Owning your own home

I am in a similar boat by the sounds of it with a kid and a flat but can't buy a house in London. I've got to say it sounds pretty high risk to sell your place and rent. What about if your circumstances change and you can't get a mortgage again?

Don't wanna stick my oar in but thought it worthwhile posting

Getting married solves the deposit issue and make pops happy. Jump on in.

Fun anecdote: Someone I know had their buyer back out of their flat straight after the referendum. They've just resold it. Pre Brexit agreed price £253,000, post Brexit agreed price £261,000.

Daily Mail headline tomorrow: House prices up 1% a week since Brexit.

Upstairs' shower is leaking through our ceiling...

The people living there are renting and have contacted their landlord. Our lease states that the freeholder/building insurance covers burst pipes but at the moment we have no idea what's causing the problem.

Hopefully the leaseholder upstairs gets back to the tenants soon, I've asked them not to use the shower until then (and offered the use of ours) but I don't know how long that can last. If it's not sorted by Monday evening I'll contact the building management company and see what they say.

Not really sure what the procedure is here.

I totally get where people are coming from on this. I just figured I'm cool with it, not to say that's not dumb/naive but life's too short.

Deffo bed bugs - exterminators coming Monday

Yeah - why? You thought older/younger?

Everybody else's headline: Cambridge property prices still batshit crazy.

Not really a home owner quesiton, but here goes... Anyone used one of these dryers? Been thinking for a while for winter days and rainy days and smokey days (when the neighbours are having BBQ) etc:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dri-Buddi-d04db10100000001-JML-1200W/dp/B007RDEPHM?ie=UTF8&ref_=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top

No but we have one of these: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/p21736/Lakeland-Dry-Soon-Range?gclid=CN-uqZCd-80CFcE_GwodsjENng&src=gpsol&s_kwcid=AL!49!3!120690410891!p!!g!!lakeland%20dryer&ef_id=Vsl@XgAABSxRlexX:20160717192554:s

So useful.

I guess they all work the same sort of way, judging from the design, I take it they can be folded up and put behind, let say, a door? or some sort of a gap? The vidoes do show them being folded up, but... space in my flat is becoming quite premium...

The Dri Buddi doens't seem to be foldable at all...

Yeah. We have the three tier one.

I guess it's about 3 inches thick when folded.

Thank you. Think this one wins. ;-)

It would have been better for you sister, but worse for the BF. That doesn't necessarily make it more fair.

In this case it would definitely have been more fair.

Between them they put in £60K and made £60K profit, so they made £1 for every £1 put in. But they way they split it, he got £3 for every £1 he put in, while she got 60p. All else being equal (and they were splitting bills, housework, DIY etc equally), he got a massively better deal than she did.

Just because £1 per £1 would have made the BF worse off than £3 per £1 doesn't make it unfair.

Now, I'm not saying everyone has to go this way. There's plenty of reasons for a different split. However I do think it's important people agreeing a split understand "equal return on £1" is the neutral, all-things-being-equal starting point, and not "I get my deposit back then we split the rest".

The latter may seem fair, but if you expect a rising market it disadvantages the person with the deposit, and if you expect a falling market it disadvantages the person without the deposit.

Just moved to Enfield Lock. I don't feel the area is unsafe. Seems to be a mix of Turkish/African/Essex folk. Frequent trains into Liverpool street make it quite accessible. However options for eating out are limited and it's not the most vibrant of areas. It is only a short distnce from some fantastic countryside though.

That's not that different to Peckham / Camberwell then in terms of the residents...

I am approaching an age where I perfer the countryside than out clubbing anyway... I have an old mind... Currently have about 3 properities on the 'bad' side of the A10 in mind, should be plenty to make a worthy day in the area...

I have drawn to a conclusion that it's either Enfield or Croydon for me... hummm...

North Chingford has great countryside and some good places to eat. Plus half an hour by train to Liverpool Street every 15 minutes.

Will have a look. Thanks.

On a different topic, maybe I am saying this out of jealousy, or maybe I don't think this is entirely fair. You know the right to buy scheme that allows council and certain housing association tenants to buy the place they are living in?

