Owning your own home

My mortgage renewal was due and I calculated I was 4% over an LTV threshold, below which were cheaper deals come December 31st (when it goes to standard rate).

This was about 2 months ago... and I figured fuck it, let's just see what happens.

What happened? Checked today and they've increased the HPI estimate for the property and it's £31 over the threshold and so I've pushed the buttons on the cheaper deal.

I feel so effing smug right now.

It’s fine once you paint it.

someone was telling you a tall tale. highly unlikely

Someone was telling me the other day that if you tell the bank you're planning to rent a room out, they will give add the annual rent x 4.5 or whatever it is on to your salary?

lol

I think that could be done... claiming rent as part of income so that it is factored in.

But... there be dragons.

i.e. HMRC and claiming rent from a rented room.

Up to something like £7.5k (£625 per month) it's tax free and if it's reliable income you can certainly declare it as part of your income. But... above that, and you need to make sure that you're basically declaring it right, paying tax on it, etc. I'm not sure how that tax is calculated as I don't rent out a room... but income tax maybe via self assessment?

Edit: Found details: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/rent-a-room-scheme-how-it-works-and-tax-rules and yup it's just tax free income up to a low threshold, and then either you need to opt-in and do it right or it's just income taxable.

As to how it affects a mortgage, it's just income. For remortgage, etc I doubt you can declare that you "intend to rent a room" without proving the income some way. Perhaps for a new property it is possible to convince some banks that you are going to rent a room... YMMV

i just think it is unlikely a bank would offer you more than the standard 4-5x salary just on the basis you "intend" to rent a room out.... that is in no way a form of "guaranteed" income in their eyes

unidrain highline custom

These look lovely, but has anyone used one of these irl or knows someone who has?

I'm curious as to how it works with hair and cleaning. Particularly if one person has long hair that gets everywhere.

Or is it just a case of getting a cleaner and having them figure it out?

I assume you can lift the long section to remove whatever from a trap?

Sounds delightful

thanks to covid, we've been doing nothing in the right order. House fully plastered in June. Come December, windows are finally going in. Two windows to go... literally every wall has cracks in the plaster. the only walls that seem to have been spared are the walls the windows are in.

Anyone else had this? Something I can shrug off or do i need to be concerned about plastic (I hate myself) replacing old aluminium bolted to timber?

It's all going to crumble and kill us isn't it? sobs

We looked at something like this. As I recall it came with some kind of pump that activated when the trap was filling.

Has anyone had shutters fitted and have a ballpark figure for a bay, two double casements and a single casement?

I got a quote for plantation shutters in my bay windows. £5,200

Currently using bin bags and googling cheap blinds

1 bay = £1500-ish

That's the other thing I wondered, whether they drain as well.

Lifting the trap seems logical, just wondering how easy it is and how it plays out irl. What appeals is that if water drains along the whole length, you could have a mini version of those gutter leaf blockers - it would be amazing if someone made a disposable biodegradable one.

OK, had a quote for £1,800 all in so that seems very reasonable. It's not a very big bay.

that seems similar to what mine was for two doubles (1500ish)

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/81499906?utm_content=v2-ealertspropertyimage&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emailupdates&utm_campaign=emailupdates3day&utm_term=buying&sc_id=33754207&onetime_FromEmail=true&cid=700d03ca-a89d-4c66-abf1-745fb9109378&csg=d35a5712d340ea310486082065a8bae0e255c2c9752bcd1c55cb70b88cdb099d#/

This has gone up and sold within 3/4 days. 100k ish below market value on the street for a nice one, even though needs a bit of work. Some landlord will make a killing letting it out as a 4 bed for £2200 a month ish.

@Velocio @swedeee cheers. In Bristol as an young person, given the state of house prices and amount of young people, and given how much interest the spareroom house I'm in currently gets when someone moves out and how hard it was to get a spareroom, I'd say it is fairly certain someone could let out the second double bedroom in a 2 bed flat in a good area for 600+ a month easy. Hoping to buy next year so I'll make that case to my bank and report back (ignorance is bliss and all that )

I'll be super honest with something... if you don't actually plan to rent a room, don't do this.

Why? Because the max mortgage they'll give to you is already going to be painful. If you fib to bump it up you may be lining up way too much pain for yourself.

This is before factoring in whether a bank would actually accept the argument (which I'm doubtful of as they really do thoroughly check the proof of income).

@Velocio I genuinely do plan to and have mates who would move in. Also have quite a healthy deposit due to a family tragedy when i was a kid, so mortgage payment on a 2 bed flat will be negligible if I let a room out and then will have to pay bills. Currently paying 600 in rent monthly comfortably and able to save a lot, so expect the above to come in at about half that.

You've replied a few times me on the forum (this thread, encryption thread) - always super helpful so cheers for that. If you don't mind, please can I drop you a PM later on this topic? Don't want to share personal details and finances on internet really even though it's anon

I reply ad-hoc, and I'm not by any means a specialist in this stuff... I've never rented out rooms having gone from homeless > squat > homeless > council flat > owning a flat... I've never even rented shared accommodation.

When I reply it's first-hand or second-hand info... in this case second-hand as I've known a lot of colleagues who have moved to the UK and sought to buy a property and struggled to afford it by themselves (even on tech wages).

But sure, feel free to PM.

Also interested. I currently have a circular trap with a little net inside and I am sure I am emptying it around twice a week (three long haired ladies in the house). It’s gross and I don’t see the benefit, my last place in London was just shower in the bath and it all flowed away. If anything got stuck (rarely) just throw some drain unclogging granules and it was fixed the next day.

What am I missing?

I have similar draining thing in my sink in my downstairs and its fine, not sure if showers are the same but you just lift that long thin bit off and its pretty regular underneath.

Cheers.

In my lotto house I'd have some sort of super macerator built into all the plug holes.

Or maybe just my own bathroom.