Owning your own home

Another question. If you buy a new house before selling the old flat, then sell a few months later do you lose out on the 0% SDLT below 500k as you are technically buying a second home? I know you can claim a refund on the additional 3% second home allowance but I guess it's not the case here.

I don't think so. You'll pay the second home rate on everything above £500k

I think I just answered my own question. I just found the HMRC stamp duty calculator and it looks like if you are changing your primary residence, you would have to pay all the SDLT but can claim it back (including the amount you would save due to the SDLT holiday) if you sell within three years. So more up front, but you can get it all back, not just the additional 3%.

Thanks @Señor_Bear @aggi

Anyone live around Lloyds Park area of croydon..? quite a few nice houses round there at ok prices

just move to catford !

Have you been there?
You should go there.

O/H didnt really like it, we did a few drive around the houses we were interested in

Just buy the damn house already, another two on my road have sold recently, it's going to be all yuppies by the time you get here!

yeah, we drove around there last night it was pretty quiet,

@6pt runs an Airbnb Experience for first time buyers; £99+VAT per person

Just move to Walthamstow!

we're not FTB ;)

fuck no, #south

Just buy the damn house already, another two on my road have sold recently, it's going to be all yuppies by the time you get here!

Quoted for posterity.

Yes. It is.

Though, there's some rare raves that happen around there too.

We had a couple who had bought recently pop round and turned out they were in the movies, but they bailed because it was too povo after all...

Just as an illustration, my purchase was delayed for two weeks at the last minute as the bank has a large backlog on releasing mortgage funds that they'd neglected to mention.

Fortunately everyone (apart from the estate agent for some reason) was surprisingly amicable about it when we told them on the morning of exchange.

.

We're picking up pace looking at potential new gaffs. Really good mix in our budget. Some at the top end that don't need anything doing, some at the lower end that would likely take up the amount save to get them to the standard of the top end. All totally normal, I hear you say.

My problem is, I don't know what is required to do, say, an extension to make a bigger kitchen, knock through a wall to make what was a separate kitchen and diner into a combined one.

Obviously, nobody can really give an idea of costs with that kind of vague detail. But what are the steps involved in doing something like this? I am not creative enough to even be able to describe what I want. Does an architect get involved first? A surveyor? A builder? What steps do you need to take for these kinds of works?

I am totally ignorant when it comes to this.

Never done it but guessing secure financing > engage architect > verify permissions and structural soundness > get builder > start smashing shit up

Always use an architect though, I can't live with another orange brick box tacked to the back of a house

For extensions there's guidelines
https://householdquotes.co.uk/cost-of-extension/

But for internal remodeling there's a lot of unknowns, anything to do with knocking walls down will need a structural engineer and survey before you'll know if it's even possible.

i. Check planning permissions for similar size / scope alterations
ii. Get offer accepted
iii. Get surveyor as normal but make sure they know your intentions
iv. Buy the house
v. Get an architect to make the plans and get help with planning permission
vi. Get a structural survey
vii.Get contractors in to do the work

There are companies that can do combinations of iii - vii

Important to get an early idea of cost square foot of your works.

50k min.
"£67,000 in London at the upper end." isn't right. You can spend as much money as you've got.

I looked up architects I liked, got turned down by most for not having enough budget, talked to the few that didn't, had them round to quote/chat, talk scope and costs a lot (most people talked sans vat and fees, which is stupid IMO because we are B2C not B2B so why omit VAT?).

Ended up going with Architects that also built due to horror stories from every other single person we talked to. Came in on time and on budget, but you could defo get cheaper.

Here is an example of what I found for 75K.

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