Owning your own home

But then I'd have to live in the North - nah fam

But then I'd have to live in the North - nah fam

Yeah. Imagine only having to pay well under £5 a pint and no £3k season ticket on the railways?

It would be awful right?

Lack of job might be a problem for affording said pint

£650k to live in Bradford?!

£650k to live in Bradford?!

I assume it's what they pay you

Glad you agree

We had an offer accepted on a new place last week... 2 bed flat with a garden in Honor Oak- well chuffed! Has anyone used a surveyor recently that they would recommend?

Offer accepted, mortgage application accepted, surveys booked.

We're having to buy before selling, so we are about to become hideously leveraged, until we can sell the current place, which is a bit scary.

Still, I'm fantasising about garden offices and speaker systems.

Fun times

congrats. so you're gonna pay the 3% extra then claim it back?

You do, but I think you pay first and reclaim within 18 months if you can prove you subsequently sold the other property.

Loft conversions if you own a flat rather than the full house ...

From what I can see, these don't come under permitted development as that only applies if you own the full property, instead you have to go through the full planning permission route. Is this much more hassle/costly?

Also, from looking at the results of previous applications, the conversions on flats seem to be smaller (no dormer or L shaped ones). Not sure whether this is because that's all people have done or it's more restricted going through planning permission.

And a technical question which I expect I'd need a lawyer to answer, I also own a share of freehold of the full house, could I do a loft conversion under permitted development using this?

Planning permission is only usually required where you extend or alter the roof space, but you'll need building regs approval. Contact your local authority for clarification.

You'll need permission from the other freeholders, or management company (a majority decision). You'll also probably have to pay a percentage of the uplift in the value of your flat (attributable to the loft extension) to the other freeholders. You'll need to get a valuation from a suitably qualified surveyor for this. The cost of this should be covered by you.

Does anyone have any experience in clarifying/amending ownership/responsibilites of legal boundaries? Some fences fell down which we believed were the responsibility of the neighbours simply based off answers in the house purchase questionnaire that the vendor completed.

There is nothing either title plan to identify who is responsible and the neighbours believed that we were responsible, so seeing as we were having our garden completely re-done, it made sense to take the hit and put some nice fencing up too. If I get written confirmation from the neighbour, am I able to get Land Registry to amend their records to show that we are now legally responsible?

Why do you want to be responsible? And do you enjoy a challenge?

I've found the land registry to be a real pain to deal with... drawing up new boundaries was done incorrectly, etc. In the end we opted to have an agreement drawn up between neighbours that defined where the new boundary was understood to be, it was much easier (and cheaper) that way.

Often the wording of titles/registries is ambiguous anyway, for example: "plan shows the general position, not the exact line of the boundaries, and may not match measurements between the same points on the ground."

I'd be confident to draw up a legal document between yourselves and your neighbours instead as long as the worst-case-scenario (new neighbour challenging the boundary) doesn't leave you up shit creek.

If there really are no existing boundary agreements on the title, then you and your neighbour can decide where the boundaries between your properties are (and who's responsible for them) by making a boundary agreement via the Land Registry. However, a new neighbour could still decide to challenge a boundary agreement anyway if they disagreed with it (attempted to nullify it).

I'm about 95% certain I own the loft, slightly open to interpretation in the documents but pretty clear I think. Plus I've talked to the guy who owns downstairs (it's a house split into two flats, we each own a flat and jointly own the freehold of the house) and he has no issue with the proposal. No mention has been made of any uplift amount, although I will be doing some work on the roof and bearing the cost at the same time.

Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_wKRrRqd6Y

Hnnnnngggg

http://www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/ahm-house/

Shame about the street, so many gross nouveau riche giant Barrett homes

From what I understand it's specifically flats that need planning permission, type of lease isn't relevant. I thought dormers were ok but for some reason with flats there are restrictions on how close you can go to the back wall.

I'm in a similar situation in that I definitely own the loft space. Strictly leasehold in my case tho'.

Yes, the permission from the property owner isn't an issue for me, it's exactly what the impact is of being a flat rather than house and what restrictions there are going through planning permission rather than permitted development.

Looking at approved applications from around me it's hard to tell exactly what the rules are (I have a feeling that you're in the same area as I am for some reason).

The council (Haringey) appears to be the next step although they appear to charge for pre-application advice.

Do you need a party wall agreement to install a wood burner in your own chimney but the breasts (fnar) share the same wall? Might be a stupid question...

Not AFAIK unless you intend to penetrate (fnar fnar).

Situation:

My wife and I own one of thirty flats in a development. The development also has 20 garages, of which 18 belong to a letting company, and two still belong to owners of flats in the block.

The flat next to ours is unoccupied due to the death of its owner just over three years ago. The flat passed to his goddaughter, who intends to do it up and let it out, but she has a long-term illness and is busy with other projects, so it's just sitting there.

This flat is one of the two with a garage, and because we're on good terms, the owner lets me use the garage for free to store bieks (natch). One of her other friends (a builder) also has a key, and stores some stuff in it.

I would like to obtain this garage for a mancave, and I think I could probably pay cash for it. On the other hand, right now I'm getting half a free garage with no sign of any change in that situation in the near future.

What would you do? I have no idea whether my neighbour would sell. In theory the garage isn't a great asset to a rental property, so she could be persuaded to let it go at the right price perhaps.

Annex it, draw on the door with your blood and shit, charge at the builder naked whilst beating your chest.

This, then send confusing letters written in legalese claiming proprietary estoppel.

Ha. I would actually try and buy it if you can for certainty but also because if there's only two with garages it'll surely be an asset for yours plus it will presumably go up in value over time so could be a good investment?