Owning your own home

S'actually your solicitor that should be getting those type of things sorted, not the estate agent. Ring the agent and apologise, then ring your solicitor and repeat the rant.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/41562927?search_identifier=e87dad02994fdb3e4e9d558aa9c99ce0#k9PGIubZI115hQ37.97

Look at the pictures. Once you have seen the bedroom, go back and note how much plastic sheeting there is and how many suitcases and wheelie bins.

ah crap - beat me to it.

Wow...

I love the way that it looks like only three rooms have been used since the 70's

I love the way that it looks like only three rooms have been used since the 70's

And all by psychopaths it seems. What are the odds?

haha brilliant thanks for sharing

That house - has been up for 1 day
Page views. Last 30 days: 114,459

Another random flat in the same area
Page views. Last 30 days: 55

If nothing else it should sell soon.
Can you buy insurance against the police having to tear up the garden and floors?

It was in Vice

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/london-rental-opportunity-of-the-week-what-happened-in-the-dread-house-edition

S'actually your solicitor that should be getting those type of things sorted, not the estate agent. Ring the agent and apologise, then ring your solicitor and repeat the rant.

Yyyyyeah sort of. Our solicitor has identified the lack of BC/Planning etc but they can only act on the info they've been sent and the answers to their formal queries were taking forever to come back and they were not actually addressing the questions properly. I know what we'll accept in terms of certification and indemnity, so I just went straight to the agent to try and get them to make the seller understand that despite what they think, they HADN'T hadn't provided what was needed.

Unfortunately, neither the seller nor the agent seemed to grasp what was being asked until I ended up yelling at the agent's manager. It will all come back formally through the solicitor eventually but if I hadn't done that, i believe all parties would still be at stand off, each thinking the other was delaying.

http://on.ft.com/2bYJ63B

I know what we'll accept in terms of certification and indemnity so to bypass the wait for the solicitors to get this message from me, pass to to the the seller's solicitor and on to the seller...

Why can't they ever talk to each other ON THE PHONE!

can't see anything changing in the sub 500k market

That's what I'm literally banking on.

It's house valuation time. For remortgage.
How does this actually work?
I think my mortgage guy valuation is miles off. However, I've seen a house behind me for silly money.

Your current mortgage provider will probably massively undervalue the property. Get a few independent valuations, and talk to a few more providers.

^This is what ours did. Then when I pointed out that comparable flats were selling for ~£150,000 more than their valuation they said the onus was on me to prove that, and that they would likely not believe whatever evidence I came up with. Which was nice.

I think miles over.
I mean it would be nice to start paying less and have the option to be sent free before 70...

It's a tough one. We mostly solved the problem in the back garden by plugging holes in fences and putting netting over the side gate. I think they mostly just pass us by now. As for the front garden, well we put bark chippings down on part of it and I don't think that made any real difference although you can at least usually see where they've been digging.

We tend to sprinkle used coffee grounds around, mainly as a theorised slug deterrent although it may also put the cats off but really the best way seems to just have no exposed loose soil or material anywhere. That way they don't have anything to scratch around in. Also I tear out of the house and chase them away at every opportunity.

You can put spiky things in (not spiky to hurt, just short sticks) so that it's not a comfortable place to squat down and it's difficult to scratch around but it doesn't exactly look great.

Sorry for being a bit lazy to go back a few pages... been thinking about opening a help to buy ISA for a while, but I can't really see me gaining anything significant if buying is not a too distance dream...

Max saving per month: £200 with an additional £1000 for the 1st month, so after 12 months:

£3400 x 2% from my bank x 25% from gov = £4335 (£935 interest)

So if I aim to buy within a year, the max I can gain is less than £1000 and I hear it's not straight forward to get that bonus from the gov? Would possible solicitor fees make it not worth the bother at all? My own ISAs are actually still paying not far off from 2% interest anyway...

When I got sent my conveyancing papers I believe the fees section stated £50 for the solicitors to process the H2B ISA. Looking at my completion statement I don't think they actually charged me. Looking on the gov site at the time, I think there was a maximum they could charge for this process.

It's free money and if you'll gain more in a bonus than in interest earned sitting in a higher rate account then why not do it?

We now have a Canary, it's 'fun' watching the cats do fuckall all day but it's not a serious tool - the motion detection is far too sensitive and apparently not currently learning (I was getting notifications every time a bus went past and altered the light coming into the room).

Also have a pair of outdoor IP cameras to install in the back garden (with HD and cloud backup) and a wireless Yale alarm which has reasonable reviews. Hopefully it isn't quite so trigger-happy regarding cats and sunbeams. Still works out cheaper than a year of Verisure!

Yes couse, if it's really as easy as doing a few bits of paper work and worst case is the gov bonus don't pay out then it's a no brainer... for some reasons, I had this thought as the back of my head that the money will be tied down for longer, as in I can't just go take it out right now and it'd be a lot of faff etc etc...

That's interesting to know - I've been speaking with them about working together. You could dial it right down, it will act as a detterant and should there be a burglary hopefully it should take images and send to cloud.

Sounds pretty good based on those numbers - 2% is pretty pants for interest. If you're putting money away each month rather than just looking to stash a big lump sum somewhere then take a look at regular savings accounts - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts

Also there are the high interest paying bank accounts, up to 5%. The amount you get back in interest for any of these is pretty paltry but that's no reason not to more than double it if you can.

I take it you are talking to me? I am still confused with the reply / who is speaking with who style with this 'not so new' format of this forum after what? 2 years?

Anyway, one of my regualr savings account just matured a couple of days back and I got just under £100 interest after a year, that's 6%. I think it's already the best out there at the moment...

Saving accounts are not cerdit products therefore, not subject to credit checks? I don't want to open hald a dozen and be seen as credits hungry...

I was rather hoping I could get some decent return from the stock shares I was given, fuck that it nearly gave me a hear attack when I checked it last night... and it's not even in the EU market... nothing to do with Brexit...