Owning your own home

I'm just finishing up on my loft conversion. Before paying the final instalments what paperwork should I be getting? Something from building control, something re: electrics (I had a new CU and obviously all the wiring for the loft), anything re: plumbing (I assume not), anything else?

Are these actual paper documents or is it somewhere online or what? Cheers

Certainly building control sign off, and an electrics certificate, did you have anything done to gas? all my certificates came in the post, took a couple of weeks to come through.

We did but the EA wouldn't be drawn on it. Don't think it matters too much.

It’s been on the market for ages. Which would worry me.

This annoys the shit out of me. We made an offer on a place, declined. Upped it by 10k, declined.

Told the estate agent I was trying to enter into a negotiating situation and they weren't giving me much to work with. They got me a counter offer. It was the asking price. I told them to jog on. Went back a month later with the same offer and they took it.

That one subsequently fell through and I bet you anything the estate agent knew it would and never told me. They were uncontactable for 2 weeks after it.

Anyone ever built an extension in a conservation area?

Looking at a property that has a conservatory on it - so must have been added - but wondering if you'd need permission to change the conservatory to, you know, a proper thing with bricks and stuff. And maybe them big glass folding doors windowy things.

(single storey)

Would a lack of central heating put you off a house?

After no luck getting a mortgage on both private and ex-LA flats, we looked at a couple of interesting 1 bed freehold houses this morning, one of which we liked.

Only comment (apart from it being expensive for a 1 bed when compared with leasehold properties) is that it has electric heating. It is a relatively new build (90's) and was very toasty when we looked at it.

Lack of gas would put me off.

Is it Economy 7?

Had never heard about that til just now, will ask

What do the radiators look like? Eco 7 would normally mean storage heaters, which are quite bulky and distinctive looking.

I have them in my flat, 2 bed on the edge of the building with crap insulation (single skin solid brick). 3 heaters in total, I think summing to 6.5kW max output. They come on at night only when the electricity is a third of the price as it is during the day. Total elec bill comes to 30-40 quid per month year avg. Obv a house would be a bit more than that and depends how good your insulation is, but elec only doesn't have to be expensive.

Looks like another outbuilding has been converted to a home so you'd have close neighbours sharing driveway. Also, right next to powerlines. Price too high also.

It's a ballache but not the end of the world. You tend to have to plan your heating more rather than just adjusting the thermostat.

If it's a house then there probably is the option of fitting gas central heating but it won't be cheap as the utilities would need to be run to the house (a friend of mine did it recently, it cost him about £5k).

It would be an issue, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me if everything else was good.

Would a lack of central heating put you off a house

I rented a place in Surrey Quays for a year right next to the canal much as Hovis describes above and could never really warm it up. Same with a one bedroom flat we had near Deptford Bridge. Needed supplementary oil heaters. I love the instant heat of a gas boiler system. It would be a deal breaker for me unless insulation was up to modern standards.

Our saving grace is we have good quality double glazing throughout.

I guess whether or not it will work well enough is a function of how much total wattage you have available to put in (easily remedied by just installing more heaters), and then how good the insulation is will determine how long it lasts for.

Another one is the hot water. It will probably be a hot water tank that is heated at night by an immersion heater. Our's is 7kW I think, not sure on the cylinder volume. But any more than 3 showers in a day will mean luke warm water by the evening. I wouldn't be happy with the setup if there were more than 3 of us.

Thanks for the input and observations.

It's a 90's build and only 1 bed so max 2 of us (and I generally shower in work most days), so hot water shouldn't be a concern.

It did feel very toasty when we viewed it first thing this morning but don't know how long the heating had been left on for (likely overnight).

My flat is a two bed, with no gas. It's not an issue for us. We just pop the heaters on when we get back from work- 20-30 mins and the place is warm. Boilers a massive pressurised thing- heats from cold in 40 mins and will give 3-4 showers. Total electric bill a month is under £40.

Had an update from the architect about our extension, after the council refused it. They finally got a straight answer from them, and it was refused because they “thought it was a flat roof that exceeded the limitations for approval” It’s being resubmitted with massive annotations and a ruler.

I mean, it’s pretty easy to see why they got so confused... fucking morons.

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I can see my house from there...

Wow...

After years of lurking this thread once in a while come to join they fray, despite not living anywhere near London anymore.

We put a cheeky offer on this place in North Pembrokeshire couple weeks back at 210k. (Superficially appears needs quite a bit of work doing, lots of redecorating/some windows redoing/insulation etc etc wanted to give ourselves some leeway)

The sellers waited for further viewings that were planned and another buyer offered the asking of £230k.
We got a call back few days ago, the other buyer's chain fell through so we have first dibs. Decided to match the offer and now we wait...

If they accept then it will need a full building survey for sure which more than likely is going to throw up some gremlins. Old house with outbuildings attached, one of which has been unofficially converted to a shitty annexe.

Hopefully they accept as it would be nice to be able to use our help to buy ISAs (house <£250k), and as long as the survey doesn't throw up anything too horrible then it would be a good project to put our stamp on.

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Big house for the cash.thats a big roof and will cost a few Bob to replace - is it in good nick ?

From my untrained eye I didn't see any issues with the roof or any obvious leakage to the inside. Tbh it's not in terrible condition just old , unloved and smells like dog.

But yeah again if something nasty cropped up on the survey I wouldn't be surprised and we may then have to back out/re-offer

The complete plum(ber) who was recommended for our kitchen has now, after starting a day late, taking three times as long as he said to do the initial work, forgetting he needed to come back in on Monday to finish off, failing to install the gas jets on the hob correctly and not adjusting the regulators either, finally (a week later) fitted the outside tap. Except he's put it in a fucking stupid place, not fixed our decking after pulling it up, and left a massive hole in the wall from the old sink waste.

Do I bitch at him until he fixes it, or just leave him a shitty review?

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