Owning your own home

Probably the right answer. Would be a huge expropriation if all ground rents (including relatively sane ones that go up 2-3% p.a.) were zeroed, presumably the government would spend years in court against the insurance companies that own these things to implement it.

#bootlicker

Update in case anyone is thinking about vaillant IQ Green boilers - we now have the f55 fault to go with the temp sensor fault. I have many regrets, but at least vaillant are okay to deal with and get out to repair.

Anyone had any cupboards build into alcoves recently to give a view on price? Been quoted £950+ vat for a single cupboard - trying to work out if that's hugely over budget. It's a low cupboard in a c.130cm alcove, nothing too fancy - but have found it hard getting quotes so wondered if anyone on here could offer a view.

Slightly unhelpful answer (maybe) incoming. It could be cheap, expensive or bang on. Really depends who it’s from and the materials/finish they’re planning to use

If it’s birch ply, properly installed and scribed etc and constructed by a cabinet maker or v good carpenter I’d say it was a good price

government would spend years in court against the insurance companies that own these things to implement it

I think they're more worried about the private estates tbh - the Duke of Westminster owns most of Mayfair and Belgravia, not to mention his rural holdings, and his lawyers have stated their intention to utilise human rights law to resist any such expropriation. I imagine the end point would be something along the lines of what happened when slavery was outlawed in the UK, with the slavers being handsomely rewarded for the expropriation of their 'property'.

You're right it'd be a legal quagmire. But it's also the right thing to do. The outcome of our current system of leasehold, which is more or less unique in the world, is Grenfell. It's the cladding crisis. People's homes need to be homes first, not a revenue stream for third party freeholders. Imo.

I imagine the end point would be something along the lines of what happened when slavery was outlawed in the UK, with the slavers being handsomely rewarded for the expropriation of their 'property'.

If you are comparing ground rents to slavery you can, politely, fuck off. I also think linking ground rents to Grenfell (which was of course council-owned) is a bad faith argument.

Worth having a look on Youtube, there are quite a few easy guides about how to build alcove cupboards and shelving yourself as its a popular thing to do. Depending on how keen/handy you are.

We're considering 3 or 4 low cupboards and shelves in alcoves. Considering the massive quotes, its worth learning to do it yourself. You can also buy off the peg sets that you cut down yourself to fit the space, so not essential to have a spendy London artisan carpenter.

I had these done by https://www.lahartcarpentry.co.uk/ Cupboards were about £600 each (MDF, not painted)

You need more horrible plastic toys in your life. Your curated selection of wood makes me feel inadequate as a parent.

Just out of shot is one of these https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/smastad-bench-with-toy-storage-white-white-s19389152/ full of plastic toys

Thnx all who commented. It's hard to summarise the past years of dancing with planners, banks and builders but below are 5 images.
We could only afford this because we bought it cheap; it was badly listed and there were legal issues with a freeholder. It also helped the costs were spread over so many years. And I did a lot myself: planning negotiations, daylight calculations, party wall, project management, design details (e.g. CNC cut spiral staircases)... We are very lucky to have a good architect, structural engineer and an amazing contractor. I learned a lot, much of which I'm hoping not to need again anytime soon. When it's over, I will probably write up a more detailed account of this.
edit: sorry, image order messed up.

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Don't get me wrong, you can go fuck yourself too, but we were talking about whether it was possible for a government to ban leasehold or if it would be a legal quagmire they'd never get out of. The slavery abolition act is clearly comparable in the sense of a governments obligations to those who benefit from a system which was legal prior to its outlawing - its literally just a question of how much they'd compensate the freeholders for.

And I'm not linking Grenfell with ground rents, but with the whole Leasehold system, and how it disconnects those who buy a building from those who live in it - whether the freeholder is the duke of westminster, a private third party, an offshore organisation, or a council, that disconnect persists. And the power imbalance in leasehold is summarised by ground rents, which are broadly (with some significant exceptions) benign but by the fact that we have one group of people who make all the decisions and have all the money but pay none of the costs, and another which pays all the bills but has very limited recourse to how that money is spent unless they fancy going to court.

I've spent the last four or five years in court against my freeholder. He is a millionaire with a legal team on retainer. We are first time buyers living in an ex council block in east London. More than one of my neighbours has gone long term sick with the stress, one has died. Leasehold is far from benign.

Let's leave the slavery parallel behind. I think it's hugely distasteful to compare a contract freely entered into by two parties (i.e. a ground rent) with humans as chattels.

I've spent the last four or five years in court against my freeholder. He is a millionaire with a legal team on retainer. We are first time buyers living in an ex council block in east London. More than one of my neighbours has gone long term sick with the stress, one has died. Leasehold is far from benign.

I think we have discussed before that I used to live in a flat with the same freeholder. He is a cunt. However, a one-off transfer of the net present value of your ground rent from him to you would not fix any of these issues. He would still be rich, you would be, say, £5k better off? (£150 starting rent & 25 year doubler for 125 years discounted at 5% Sportelli rate). As you know, that amount would not go far in these disputes. The prize they are fighting for in court is not the ground rent (which always gets paid), but the management fees and huge mark-ups on maintenance / major works costs.

I understand emotionally the desire to stick one in the eye of your adversary, but I don't see how it's a relevant substitute for leasehold reform or a justification for expropriation.

Separately, there does appear to be a small number of cases where homebuyers got crap & potentially conflicted legal advice and entered into onerous contracts (10-15 year doublers) without being advised anything was amiss. Those ground rents can also go fuck themselves.

Could anyone please recommend a plaster who will cover Woodford Green? I need to quote to get new the celings board once the artex is removed

That's definitely a mybuilder.com type job imo.

Not saying somone couldn't fuck it up, but it's not complicated.

Already up there, but I thought id ask on the off chance someone could recommend

whether it was possible for a government to ban leasehold or if it would be a legal quagmire they'd never get out of

Parliament is sovereign - They can legislate any quagmires away*. If they so choose to**.

* notwithstanding higher authority made de facto through international agreement. As if that's ever stopped us.

** fucking lol

Owning your own Slave

100% . The reason they don't do it is not because it's not the right thing (steady on the double negatives there, Reeky), it's because it'd piss their freehold owning pals off.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/119110382#/?channel=RES_BUY

With private compact courtyard garden:

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a plaster who will cover Woodford Green?

Big area to plaster over but worth it

my kind of garden

Once you’ve rendered the wood?

Needs to be fitted on the floor usually so you'd have to change the flooring for a start and the systems aren't the cheapest thats for sure. As much as I think its class, price wise its expensive and we dont do very much of it mainly because of that also you need a space usually where you can put the manifold for it all but thats not really a big un.