Owning your own home

this is why i am thinking of moving all my scraps of pensions to a sipp. my only fear is fucking it up (but if i promise myself that it is all in a global tracker it should be ok right???)....

actively managed funds do however tend to do better in a downturn vs ETFs/trackers though (if the fund managers are worth their salt; which they rarely are)

Ongoing Adviser Charge 0.00%
Charging bands Fund value Annual charge percentage
1 Below £30,000 0.27%
2 Between £30,000 – and £50,000 0.25%
3 Between £50,000 – and £100,000 0.23%
4 Between £100,000 – and £250,000 0.20%
5 Between £250,000 – and £500,000 0.00%
6 Between £500,000 – and £750,000 0.00%
7 Between £750,000 – and £1,000,000 0.00%
8 £1,000,000 and over 0.00%

I've got fuck all in it. I could move the previous pension into it (I should check its fees too).
I could contribute more regularly or I could take that extra and stick it into my personal SIPP from when I was contractor.

Hey hey!
My survey says windows and a knocked through door should have building regs, but no building regs are present - work was done around 35 years ago at least. What do I do? Try to get the work certified retrospectively?
N.b. I am buying the property (first time buyer, so no experience of this)

Indemnity insurance and move on as quickly as possible to avoid solicitors soliciting their fees upwards.

If it's been 35 years and nothing has fallen down I'd probably say fuck it.

Indemnity insurance covers you against someone coming in and saying it needs to be reinstated rather than your house falling down so probably not much point in this instance.

Ah - I'm planning to cycle London (well, slough/windsor) - Wolvercote to meet my mate next Friday, let me know if you fancy joining for any of the ride or meeting for a quick pint in the village. He's got a lovely group of mates in the village by now, very jealous of the community vibes.

Thanks @aggi and @EstelleGetty

I wouldn't be worrying about it, trying to get retrospective cert will be a headache and pointless if its been done 35 years ago imo

It would fail surely anyway, unless they’d apply the building standards of the time to it, which I can’t imagine they would? So they’d be applying modern 2023 regs to building work from the 1980s, and nothing built in the 80s would be up to those new standards would it?

We managed to keep the gas bill to under £28 last month with the boiler at 50 degrees, hopefully it’ll reduce it a bit at 45.

We've had our dhw at 45 for the last couple of years. Never thought about reducing it. Will drop it to 40 degrees 👍

Glad to hear I’m not the only one, you got me thinking about measuring the temperature of our hot water to see what discernible difference it make between 45 and 40, the boiler literally next to the sink and the bathroom is on the right so don’t think it’ll lose heat from that distance.

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Well looks like we might be buying our first house , offer accepted , bit late as nearly 50. Offer accepted , and hopefully all goes through.
Anyone recommend a builder in south east , Crystal Palace/Penge way. We have a chap who looked at it, but he was more a big projects guy. As a starter need a wall knocking down and a new kitchen fitted . Sensible priced kitchen recommendations ??
Any advice greatly received .

Was recommended on here this chap:
https://www.instagram.com/joaquimthebuilder/?hl=en

Didn’t use him for a bathroom in the end as my cousin agreed to travel up from kent to do it but he seemed pretty sound and somebody I will probably contact for anything I can’t do myself in the future.
the quote he did for me was spot and fairly detailed.

Thanks , will give him a call .

Yeah, i used him for removing a wall, new kitchen and bathroom. Lovely guy, easy to work with, well priced and did a good job.

No asbestos in our textured ceilings! This is exciting news and will make the refurbishment a bit more straightforward.

We do have an asbestos bath panel and a couple of panels in an understairs cupboard (as well as soffits, downpipes, and a garage roof outside) but they're all in isolated things that can hopefully be left alone or removed intact.

Just the small matter of every single room in the house, as well as the garden, needing significant work, and the planned extension.

Any recommended building surveyors Se20 , before I pluck someone at random, thinking of getting a full on inspection as do not need any major issues surfacing at a later date.

I finally got around to sending off our samples and we're asbestos free too. Now I can't put off dealing with it any longer.

Our garage ceiling is AIB nasty stuff… just waiting for a quote in the £000’s to remove. Bang goes me NHSPayrise!😩

Party wall business: we’re about to do a ground floor extension and loft conversion, and need to get a party wall agreement signed by our neighbours who now live abroad.

They previously signed the same agreement a couple of years ago happily; this has now expired.

They’re now dragging their heels, demanding to see ‘testimonials from clients of your contractor’, which is fair enough but the contractor we have lined up has never needed an online presence or any marketing materials/testimonials; been in the game 25 years via word of mouth only.

If the neighbours long it out, what would be our recourse? Expensive party wall solicitors? Can neighbours dictate which type of contractor we use?

Neighbour can have their own survey should they wish (at your cost). They don’t get a say on who does the work. The surveyor will look at plans and the wall, not the contractor.

Might be worth probing with them a little further what their actual concerns are if they’ve played ball before.

Yes, will dig out his details and PM you. We've used him three times in the past few years, although only managed to buy one of those properties, and he's very good.

Somewhat unhelpfully, my boiler decided to stop switching on yesterday.
It's old, noisy and inefficient so could do with replacing anyway. I wanted to do that alongside some combination of better insulation, UFH, hot water cylinder, ASHP, solar panels etc. but this might force my hand earlier.
It's a draughty 3 bed semi detached SE London Victorian house.

Sorry to @, but @Nahguavkire, you seem the forum expert...
If I were to get, say, a Viessmann Vitodens 100-W (or 200-W?) combi then am I right in thinking it should be able to then slot into any future plans rather than it needing to be replaced again when any UFH, ASHP etc. happens

6.5pc boe base rate incoming by all accounts and might stay that way for some time.

Absolutely brutal.

How is the housing market going to avoid coming off the rails if this is right ?

Any recommendations for a company to supply and fit a custom made wooden front door? (SW London).

Just had London Door Company round setting what is hopefully the upper bound. (£6k including the 20% summer sale discount.)

[Replying to own post...]

A chippie we know has quoted ~£1800 to do it. Solid wooden door (£800) and fitting for £600 including new frame, threshold, letterbox/knob/locks/etc. Also only a 6 week lead time instead of 12-16 weeks for the specialist companies.