Owning your own home

"has been in the same ownership for a number of years"

No shit. Imagine two people on the same planet buying that nonsense.

Oh, that's out this way. That's even funnier. I thought it was some trendy shithole in town.

Does anyone have a recommendation in the se6 / south east area for someone to re-point & re flash a chimney?

Speak to Mike et al at Crystal Clear FS.

£300k for a double garage in Angel - fair pricing, or a bit toppy?

Cheers, I'll give him a try.

What happens with insurance claims between exchange and completion?

Today we had a mini flood which hopefully hasn't actually caused any damage.

If it had happened the week after next and actually caused damage, we'd have exchanged contracts and presumably it would have been up to our buyer to claim?

not really an answer to this but something related I was pleasantly surprised by:
I discovered when we recently moved that our insurance (podium level cover with Pedalcover) covered both properties during the period between exchange and completion.

Yep. It should be insured on exchange (although if it's a cash purchase they don't need to obvs).

We've found ourselves in a strange and very privileged position which allows me to ask a very golf club question:

We are have a date set for exchange and completion and a mortgage offer, but I also just got some money through which means that, using our existing savings and equity from our sale, we could just afford to buy the house outright as cash buyers, and pay the solicitor's fees and SDLT. This would leave us with no savings, but also no monthly outgoings, which would mean that we could pay for smaller immediate jobs we know we would need - flooring, radiators, paint - on credit cards.

Later, when we want to do the bigger jobs (extension with kitchen, new bathroom), we could take out a mortgage and start paying it off then.

Alternatively, we could take out the mortgage we have agreed which is on a decent rate until the end of October, which would keep our savings intact until we needed the work doing, and also means we could maybe get some slightly bigger jobs done in the meantime.

The downside of this is we're paying monthly from the off, and after October it will go up even more. And also there's a danger that, seeing as we can access more of our money, we might overspend money we'd ideally need for future works.

What would you do?

You say the mortgage is a decent rate - what is the rate and fees for taking it out?

could you plop the lump sum into a savings account that has a higher rate than the mortgage? if yes - in theory that’s more bang for your buck.

that said, i’d be in camp ‘no mortage, thanks’ just as i’m somewhat more risk averse (though bad at it)

If there was ever a perfect case for an offset mortgage, this is probably it.

All I can say is there is no point in paying off the mortgage 1) if the rate is low-ish and you can offset for a year or whatever in savings and arb it that way and 2) if you're going to inevitably take out another mortgage I personally wouldn't like to get used to not having one and then having to take one out.

None because it's porting our existing mortgage, hence the rate rising in October when the deal expires - likely by a lot.

I guess what we'd have to do if we were to get an offset mortgage would be to wait until our current deal expires to avoid a hike in fees and ERC straight away, and then look for an offset mortgage to replace it. The issue being we'll need the money within a couple of years, which might then limit the length of the deal we can get to avoid paying higher charges afterwards.

I think if we had a few years to run on our current deal I'd be a bit happier with the mortgage route.

Also regarding getting used to the mortgage - I think we'd be training ourselves by putting aside a mortgage-like amount every month to pay for current and future works, so I don't think we'd get cash-happy. But we also have to adjust a bit to lower salaries and different costs.

Offset mortgage

If you're going to do this, you could put the cash away in fixed term savings so it's out of reach anyway? You can get 4-5% or so at the moment although depending on earnings and total interest, tax may eat away at that significantly if it's not an ISA.

If you are fortunate enough to pay tax, then there's also the option of additional pension contributions, which are basically pre-tax investments. Your employer may well match them too, up to a limit.

Given your luxurious situation you might want to just get proper financial advice?

Ask your solicitors about changing the contracts to be cash only etc.. I assume this would annoy people. There is also the mortgage redemption issue? Continue with the mortgage if it's only till October, it's 4 whole months of payments.

In October if you aren't ready to start the extension works, go offset mortgage route and the cash is still there.

Rich people take loans at low rates.

I know psychologically everyone wants to be mortgage free asap however as said above, very often paying off your mortgage early at the detriment of investing early and loading your pension up, very often was actually the most unwise choice you could have made in your 30s/40s

The older you get the less likely the above will still ring true. And the shit show we are currently in also has thrown a spanner in the works somewhat.

Don't you guys on the island also pay less taxes when mortgaged?

Nope.

We did get financial advice earlier, and the advisor has been really helpful. In a way we feel a bit bad because we've had a number of conversations with him after which the best course of action always seems to be something that ends with him not getting paid (his fees come from new mortgage or savings products, and so far neither of these has been the best option).

Sounds like he needs a business advisor

Buy some life insurance. It'll protect your family and he'll get upfront commish and trail.

Anyone know anything about plumbing? There’s a pump between my boiler and my hot water tank that is turned off. I don’t know if it should be, but when I try turning it on it gets very hot and trips the fuse on the boiler circuit. The pipe it sits on is labelled ‘secondary return’ where it meets the storage tank.