Owning your own home

That whole idea of 'reasonableness' is so reassuring. So much of what happens here does not seem reasonable and it's good to know that it's a key component of these hearings.

I have a lot of reading to do but I think RA followed by forensic examination of accounts, followed by either RTM or full Enfranchisement (if people are willing to contribute) is the way to go. It's like herding cats right now though. Everyone's been burned by FTT (or more accurately, by their own failure to prepare, but that's a truth people don't want to hear) before and they're very nervous about trying their luck again.

Does anyone have experience of converting a front garden into a driveway, rough cost? Net elevation loss from the house is a complicating factor.

We did ours recently, block paving, removing concrete under, £3.5k all in.

Any slope?

And how many sqm?

buy the shittiest looking house in the fanciest area you can afford.

is that still a thing?

also: how much would it cost to completely gut and renovate a 3 bedroom house to the nearest 10,000 kweenkwidz?

Do you have a dropped kerb already? 2k to the council for that bit.
Gravel 2-3k
Block pave 3-5k
Resin crap 8k+
Lifespan longest to shortest: gravel (with top ups) then block pave (with maintenance) then resin crap.

To clean, buy swimming pool chlorine, water down to a 4:1 water to chlorine solution, fuck nature and all fish down stream of you. Weeds are gone.

The problem with shitty looking houses in desirable areas is they tend to be snapped up by investors / developers.

It's difficult to say what a renovation would theoretically cost. Assuming that you had to redo the roof and stump up for things like plumbing and electrics too you might, very roughly, be paying a contractor 50k for a basic job up to 80k or more for something a bit higher spec. But it depends where you are and how knackered the place is.

Plus VAT, I should say.

There's no kerb outside the house. Is a hydrant though. Potential purchase rather than owned, just assessing feasibility.

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the place we looked at has been on the market for 2 months and according to the EA, there's been some interest but fuck all offers. it really is a state inside, which would explain the reticence for buyers to commit (beige tiles everywhere, walls that want knocking down, stippled wallpaper, hasn't been redecorated since the carter administration) but the lovely old dear that has lived there for the past 20 odd years just wants to gtfo, so realistically we could go in with a low ball offer and snap up a house for under 500 000 notes in se26.

we've been tossing 80,000 notes as a rough figure for redecoration for shits and giggles.

obviously a structural survey could reveal that the place is sinking into the earth, who knows.

Well, you will lose all that soak away and help the floods in heavy rainfall.

As long as it's sound, seems like a very reasonable plan and budget to me.

Hydrant shouldn't be an issue and all that foliage tells me that there is no existing concrete to worry about. Should be an easy job once you have dug out the garden.

You might have enough space to keep a green border so not all the plants would need to go. The contractor will advise on permeability as anything you do will need to comply with suds regs. The council will probably want the drive done and to be shown a suds cert before they do the dropped kerb and lower the hydrant.

Our neighbour just had theirs done, took the council a couple of months to come and do the kerb after the drive was done so don't get your hopes up for a quick job. You'll likely have a lovely drive to look at for weeks before you can actually use it.

Splendid, thanks.

Advice please... Have asked seller to put right the rotten concrete stumps that were found in the survey, it's gonna cost a minimum of $3,000... They've come back with an offer of $2,000... Er... Fuck off...

Estate agent reckons I can get the job done for under $2,000... Of course the cunt does...

Do I push harder and risk losing the place or take it on the chin? I think it's a cheap, dick move... They will be our neighbours as all they've done is divided the 800m2 block into two and sold us the half with the house on it, they'll be building a new place on the remainder of the land... Pretty much for free too as the whole block cost them less than we're paying them for half of it... Not that that matters, but they know we know that...

There is also work that needs to be done to the car port (rusted post that needs part replacing) and have been told today that the dishwasher, which is included in the sale, is playing up so may be kaput by the time we move in...

What do ya reckon?

If they can get it done for $2000 ask them to do it rather than knocking the cash off?

A mate has just come through and got me mate's rates with a builder he knows, can totally get the job done for just over £2k and I've just pushed for a new dishwasher as well... They'll probably buy a cheap piece of crap which I'll replace with a Miele or AKG ASAP but fuck them, it's the principle of the matter...

Then you'll have to make the effort to shift the new crap one

I wouldn't sweat the appliances - well at least the white goods - to be honest

Maybe just ask them to remove and dispose of it if it is broken

It's totally a thing.

Having a small house that needed 60k spending on it in West Hampstead beats having a huge flat in a lovely factory conversion in Hackney Central that's for sure, because now we get to live in West Hampstead instead of Hackney.

One of the best decisions I ever made.

Kilburn?

Is this standard in an estate agent selling agreement?

"You agree that we are not responsible for the security of the property or its contents or the actions of any persons we accompany when showing the property on your behalf or if it is left unoccupied"

Should I be concerned?

I think the trick is finding a place where the cost of the doer upper isn't just the same as a nice house in the same area minus the cost of refurb.

As mentioned above developers/people generally are wise to it and the places are priced accordingly.

more on estate agents - is it reasonable to expect an EA to waive their fee if a sale goes tits up as a result of the buyer pulling out?

Not usually unless a no completion, no fee deal was agreed in advance (some solicitors will do this).

Until contracts are actually exchanged you really do have your arse hanging out financially, unfortunately