Owning your own home

350 a day is alright for a proper bricky* Whether its a 4 day job ive no idea. I guess get other quotes and see if they are consistent.

we had similar brick work done on a front wall that retains plantation like yours, in london, it was probably a little more work than yours but not much and we paid 1500 .. i thought it was insane but speaking around it seemed like the going rate

@bobble its quite hard to make out, but the older timber (not sure if joist or not) above the missing gyproc ceiling looks discoloured and there looks to be some white mould which would suggest there is a damp issue up there. Are you able to shine a torch up there and see what is above it/along it? Water will track across all the things to find the lowest possible point.

To add to all this speculation I think I would be looking at where your neighbours window meets your render and make sure there aren't any cracks, as well as the gutter above water may be getting in and finding its way down to your ceiling.

Might also be worth asking your neighbour if they have any damp issues on that area as well. (although I seem to recall he's not the most helpful of neighbours possibly?)

That’s helpful, thanks. How long ago did you have the work done?

Literally last month!

My mum recently moved house, rural Scotland, gas boiler job mains normal etc. New people took a few weeks until they moved in (moving from abroad) , did normal house moving stuff, cleaned out, shut water off, shut gas off at outside valve, shut electric off, cleaned whole place, emptied outside bins etc.
Never heard anything until like 4am in the morning when they turned up, place is freezing, can't believe you didn't leave the heating on for us etc (its summer, don't really ever use it in summer in the UK?). Responded next day with instructions on how to fire up, i.e. turn electric on, turn water on, turn gas on, press 'on' the boiler, away you go.

Nope. WOuldn't work. THey got some emergency guy out to look at it who said boiler is fucked, some valve not working, no gas supply, needs new £700 please. Boiler is 18 month old and has no issue.

Yeah so turns out the gas network had been around and 'capped' the system at the outside valve with a disc inside the fitting. Took 2 emergency call out engineers who both charged a stack, then we sent our normal guy who fitted it (Warranty with him), discovered the SGN cap, but can't; remove technically as there is a reason SGN did it. SGN called, and they then removed it.
Buyer of house wants this £1300 odd bill settled by us as apparently its our fault that SGN (network) capped the system, due to, bah dam bum....... The buyer tried to setup their gas supply with whatever company using an offshore barbados account that was black or red flagged ( whatever the term is) for ongoing fraud investigation. So network had sent someone out to physically cap it ASAP.
Never heard of this happening, super confusing, super stressful as moving house never great, especially when your fam is old and needs a lot of help. Buyer not so much as even said 'opps sorry, I guess it WAS our issue after all', yet the £1300 odd grievance bill is still sitting with the solicitor to this day.
Don't trust anyone, ever. I hate saying that, but you just get one pile of shit after another with things like this and then never even have the decency to say 'yeah sorry about that, our bad'.

Doesn't end though. New house, all electric panel heaters (gonna go to ground or air source + solar on it as got the land and would work well on that building) only 4 out of 11 work, at all!
Turns out the former owner just lived in a few rooms due to the cold of the rest not working (had money just panels broken and couldn't get anyone in to fix or repair them, rural Scotland is a desert for tradies, electricians especially).
So guess we have legal ability to ask for money to rectify heating so that at least most of it works. But at same time, just CBA dealing with legal crap any longer. I guess thats the British way of things, make it so frustrating and drawn out that you just sack it off and live with the issue*

*then complain about it on the internet ;)

Just because they aren't saying anything doesn't mean there isn't anything. 99% of people I've ever met will automatically state there is nothing wrong their their house or car or whatever just out of knee jerk reaction to 'shit this could cost me money, maybe its my issue' or just total ignorance and naivety to anything that goes on around them.

Few potentials with that wall. If it is only you, then yeah local plumbing issue above, directly or along a joist and its just running to that point.
That gutter has an issue and its soaking the wall out, by passing the render where the buildings meet, or just full on soaking it out over long time.
Cracks above your keystone, suggest you've got some mild stonework/brick movement in that area, possibly just age, or possibly weakened due to small long long term plumbing leak in the building weakening the mortar or whatever bonds it.

If you look at whole area of darkened render there is like 3 patchs, most likely weak spots where the different courses have met in that area, remember you had scaff issues in the past, likely when it was rendered it was the same issue and they did the top section, bottom section, then met up in the middle a few times and the courses overlapped behind the scaff so its never as good of a job or bond, unavoidable sometimes without moving entire scaff etc.

Also look at your own buildings gutter work, centre of the frame top, to the right of black downpipe there is a wet patch hanging off underside of that stone work. Old gutters tend to be either IN the stonework, or like a lead trough sitting in a recess, water escapes through the stone in weird weird ways and gets all over the place. Could be that and trickling right down through the wall.
OTher neighbours haven't noticed because they dont' want to notice.

