Owning your own home

That’s easy to say when just letting them get on with it has resulted in weeks/months of delays and crucial things being missed. Each bollocking resulted in a flurry of activity so micromanaging has been the only way to produce results.
They have actually done some parts of the job very well and worked for our best interests but fallen way below expectations in others.

The condensation won't be down to the felt, it will be down to a lack of ventilation, perhaps someone has installed extra loft insulation and gone right to the eaves, new uPVC fascias/soffits can also cause issues as they seal better than old wooden ones.

The condensation could probably be sorted with a few vent tiles, lap vents or soffit vents (or a combination of all).

My brother's house that was built early 1900s has the original roof and no felt at all!! I think there are still quite a few houses around like thatm

The felt that's in there is totally knackered holes all over the place where the old shit concrete tiles are degrading could be new roof time. Yay!
He did also say about vent and stuff would help but the main issue is the isn't water tight. Fuck

So today is off to a good start, vendors solicitor has now said they are leaving the office at lunchtime and cannot exchange until the new year.
No chance of a relaxing christmas then FFS.

I know how you feel, this happened to us once. Had to rush out and buy a tree etc!

That sucks. Take to the (medicinal) alcohol.

Well at least we have assurances from the seller that they want to get it done first thing in Jan, reason we were so twitchy is they were going to put it back on the rental market after Christmas if we didn’t exchange. thank fuck it was their solicitor that dropped this bomb, if it had been ours our or buyers it would have sunk the deal.

Are there any forum recommendations for removals firms? Hopefully third time lucky and we will complete towards the end of January… we’ll be moving from London to Cornwall FWIW

Fingers crossed for you. This sounds an absolute nightmare

We've used Reliable Moves successfully for the past two moves, one literally up the street and latest from SW London to Glastonbury this summer. Both times they were great. Good luck.

Thanks, supposedly we might exchange this week as the 3 solicitors managed to arrange that while getting pissed on Friday afternoon/getting away for Xmas but it involves getting one of them to sort cover as they are off and somebody deleted a crucial sentence from a document at the last minute that was a bit sneaky so that and going on past cock-ups I will be very surprised if it happens this year.

Nice place to live... I like Somerset, lots of good cycling

The locals will welcome you with open arms..
maybe...
good luck! :)

Got a leak right where a pipe goes into the concrete floor at the back of my kitchen. Plumber due today to have a look but this is going to be a fucker to fix isn't it :(

I am in the process of renovating our house and all of the downstairs pipes run under the concrete floor (and it looks like bare copper in the concrete and not wrapped). It is going to be a ball ache but I am going to re-route all of the piping and drop tails down from the ceilings instead (and box in).

Hopefully your concrete can be chipped away easily and a quick repair made.

Just been mentally surveying the house to see how feasible that would be.... :)

That leak finder guy on Facebook reels loves a good un protected pipe in a concrete floor.
Just feels wrong to me to ever do that, but then I've never been a contractor doing a job on a fixed price and have german suv car payments to make.

Plumber was scheduled to arrive between 10 & 2.... I need to go out now, so will need to reschedule and put up with more days without water or heating. Fuxsake.

Need to re-mortgage end of Jan.

Interest rates are not going to come down any time soon, are they?

Thinking that taking a punt on a reduction in the short - medium term is a very optimistic bet.

I'm end of Feb - debating 2/5yr fix Vs tracker.

I'm thinking 5-6% for a fixed will be the new normal by end of the year.

Tracker around 6-7%

We aren't going back to 1% any time soon, I think.

When you compare mortgage rates to swap markets, they have done the "up like a rocket, down like a feather" thing. Put another way, the money market has almost normalised post-Truss whereas the mortgage market hasn't.

I don't usually say this, but now might be a good time to wait a few months (but then fix for 5 yrs if you aren't going to move). You might see the swap-mtge spread reduce a bit.

but now might be a good time to wait a few months

Hah, yeah, I did that, then interest rates went up again - and does anyone think they are coming down this year, now?

I'm also totally beholden to my current provider as my mortgage is in two bits, one part (the smaller, thankfully) rolling over end Jan, the other bit rolling over Jan 2025. The SVR is currently 6.25%, and they can offer me a fixed two year no fee at 4.8%.

HAPPY DAYS

I am fully expecting interest rates to still be high by the time we re-mortgage in 3.5 years time.. I think I read in a few places predictions are it could peak towards the end of next year at 4.5%

That would be 2 years of interest rate increases - I really have no expertise but I cant see it coming down rapidly / quicker than it went up?

Im actually concerned that theoretically if it does peak in Q4 2023 that only gives 2.5 years for it to come down from the peak by the time I re-mortgage!!

Basically, I dont think there are any good options so pick your poison.

I am really tempted to just go variable for a bit when mine runs out in July. Either that or fix for a year (if available).