Owning your own home

#rep

On the heat pump chat, looks like they might move some charges from electricity bills to gas bills to cut gas usage and increase heat pump uptake
https://www.ft.com/content/54b437ad-4683-434e-89aa-e26772092b31

pay wall

Incognito window -> google.com -> paste the ft.com link -> follow it. Works 9 times out of 10.

Yeh, just google the article title from the paywall page and it will normally let you access it

Otherwise paste it in:
https://archive.ph/
This creates a webarchive page you can read it on, this works well for The Times paywall which the normal tricks like incognito mode or clearly cookies dont work on

Excellent.

The problem with new bulls is that they’re so efficient at retaining heat that summer can be unbearable.

Been brilliant to have instant cooling capabilities. Cost efficient to. Cooling a room by 5 degrees for a day is less than 1kw of energy.

Poor design by the architect if you have overheating in summer. It should be the core consideration for super insulated dwellings below 100sqm.

Yep. If the building can retain heat in winter it should be able to prevent it from getting in and be capable of providing circulation and heat escape in summer time.

(Suspect in this case it’s probably more an expectations vs. Reality thing though).

It's a new build from a smaller developer. I don't think much if any thinking went into it. We've already applied solar reflective film to all south facing windows and the air con was the last resort in order to cool down the house in summer. Often seeing internal temps of 28+...

Gah, that sounds annoying, could you introduce exterior blinds/shading perhaps? Or plant a big deciduous tree?!

I'm in a new build block of flats from Taylor Wimpy. It's simply too hot for 8 months of the year. In the summer it's unbearable, in 2 years I think I've turned the heating on maybe a dozen times.

With this whole global warming thing, it feels like our building regs are just catching up to deal with Neolithic winters not the present day scenario.

It's not global warming, it's poor execution! You can use super insulated homes/passivhaus modelling to lower air con bills in hot climates too.

You need almost zero space heating requirement and the percentage of hours that the building is over 25 degrees C to be less than 5% (fewer than 18 days annually).

Who is the forum recommended party wall surveyor property is in North London.

This.

Insulation work both way; stop not only hot air from escaping but stop hot air from entering.

20/07 offer accepted on a flat which is/was currently rented out. Told earliest tenants could be out was 17/09
02/08 draft contracts
11/08 initial enquiries e.g. show me a copy of the tenants notice, management company info etc
14/09 follow up enquiries (post survey)
15/09 mortgage offer
23/09 and 27/09 chasing

Tenants should have been out almost 2 weeks ago but they're still there (lights were on last night). Raised this with the estate agent, who will mention to the sellers. Not sure why they're still there and why they're so slow, as they want to sell that flat and it's completely chain free. The did agree to knock 5k off the back of a letter I wrote last week which related to the survey results. That surprised me, as one of the things I asked for was money off to reflect their not being much in the sinking fund (based off what the neighbour said).

Anyway, is this length of time normal, and is there anyway I can apply further pressure? I'm happy with the price and want the flat, but they're taking so long.

:(

Edit - they clearly don't care about the place being void for 1-2 months if they're willing to knock 5k off without any counter negotiation. Which is why I'm confused as to why the tenants are there. Also don't get why they're not pushing the solicitor to expedite the sale

Are you sure there were people in? Someone might have just left the lights on after doing some cleaning or checking after the tenants have actually gone.

New builds from larger developers are likely worse for heat management.

Our 3 storey new build townhouse was hitting internal temps of 27 in the summer on the top floor, not great for the 18 month old.

Solar reflect film is a good shout, we have Juliette balconies so installing them should be easy enough.

Not unusual overall time scales.

There are some councils (Dorset springs to mind) where local searches are taking 70 working days to come back.

Not sure why the tenants are still there, but as long as they are out before you complete, no major issues.
You can’t really force someone to kick out the tenants in advance, especially while there is no contract exchange commitment.

Solar reflect film is a good shout

This is the stuff we used... definitely reduced heat at the back of the house.

Doesn't solve the issue completely but also wasn't that expensive, helps with the problem and doesn't perceptibly reduce the level of light.

Tenants should have been out almost 2 weeks ago but they're still there (lights were on last night).

Probably cause they’re still paying rent to the landlord so the landlord don’t have to pay for his mortgage himself until it’s officially time to move out.

Anyway, is this length of time normal

Seemed so, our took longer than your currently, I know some people took a year (!!) to finally move in,

11/08 initial enquiries e.g. show me a copy of the tenants notice, management company info etc

14/09 follow up enquiries (post survey)

This is probably not a helpful comment, but waiting over a month after raising enquiries (and presumably not getting answers) was an error

First time I've spotted this in our area: Estate Agent charging buyers £300 once offer accepted and then 1.5%+VAT of final purchase price.
Surely the EA would have more incentive to work for the buyer than the seller?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114221489#/?channel=RES_BUY

Fuck that, plus a million quid. Double fuck that.

Surprised no-one has thought of it before. Looks like they don't charge the seller, charge the buyer instead. Suggest it's mainly for probate properties.

No gimmicks, hidden costs or corner-cutting in the service we deliver. We simply pass the fee from the seller to the buyer for the benefit of the estate.

That's more of a cheapskate move than selling on purple bricks.