Owning your own home

It makes a lot of sense if you think about it - you get taxed on any other form of asset income (dividends, interest, etc), so why should housing get a special exemption?

I was suggesting that you are taxed on it, there is no special exemption - the tax is up front however, not at the point of sale, or reflected by some kind of yield*

I don't disagree that there's an argument to suggest how SDLT is calculated and paid needs a radical overhaul though.

* which would be kinda weird, as if you live in the place, I'm not sure how you could have realised that yield. Some detail here on the theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imputed_rent

The problem is that building land is worth too much to private developers so they can rarely make the maths work.

I assume the difference between here and the Dutch system is that the Dutch system allows the local authority to buy land based upon its current usage, which in most cases I imagine would mean they don't have to pay for development value. Introduce that rule overnight in the UK and you'd have a lot of PropCos going bust overnight, which might not help the underlying problem.

If you change the locks then you can be sure it is the ghost.

Turns out it was my wife : (

Exactly.

I say go all out and let councils buy ransom strips at current value and sell them back to the developers... under condition that the money must be used for social housing. Boom.

It's a good sign - what they really need to get is some commercially minded people though, and the skills to implement and manage projects all the way through the chain. I really hope they get the resources to do this.

The current government, at least, will never do this because it would never undermine the interests of those who already own or have 'banked' prime land. This is the real story behind much of the 'housing crisis'. Given a sort-of-airing here:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/02/britain-farmland-tax-haven-reform

Any resident property experts know anything about Regulated Tenancy?

(In terms of landlord rights versus tenant, and whether tenants can pass on the tenancy when they croak it or whether rights then pass on to landlord/owner?)

Regulated Tenancy

Gov.UK would be a great start I would have thought?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/11445/138295.pdf

if the tenant dies his or her spouse will normally
take over the regulated tenancy (a family member
who has been living in the home can take over an
assured tenancy)

I am tempted to say that you should ignore anything anyone says unless you have told them everything there is to know about the circumstances, AND they have seen the full lease.

Nah just ask on a random cycling forum - what could go wrong?!

Nah just ask on a random cycling forum - what could go wrong?!

Hey, not just any random cycling forum.

(Cheers both... just thought I'd ask, whilst awaiting legal pack)

The old floor scrubs up well:

2 Attachments

Looks huge without bikes!

Yes, and the sofa, coffee table etc.

But I do need to find alternative storage for the bikes.

Lovely floor. Assume the cupboards are custom? Think they’d look great with some well designed doors to hide all your stuff.

The shelving is all custom, at the moment a lot of random stuff is on them but that was a high speed shit-clearing exercise, all that will be on there will be books, which I think look quite nice.

Now there is the internet the only reason for books is decoration.

Beautiful floors those. Would cost an arm / leg / other bits to get something like that put in these days

They're good insulation.

Literally , it would appear

Now there is the internet the only reason for books is decoration.

And for increasing the agony when you move house. Or need to clean.

Kinda like a shit load of bikes now that I think about it

.

1 Attachment

Very nice. Needs a bit of mid century furniture and Scandinavian glassware. Or are those out of sight behind the camera?

Most of my worldly goods are in the garage right now, I do need a chair to sit in front of the wood burner- and a small rug for it to sit on.

"You can overpay up to 10% of your fixed rate loan amount each calendar year (January to December) without paying an early repayment charge."

Is that 10% of the balance at the start of the year or 10% of the original loan amount?

i.e. if it was an interest only mortgage, could I pay it back in 10 years by overpaying 10% of the original loan amount each year and avoid early repayment charges?

(Santander interest-only mortgage FWIW. Guess I'll have to ring them to be sure, no huge rush, current fixed deal runs out in October 2018 although they tend to offer a new deal 3 months early. Jumping to another 5 year fix at 1.79% would be nice before there's another base rate hike.)

I'm hoping it's 10% per year of the original loan amount otherwise in a few years my overpayments will mean I'll be paying back more than 10% of the outstanding loan amount a year.