Owning your own home

Yes, the question was more about the numbers. We will amend the terms with a deed of variation and use a solicitor or whatever we need to make it all kosher.

We were insured with Nationwide when we moved, they had no cancellation fees and were easy to get hold of when we needed to discuss the complicated insuring-two-properties-at-once-until-completion stage.

It's not simple, as you have lots of elements and variables. That's why I suggested the exact numbers as a starting point.

Another option is to split the periods. E.g.

1. Date of purchase to today @ 55/45
   
2. Today to sale date @ 60/40.
   
   

If you work out a couple of scenarios it'll tell you if you end up with someone wildly unfair to one party to lock in the value to date in this way. That would be the easiest way Imo.

Nice one, we're going with them for the mortgage so that might simplify things too.

I think you get a discount if you're a mortgage customer, and their pricing is decent anyway. You can also list things like bikes individually with details.

Thanks, appreciate it. I'll have a play around with the numbers.

Flat above has plumbing above my bathroom. Boiler and possibly their shower. Pic without paint, Jan 2023. 2nd pic, this morning. Last time it got fixed quickly and dried out, and I didn't ask him to do anything. Guy above rents it out and is a full time landlord, nice enough guy, has decent trades who come out quickly. Its either shower related or the boiler which is very old.

I've texted him. What would you do to fix this and get it permanently resolved? Can't see any wet in their flat floor? Happened 3 times now all in. He offered to repair anything in my flat last time. This will need a repaint I think and the plasterboard (I think) ceiling feels weak and cracked. Don't know about what I can't see.

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Definitely not that simple. If you're retrospectively changing the split you can calculate 5% of the deposit and payments made so far then pay that to the person giving up 5% plus 5% of any increase in property value.

If you chose to use that to reduce the mortgage then you will need to add the equivalent from the larger shareholder to re-balance the reduction. I.e. £40k + £60k = £100k to be payed by the larger shareholder to rebalance the mortgage.

What would you do to fix this and get it permanently resolved?

Make it cost him a lot of money.

I'd call them, and tell them that my insurer will be in touch.

Might call the firm out who did the survey on my flat

Another +1 for Nationwide for this purpose. I just used them to cover buildings insurance only on a new home we hadn't yet moved into from exchange. Easy to call and cancel. They did accidentally charge me for the first month, but we're quick to resolve once I pointed that out. Other advantage is that unlike many other insurers they don't charge you extra for paying monthly versus annually.

Why? This is what your (or the communal block's) insurer is for I would have thought.

Is there a building management company / residents group etc?

Appreciate it's a bit muddy as to whom is insuring whom in this situation.

I trust their opinion. My thinking is if he will pay and sort why increase my insurance premium

There is an email chain we communicate on as a block of 5 flats and a management company which we run.

There was a leak from ground floor to basement flat and that got sorted out not very amicably through basement flat's contents insurance. We also have buildings insurance (not cheap!) And I have my own contents insurance

Cheers for advice btw as always I'm at the end of my tether!

There was a leak from ground floor to basement flat and that got sorted out not very amicably through basement flat's contents insurance. We also have buildings insurance (not cheap!) And I have my own contents insurance

I've been in this situation three times in my previous life as a building manager.

The first time, the downstairs flat took a cash payment from the upstairs flat after the leak was fixed, which they resolved between them.

The second time, the downstairs flat claimed on his contents insurance.

The third time, three flats were involved, and after the leak was resolved we claimed on buildings insurance - the middle flat got a whole new kitchen out of it.

If you're confident the guy will fix the leak, that's step one. But I would definitely be prepared to call one or other insurance companies even if just as a threat. Just be aware of the excess - our buildings insurance had a £800 excess which effectively wiped out the entirety of the money I paid for repainting and making good after the leak was resolved.

I don't think (hope!) contents insurance is as likely to get noticeably more expensive after a non-fault claim than say car insurance. The communal buildings...well, it's spendy already. As this is not the first time this has happened and it's a landlord who is profiting from the building, I'd go nuts, try to get a new bathroom out of it. I jest, but only slightly.

The chances of you getting a better job done, and of the problem stopping, are higher if you via insurance IMHO.

I'd go nuts, try to get a new bathroom out of it. I jest, but only slightly

Honestly, I had this issue and tried to keep the costs down, but ended up having to claim on the buildings insurance (I was the third example in my above examples) as part of a joint claim.

