Owning your own home

As the others have mentioned, surveyors aren't electricians, and are more likeky covering their back.

Get an Electrical Installation Condition Report.
if it comes back as unsafe it's hard for the seller to argue against negotiating the price of a rewire.

I’d also want to know why it needs a new fuse box.
(IANAE)

Modern consumer unit with RCDs and MCBs vastly reduces the risk of being electrocuted or other electrical incident such as short circuit leading to fire.

(Not an electrician but have experience of friends rewirings...)

A new consumer unit will probably require a rewire anyway (if the wiring is quite old). The RCDs and MCBs are a lot more sensitive and old wiring can often lead to them tripping all the time. Also, old wiring usually has too few circuits and modern day life puts a much greater load on those circuits than was originally intended (more devices, greater individual power demands, etc). Replacing the consumer unit alone doesn't solve this problem, only a rewire does.

The EICR mentioned above would remove all doubt.

Don't forget that rewiring generally requires redecoration too as there's a load of chasing new cables into walls/ceilings/floors/etc. It's also an excuse to future proof your home with networking and capacity for other stuff to be wired in (Sonos, etc).

Thanks for that.

And thanks to everyone else who has contributed as well.

I have emailed an electrician recommended further up, and asked about the EICR and a quotation for a rewire.

I also forgot what the bay window was like - it's actually individual windows separated by brick pillars, with a shared window sill, so it would not be replacing more than one window - hence the low quote.

The roofing work actually shouldn't be massive either - a climbing plant has forced some flashing away from where it meets a wall, and it needs banging back down again (technical term, sorry) and maybe repainting.

I have two years left on a 5 year fixed mortgage and am considering remortgaging to add my fiancée to the mortgage. This would also give us financial stability over the next few years and I may change my job in that time, or we might start a family. Worth doing this before we get married, or after? I suspect I should get "proper" advice albeit not sure whom to approach. IFA? Mortgage broker? Google?

If you are planning on starting a family, might be best not to mention that - a question they ask tends to be about pending changes to your financial situation. Wedding, children etc might reduce the amount they will lend you.

I have two years left on a 5 year fixed mortgage and am considering remortgaging to add my fiancée to the mortgage.

So she's going to contribute money towards the monthly repayments? Why do you need to remortgage for that? She can just give you the money.

Unless you mean gift her a share of the property and update the records on the land registry?

There's a lengthy discussion on this a while back. There were quite a few considerations so you may want to look back and try and find it.

Off the top of my head:
Does your fiancee already own a property, if so then there'll be hefty stamp duty to pay.
What's the value of the outstanding mortgage. Again, this will be assessed for stamp duty.

I don't think being married makes a difference but I'm not 100%.

A bit of reading here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sdlt-transferring-ownership-of-land-or-property#if-you-marry-enter-into-a-civil-partnership-or-set-up-home-together if the property has a reasonably high outstanding mortgage then it's worth looking into it properly with someone who understands the tax implications.

Re: modern electrical goods being higher power and hence demand on consumer units being higher too, I respectively disagree. Energy efficiencies in lighting and heating and washing etc mean that all of those things will draw less current than their equivalents back in the day, I reckon?

@tommmmmmm @Howard @aggi

Thanks, just the sort of thing I needed to get me started on thinking and researching.

We live in Scotland so things are slightly different (no stamp duty, it's LBTT here). What I'm considering appears to be a transfer of mortgage debt and a gift of equity. It would appear that the transferred share of mortgage is below the LBTT threshold so doesn't incur a charge but still must be reported.

Fiancée doesn't own property so no issues there.

I'm considering remortgaging because there are much better deals available than we currently have (the property having gained value thus my equity having increased).

Re: modern electrical goods being higher power and hence demand on consumer units being higher too, I respectively disagree. Energy efficiencies in lighting and heating and washing etc mean that all of those things will draw less current than their equivalents back in the day, I reckon?

It's not those items (lighting, washing, heating), it's the items that didn't really exist (or were much smaller) back in say the 60s.

