Owning your own home

When we moved in to current flat we found the previous people had left the fridge freezer.

We were naive / silly enough to pay the token fee the sellers offered the existing fridge / washing machine to us for. Duh such noobs. The answer is FOR FREE PLEASE (with the implication that if they don't agree they MUST remove it).

Anyway, the fridge is still going strong despite being a hotpoint.

The fact that they're now remarketing it without mention, even knowing what you went through confirms their cunt status. Claim back your expenses and time and report them.

Just wanted an excuse to post that :)

Indeed. Though we probably would have still said no.

At least you were offered curtains, our sellers took all of theirs (along with most light fixtures and all white goods) and I’ve just spent over £500 on a bay window pole and curtain. On the other hand we did knock 20k off their asking.

Asking £ for curtains is fair play - they are easy to move and can be sold on. I'd expect most sellers to take them TBH. Also, they may have moths and other nasties, so good to get shot of them.

Old fridge? Not so much. Pain to move, hates being moved, unlikely to hold much second hand value. But pretty useful if it's free.

Anyone spot the trick?

the increase will always be twice the passing ground rent and doubles the ground rent every 20 years?

Arrrgh

I left all the old curtains up while renovating the property. The house had built in dust sheets!

Oh and the old wardrobes that were left.... They became firewood!

I read about those companies that were buying up all the leaseholds from countrywide(?) On their new developments.
Doubled every 10 years.
What starts off at a couple of hundred quid rapidly becomes a couple of grand.
On a 999 year lease it would be £1,743,019,575,313,820,000,000,000,000,000,000 when it comes to expire.
Who has £2 undecillion to spend on ground rent alone?!

Our sellers were absolutely desperate to offload some massive, horrible wardrobe on us for free. Had to tell them at least three times we didn't want it and to sort it out themselves

on the other hand, I could understand them taking the curtains, which were pretty tasteless anyway, but the poles? That's just petty

Has anyone offered a negative value for an item?

i.e. Take the wardrobe or you can leave it by paying me £150.

I suppose people have bundled it in as a deal, i.e. we want the curtains (£500) but don't want the wardrobe (-£150) so we'll offer to take both for £350.

Maybe I am worrying too much but the trend against doubling is pushing us into a potentially worse outcome of over-complication.

Totally agree on that. My ground rent doubles every 50 years, and that's fine, you can plan around it.

All this stuff where freeholders are trying to get it linked to RPI and renegotiated every ten years, it's for the birds. I want consistency from my outgoings.

Where abouts in Suffolk? I might have to move there

In my experience (not actually me fortunately but people I know) it appears to be incompetence/laziness (probably due to using very junior staff to get a good recovery on the fee) or collusion.

A friend bought a flat as part ownership (a new complex so a lot of flats being sold). It was strongly suggested (by the vendor) that he use the solicitor recommended by the vendor (to the extent that he was concerned about getting the flat if he didn't). The vendor also gave £500 cashback for using their recommended solicitor.

The solicitor was terrible. Quite apart from getting the address of the property wrong, the contract summary they sent to him quite clearly wasn't based on his contract (it referenced clauses that weren't even in the contract) and a number of answers to his questions made no sense.

Most likely they were just incompetent/lazy and they were recommended by the vendor as they couldn't be bothered dealing with multiple solicitors but the whole process was very dubious looking at it from an outside viewpoint.

things may be sorting themselves out wrt catford4lyf - lawyers are on it.

Has anyone offered a negative value for an item?

Hah, yeah. We probably could have done that with the fridge and washing machine we paid a small fee for. live / learn.

Sweet, what's the deal?

it's all a bit second hand info at the mo (mrs hell is the trouser wearer in these matters) but from what i can gather we're asking if they (le seller) will sell both titles (?) in order to salvage the deal - If so they will treat this as a freehold purchase and merge the two titles on completion at the Land Registry so that we hold a freehold house. There will not be an additional charge in this respect.

@Butternut-Squash understands this far better than i do, frankly he (she?) should charge more.

On the leasehold houses front, noticed this in the news today http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/stunning-houses-newcastles-most-beautiful-13851443

Sounds like a good outcome. Shame not to get any discount but as long as they cover all costs you still get the house. Just now you know to be super fucking suspicious of anything they propose from now on.

ta, tho we're not out of the woods yet, hoping the prospect of losing a sale at AP will put things into perspective.

The area I know best is between the Deben and Alde/Ore rivers, east of the A12.

The coastal towns of Orford and Aledburgh are best avoided IMO; tending towards snobby and expensive.

There are loads of small villages a few miles in land which have character and reasonable value.

Further north can be nice as well, north of Leiston, but it starts to get to over two hours drive from London. I don't know that area so well; could be worth exploring especially if travelling to the smoke regularly is not part of your plan.

They're practically worthless if you practically can't sell them, as the remaining lease period is shorter than a bank will lend against.
Which may or may not be true (I have no idea), but is what the article claims.