Owning your own home

the saga of my flat sale continues, the freeholder issues from a while back have all been resolved and theyve actually been super helpful lately, and it now turns out our buyers are proper cunts. Had their survey done at the start of October but have waiting til Friday last week to start raising queries about historic cracks in the 300 year old building, demanding proof of listed status signoff for repairs that were undertaken who knows how many years ago, predating our freeholder, demanding the schedule and costs of the cracks to be repaired (they dont need repairing) and also demanding that we cover the cost of any maintenance on those repairs

just say if you want to pay less than you originally agreed, fuck

oh yeah and we picked them cos theyre cyclists, figured we'd be dealing with decent folk

JCT Contracts

This is definitely the advantage of going for standardised contracts - everyone on the same page.

The only thing about holding back such small % is that it may be built into the price.

cyclists are cunts

The consent for works will definitely be their solicitors. The other bits could well be too. Most of the time it’s solicitors, basically just doing their job being super cautious on behalf of the buyer. It’s very rarely buyers being cunts.

They’ll ask a few things, you and your solicitor respond as best you can, they can say they’ve ticked that particular box. Sorted.

These sound like the last bits to me - dig deep, you’re nearly there!

The building might be 300 years old but it's conversation probably less so. If it is a recent conversion and it's covered by the nhbc warranty or whatever it's called, I'd tell them to fuck off

I thought this, so had the agent scope it out and apparently it is the buyers 🙄

Do or die this week, quite literally. Our vendor had a fall a little while back and will never return to the property

I wouldn’t mind if this had come up a while back, but at this point it’s just bullshit. We have a buffer sum we could drop by, at least. Eating into my workshop build budget, but first world problems etc

Just tell them to fuck off.

The cunt who purchased my last house announced he wanted 10 grand off my house 4 months into the process and 6 weeks after he had his survey back.

It was all utter utter bullshit and I never saw the actual survey extracts he relied on- stuff like gutters need replacing - oh right the gutters that are 8 years old and absolutely fine? And the boiler apparently needed replacing - oh right the boiler that works absolutely fine?

I ended up giving him 3k off because my wife really wanted the house we were buying but I also made the agent pitch in 500 quid from his fee for introducing me to such an utter cunt as well. I was however absolutely furious about it.

Anyone have a recommendation for pebbledash removal + repointing (if needed) SE London? Search has failed me...

It’s very rarely buyers being cunts

Yeah absolutely not true. I worked in the industry for 11 years and buyers were more often that not cunts. On par with the vendors tbh. They were all cunts really.

Think it was this Co that did a place in Bexley Village I drive past

https://www.londonrepointingandrestorationltd.co.uk

Also this place round the corner

https://www.sjpointer.co.uk

Amazing, thank you - will give them a call

Ask the architect about using the RIBA contract. In my opinion it is more in favour of the home owner, the JCT contract is in favour of the builder. RIBA is really mainly in favour of the architect, who is god, but I would expect you and the architect to be more often in agreement than you and the builder. There isn’t a “homeowner” organisation that has a contract that is actually in favour of the client as far as I know.

I would not use the JCT contract.

Need a recommendation for a boiler and unvented HW system service in South London. Any plumber I've had before has not been able to stop the HW from dripping through the tundish every time it's running.

We have used Matt @ Wimbledon Heating Ltd a few times, sound guy. Not sure if he’ll cover Thornton Heath (I think that’s where you are).

http://wimbledonheating.co.uk/contacts.html

Could be your expansion vessel diaphragm has gone - A quick check is to tap it & see if it is empty or full.

One would think the previous folks would have checked that. I need a service anyway.

Chap I've used I've always been really happy with: Tom at https://www.iloveboilers.co.uk/

Not sure which area he covers but this guy was good when I used him
https://rokas.london/

Well, day one of 'will the scaffolders turn up on the time they agreed' has come and gone by about four hours.
We've told them we're out for the rest of the day, so if they're going to bother turning up it'll no doubt be then.

I went with 75% payment to the builder in the end, 25% once the scaffoldings gone - we were both comfortable with that and it was all very amicable, not worth fretting over at all.

@Hefty @si_mon628 @konastab01 Thanks!

I'm going to get some quotes from roofers re: replacing the rafter tail, because I think removing roof tiles, and scarfing a good piece of wood is a bit beyond me.

Re: Boilers. It seems that each fitter has a preference ( usually the one particular brand that they trained to fit). Thanks for the advice all.

Hot water packed in t’other day - boiler pressure dropped but resetting that didn’t help. It’s been a nippy week. Have now realised the heating oil gauge is broken and the tank’s run dry.

If that’s the problem, any advice on restarting a heating system that’s probably pulled through air?

I will need some new rads and pipework fitted, will need new pipe run starting from cut pipes in one room and then then out and return with 5 rads but done in 2 stages.
Pipework with tails at correct spacing for rads, then once I have boarded over the pipes, rads and valves fitted, system filled and balanced.
Silly question but do heating engineers get their hands dirty or do they just fit Hive/Nest/Tado for an easy life these days?

Have oil here too, been told to fil it up, leave a while until gravity does its job and then fire up the boiler. If doesn't run then phone this number (heating guy) and he will bleed and change filter.