No 1000W+ microwave ovens in the '60s. No 500W computers back in the '60s. Kettles weren't 2400W+ back then either.

Conventional ovens often ran off a 13A plug (although my modern oven is small enough that it does). Newer ranges can be rated at 40A.

Etc.

One further thing to check would be what the early repayment charge on the mortgage would be - they are often punitive (e.g. ours was £7,000) and apply even if you stay with the same provider. If there's been a significant increase in the value of your property you might save more than that with a better loan to value rate, but in two years when the lower interest rate part of your mortgage is likely to run out, you will be able to take out a new mortgage anyway without paying to leave the old one.

Does anyone have an electrician they would recommend who would work in Forest Gate/East Ham?

I've tried Vanessa Huxford but she took three days to reply last time and said it would take four weeks for a quote. She hasn't replied yet this time.

Has anyone used anyone good who is slightly quicker to communicate?

Refixed for 5 years for about the same rate that I'm currently on. I can't decide what I'm doing a day in advance so 5 years is a big deal for me. Given the looming Brexitgeddon, I'm happy that I can maintain the status quo.
I may be eating squirrels but at least I'll have a roof over my head. Can't believe we've been here for 2 years already. Seems like only yesterday that I was posting the obligatory key shot in this thread.

just completed on a transfer of equity to buy the other half out, fixed for 2 years. mine now.
well, mostly the bank's, but still. more mine.

We're mid-remortgaging right now. Would like to fix for 5 years, but I'm not currently working, so we're limited to a product transfer with the current provider, and their 5 year rate is crippling.

I personally think there is room for another 2 year fix before worrying about rates going up in the longer term. That's what I'll be doing shortly anyway.

How accurate is this:

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-2120599/Do-I-need-tell-mortgage-lender-Ive-redundant.html

(tl;dr - once mortgage in place there's no obligation to tell lender of change in circumstances)

Not redundant but Mrs CYOA hasn't worked for a couple of years as she's been mumming - we've got 18 months left on ours and I'm self-employed - presume options are:

1. suffer the interest hike (do-able but seems stupid)
   
2. remortgage to another lender (presume they'll ask for proof of earnings and they'll be much lower than when we first got on the ladder)
   
3. product transfer with current lender (presume this varies from lender to lender but there's again, presume they'll ask to see updated proof of earnings).
   
   

Presumably, if we apply for a product transfer with current lender and they say 'nah you're not earning enough' they can't renege on the initial mortgage and, as long as we make repayments, they're unlikely to ask for the keys? I suspect the answer would be 'ask them' (Clydesdale) but hesitant to show cards for fear of the worst etc.

I suspect the answer would be 'ask them'

Have a chat with a broker would be my suggestion. They are going to be offered rates that would not be offered to you - we were offered 2.5ish5 by Natwest, by 1.79 through the broker, which more than made up for the fee.

Also, for a product transfer, we aren't being asked for income. Which is good. As i have none...

Are brokers not obliged to tell lenders the situation etc?

Not that our last broker told our lender any fucking thing, of course - even when we wanted them to.

3.product transfer with current lender (presume this varies from lender to lender but there's again, presume they'll ask to see updated proof of earnings).

Didn't need to with Nationwide BS FYI

A FREIND OF MINE... never mentioned change of employment a couple of times. Once I believe he lost his job, or maybe his partner did but they forgot to mention it (he tells me) and just signed the same deal again. Another time I think they went on some bloody hippy gap year type holiday and came back with no jobs and once again just signed the "renew the same" docs.

Not sure I'd have the gaul for those kinda moves myself, plus gap years are for dead beat hippies, but thats my (friends) story.

(tl;dr - once mortgage in place there's no obligation to tell lender of change in circumstances)

Also a friend of mine who was made redundant while the mortgage application was progressing made a mistake of emailing the mortgage advisor to tell the same. Mortgage advisor 'advised' that he/she shouldn't have emailed (in writing) since he/she had the advisor couldn't proceed with application and told him/her to go with some other mortgage advisor and not mention the redundancy.

That friend is doing well .. collects cameras, last I heard.

Not sure I'd have the gaul