So some people at work know I have been looking to buy for a while, as do you guys, but it won't be an easy road for me. On the other hand, a colleague who has been living in various housing association housing for the last 12+ years, while I have no doubt he once needed it, he more than certainly do not anymore and have not for as least 4 years. We are on the same salary bracket, only he works full time and I don't, he is also at the top of the bracket, meaning he earns around £8k per annual more than me. To cut a long story short, as he's been telling me about his personal circumstance so I know well enough that we are, financally, pretty much on par.

Anyway, while I am scratching my head trying to find locations that will fit my budgets, he is planning on buying his 2 bedroom flat right in the middle of Hackey for £100k+ less than my total budget, it's not a coucil block, but a coverted house type, so even nicer. He also told me he wants to get the smallest possible mortgage and pay it off in a few years then sell it off to make a large profit out of it. To put it into persepctive, his mortgage would be around £100k less than mine, althoug I have a larger deposit than his, he earns more so...

Now I don't know and I don't want to know the ins and outs with his specific scheme with regards to buy and sell, but I just don't think it's entirely fair that someone once, in the fairly distant past needed social housing, is now able to buy off their home with a very large discount, when a lot of us, have never been in enough need to be put in social housing, now struggle to buy, or have to make do with locations that wouldn't necessarily be the ideal choice. (Note: I don't want to live in Hackey but I do want to remain in Camberwell, which isn't going to happen)

I was once very ill for a good few years, now better but still a condition that will stay for life. At my lowest point, the docs say they would try get me a counil flat and I would be bumped up the waiting list due to my situation at the time, but I said no because I didn't want to rely on the system as I know once I am used to paying next to nothing rent, like this colleague of mine is (he pays just over £100 a week), I'd never want to stand on my own 2 feet... Point I am making is that the scheme is good in a way that it allows the poorer people to be able to buy, but those of us who sit very closely on the other side of the fence ain't usually that much better off and here is where I find the most unfair.

Tell me I am right, tell me I am wrong... just having one of those sleepless nights and need to get this off my chest...

He's not the reason you can't live in Camberwell.

the scheme is good in a way that it allows the poorer people to be able to buy,

Moog is right. There are always people with a better opportunity than you. Whether that be a dad in the building trade who enables them to redo houses at a low cost or just lots of money. Just be happy you are in a position to buy somewhere.

However, on the general point. The right to buy may have made sense in a post war Britain as you try and move away from state ownership where there is sufficient housing.

Now it's is beyond ridiculous.

tough one, hope the council has looked into how to prevent people from making short term profits like this...perhaps the house would have to go back into the right to buy scheme at their listed value, i have no idea...

Depends what you mean by short term profit. I believe that you can't re-sell a property you buy from the Council for two years. The main problem with right-to-buy is that very few of the properties lost to the Councils are replaced.

The idea was that councils could build new housing using the money and essentially profit from their housing stock. Unfortunately many councils have mortgaged their housing stock and now struggle to find land to build on. They should still be able to turn a profit building replacements and essentially raise the quality and amount of social housing, of course they don't manage this because they are local councils and largely inept/corrupt.

The idea was that councils could build new housing using the money and
essentially profit from their housing stock.

Er, no.

When RtB was extended and extensively promoted by Thatcher's government, councils were prevented from using the revenue to replace the housing stock (except under conditions which were deliberately set to prevent them being met). It was an ideological policy, nothing more, nothing less.

they are local councils and largely inept/corrupt.>

Evidence?

Thought not.

It was an ideological policy, nothing more, nothing less.

I thought part of the logic was also to help balance the books. You can argue the ideological nature behind that, but I think there are more elements to it.

As to the point about corruption what about the examples of current councilors being flown out to exotic locations by property delopers to seek international finance? I'm not going to go into it here but I know first hand of an example again related to property development.

In Islington back in the day where Labour used to have the council sewn up there have always been stories. Lots related to road construction contracts. More sinister were the child abuse cover ups when Margaret Hodge was on the council.

All of those things can be found out with a quick bit of research. Or did I miss understand and you were after evidence of ineptitude?