Owning your own home

What's the catch with that one?

[Insert Catford joke here]

When we were looking to move three years ago, Catford was more expensive than the kinds of places we ended up looking at (East Ham, Forest Gate, grottier bits of Walthamstow). It seems like East London has overtaken it now

bit of a public transport blackhole; great for WFH. Its a good pocket of corbett estate; whats corbett you ask? i will let @6pt answer that.

A shithole.

whats corbett you ask?

effectively stop you moving up the ladder

We won't be moving again after this actually. This will be it. So we want to get as big a place as we can now. Not concerned about trading up in the future.

I suppose it's not just moving up though, it's moving to a different area / change of circumstances / releasing equity for kids / downsizing or whatever. There's certainly a school of thought that says there's no such thing as a "forever home".

I would check whether you can refinance the loan early and stop the equity accrual. That way if the property went up in value or you achieved pay rises etc you can at least limit the damage.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122491823#/?channel=RES_BUY

So I see this has now sold within a few days. What I find perplexing, the work the house has had not withstanding, is these were 400k houses 8 years ago. Its absolutely insane.

£750 per square foot seems excessive for Essex borders.

Nice house, but the money is fuckin funny now and you dont get a lot for a million quid either.

Hello - Need some help / perspectives from the hive mind please.

We had a contractor over to do some fairly chunky repairs to our place last year. It wasn't ££££ but it was a good chunk of money and it all took about three months (often disrupted by weather though, probably eight weeks work all in all) .

In one of the areas that they worked run-off from their work has damaged adjoining parts of the building.

I'd like to replace these parts and I feel the contractor has some responsibility here to help us do that. However, the contractor feels no responsibility to help us out pay for the replacement of the parts damaged by the run off. They feel they couldn't have anticipated or identified the risk up front before proceeding and using the method and materials they did. They feel we can 'put up with' the damage as it's somewhat cosmetic.

I understand this point of view, but I was given assurances that they had experience of working near the kind of materials that have now been irreparably damaged. They didn't raise any risk with us, and showed no sign of uncertainty. A fairly simple search online would have shown that they needed to take precautions.

So I think they were naive and have at least some responsibility if not total responsibility to help us out get back to where we were before the work. We've been discussing this, and although the contractor is keen to remove and replace the materials that have caused the damage, they have dug in on that the damage caused is entirely our problem.

What does the hive mind think? What would the hive mind do?

Did you notify your insurance that you were having work done?

Did you check that the contractor has an insurance policy in place to cover accidental damage to your property?

It sounds like this is something that is best left to insurance companies and therefore your best course of action would be to speak to yours. However, some insurance companies are funny about handling claims regarding building work if they were not notified prior to work starting.

When I say funny I mean total cunts who will try to avoid dealing with it or paying out.

I was keen to sort it informally, because going to the insurance route is likely to be protracted and agonising for everyone, for fairly small beer (about £6ks worth of stuff, really).

But yeah. Contractor is also a member of an association that offers mediation / complaints resolution. I have that route too, if the insurance company is funny.

It sounds like you're covered in terms of being able to get it sorted. There are other options too, for example the small claims court has its own track for disputes around building but is also protected and agonising.

Have you told the contractor that you would like to sort it informally but are willing to look at other options? It may sound a bit odd but customers deliberately finding fault to try and avoid paying or claw back money is a fairly common occurrence. I'm not implying that this is the case here but some contractors assume that this is what's happening every time they have to deal with a situation like yours.

Have you told the contractor that you would like to sort it informally but are willing to look at other options?

Initially, they were reluctant to do take this seriously, but when I mentioned getting the association to decide for us, they changed their tune. They know I'd rather sort it informally and I think they know I dread going down the formal route!

It may sound a bit odd but customers deliberately finding fault to try and avoid paying or claw back money is a fairly common occurrence. I'm not implying that this is the case here but some contractors assume that this is what's happening every time they have to deal with a situation like yours.

I could see that being a problem they have to deal with, I do understand that and I have sympathy for them. They didn't set out to cause me problems. But then I don't think they have dealt with this well.

Spam their trustpilot with stinking reviews

they know I dread going down the formal route!

They will too. Most domestic builders aren't big operations and time / effort that they spend dealing with such stuff can impact their bottom line.

But then I don't think they have dealt with this well.

Again you're likely dealing with a small company or sole trader so their capacity for customer service, outside of being nice when on site, is usually pretty limited.

Does anyone know how I can check if a plan that only involves moving stud walls (attached, but possibly without, kitchen wall so you just walk in and you're in the kitchen) meets fire/building regs? Do I need to apply for planning permission?

Someone told me that flats need a separate door between kitchen and front door. 5 flats in this mid 19th century building

Cheers

2 Attachments

I can't help with your query but every time this floorplan gets posted I have a little chuckle at "not heated corridor" and wonder why the agent felt the need to mention that :-D

Someone told me that flats need a separate door between kitchen and front door. 5 flats in this mid 19th century building

Pretty sure you'll need something as that forms an escape route. It may be a fire door or a sprinkler system or just a load of fire alarms (probably not that one).

I spent a long time looking up various impenetrable regs when I was looking at my place, speaking to someone at building control was an easy way to find out what was and wasn't allowed (and what compromises they would sign off on).

Not sure how high your flat is. 3.18 b ii here might be relevant
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/937931/ADB_Vol1_Dwellings_2019_edition_inc_2020_amendments.pdf

Your layout is fairly unique. Usually the only way an escape route could lead near/through a kitchen is if you have a mist system, or sprinklers installed. Open plan room = corridor/escape route.

You would probably be expected to defend the front door from an overnight kitchen fire so the bedroom occupants had time to escape.

We've used Automist previously which was £2960 + VAT for the following:
2 x Automist smartscan systems
2x wall mounted emitters
2x hard wired Aico
Heat alarm
24 months warranty

Shout if you want other Automist details: pump location and water pressure might be tricky, etc.

Cheers @aggi @JonoMarshall

So be prudent to speak to a building control officer at local council and then submit the finished thing to the council for it to be signed off from a building regs perspective (pre doing the work) which they'd then check after?

The floorplan is a constant nightmare

Building control will usually ask for your plans to be signed off by a fire officer if there's any ambiguity (fire risk assessment/fire strategy plan).

Some slow progress if anyone is interested.
5 sash windows nearly fully refurbished by an absolutely class guy. Lounge fireplace swept and useable. Got the same chimney sweep to fit a decorative fireplace I found on Facebook marketplace. Bedroom and lounge also getting painted from tomorrow. Picture rails also ordered.

Can't believe how much paint is. Even a 5L dulux and a 2.5L Dulux window paint was £136.93

3 Attachments

Decided on hardwick white for the lounge. Weighing up if I need to quickly paint the doors and surrounds after a light sand before the top coat goes on the walls. Might leave them a bit battered for character

2 Attachments