Owning your own home

I suspect they don’t need more money or to be more efficient- in London they are just raking it in.

Yeah, very true, but if the amount of money is fine then they could just reduce the amount of time they work. And far too many don't consider how their role impacts others (such as leaving work areas ready for the next person).

My experience of this has been terrible. It's one of the main reasons I do so much stuff myself. I had two people round to quote for fixing my rotten front door sill a couple of years ago and neither of them followed up. It made me think there might be a business idea in some kind of concierge service for trades to handle the comms, booking jobs in, general customer service. But it would be a fine balance to manage it because I suspect that a many people in the trades prefer control and freedom over providing that level of service. Take too much control away and they won't sign up for it.

+1 to the tradesmen are useless cunts chat. booked in 5 people to come and look at my roof and not single fucker has bothered to even pitch up.

The only exception being Oskars, the man-machine who does our paving. Arrives on time, does what he says he gonna do, no hidden costs and leaves as if he was never there... the Estonian happy house played on 11 take some getting used to.

New firm coming round on Sunday to quote for stuff that's already been quoted for at least once by others. So we'll see. Initial comms are good. And they are a new firm, two guys who both worked for other firms setting out on their own so hopefully the eagerness to build up a good reputation works in my favour. Waiting for confirmation of their insurances etc for the new firm before any work starts, natch.

I suspect they don’t need more money or to be more efficient- in London they are just raking it in.

Not just London, up here in Leeds the same. Only had one actually say to me that they are that busy, won't even book to quote until August, then if quotes they are doing before then come in that gets pushed back.
Only after a porch with toilet in 3m x 2m

Same here. Trying to get my front yard area sorted, everyone who has come to quote has gradually stopped responding.

I've been waiting 18mths for a builder to come and build us a garage, he's getting a shit Google review for his trouble this week...

Came highly recommended, has been out to our place twice, seemed a lovely chap, even met his cute kids, I was happily emailing his wife for info... He's been ghosting us for about three months now...

I know my sister's useless twat of a partner used to send out massively high quotes for jobs he didn't want to do, the idea being they'd either piss off or happily stump up the readies... Loads of rich clients in Belgravia, Pimlico, Kensington, Chelsea, Fulham, etc... Fifteen years ago he paid for a £250k flat with cash...

We're not London either, just outside Glasgow. Easy to get people round, they are doing very detailed quotes which I imagine take them considerable time, they are then happy to go back and forth amending the quote as needed. We get just to the point of asking when we could book them in and then they go silent.

We're now scraping the barrel of recommendations and local-ish firms as we've exhausted so many. Starting to feel like it's the work we're asking to get done vs builder being poor at comms.

@cozey never hear a peep from your guys despite them replying saying they were very interested. Sent the drawings now they won't reply to my emails!

I can't even consider doing an extension myself so :shrug:

It made me think there might be a business idea in some kind of concierge service for trades to handle the comms, booking jobs in, general customer service.

They exist. As an example we had some insurance work which was done through Masterfix. The guys that turned up were self-employed. It was all quite thorough, they were very skilled and fairly good with detail (although at least one was an anti-vaxer and they didn't lift electrical accessories when painting walls). Not sure what their premium is.

It made me think there might be a business idea in some kind of concierge service for trades to handle the comms, booking jobs in, general customer service

I think this is what Pimlico Plumbers pretty much is (possibly was, I have a feeling they had some cases over whether or not they were an employer).

Maybe when commercial premises open again availability will get better. Imagine a lot are doing restaurant / office renovations whilst they are empty .

Lots of domestic too. People like me in their home a lot more than usual so more annoyed with the list of jobs that haven't been done and a bit of free cash since it isn't being spent on a fortnight in Mallorca.

Tradesmen going quiet just means they have enough work right now, maybe one job lined up after their current one but rarely more than that. If there's one you liked but went quiet give them a nudge in a couple of months because they may have assumed the job went to someone else.

I dont get that either, I just tell people if we are too busy. You do miss the odd phone call so sometimes its easier to get a text and you can pick it up when youve got s min.

This is it, in a nut shell

I think in theory that sounds good, but I would want anyone booking in stuff for me as if they are a manager for you. Most trades do work on there own timescale.

Starting to feel like it's the work we're asking to get done vs builder being poor at comms.

Yes definitely a factor. Small yet awkward jobs are the hardest to get done. I gave up trying to get a small tiled bathroom floor (about 8 tiles total) relaid because no-one wanted the hassle

Has anyone sold a flat where they’ve owned a share of the freehold, not as a company but a deed of trust or similar*?

What was the process? Is it just another bit of paperwork for your conveyancer or solicitor to process? Simple, or ballache?

*Is there another way of jointly owning a freehold?

Yes (I assume it was that, me and the bloke in the flat downstairs jointly owned the freehold as individuals). Just an extra bit of paperwork for me and the guy who owned the other half of the freehold.

Fine so long as the other party is onboard

Should be straightforward - flat owners often own their freehold as joint tenants. There could be an express agreement that the freehold is to be transferred to the new flat owner when any flat is sold, or just an implicit agreement. Nothing complex for a solicitor, it's just a transfer for £1 from A & B to A & C. But of course, depending on the specific situation, there can be extra niggles.

Thanks both. Seems much simpler than forming a company just for two flats in a Victorian terrace.

Yes, that's the position I was in. Myself and the guy downstairs jointly owned the freehold and our individual flats each had a lease.

It was made simpler by there being very few communal costs, the only communal area was the front door and a 6' corridor so the only real cost was joint buildings insurance. The leases split the building up so the upstairs flat was responsible for everything from the first floor upwards (including the roof) and downstairs for the bottom half.

27 weeks after having our offer accepted and we thought we were finally ready to set a completion date. Nope - have just been informed that the seller hasn't found somewhere to move to yet.

I have a friend on the other side of that. He has put his house on the market and found a buyer but doesn't really know where or what he wants to move to, apart from to downsize, so nothing is happening.