Owning your own home

Did I mention I went to Oxford?

I went to Oxford too.
A one-day XML course at the computing centre.

What? It fucking counts.

Also, are there elite universities that are not Oxford? #golf

Clearly someone didn't get into Art History at St.Andrews then...

Fair point. To get onto a history of art degree you need to be at least a member of the gentry don't you?

They let any old commoner read it these days, one of my partners dergree's in it and shes northern!

one of my partners

How many do you have?

#ubinschicked

#bringbackrep

Has anyone moved in the last couple of weeks and if so what have you done setting up a gas supply contract? I'm hearing comparison sites aren't operating at the moment and prices are quite high.

Hopefully completing on a flat soon which was tenanted until this weekend. They were with British gas and I'm sure their contract will have ended as they've moved out.

Who pays the (likely minimal) gas/electric/water between them moving out and me moving in?

Last viewing today hopefully so long as it is clean and the tenants are actually out.

The current landlord should, you just need to take an opening meter reading the day you take ownership.

Got a TMH viewing coming up, read this and thought it was prime golf club material, though the price was dropped after a month so maybe the TMH tax doesn’t really exist.

An internal third-floor lobby leads to the front door of the apartment, which is finished in a bright orange. The apartment retains its defining modernist features while benefitting from the introduction of considered contemporary touches, resulting in a bright and airy space that is perfect for modern living.
The door opens to an internal hall and living room, where west-facing Crittall windows span the entire width of the room and allow in an abundance of natural light. Grounded by timber floors in a dark wash, white walls promote the flow of natural light that streams through the treetops and characterises the homes on the Dulwich Estate. There is space for dining at one end of the room, where an original sliding door opens to reveal a kitchen replete with black rubber floor tiles and a corner Crittall window."

TBH this is just standard estate agent guff with “Crittall” spelled correctly. Twice!

they missed a trick on the floor though "Grounded by timber floors in a dark wash”
it’s actually the original solid teak floor which looks fantastic.

Sweet! By chance British gas came round when i was viewing it today because the tenants hadn't been paying their bills. He took a gas and electricity meter reading and marked it as vacant, which I think is a good thing.

Gas meter is under the bath and he said they'd probably move it

Our solicitors moved us to a new case handler/lead who's a whole load more responsive and pro-active than the first, which is a breath of fresh air.

^me two weeks ago...
...called up today as no word on the four outstanding enquiries (originally sent a month ago, chased the stragglers two weeks back) to be told the new person no longer works there and my case has gone back to the original solicitor who wasn't available but is definitely going to ring me back. Great fun, this!

Question on mortgage term lengths if anyone's already worked through this recently.

We're very far in the buying process. But it's still possible to change a 2-year into a 5-year mortgage at a slightly higher rate (original quote, in July, was 0.5% more - I suspect it'll be higher now if they need to re-write the terms though).

At 0.5% higher I'd spend about 2k more over the first two years. But I think it's possible that rates will jump to a point where I'd eat that 2k savings (and then some) in the following 3.

Anything else I'm not considering?

Check the early repayment charges?

Hitting a new LTV band when you remortgage (through value of property increasing or repayment) and being able to get a better deal even if rates have gone up.

The possibility of moving house in the next 5 years.

Ultimately there's no right answer

To add to that - we initially regretted doing a 5 yr fix then moving after 1, but we were able to port and it actually worked out cheaper to have the ported mortgage plus the new ‘top up’ mortgage than we could have got otherwise.

not saying it isn’t more complicated, but thinking ‘what if we might move’ might not be as strong a reason not to fix as you thought - depends on circumstances.

Same here but after 3 years of a 5 year fixed. Porting is a very good option.

You'll need to build an independent wall to make any difference. Prob lose 70mm of floor space but they're very effective if done properly. Check Part E of the Building Regulations for more details.

First thing I did either side of each downstairs fire place when we moved in to our semi.

Anything else I'm not considering?

Changes in income / outgoings. Ie kids.

Yes, it all depends. Mine was a ballache to port (going from one person to two people buying and a shift in LTV) and ended up paying it off but it's just another thing to consider.

Was going to add this one too,

We decided to start moving during my wife's maternity leave and as a freelancer running a LTD company it put our plans of porting the mortgage into the dirt, our mortgage broker has said they've become pretty strict in recent years

We timed it perfectly with our first as my OH would have had no income had we gone for a shorter term. We were then just very lucky with the timing of our second.

Higher education would be another eg. Say if one person did a PhD.

It also depends on how much your default rate is and whether you could manage it for a bit.