Owning your own home

Yeah I’ve been doing the same, it always gonna get blocked cause they literally drive up the front of the co-op and take 5 minutes before parking warden come.

If you film them actually driving over the pavement to park there, you can report them to Met RoadSafe and they'll be fined. Top tip.

Hah, I’ll just keep pestering the council to put bollard around that areas.

Despite the occasional speeding and weird parking, it’s still a pretty good place (coming from Stanstead Road, it’s a hella lots quieter!).

Anyone dealt with local searches in Hackney recently? Has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works of a hopes of a quick purchase. A new system is hinted at being released in ‘Spring 2023’ but no guarantee of when or if a full search will be possible.

Solicitor is suggesting we give it 2 months to see if a full search becomes available which is a bit of a bummer. The other option is getting a partial search with indemnity insurance but run the risk of getting fucked over with something unknown.

Not too sure what to do, smart thing is probably to wait but it would suck to wait and then nothing ends up getting launched/only a partial search is available.

There's a special place in hell for sellers who demand more money at the 11th hour just because some shitty estate agent has told them that they may be able to get more money elsewhere.

Ask if the local agent knows of any other local properties who would share their recent searches for £50. Then take out the indemnity too

My peak cunt seller story on this is a mate who were renting the flat they were buying. There was an issue with one of the boundaries from the 70s or something when it was split into flats. The seller/their solicitor took ages to pass on all the docs.

As time passed property prices in the local market increased.

You can guess what the seller decided to do.

Man wee bridge as it's known in this house.

And last week we saw a man pissing there. Like he just didn't care.

Also: It's still fucking catford.

Scenic tales of Catford #223. I think there's a postcard of that one in the tourism office.

It was quite special and a proper "white middle class rad dad golf club" post coming up:
kids in cargo bike, coming back from swim training, "oh look man wee bridge", man pissing under stairs, one kid covers eyes, other kid oblivious.
Point out what has happened to kid who was oblivious, gales of laughter.

Anyone fancy giving some opinions on (an extract from) the survey report we've just had back?

It's an early 1900s stone-built terrace in a Welsh valley town, so damp is to be expected, but should I be worried? Roof issues are my main concern and will likely send us back to the seller to renegotiate, but any views would be incredibly appreciated cos I have no idea what I'm doing here.

1 Attachment

• Survey extract.pdf

Anyone got a recommendation for a waste disposal / house clearance company for south west London? Need to start clearing parents house and starting with a full garage (full of shite).

it is advisable to have the walls periodically checked, every 5 - 10 years by a registered cavity wall tie replacement company

They call it riding the gravy traaaaaaiaaaaiaann...

(Sure useful comments will come along soon, but that made me chuckle)

It's an early 1900s stone-built terrace in a Welsh valley town, so damp is to be expected, but should I be worried? Roof issues are my main concern and will likely send us back to the seller to renegotiate, but any views would be incredibly appreciated cos I have no idea what I'm doing here.

I mean, at face value there are some serious problems. But was it sold (and priced) to you as a palace? Seems the roof is probably leaking and a bit shit, the extension is shoddy, the windows are basic and have issues and overall it hasn't been maintained. Does this information surprise you?

That's a very fair summary, cheers - was definitely priced a little higher than other places on the same street, but far from palace pricing either. Windows are no surprise given we already knew they're at least 15 years old, so roof is the only real surprise. Already reaching out to local roofers to get a gauge on what it'd cost to repair, and will likely go from there.

After replacing LOADS of rotten timber (joists and footings) on our Victorian terrace I would have relished this level of warning beforehand. Our main issue was a gutter that terminated to NOTHING for 30 years and sloshed rain water around the front of the house below floor level.

Rotten timbers are 'ok' if you get a discount and plan a complete gut and refurbishment. But if you don't plan on that then I would steer clear... if the damp/rot persists then you would eventually expect ceilings to crack/fall and floors to start creaking/dropping.

It's not the sort of work that you can do bit-by-bit, I would want to pull up all the floors, splint all the timbers in the roof and check joist ends where they meet the wall... probably price in replacing half of your ceiling joists too, etc.

That better be cheap because it looks like it needs quite a bit of work

It doesn't mention that the internal plaster finish may be coal dust plaster (because Victorian and Wales), which is fucking terrible stuff, and worth being aware of if you have to strip the plaster to sort the damp.

internal plaster finish may be coal dust plaster

Christ alive

That better be cheap because it looks like it needs quite a bit of work

Hah - great roundup of all these very helpful thoughts. Does look like a bit of a mess, and that's without even thinking about coal dust plaster which I did not know was a thing (yikes)

https://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/1563/

We stripped 3 big walls in a place that had coal dust plaster and raked out all the coal dust mortar in Cardiff. Wasn't the nicest experience but it was much like removing very old render/plaster and mortar other than it was black which did mean you had to seal everything off very well. Which of course I didn't #yolo

Just had a notice to repair the roof and exterior decoration on our small block of 14 flats built 1986.
they want 140k-17k my share which is frankly taking the piss when it’s actually only one quarter of the roof over one flat with 3 dormers where there is a leak that has been bodged, the owner doesn’t live there as she is caring for a parent but water is getting to the flat blow.
my facia boards will need replacing at some point but there is no water ingress over any of the other top 3 flats and my roof is fine and has had a breathable membrane under the tiles fitted at some point which i presume is there same for the other flats. no tiles missing, no dropping soffits and the guttering is all working as it should.
to look at the 3 quotes you have to go to the office in Epsom.
the above includes 14k of surveyors fees.

Looks we are all having a day trip to Surrey then.

I don't miss flat ownership at all. Always feels like someone is making hay off you.

Legally, I think you can recommend/put forward someone else to quote if you need to get your own comparable.