Buy or rent a decent thermal camera for a weekend and have a look in neighbours rooms on that entire elevation, and around to the front elevatation. Put machine up on the outside as well, needs to be overcast no direct sunlight early morning or evening kind of a job to be able to make any external wet patchs out. Very handy devices, bought one last year and paid for itself on first job, rented it to mates a few times so now well into profit technically, £350 something like that? Shared building like that its now essential tech TBH.

I know a guy out that way, will text him and see if its something he can help with.

Edit - have PM'd you

the timber that looks like a scaffold plank definitely looks discoloured yeah and there is a gap between that and the external wall, which is interesting.

I personally didn't see much with a torch. Not rained for over a week and been no issues. Planning to get my head up there when its next raining and get a camp chair on the neighbours drive to watch how the water runs..

Also look at your own buildings gutter work, centre of the frame top,
to the right of black downpipe there is a wet patch hanging off
underside of that stone work

This bit?

Thanks for all of that, going to work through all of that

1 Attachment

I appreciate it, thanks

Diana's family's Mayfair house is yours for £11m:

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/67567346/?

In 1998 you could have picked it up for £85k

https://themovemarket.com/tools/propertyprices/24-farm-street-london-w1j-5rq

Since it last sold in April 2002 for £2,820,000, its value has increased by £13,061,000.

They at least could have cleaned the carpets.

Posh people always have checked settees.

In 1998 you could have picked it up for £85k

Probably an error given that it sold for £2m just a couple of years later.

The Land Registry data has my neighbours house as selling for way less than it would have back in 1996.

I've just had a fixtures and fittings list for a house we're buying.

It's not normal to try to sell integrated appliances (washing machine / dishwaher) is it?

I'm obviously not going to pay for them, but what should I be asking for to make it as unpalatable as possible for them to take it with them, as I also don't want to be left with a big space in the middle of my units and a door hanging off etc.

It's not normal to try to sell integrated appliances (washing machine / dishwaher) is it?

Depends. Some sellers are just twats.

Usually there's some give and take in it. We bought the light fittings and curtains that our seller had listed (£500 on top of £££ is peanuts). But we declined the integrated appliances offer and they left them. They even left the massive fridge/freezer that wasn't even listed in the F&F; probably because getting it out of a 1st floor flat would be more effort than anything else.

I'm obviously not going to pay for them, but what should I be asking for to make it as unpalatable as possible for them to take it with them,

Just don't offer to buy them, if they leave them it's a bonus, no point requesting they be removed. If they do take them you deal with it when you move in (either buy something new or find something second hand).

Only state that something be removed if you really do not want it there. e.g. "Do you want to buy the manky dog hair covered corner settee in the living room for £2k?" -> "No, please ensure this is not left in the property."

Thanks. I was thinking of asking for documentation, age, warranties etc as a basis for negotiating them down (to free) as the prices seem high.

You may be correct - given I've no intention of paying anything then any negotiation may be a waste of time / expectations and not acknowledging it may be a better way.

Could also be the sale of the freehold, share of the freehold or shae of the property, I'd guess.

integrated appliances are normally part of fixtures and fittings. They're included in the purchase price rather than something you haggle over after. standalone stuff fair enough for them to try and flog separately

for things that aren't fixtures and fittings - manky old sofa ^ for example then you can request they be removed (/they can offer to sell if you want them left)

for things that are, you should both expect that they would be included at no extra cost

Like anything it's worth a punt but in my experience the 'happy for them to be left but not willing to pay anything' pretty much always worked.

I know, I know... you can put me in the golf thread, etc.

Genuine question: My mortgage is 4.13%, £443k remaining, £2,996 per month, 17 years 5 months remaining.

I have a choice... I'm receiving a windfall that can pay off a huge chunk... but not all of it.

Assuming I could overpay £360k, with an early repayment charge of £11.5k (4.25%)...

Would you choose to:

1. Reduce the mortgage term to about 2 years and 6 months, same £2,996 payments, saving £175K in interest
   
2. Reduce the mortgage amount to £560 per month, for 17 years and 5 months, saving £145K in interest
   
   

Which would you choose? Why?

Edit: Unanimous choice of option 1, and that's what I was thinking of doing anyway. But further, I plan to de-risk the high monthly mortgage payments by doing option 1 but after it's paid off, should anything happen (ill-health, company fails, etc), I can always re-mortgage and achieve option 2.

To do option 1 and then pay off the mortgage in 30 months would be optimal, it would've meant I had a mortgage for 8.5 years, which isn't bad going... it's because I skipped the Avocado on Toast and used nescafe, etc.

I don't know the answer to my own question but would there be an advantage to putting some of that lump into a pension both from a compound interest perspective but also tax?

Edit - without considering my question, also opt 1

Option 1. Because the debt will be gone sooner.