Owning your own home

Write a shitty email, and withhold the amount it will cost you to fix it.

Then leave a bad review.

I’d set a date by which it should be fixed and if that date lapses release the hounds

In future be absolutely clear where you want the thing put, then keep asking them ‘where are you going to put the thing? There? There? Goood boy, gooooood boy! Who’s a good boy?!’ Etc

And make it clear in email that whoever recommended them will be told not too again.

Anyone got any recommendations for gas / power suppliers. I'm currently with Ecotricity, who were great for a year or so.

However, I've since found out that the reason they were great was that they weren't billing me properly for all that time, racking up a significant debt. Since then I've had a monthly dance of setting up of a payment plan, only for it to be forgotten the next month and large bills, constant voicemails and text messages arriving almost daily.

Anyone have anyone with decent service, humans answering the line etc?

Ovo were pretty good when I was with them, Flow are good too.

I use bulb, they've been great. I live in a 3 bed terrace and I'm paying £60 a month for gas and electric, their rates are cheaper than any I could find on comparison sites. we've been at around £20 more than that in the last couple of months because of the cold weather but they emailed t us to say they won't put your monthly charge up as they know it'll ballance out over the year. There's no fixed term so you can leave at any time.

plus if you use my refer coded we'll both get 50 quid https://bulb.co.uk/refer/james397

edit: also haven't had any problem getting hold of anyone on the phone.

That's great - thanks both.

I'll hit that Bulb link up later when I switch later this week (got to get paid first to clear the dregs of the sodding 'payment plan'!)

£60 a month for gas and electric

Also, that's waaaaaay less than I pay. Need to get those sash windows fixed for next winter I think!

Taking a long time to get a new mortgage approved. Have been told 3-4 more days as bank required extra documents but vendors getting quite agitated. Worth telling them 3-4 more days or just say nothing in case it takes longer?

Just tell them the bank are holding things up, not CYOA's fault.

That way if the bank takes longer...the bank takes longer.

Assume there's some chain dependancy going on making them nervous?

No chain at either end - think they're just in a hurry and don't want to miss out their new place. It's been about 2.5 weeks so really shouldn't be end of world. Just biting nails all round etc.

been about 2.5 weeks

Is that it!? Took us 3 months to get my mortgage approved. Tell them to chill.

This. Our last application took about three weeks from start to offer and that was with no hitches.

Was that including valuation? Ours has got agreement in principle etc but underwriters taking a while with back and forth (self employed etc)

Thinking of selling through Haart. Any reasons not to? Also they quoted 1%+vat off the bat with no min period (16 days notice). Basically about what I'd be trying to knock them down to so I'll just ask for 0.9+vat. Anyone got any better suggestions?

Yes, included valuation. I'm self employed also, with unusual circumstances.

Anyway, not much point comparing each others experiences. Every application will be different. Helps to have proactive broker also if you're self employed.

We're with L&C and while our adviser has been great at sourcing options and doing the initial application, the 'case officer' we've been 'upgraded' to seems rather less quick to react. She also forgot to ask for bank statements (?!) adding another week to things. We'll be at 3 weeks by end of week and that's with no valuation : / Presume it's more faff to put back on market, have viewings (assuming agent doesn't go back to next best offer as they could have moved on by now?) and start fresh with someone with a chain than to stick it out with us.

Definitely more faff, and the same delays will happen with whoever comes next. They aren't going to walk away from you and your offer without a real good reason.

I personally think the unknown is what agitates people the most. So constant communication with them / EA just to let them know you are on it should calm them down.

We had 3 mortgage offers fall through after a month with each. But much like you we were the only offer they had, it was a good one, and we were chain free so despite it all it still made more sense for them to stick with us.

Sounds like a good price, tells you something about the market I suppose. When we bought we viewed a couple of places through them and weren’t so impressed, then again I wouldn’t say they were any worse than any of the larger chains.

Ugh - just had TSB come back and say they're currently dealing with paperwork submitted on 14th and broker tells me they've not fully submitted ours yet as they need extra docs. ffs...

had forum recommendations for l&c but not wildly impressed at this rate.

Asked them to come down, told 1% is the bottom price and he went in at that as its a good road. If we really want to save some on fees then he can flat fee it or scale it. He mentioned it may not be worth it tho. I believed him.

^Hound them every day without mercy.

Our remortgage last year took a while to sort out too.

The whole industry is in a bit of a muddle at the moment - you need to do what you can to make sure your case dude has the documents they need then you need to stay on their case making sure they are submitting everything.

Unless you've set some expectations with your buyer (hey guyz cashbuyerz we can complete tommoz!) then four - five weeks to get the finance isn't unreasonable. Don't let them stress you out, it's better the devil they know.

Said we're self employed etc which can slow things down but said no chain so keen to push through as quickly as we can.

Broker said we had everything we needed but then came back to ask for more and then again just now to ask for ID a week after sending the last docs through. Ugh. Estate agent seems vaguely sane so i'm probably imagining more stress than there is. Such a lovely house for the money so would be pretty pissed if it fell through.