Owning your own home

Air bnb?

Look at the landlords thread.

You can do it on the quiet. You will - probably - be breaking a clause in your mortgage agreement if you do. You will also find it hard getting the correct insurance.

Short term tenants would be a worry for me, personally.

There might be companies that look for properties like yours to rent to corporates short term however. They might have the stuff in place to make your life easy.

What's the ballpark for replacing a combi-boiler with a modern unit in a forth floor flat?

Depends on the boiler and size. Get a Vailant or Bosch. Vague estimate £1500.

Thanks, that's pretty much in line with what I've heard.

Just bought our first flat, and looking to replace the uPVC balcony doors with something nicer (mainly because they open outwards and take up loads of valuable space) – either that or get someone to just turn the whole thing round! Has anyone had uPVC doors/frames replaced? Is it more hassle/money than it's worth?

You'll need to replace with ones designed to open inwards I'm afraid.

Check the terms associated with overpaying - you may be able to underpay in future to undo the overpayments, although that might need prior approval which may not be guaranteed.

We're overpaying slightly which should get us to a 60% LTV by the time remortgaging becomes plausible. The early exit fees for our fix are so high that at the moment it wouldn't make sense.

Last month, we were equivocating about having a loft extension built.

Then we downgraded to just having a lean-to built.

To save ourselves even that aggro, we've just put in an offer on a house instead.

Big life decisions. Very casually undertaken.

I am a home-owner!!

Our vendor made it known that he was totally un-trustworthy when, unable to produce a gas safety certificate, we got a plumber in to have a look. He immediately turned of the gas and declared it a 1-2K job as the mains valve was painted open.
Turns out the installer was not a registered plumber who'd "been away", but was more likely the vendor himself. WAC.

IANAP... The safety valve to stop the flow of gas.

Painted-over so it can't be turned off easily I guess

We're overpaying by around £200/month, the overpayment goes against the capital rather than the interest, and therefore reduces the interest by a fair amount - and the total amount we're paying is the same as it was before we remortgaged for a lower interest rate, we just kept the payment the same rather than dropping it by the amount we saved.

Seemed sensible, I'd love to get shot of the mortgage as early as possible.

And offer accepted.

Now to find the money from somewhere...

Your child only needs one kidney, that's 5k there.

Move your entire liquid cash reserve into dollars, transfer back into GBP when the currency bounces back on Friday, profit?

Exactly. He's paid for the work to be done though so it's ours.

This was a nice surprise at 2am

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Woah! That doesn't look like much fun... London?

Shit, that's not good! What's happened there??

Yep, Hackney wick. Have spent the whole night/day clearing up!

Basement is tanked but we think the water table came over the top during the storm. At one point it was spraying through a vent like a submarine going down!

Good God, I hope it's under control now?

I live in a basement flat and this morning I had a little flood outside my door, there is a little step up from the front door leading into the flat... I am counting my blessing...

Yeah we've pumped all the water out, ripped out the carpet, got the power back on and started assessing damage... It's ruined all the furniture and some speakers but that's hopefully it.

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Hopefully the worst is over, for you and your belongings and for everyone in general...