Owning your own home

In England you can apply for pre-application advice from the local planning officers. You put together a proposal of what you want to build, pop them a few quid, and they give you an idea of whether you'll get consent or what tweaks might be needed to the design. No idea if there's a similar system north of the border though.

are you pondering self-build ? housing market that bad, huh ?

Solicitors fees for a purchase (outside London): what's a reasonable price? I'm worrying that the firm that we're thinking of engaging is silly expensive.

What kind of price is the property? £1k or so for something < £1m, bit more for more spendy stuff.

I got quotes from around 1.2k to 1.6k a couple of months ago (200k house)

Thanks this is really helpful.

I was paying ~ £325 for a window refurb including minor repairs and replacing cracked panes was an extra £50

Which part of the country is that in? Should get a quote back soon myself.

double glazed replacement

Would they be able to put say double glazing in some of the panes and keep the top dome shaped ones single glazed to keep cost down do you think (saves making bespoke double glazing if the rectangular bit is standard)?

I'd go with no fans if necessary rather than window fans though

completely agree. Will ask the neighbouring flats what they do for extraction.

3 quotes attached all for Bristol purchases.

2 for the leasehold flat I am in the process of buying at the moment in Bristol with local firms
1 for a freehold house (firm was in Sheffield) I thought I'd bought before we realised the estate agent gave them the wrong figure...

All were personal recommendations. Went for the more expensive one of the two. Watch out for fees on stuff like Lifetime ISA, gifts etc is using any of that.

Edit - price in there so you can see relative to property price. Imagine they quote more the more expensive the place is and I think leasehold costs more

3 Attachments

Love what you've done with that space!

This was London, and a guy who was very good at what he did with a lengthy waiting list.

I can't imagine there is much cost difference between single and double glazed for one pane but you could always ask. It might look a bit unbalanced as obviously they're spaced differently to fit the thicker glass.

In my last place I just opened the windows for "extraction". Assuming it's not open plan then that's generally fine.

I am getting some built in furniture. A large wardrobe/cupboards/shelving across a wall in a carpeted room.

I’m guessing the right thing to do would be to pull back the carpet and build it down to the floorboards. Then install grip strips along the front of the wardrobe, cut away excess and refit the carpet?

I may just get the room re-carpeted at the same time if I can/should.

It's not just the right, but the only option.

If your builder was happy to leave the carpet down, fire them.

It did seem very strange that the guy seemed to be happy to build on top of the existing carpet, but I’m pretty sure I must have just not been completely clear what I was asking at the time. He comes very highly recommended and had a 6 month waiting list so I’m sure it’s my confusion. So long as I know that there is a right way of doing it and can insist on it if it comes down to it, it takes a weight off my mind - thanks for confirming!

I mean you could but I wouldn't. Just seems short to me, incase you change floor or whatever in future.

All law firms now have to publish prices for conveyancing - so you can search and find some comparisons.

You can always find cheaper, depends on the level of service you're looking for really. No harm in asking why they're more expensive if that's the case.

I'd say the fees Howard suggested are low, but hvsds numbers seem a bit high - lots of variables though.

Seems like a very fair price.
In this flat (pics a few replied back) can't not have an extractor in the bathroom - so not sure what the solution looks like there.
Kitchen will possibly lose its door as the doorway gets widened but won't be open plan.

Bank Telegraphic Transfer Fee

OK Boomer

i'm showing my naivety here but holy shit i didn't realise stamp duty/LBTT was so high

Catalonia is a flat 10% tax

ouch

(i'm assuming you meant Catalonia haha)

Bit sleepy there though, no?

Ideal. I'll send my address and you can visit.

Yeah broken screen is hard to type

Was running the flat I am trying to buy through a property person for some advice and he was saying 2 days ago there was a class MA introduced and you can add 2 flats on to the top of a building under permitted development.... The flat is 1st floor of a 5 storey 100 ish year old building with 5 flats. Freehold is owned by someone external and the flats do day to day management. Will read up on it/ ask solicitor.

He also was saying you really need to find out if there is a contract for decision making on maintenance (i.e. if 1 flat couldn't/wouldn't pay for things) and how much is in the sinking fund. If the day today management is run by the 5 flats and there was nothing formal documented, how much of a problem is that in people's experience?

Thanks :)

Anyone have a dehumidifier could borrow/rent for a week?

http://www.libraryofthings.co.uk ?