Owning your own home

I would go through and look at which are most important, and get quotes for them.
Also major watch out with damp, don't treat the symptoms, find the cause. Damp proofing is a massive industry based on a lot of lies for old houses. Trick is to make sure there is adequate ventilation and make sure that the outer ground level is lower than the inner. Things like chimney repointing (if old make sure done in Lime) and guttering may well be the cause of some of the damp issues. Also check the windows, there should be some sort of airflow in an old house, so bare minimum I would be checking for trickle vents \ air bricks.

Smoke and Co2 alarms aren't huge money. Electrics are never up to latest regs, but do they work, have they got adequate protection. Boiler ask them to service for less than £100, will flush out any issues there.

No pubs on the Corbett. Ancient (unenforceable yet strangely obeyed) covenant or charter or summat. Just means people hit the pop-up wine tasting nights at the deli that much harder #suburbanmalaise

It's a fair list. I'd cost up potential repair bill and work from there accounting for how much you want the house/location etc and how much of a inconvenience repairs will be. You could start by dropping the price by the cost of repairs and if that's rejected, work up to the minimum amount you'd need off to make the sale sensible.

Re-sold my house a week or so ago, after initial buyer dropped out. Surveyor just been round, he really didn't seem to do much. I bet they just make it up, right? Right?

Pissing party wall awards for a loft conversion. The surveyors pretty much seem to have you over a barrel for fees.

My dude is costing about £1,300 for drawing up the two awards, council surveyor on the one side is costing about £500, the surveyor on the other side is costing £1,200.

Asked them why they costed so much more than the other two and other quotes I've had and the response was basically, that's our charge-out rate, tough.

Depends if it's the one the mortgage provider send (who are basically just seeing if the house is worth what they're lending to the buyer) or one who's working for the buyer.

The one we used was super thorough, I had a bit of a meltdown when I saw everything he'd listed. Once I went through it all, there was a lot of arse-covering and one or two reasonably big things which needed sorting.

Get someone to quote for these:

Chimney needs repointing

Roof underlining is damaged
Front joinery is decayed. Lack of maintenance to the guttering.
The vertical soil and vent pipe is damaged (part of the pipe visible by the boiler was taped up and stained suggesting it is cracked and potentially leaking)

Fixing the above might fix these:

High damp meter readings to most walls at ground level - Damp course treatment required
Damp in internal walls due to lack of damp proofing

Standard for older places

Rear door has cracked threshold
Roof lacks ventilation and insulation is below modern standards

Standard, nobody cares.

No smoke or carbon monoxide alarms
No current test certificates for Electricity or Gas or Boiler

Always budget for a new boiler, mind...

Yeah that damp course bollox is likely to be... all bollox.

Damp is probably from condensation (easily fixed) or penetration from rainwater due to leaking downpipes or high ground levels outside (still pretty easily fixed).

Similar to ours - we've got quotes for lead work to the chimney and a subsidiary roof, a few bits of external redecoration/render work and waiting on a damp survey before submitting a revised offer.

Knock the price down according to the max cost of works. Fix the cheap bits once you move in (gutters), then give it a year and see if you need to do anything more expensive.

I'll investigate the shower head, it's one with the mineral balls in which I've never used before but thought it was a bit rubbish. I might just buy a new head to rule it out.

What could damp smells coming from cupboards against an internal wall mean? I’ve had a look under the boards and it looks dry as a bone down there...

Yup, that's also my feeling.

The land is now a car park but it used to be a combination of entrance area and communal gardens. The communal gardens aren't specifically demised on the lease (weird) but we have proof that they used to be gardens, that gardens were intended for residents use, and that they were paved over at residents expense for residents benefit. I think you're right -
lawyering up is the way forward.

If you guys have any recommendations on lawyers who have no problem goign toe to toe with litigious landlords, now's a good time.

I used to do a bit of this many years ago (haven't done it for years which is why I wouldn't try and help), and the best property litigators in terms of bang for buck in the business are Claire Whiteman or Emily Bedford (Fitzpatrick). neither are cheap but neither are expensive (as lawyers go)

Awesome. Thank you.

I think I may know the answer to this but anyway..

I have 2 boilers (1 heat / water for top two floors, 1 heat / water for the bottom two). The bottom floor boiler has and old rotary thermostat hardwired to a analogue switch in the cupboard under the stairs . The top floor boiler has a digital thermostat that remotely connects to the boiler.

is it possible to have 1 system to control all but enables me to keep the 2 boilers independent ? Its handy being able to turn off the top floor heating earlier than the bottom. Also the rotary dial in the hallway is woefully inaccurate.

Depends if it's the one the mortgage provider send (who are basically just seeing if the house is worth what they're lending to the buyer) or one who's working for the buyer.

He's a cash buyer so must be his own.

Grrrr. Trying to get everything lined up to exchange on Monday and our solicitor only gave us all the paperwork yesterday. Had a good look through it last night - have spotted at least a dozen things that need clarification, a bunch of typos that need correcting and they've given us someone else's completion statement. The solicitor isn't in the office tomorrow so I've got to go there first thing on Monday to get it straightened out.

All shower heads are sold with flow limiters built in now days. Usually just a rubber plug with holes in. Easy to modify...

Interesting, I had no idea. Gonna give it try tonight.

ShowerDoc sent me 9.5kw tank for my shower, which currently has an 8.5kw tank, so much for their specifications. Now gotta get a sparky in to upgrade the existing 30A wiring to eleventy billion Amps and maybe this new tank thing will work. Yay for upgrades!

You were already 5 amps over the existing wiring with an 8.5kW tank by the way.

So why hasn’t it been tripping already?

240x30=7.2kw.

Do you do 240 or 230? Either way it doesn’t add up.

Yet another rotten part of the property industry IMHO.

And just to be clear, that was my point :)

Finally decided to cheque-book the rest of the work my flat needs, which means it'll actually be finished by the end of November, in theory at least.

How do I find such a person in West / Westminster through which I can

• get some electrical sockets moved / installed / chased
  
• get some radiators moved / replaced / upgraded
  
• get some general making good done, fixing cracked plaster, bathroom sealant etc
  
  

My experiences of MyBuilder or whatever have been weak, i'm not sure they are a solution in London at least; nobody wants to do small jobs. But taken together these jobs require different specialisms - so it feels like one medium sized job for someone who can either do all these things (unicorn) or knows other people willing to do them (more likely).

How do I find that person?