Owning your own home

In a similar situation, I think I would want indoor CCTV- if you can link a light up to a motion sensor, you could end up with far better pictures of any nighttime intruders. Accompanied by a really bloody loud alarm; make their life hard.

It was literally broad daylight robbery. The police says break ins tend to happen between 2pm - 5pm, after lunch as some workers go home for lunch, before clocking off time. This is also the loudest time of the day when there might be builders working hard nearby, deliveires are happening...

I already have a motion sensor light by the front door and I have a timer to turn light inside the flat on at random time as deterrence...

How about an outdoor CCTV as deterrence and a loud alarm? Mind you though, I have a parking meter right outside my front door and whoever empties the cash box from the council never bothers turning off the alarm, so loud alarms going off here is kind of a daily thing... the sound is very different from car alarms...

Ouch, hard luck. And yeah, lots of obvious stuff outdoors- anything to make it less attractive than your neighbours.

And a shotgun behind the peephole.

I have a cat and she did very well in ensuring her personal safety. If I had a dog... if only I had a dog!

5k for damp proofing.

Bugger.

Be careful. Have you had a surveyor look at it, or just the co selling dpcs?

We had a full structural survey before buying - we knew there was damp, both from a lack of damp proof course, and from windows / pointing / flashing.

It's an 1890s house, so not surprising.

Lots written about whether you should install a DPC in an old house, with lots of examples of it making the situation worse. Old houses need to breathe, so a lot of the time it is a combination of the wrong type of render being used (cement not lime), non-breathable paints (again lime based is best) and windows and doors not having enough ventilation.

Worth reading up about or speaking to a heritage specialist before sinking cash, tell me to bugger off if I am teaching you to suck eggs...

We had a fella come round that appears to know his onions - he's local, and has experience of the local builds.

It's the rising damp on an internal structural wall (originally it would have been the rear wall) that makes it look like a DPC would be the way forwards.

I'll be getting some more damp people in for quotes in any case.

I like the idea of a heritage expert too.

Be careful: rising damp is mostly a myth. Chemical injection DPCs are the preserve of cowboys.

Worth a read...

https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/managing-damp-in-old-buildings.html

As others have said, chemical damp injection hides the symptoms but doesn't fix the cause. Mostly it only shifts the symptoms elsewhere. Read everything above and cure it properly.

I have a suspicion that the side return path is a problem - it's recently (10 years or so) paved, and cemented up to the wall. There's nowhere for rain to go, other than the bricks.

There's also a concrete render up to 8ft - I may look to lime render this, as well as take up the solid flags and lay them on a more porous bed.

We'll probably look to fix the obvious bits that are causing penetrating damp, and see how fixing the path and render affects things.

As for airflow, it's pretty well ventilated - there are airbricks leading into the under floor void, the flooring is wooden, and the windows aren't PVC.

We had damp and got it treated. It actually worked really well, and 95% of the symptoms went away. However, we recently put a new kitchen in and found the cause - a significant leak (like, holes in the pipes) in the dishwasher drainage, under the floor.

So... you may want to spend some time looking for the source.

So... you may want to spend some time looking for the source.

It's in a pipe-free area, which helps the diagnosis. I'm going to have a look under the floor though, just to be sure.

No problem, for my setup the CCTV is used for evidence/identification over deterrent, fingers crossed I never need to use it. Motion sensors have their benefits, for example if said burglar came through the window instead of the doors. IMO the biggest benefit of the Y-Cam alarm is the app notification, but I'm a big believer in the internet of things.

They have a 14 days cooling off period where you can return everything if you're not happy.

Mortgage application denied. Fack!

Ah no! Who with? Might be an automated decision you can appeal.

It was with HSBC, it's gone to appeal but the advisor at the branch isn't hopeful. The reason they gave was because we're a single income family - which they knew. We explained our circumstances right at the very beginning of the process so it's not like it's something they have only just discovered. Nothing else came up on the credit report or any other red flags aparrently.

It was with HSBC, it's gone to appeal but the advisor at the branch isn't hopeful.

Is this kinda direct via HSBC? No broker involved?

Man, that sounds really harsh. Surely there are thousands of people in that situation (families with a single earner) applying for mortgages?

certain high street vendors are extremely risk averse.

shop around.

have you done an experian credit check on yourself?

@Howard Yes direct with HSBC, however I've been on the phone to London and Country this lunch time to get another ball rolling.

@abr Yep, it's most annoying as the advisor in branch has gone from "I don't see a problem with this, you can afford it, you're not borrowing that much, etc etc" to "I'm not expecting a good result". You'd think he should know this is something that would put the underwriters off.

@greenhell That's the idea behind using L&C. Haven't credit checked myself but the guy at HSBC said there wasn't anything else on the credit report that would put the underwriters off. The single income was the only thing. Should I be checking myself?

@diable We're looking to borrow 182k, over 30 years. Not exactly a huge amount when it comes to mortgages (obviously still a huge amount for me)!

Was talking to a friend who was applying for a mortgage at Nationwide the other week (direct, not through a broker). Had a 4 hour meeting with them to run through incomings/outgoings. The upshot was that overseas rental income isn't permissible as incomings (even though the overseas mortgage is counted as outgoings) as it is received in Euros in a foreign bank account so there is too much currency risk (even though the mortgage is also in Euros).

Seems bizarre but that's what the computer said. The solution was to take a 35 year mortgage and overpay each month using that rental income ...