Owning your own home

Looks like you can replace it with a bog standard thermostat like this

https://www.screwfix.com/p/drayton-rts1-1-channel-wired-room-thermostat/85263

or programmable like this

https://www.screwfix.com/p/horstmann-channel-wired-room-thermostat/12157

If you want smart then a Netatmo one can be battery powered to work with that kind of setup.

Sure.

End of October had an offer accepted on a house. Slightly (£5k) over asking as we didn't want it to go best and final offers.

End of January, buyers of our flat pull out. So we put our flat back on the market. We ended up getting a buyer within ~3 weeks or so and the sellers of the house held on for us. The price we accepted for our flat was a fair whack under asking, but we were ok with it as we could still afford the house and we wanted to keep the process moving.

So we've had this new buyer of our flat since end of feb and enquiries etc going back and forth. But everything seems to be in hand and moving along.

There are a couple of outstanding enquiries on the house. Nothing major, but things we want sorted before exchange. Our solicitors are chasing but getting nothing back.

Then out of the blue, we hear from the estate agent that the vendors have spoken with other estate agents and feel that they undersold the house first time round and they could get another £50k. We disagree. The price that was already agreed would have already put it as the second most expensive house on the street and the most expensive house on the street is a much bigger plot and has an extra bedroom. Ultimately we felt the original price was fair. We might have stretched a bit had all the enquiries been wrapped up etc, but our conveyancing insurance runs out in a month and at least now we will get that money and survey money back. Didn't stop us from writing a hand written note through the door though. They responded via the estate agent.

The sellers are planning to emigrate over the summer. Fuck knows how they're going to manage that now. Especially as they probably won't be able to put it back on to the market with a different estate agent for 28 days.

Fucking catford man. All the LFGSS folk have ruined it for the rest of us. South Norwood here we come.

That felt very cathartic writing it all out. Maybe we could have played it differently? I don't know. I just want to exchange on the flat and get out and at least we'll be in a strong position and chain free. We saw a great house (not a project) on Saturday and an amazing project house today. We'll find something.

South Norwood here we come

Quick, get here before The Forum fucks up SE25 too!

Seriously though, what a ballache. Sounds like you played it correctly. Bastards.

Sorry that sucks. Cunts

It'll work out for the best in the end.

Thanks.

2-wire vs. 3-wire installation?

I think this will be a job for the friendly local erectrician.

That sucks, they must be deluded to think its worth more in this market

You might be able to get it for 50k less in 6 months time

Our oven came out in early November (along with some walls etc) and was meant to be back in before Christmas.

We still don't have an oven...

Ah yes, linked the wrong one at the top. Should be two wire installation

Maybe we could have played it differently?

Agreed to £5k then chipped them £10k on the day of exchange whilst simultaneously shitting on their (your) doorstep.

will keep it in the locker for next time

Which road? That's mad. Things are going down at the moment, surely?

This, basically - this is all on them and you can only hope that it doesn't work out in their timeframe or with their prices at all, because they have behaved very shittily.

Guaranteed that everyone involved in a buying or selling process (hi) felt sick reading that.

everyone involved in a buying or selling process (hi) felt sick reading that.

apologies - wasn't my intention.

near waterlink way / bell green

What's at the boiler end in terms of connection boxes and timers. That's more important than the thermostat really

Complete cunts boom boom. I'd bet £5 they will be calling you back in 3 months asking if you are still interested in buying their house from them at the previously agreed price.

Not a clue. I don't think there's water involved but there may be some more gubbins in the wall as there's another plate down near the floor under the thermostat which I assume is related.

I think I might send the pics to the nice sparky I've used in the past and see if he's up for changing it. It's not urgent, been like that forever.

Fingers crossed.

And hopefully @boomboom has happily moved into a better, cheaper house by then.

My buyers tried for a last minute 20% reduction due to COVID uncertainty (back in 2020). Obviously told them to piss off and increasing property prices since then have mainly made me happy that they'll have to have paid more to buy an equivalent place.

What's the average completion time for a chain free sale these days?

Searches on the place I'm buying came back in 7 business days(albeit based in the NW) . Getting my supposedly chain free seller to complete their paperwork in a timely manor is causing my delays.

Offer made on 13th March
Accepted on 14th March
Memo of Sale delayed until 23rd March whilst they choose a solicitor.
Title Plan/Register documents provided 13th April, with sufficient information to instruct the searches, but no TA6 or TA10 documents.
Searches instructed 14th April
Searches report returned 24th April
Still waiting for TA6 & TA10 forms to be able to submit enquires.

I'd echo what others have said RE: how much things cost. To the point that even though we'd always planned to do a loft conversion in the future so the kids can have separate rooms, I'm now leaning towards looking for a bigger place/extra room, as the price difference in houses is probably half that of doing the work.

Also if you're relaying on sub-contracting out trades, be prepared for everything taking a lot more time than hoped for / do lots of chasing to get folks through the door.

What is this called and why do we have it?

1 Attachment

Erm, a drain

Drain guard, stops leaves and other crap getting into your drains.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-drain-guard-black-305mm/78832?tc=NT1&ds_rl=1249404&gclid=CjwKCAjw9J2iBhBPEiwAErwpeVjK5n9_VWwVSHL-Csv0LmSF2WlZNlkA0ue_uOI0lGJ8aAg8cm5wIRoCpokQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds