Owning your own home

No home insurance

It's mind boggling the sort of cowboy just cover it up mentality. I couldn't do it I'd feel bad. Cowboy pricks will be cow boy pricks. Hope you get it sorted.

Thought I'd check here on the off chance that anyone can recommend or has experience of a surveyor in the Dorking/Surrey area?

I know a good Structural Engineer in Lingfield if that's the sort of thing you need

A bit late to the party, but with architects % of project cost, the major issue is that they have no incentive (in fact the complete opposite) to stick to the budget, so can often push for things that push the cost up. Obv not all will do this but you have to be VERY clear about budget and what you will accept/not accept, particularly if they are managing the job.

Thanks, should have mentioned it’s for a home buying survey, if that’s the sort of thing they cover?

That really should not be the case at a domestic level. Whilst professional fees will often be based on a percentage of build costs, the fee proposal is normally a fixed sum up to eg RIBA stage 4 or 5. Budget is the first thing that should be nailed down.
Pushing for more expensive things during the design or build shouldn't affect their fees.

If the client exercises their prerogative to change their minds (including value engineering bringing down the build cost) then additional fees are fair.

Perhaps. We definitely felt that with one architect we used - at least the feeling that architectural elements were more important than strict budget. They proposed a "monolithic" wall that would pivot to create different fluid spaces for a build that was already having stuff cut to meet budget. Maybe it was a case of underestimating actual costs - we were one of the last residential projects they did so might just have been more used to commercial budgets. Was amazing in the end though - defintely worth doing with an architect even if we had to fight a few battles.

Not specifically, sorry

Fixed rate of 1.44% is up on 30 June, couldn't sort a new deal over past 6 months so have now moved to a 2-year tracker at 0.24% above base rate. Here's to adding every BoE MPC meeting to the calendar and hopefully riding it on the way down!

Seems...optimistic - but I salute your bravery.

I reckon base rate will go up in June, stay at 4.75% for a bit (tail risk of it hitting 5%) and start coming back down from November MPC meeting and settle at around 3.5% in mid-2024. Or I could be chatting shit and it stays where it currently is or higher for the foreseeable and I get fucked... Place your bets!!!

Been looking at a new mortgage deal as ours expires on 31 Jul. The cheapest rate was on a 5 year fix, so I'm guessing the industry are expecting rates to fall.

Yep, I did minimal due diligence and came to this conclusion :) Also needed flexibility of a tracker in terms of overpayments and porting in (very likely) case of moving within the next couple of years, etc.

I think I agree - the housing market will slow down and reduction in interest rates required to get it pumping again. Couldn’t say on dates but EoY surely!

I hope y’all right

Inflation is still crushing us in case you haven’t noticed. When (some) staples are doubling in price over a year some sacred cows like the house market might get sacrificed to get that shit under control.

I hope not though as I’ve got stuff up for renewal in 2025…

Definitely noticed inflation! I just think there’s going to be some intervention on the interest side towards the end of the year. I’m up for renewal mid-2025 so samesies

Sept is the word on the street when there is gonna be a huge dip apparently.

Market's gonna fucking crater, because I just bought. Sorry everyone

Sept is the word on the street when there is gonna be a huge dip apparently.

In the housing market or inflation or interest rates? The former I can see happening and most people (except those who have really overpaid) being pretty comfortable with

lol same. hopefully never moving again though so I'll ride it out/leave the debt to the cats

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-65668790

living nightmare

2 bed flat for £850k though >>>>>>>>

Another example of what happens when you move building control private so they are dependent on the money from the very companies they should be enforcing stuff against.

I have a mate in a similar position (also in Camden). Property can't be sold or remortgaged due to potential fire safety issues that have been going on for years.

Oh that makes my new build in Berlin look like an example of expert craftmanship!

Only had quite a lot of water damage in a second floor flat (Building has 5 storeys...) as they did a very bad job with the drainage on the roof terrace and no one knew what was going on.
Still fighting over money as nothing is finished to the standard in contracts and so on. But it is not collapsing, which is a good thing.