Owning your own home

Spray bottle and white vinegar.

Then you need to deal with the ventilation. Ceiling vents, force ventilate with open windows, dehumidifiers.

i kind of like it .. 1200+ sq ft in London is "spacious" IMO.

Yeah - it's not small. My old place is 67 sqm, and then was ok.

I used ronseal anti mould paint on our bathroom ceiling, and it's prevented mould growing in the cold corner of the room with external walls. Previously it would always get mould.

We also try to karsher vac and open windows. But imo it's definitely helped.

Anyone got a trusted surveyor who can check my house isn't going to fall down. And generally look at what we need to do to address things. Internal cracks that are worrying and I want peace of mind.
I'm in Stockwell of that helps

Thanks again for the help with sheds above - we ordered a Power Shed (8x8 pent shed) in the end and their service has been really good so far.

Also got an EcoBase which I'll be putting down soon.

Has anyone used these?
https://clevercloset.co.uk/under-stairs/
Or any other decent ideas for under-stairs storage whilst still retaining access to a consumer unit?

Just managed to move house.

Boiler doesn't work, and its chilly. Not sure if this is the right thread for the question, but:

We now have a Worcester Greenstar gas boiler, installed in 2010. It's combined with a Hive controller. I've not used either before (previously had a different brand gas boiler, combined with a different wireless thermostat).

Demanding heat from the Hive leads to the boiler giving a combination of lights indicating an error of "volatile lockout" - according to the manual, this could be a variety of causes, but they all require a heating engineer to service it.

Could I be missing anything obvious, that I could check without being competent to service a gas appliance? I've already checked the boiler water pressure and I had to refill it from zero to 1.5 bar, which I hoped would help but didn't. Also resetting the boiler hasn't solved it

Can you disconnect the hive controller and just turn it on/off “manually”?

That would be my thought.

I don't know, having never used a Hive before, what that would entail.

The boiler error code does relate to stuff like broken fan, broken circuit board etc, which doesn't sound like it's the Hive system creating the issue...

You can ignore the hive controller and press it on and off from the hive receiver next to the boiler. That'll switch it on and off and over ride the control but overriding anything isnt gonna get the boiler on tonight.

Could be a few things that fault code and its not something you can do, you'll need to get a engineer out.

Too late now, but get home insurance with home emergency cover. Extra £60 a year and they send out someone straight away if boiler isn’t working.

Ours use Homeserve, no effect on no claims and no need for a service history on the boiler.

Don't you have a week, in Scotland, to make the seller come and sort it out?

(I vaguely recall reading this somewhere.)

Yes Scotland is 5 days from entry to the property - essentially the day you get keys.

@Cupcakes if you’re in Scotland you need to inform your solicitor before 5 days is up and they will inform your seller that there is a claim under the missives.

I'm in Scotland and have informed my solicitor.

Do you know if I can get the work done and counter claim, or do I have to be very cold until the solicitors office opens on Monday?

I'm guessing that the vendors solicitor needs to be informed in writing, and I'm guessing that needs to be from my solicitor, before any work is done
Does that sound right?

That's my understanding too. I just haven't really been through it in detail because I (as a vendor) put loads of effort into making sure everything worked in the place I was selling.

Sounds like it was broken at completion. Back to the solicitors...

Edit: d'oh.....

You'd need to wait, a lot of the time folk just get it repaired as getting the money out em can be a pain in the arse.

Yeah you can’t get the work done and claim back. Your missives will state that it is the seller’s responsibility to fix any issue within a reasonable time frame or something. If the fix is below £400, as a buyer you pay. Anything over £400, the seller pays.

As someone who just sold a place and had something similar it was pretty straightforward once I cut through the buyers bullshit. I ended up paying a fixed fee repair (which was under £400 but I just wanted it done so I could move on) from the boiler manufacturer but it took me weeks to get access and agree that the issue was very minor vs a whole new boiler scenario. My advice would be to push for the sellers to contact the boiler manufacturer and do the same fixed fee repair as that is then under some sort of warranty, which as the buyer puts you in a better position.

Good luck!

Anyone got a recco for someone to sort my gutters out in E17?

I had a roofer fix a slipped ridge tile and empty my gutter at the same time. Charged £100 which I thought was pretty good. Not sure if he does just gutters.

Could I grab his deets to find out please? Thanks!

Just finishing up a load of sanding and painting all over our flat. My partner is getting back in a couple days and want to sort it before then. I'd like to get a hand with a deep clean so I can focus on unpacking everything and extra cleaning. Anyone know a company that contracts for one off cleans in east London?

I’ve sent them on dm.