little further out than we wanted but it's a nice canal ride into work and the missus is two minutes from the overground. Hoping to complete next Friday and then the DIY mayhem begins!

Well done!

Congrats and welcome to the neighbourhood.

@rhowe and I use the River Lea a lot as the basis for our commute. It's great, especially in summer, just make sure your frame will take 28mm tyres or bigger.

Nice, which part? @Pistanator is local as well I believe

Nice - I've been commuting on the overground for the past week and it's pretty hellish up until Blackhorse Road.
I'll be cycling from next week so try and find a route down onto the canal

Thanks everyone. It's in Enfield Lock so not the most scenic of areas but there is some good riding close by which I'm looking forward to exploring.

After two years of work we have finally finished the lower floor of our house... Came home last night and the dog had used the net curtains as a hammock, pulling a cast iron curtain rail, batten and about 3 ft of plaster and wall with him. Good work friend. Good work.

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I see the obvious route as agreeing to exchange with completion subject to the council giving permission.

Sellers be like 'what if council says no?'

I'd be tempted to say 'given you can't clarify if you are actually allowed to park on your land or not, I'd like £20k (or whatever) off the asking price. Ta.'

Can you call the council and ask about residents parking rights? You'll probably find that these are not enforced but they reserve the right to sell permits to residents in the future.

If it comes back after investigation there is no permission granted would you still pay the price for the property? Get them to prove there is permission or ask for an adjustment in the price to reflect the fact that there's no permitted off street parking. The answer you've had so far is very glib and it's exactly the kind of lease contravention that councils overlook for 20 years then suddenly someone complains and you end up in a long struggle to regain your privileges.

Of course they might threaten to look for another buyer and then you're back to square one, is the property worth the price without the parking.

My buyer has had his home buyers survey back and has made ivertures to me about getting money off the asking for work required.

Given that I have already chucked him a hefty discount to rescue the chain after he did a U-turn on our early July completion date, and that I verbally indicated then that I would not expect anything to come off the price after a survey, I am a bit pissed off.

What is the prevailing view of things that a survey reveals that it would reasonable to ask for a sale price reduction for?

All of the homebuyers reports I've seen in my line of work apprar to be an exercise in the surveyor covering his own back for every possible thing that could be wrong with a property - It's understandable that a buyer may then be worried about the state of their new home and ask for some money off the selling price.

Ask to see the report?

He's offered to show me the report. If he and for any reductions I'll be looking at it in detail.

BTW, already replied to his overtures with a firm statement that I won't be giving him any money off for anything less than significant structural defects.

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Is there a dropped kerb? If so then permission was sought as you have to get the kerb dropped through the council. If not then it wasn't and you don't have parking, regardless of how long the seller has used it as you don't have a right of way over the path.

If there's no path or kerb you have some options:

1. Ignore it and buy the place anyway. This probably only works if you're a cash buyer as the solicitor can't ignore the issue as they have a duty to protect the mortgage company and there would be loss of value without parking.

2. Ask the sellers for a Statutory Declaration that they have parked there unhindered for 15 years and get them to pay for an insurance policy that indemnifies against your/the mortgage company's loss if the council take the parking away. Such a policy will probably be a few hundred sovs.

3. Ask for a discount.

I'd go for 2.

You need to take a view based on the work. If there's something significant which devalues the property, that's one thing. If it's work that you expect given the price then I think you're entitled to say no.

Long term we probably need to do work on the roof (if we get it), but it's not structural and it can wait. So we didn't bother asking for money off.

When my mum sold my Granny's house the buyers came back asking for money off post survey. But in reality they were just listing the modernisation works required... which was exactly why the house was on for £20k less than the neighbours. So she just said no.

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Also the guy from the council didn’t say a dropped curb was definitely an indication of permission.

Actually, I spose it does depend if it's the same council.

Outside London you get a borough / city council and a county council. If it's an ex-council house it would probably be the borough/city council that need to give permission, but the county council that look after the highways, so the two permissions are not the same thing. Dunno how it works in Ldn.

Do you know which council put the covenant on?

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Yeah, scratch what I said then, it would be Hertfordshire County Council that gave permission for the kerb drop. Different lot.

Do the stat dec / indemnity thing.

Re. Dropped kerb, my mum and dad bought a house in '81, garage at the back in regular use, dropped kerb, the lot! One day (after being in the house for 25 years) the council come along and raise the kerb because proper permission hadn't been sought by the building firm at the time so Dropped kerb defo does not mean permission had been sought! Folks had to spend a couple of grand getting it dropped again :(

Ask the council directly.

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Did not read further that you had done so...

The only comfort is that the iron rail killed the dog - amirite?

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