Owning your own home

14k surveyors fees, what the fuck they surveying for 14 grand.

a 40 sqm roof with 3 small dormers and just one pitch, the other side of the ridge is my roof with a brick wall in between the 2.

I feel your pain. Lambeth council fucked us on Section 40 major works. Total licence to print money. So glad to be out of that situation. Never again.

I hear residents of The Barbican are looking at 80K bills for roof and window repairs...

Very common around here, virtually all the heritage mortar/plaster is black. It's a bitch to do anything that involves disturbing it (just mess, don't think it's particularly more unhealthy than gypsum dust) but largely unavoidable on anything Victorian.

Get your own quote. And ask if localised repair has been considered.

I’m about to ask a roofer I know socially to have a look, we will also get copies of the estimates. No way does this need 100k to fix

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

Remember you can challenge the scope, applicability, and necessity of major works using the Section 20 process. You can also nominate contractors. We were able to reduce the scope of our major works because the freeholder was trying to put in improvements when our lease only allowed repair. £500 with a leasehold specialist lawyer can save you tens of thousands.

That'll go even more if you can prove that the leak is as a result of a specific leaseholder with a trace survey!

The roofer has said “I deal with this all the time, management companies wanting leaseholders to pay for unnecessary work”
Hopefully we can get him to visit and recommend the scope of work needed to fix the dormers and not £140k of new roof

I think this has been asked before but I can't find it.... are humistat/humidity bathroom extractor fans worth it/any good? Quite like the idea of a fan not coming on after a quick piss in the night. Also feels more efficient if it is only triggered at a certain level.

Remember mgmt companies usually take a %age of the total cost of the work, so it's in their interest to have the greatest possible scope & cost.

I suppose it depends how you define 'worth it'. I have the Vent Axia Svara, which seems to work quite well. Can set night time hours where it only runs on a trickle, or set it so that it only turns on after x mins of the light being on (in addition to humistat). This video's quite a good explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvSE9aAmeGk

cheers!

Thanks all for the previous advice re: the leaky house in Wales. Unsurprisingly, we've pulled out of the purchase - much better to lose a grand on survey/search fees now than end up in the hole for £20k+ of work down the line. Onwards!

Solid decision - everything costs twice as much as you think as a FTB too.

If old Peter Ward has taught us anything, it's to be weary of surveyors using moisture meters designed for wood as well.

So 5 months after accepting an offer, the sellers of the house decided to try and hold us hostage for another £50k. We told them to feck off and that's that. Back to evenings on Rightmove.

Found a project house. Will need new electrics and possibly new heating (although boiler looks relatively recent). Hopefully going back for a second viewing with a builder later this week. We think it's liveable as is, and we wouldn't extend, but would remodel internally at some point.

Is there anything that any one wishes they had done/know now having taken on a project themselves?

As pleased as I am with the end result of my project house, it has been very very stressful and my wife was going ape shit about the mess on a daily basis. Had I known how stressful it would have been I would have thought very carefully about undertaking such a project whilst living there.

the sellers of the house decided to try and hold us hostage for another £50k

Oof! Poor form!

I'm also intrigued what happened here

Boom boom can you expand on what happened?

We've got electric underfloor heating of some kind in our place with some kind of ye olde worlde thermostat in degrees kelvin or number of fish past the moon cycle or some shit.

Can this be replaced with something modern with timers and stuff? Does it need a sparky to do it (I'd probably get one anyway coz I'm fucking lazy/busy). What would you replace it with and any idea how much would it cost?

(no, it wasn't us that painted over it)

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You'd need to check what wires are underneath but most of these things are just a temp sensor and a circuit that turns on / off when the sensor is above / below the set thing.

That means that you should be able to easily swap it out for something metric or smart of whatever.

Post a pic with the cover off.

anything that any one wishes they had done/know now having taken on a
project themselves

Whatever number you're thinking of, x minium 1.5

No, no, turn around. Do it... very slowly. Good. Slowly. Dance for me. No, dance sexy!

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Wow, that really is just a switch. No power to it so most of the usual "smart" things won't work. I'm sure there some battery powered device that would do it.

No matter what anyone says it'll go on longer than you wanted, cost more and will have you wishing you didnt start. Especially if your living in it and doing the work.