Owning your own home

Thanks @Pifko , appreciate that advice, will manage my greed accordingly. We're half-tempted just to scrap them and withdraw it into our regular accounts but the "bonus" is worth a bit too much for us to do that.

Don't think we'll require too much face-time all being well so that could be an option in the absence of something close to home (North London). Remain very much open to suggestions from others though!

The keyholder thing doesn't look like it would work for us if we're away (or even at work, tbh) and I'm not convinced by bells only - it would annoy the neighbours but I don't think they'd investigate or do anything about it.
I'm checking out ADT now, I wish they were more transparent!

Major Works.

Despite owning leaseholds flats since 2008 I haven't been on the receiving end of MW.

Until now.

Looks like general renovation and preventative maintenance; roofing, pointing, windows, plumbing, communal hallway

In principle all of this work needs to be done, and the communal hallway renovation would be a massive bonus to us as it's massively crap and if done right will make our place much more appealing to a wider audience - when we come to sell it.

So. How do I make sure we don't get screwed over? What are the dos and don'ts when it comes to MW? What should I stay on top of?

Section 20? Had this last year. We had the issue that managing agent, freeholder and contractor were all related parties. We got our own surveys done, got our own quotes for the work and then hired a QS to inspect the work periodically. Fingers crossed, everything has been Ok thus far. I'd get saving though, the bill for ours was c. £6.5k - windows, pointing, render and a little bit of roofing.

We had the issue that managing agent, freeholder and contractor were all related parties. We got our own surveys done, got our own quotes for the work and then hired a QS to inspect the work periodically

Interesting. How did you arrange this?

Agree - this is going to spendy. I'm just keen to make the sure the money gets spent well.

I take it your management fees have not been contributing to a sinking fund that can fund all these works? In my last flat that's how it was done, whereas in my girlfriend's place she got stung with a huge bill.

(And now we own a freehold house we're paying over 40k for essential works to it anyway. But at least we knew that was necessary and knocked it off the purchase price.)

I take it your management fees have not been contributing to a sinking fund that can fund all these works?

Nope.

In my last flat that's how it was done, whereas in my girlfriend's place she got stung with a huge bill.

I think the 'massive bill' approach is relatively common :)

I'm in the middle of fitting a bathroom. I think I may have a problem with my toilet. It doesn't seem to have a very powerful flush. Often one or two pieces of tissue are left in the bowl. Is there anything I can do to fix this?

Less fibre...?

Is there anything I can do to fix this?

You can adjust the ballcock (fnar) to influence the volume of water that's dispensed when you flush. Might help.

i have set the water level to the highest it can go. Pressing the flush empties the cistern fully.

I'm checking out ADT now, I wish they were more transparent!

Their sales model is based on selling fear.

The house we bought had an ADT alarm but the internal battery was knackered and so every time there was a power cut (including for DIY/building work) we'd be treated to 120dB indoors.

I called ADT to ask them how much it would be to have it serviced and effectively silenced. They refused to do anything on the phone and sent a salesweasel round. He then spent 30 minutes spinning lines like "Rather than disabling your alarm, wouldn't you like to have a panic button if you woke up to a noise and found a burglar in your house? We have great service plans". They simply wouldn't answer my questions.

We didn't really want the alarm (first floor flat and quality windows and no flat roofs) and the home insurance companies simply said it's more hassle than it's worth; it'll save you £10 or so on your home insurance and if you ever go out and forget to set the alarm you're not covered.

10 minutes on the Internet and I found the engineering code (to silence the smaller piezo siren on the board), disconnected the main siren, changed the battery and closed it up again. It's been sitting in engineering mode for the last 2 years now.

tl;dr ADT are wankers

The other worry with all this stuff is it's basically useless without the subscription and isn't user serviceable as it's all wireless and encrypted. I've now read more of the same regarding ADT (and Verisure but less, probably because they're newer).
We have a house that backs onto open scrubland, nicely shielded by an overpass and trees etc and a very easily accessible window from a side return (although sloped roof). I'm going to call Verisure back and see what they can do about the price as it's the end of their month :)

I'm checking out ADT now, I wish they were more transparent!

From experience ADT are beyond awful when it comes to service. Can't be bothered to list the sagas. No idea what they are like with price, etc.

If you ever have a problem don't waste your time being nice or practical. Jump straight to defcom 1.

Banham is nice because you get a white, rather than yellow alarm box.

Alarms are a complete waste of time, spend money on physical security instead. If your physical security is good enough a burglar will move onto an easier target.

Everyone ignores alarms because they go off all the time for no reason...

That's why having a security guard turn up and have a poke around seems like a good idea. I'm not sure what else we can do to secure the windows other than this sort of thing:

but they don't seem like they'd stop much more than the snapped and bent lock keeps already did.

I travel a fair bit so have a few webcams set up that detect movement and send me an email (with a picture). Gives you the option of phoning the police (although I'd imagine it's a minimal chance of someone being sent round unless they're in the area)

That's quite dystopian. If your neighbours have your phone number they will probably call you. Maybe you're not friendly with your neighbours, I know loads in my street and we all look out for each other. That includes the people we don't really know, but we can't call them to say "your alarm's going off, there's no sign of a break in but we are waiting outside with pitchforks".

Verisure are pretty good from what I hear (though my business works with them)

Canary and Nest would be options as well, for the cheaper and easier setup options.

I've got some of those magic ink stickers to put on the front door and we're getting a couple of Canary bits.

But also what @Fox says, just make your house un-appealing. http://www.wired.com/2016/07/nest-cam-outdoor/

We find this works

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The endless supply of security paste must also help.

Always handy as a back-up

Not sure this guy has the same effect unfortunately.

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Canary the all-in-one box? http://www.johnlewis.com/canary-all-in-one-security-system/p2263102?sku=234832815&s_kwcid=2dx92700012702402042&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclid=CPmU-s6T8M4CFYcLcgodsn8IMg&gclsrc=ds looks good and reasonably cheap/free plans.

What are the stickers? We have some smart water ones up (and stuff is marked) which apparently didn't help.

Has anyone had a garden studio / workshop built for them? If so any builder / supplier recommendations?

I'm looking for something more slightly more significant than a shed for storage and to use as a wood working workshop. I'm not really sure what / who to google for as 'garden studio' yields 10K+ structures, whereas something a little less polished would do for me.