The guy upstairs got his whole flat redone for the same excess cost that I paid. #pisstake

Looks like we have some damp brickwork where the pointing has failed (not sure if that's a cause or an effect). Probably can't be bothered to attempt to repair it myself so does anyone have anyone they could recommend? It's not a big job, probably about 4-5sqm and we're in SE15. Thanks!

The guy upstairs got his whole flat redone for the same excess cost that I paid. #pisstake

Go for this. Why pay for insurance if you're never going to use it.

Sorry to hear you've been through similar.

If you're confident the guy will fix the leak, that's step one. But I would definitely be prepared to call one or other insurance companies even if just as a threat. Just be aware of the excess - our buildings insurance had a £800 excess which effectively wiped out the entirety of the money I paid for repainting and making good after the leak was resolved.

Not 100% confident he will fix the leak. But we shall see when his plumber comes round tomorrow/Friday (hopefully). Re excess in your situation, you paid £800, and that covered the repainting and making good? Why is me contacting my insurance a threat to the guy above - takes a bill away from him?

The chances of you getting a better job done, and of the problem stopping, are higher if you via insurance IMHO.

Fair play. I'll see how he gets on with his plumber. I do want my ceiling back to 100% and I don't want to do it myself.

Re excess in your situation, you paid £800, and that covered the repainting and making good? Why is me contacting my insurance a threat to the guy above - takes a bill away from him?

Yup, so for me, our kitchen and bathroom were both affected, to about the same level as yours. So we had to have two walls and the ceiling repainted in both rooms. We're in London so it's expensive, and I went with a guy who charged me £800.

We went through the buildings insurance, which tends to have a higher excess than personal insurance, in this case £800. But as we went via a joint claim, I split that with the flat upstairs. We each paid £400 but he decided to really push his claim to the limit and got his entire kitchen and bathroom re-decorated and re-plastered - at a cost of a good few grand - for the same excess. It's not a great business model - you still have to pay the cost initially and there's a chance the insurance won't stump up - but if you were planning to do it anyway there is very much an incentive to try to put as much as you can on the insurance.

You contacting the insurance (personal or buildings) means that any resolution will go via the insurance companies. If the responsibility lies with your upstairs neighbour, that means their premiums will likely go up as a result. If the responsibility lies with the building, that means the building's insurance premiums will go up as a result. Either way, it means the upstairs neighbour cedes control of the problem and resolution, which they may not want. (Usually if someone is a professional landlord they'll have people they want to use.)

I would just ping him a message asking if he'd rather go via the insurance for making good or sort it out himself, get a gauge for how he's feeling, and you can make a decision based on how seriously he seems to be taking it. I agree that going via the insurance is more likely to get you a better result but the increased premiums may also end up affecting you, especially if you go via the buildings insurance.

Ah okay so it's like car insurance in that my insurance would contact his insurance, make a claim and then he'd see a higher premium if his flat was at fault (his contents insurance). Or they'd contact the building insurer (which is partially my policy) if it's the buildings fault.

And per the earlier comment he'd have to allow access to insurers plumber or one I appoint to sort it

Our mortgage is up this summer, what does the hive mind think will happen with rates? Is it worth getting in early or waiting?

Last time we missed out on a rate 0.5% lower by not holding out but I’m not sure we’d have saved much over the 5 years considering a month at the variable rate…

Variable

You can lock in rates 6 months ahead of remortgage date and still change (though there's paperwork) to a better deal with the same provider within that timeframe.

I would look at broker deals with providers that are competitive with their re-pricing (nationwide, Halifax, HSBC, Barclays etc) as they're all in a bit of a price war at the moment.

For example, we'd locked in 4.74% pre-christmas with HSBC for a 5yr fixed at 60% LTV (525k principal). Last week, that same mortgage dropped to 3.91%. Massive considering the movement recently.

However, I believe that pricing on mortgages lags a month on swap rates and so these prices are likely from December rates which have gone up in January so these deals might not hang around for long. We've already done the paperwork to switch.

Our mortgage is up on March 31st so we can always do the same again if needed.

I think rates will stay largely the same over the next few months now (hence drastic price reductions to win some customers before stagnation sets in) but all bets are off if the orange menace gets in later in the year and pulls US support from Ukraine and we all end up living in bunkers from Christmas.

TLDR - Get in early then switch if you need.