Owning your own home

Yeah that's right. According the council it's groves Park, but Lee Station is closer by far so I'm calling it Lee.

'Q1 Annexe'

so much work needed on my place ..

so much work needed on my place ..

Welcome to the rest of your life. I hear it never ends.

Hey, I was lining up that shot!

Hi all

Few people were asking me about my flat buying expeditions with a problem Freeholder. I'm living in an ex LA flat at the very cheapest end of the market (partly as a result of the problem Freeholder). This Freeholder - who I won't name - is notorious in industry, not quite as bad as the Tchenguiz brothers, but only one off. Here's a brief list of the stuff he's done:

• denied residents the right to use space that we pay to maintain
  
• used this space as a commercial business, and attempted to charge the running costs to residents
  
• in case of things like party wall agreements and right to light negotiations with neighbouring buildings, he has trousered their money to compensate for loss of amenity, and not actually made the requisite improvements to our block
  
• he also tries to on-charge the legal costs in pursuing this money to residents - though we receive no benefit from it!
  
• instead of charging specific residents for non-payment, he charges the debt to the whole block
  
• despite Tribunal and County Court decisions telling him not to do x, y, or z, he continues to do it, knowing that residents would need to take him to court to stop him, and residents are very scared of him putting 'punishment' policies in place
  
  

Obviously this is completely unethical, and some of it is actually legally criminal. What I've learned is that unless you're prepared to go to court and fight, you will never stop these people. But you also have to pick your battles, as there's no guarantee you'll win. Going to court is like getting into a physical fight with someone - even if you're bigger, stronger, faster, and in the right, there's no guarantee you'll win. And even if you do win, it'll probably cost you one way or another - you will be diminished by the experience. That doesn't mean it's not worth doing in the right circumstances.

I've attended a few county court cases over the last few months, and we've won each of them. Most recently we've won free parking in our shared space for every Leaseholder. Next we'll take it to court and ensure that right expands out to every Tenant. Then, to people granted the right to park there by Tenants / Leaseholders. After that we'll look to getting security sorted, and some much needed aesthetic upgrades. After that we'll start looking to getting some of our money back that they've wasted.

Basically, if you're not afraid of grafting, or of herding cats, I'd recommend it. It's gratifying when you win against these big corporate arseholes.

Good work!

I will be amazed if the London market corrects by more than 20%.

£900k to £500k is pretty unthinkable - there will be hipsters manning the barricades if that happens.

Disclosure - I've recently taken out a 5 year fixed mortgage and what happens to house prices is fairly immaterial to my medium term plans.

So with all doom and gloom/shine will it become ‘easier’ for first term buyers like myself who wants to buy and give some comfort for the family or just as hard?

Some guidance will be useful

That's excellent news; well done!

Hopefully. Because the way it is now is completely unsustainable in the medium to long term.

But that would require a fundamental change in how our governments think about housing and social mobility and, so far, there are no indications that change could happen.

My parents used to have one that attached to our caravan. It had an 'inner tent' in it that my sister slept in because she was older. It was a pain in the arse to put up and down. My parents sold it and don't miss it.

Sounds ideal. I, too, don’t think government will change much and even if it does it won’t be quick enough. Then again I’m not in a position ready to buy yet unfortunately neither.

Long waiting game ahead.

This is a very risk averse strategy though and you could have instead invested that cash tax free through an ISA. Last 5 years annualised global equity return is around 10%. If all your cash is locked up in the property and you have little savings, what happens if you have a large emergency expense?

Unicorn Brexit:

The EU changes it's mind and gives us the three freedoms without the fourth, a better deal than any EU member, because of it's admiration for our British pluck, the economy trebles in a month and lemonade is free forever, house prices rise as if strapped to a Saturn-V

Rep

That is a fair question and a fair observation. Whilst risking sanctions from others in answering , the solution is credit cards. I did have a bad patch a year or so back involving 3ks worth of vets bills which needed to be covered. I paid most of the bills on the credit cards and waited until the insurance money came in .

I also expect, for various reasons, that I will be out of a job within ten years or so, so there is a medium term element of urgency to pay off the house.

On a house without wheels. Like a shop window awning.
https://www.tesco.com/direct/garden/canopies-awnings/cat3376214.cat?source=others

Just moved back in to my flat, all good, hassle free. The landlady of the upstairs flat (converted terrace) is having a nightmare with her tenant not paying rent and will probably have to go for eviction. According to my tenant, he hasn't seen the upstairs tenant in weeks, but there has been a lot of other people coming and going which makes us think he might be subletting. The flats share a communal entrance, where would I stand with (with the landlady's consent) changing the shared front door lock and giving her a key? It's a concern if there's a lot of randoms staying there with no culpability.

search for it on air bnb & b.

vets bills

Are you a (strong) horse irl?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percheron

bnb & b.

Bed & breakfast & ... ?

Thinking about it, I should probably get some evidence. Where can I buy a self contained CCTV camera at short notice?

Afraid not. Beloved cat with cancer (who sadly didn't make it).

where would I stand with (with the landlady's consent) changing the shared front door lock

Ask the freeholder :)

We own the freehold between us.

Then you can change the locks.

It’s up to your LL neighbour to inform and issue the new key to the tenant.

Not saying it’s an good idea though.