Owning your own home

Lots more claims due to extreme weather was another

It will will be interesting when the Floor Re scheme ends...

Yeah, my wife had a ding (probably £2k of repair) and literally the week we got it back, a chap on a roundabout drove into her (she was stationary on a roundabout that has lights) and then tried to claim it was my wife's fault, so they split liability 50/50 in the absence of any witness or CCTV. The renewal was £300 more than the previous year, however that is still £70 less than what I'm quoted elsewhere through compare the market.

can you forward me his/her details please :-)

(assuming everything can be handled remotely)

Dm'ed you with details - yep, all remote / electronic documents.

I'm about to move house, and the sellers are adament that they want to take their massive fridge freezer with them (or otherwise charge me way above market for a second hand fridge).

Annoyingly we'll be doing the kitchen in the six months after moving in, so I'm going to end up buying a second hand temporary one in the meantime. I can see loads on ebay, but has anyone got any good ideas / recommendations for getting it picked up and delivered? I imagine I basically need a man+van, I'm going to be SW London.

Fbmarketplace. Bet you can get one free.
And same place for man and van ad.

Fridges aren't that heavy and if you're in London you have more potential options, so maybe see if you can find somewhere really close and get a trolley and a can of htfu. From a quick look FBM has a few for free. Remember to ask if they're in flats.

Otherwise a small one in the back of the car.

Also just in case you haven't maybe go back to the sellers and say you've priced up a second hand fridge and delivery, so to avoid the hassle you'll give them £100*. You never know they may realise it's too much faff to take.

*assuming it's worth than and good enough for you to want to keep.

Somewhere close is a good call, but depends. I'll give fb market place a try, I'll have to join facebook briefly I guess...

Also just in case you haven't maybe go back to the sellers and say you've priced up a second hand fridge and delivery, so to avoid the hassle you'll give them £100*. You never know they may realise it's too much faff to take.

Yeah - also a good call, thanks.

There's definitely a certain amount of 'trying it on' going on here - which is so tedious on an item that's orders of magnitude less than the cost of the house I'm buying.

I would advise some caution with this. I bought a fridge freezer off FB used, was delivered in a car by a guy who I think trades shit fridges for a living. The fridge he delivered didn't work at all - he was quick to refund the money but that still left me with a fridge to dispose of.

There's always people giving away fridges. See if you can find local forums, street/area whatsapps. There's been about 5 on the ones I'm on in the past month.

You'll get one for free, fridges are a total pain to get rid of and usually if its not a fitted piece they can take it unless agreed prior to sale.

I'm about to move house, and the sellers are adament that they want to take their massive fridge freezer with them (or otherwise charge me way above market for a second hand fridge).

Don't be surprised if it's left there anyway when you tell them you don't want it.

Yes, that's also what I hope for. Theres a number of other appliances and fixtures they've changed their minds on since I ignored their invitation to open negotiations with them.

The fridge appears to be important to them though!

I sometimes forget I sold the car, have a mild panic about some random outgoing like insurance and then a little chuckle to myself. Then I see the 500 single occupant car cunts blocking my bus and I'm right back to square one, knowing my actions mean fuck all.

You got in-car cameras yet? They seem to be basically mandatory in some countries and I guess UK is becoming one of those countries.

We've used Addison Lee or other minicabs in the past. We got a new (used) sofa recently and my missus booked a man and van, which actually came with a bonus 2 blokes so I didn't have to lift anything. Cost was £50 or so to go from one side of Ealing to another with all the bits of a sofa bed.

Were for me before they were bought by Urban Jungle. Stupidly spilt water in computer, it was a write off, they paid out with no quibbles even though I insisted on certain parts because it was a hackintosh. Policy costs £35 a year.

Can't confirm if they've changed with the new owners though.

It's normally cheaper to separate them but buildings is always the spendy one.

This. We paid about £80 for a temporary fridge including delivery from a guy off FB marketplace. Did the same with a washing machine. Then we got rid of them to other people who came and picked them up. Took literally minutes.

Has anyone replaced their conservatory roof panels with insulated ones?
Worth the money as a cheaper option to make it more liveable year round?

Think I've now spoken to enough people to know what I need to do on my leak. Multiple builders / surveyors / roofers have popped round. The wall is much thinner at my flat's level (about 100-150mm vs 500m above & below) than any others due to the window / lintel situation. Whilst other areas of the wall are likely wet, my wall is easier to get through. Render is also a cement render that could be as old as 50, at least 30, and coming towards the end of its life.

4 possible things to go at:

1) & 2) - hack off cracked render, re-render with a lime based render, paint over with a lime-wash paint.
3) Strip of stones (cornicing) 1m down from coping stones - Check for cracks along top edge of ledge, seal using lime mortar or fit new lead flashing along entire length.
4) Remove coping stones, Damp proof membrane, then refit coping stones and bed in new lime mortar or cover with lead

Going to speak to the insurer tomorrow to see if they will fund it.

Need to also plan approach with neighbour. Lives there 2-3 days a week, his daughter lives there full time, always 2/3 cars on the drive. Context of had scaffolding up about a year ago for roof works, which he was fuming about as they did some minor damage and inconvenienced him. I then had a small tower to work on my window from the outside for a few days. Whenever he is here he's always busy (or appears so).

Not coming to this at the moment, but I do wonder what the rights are should we need to re-render the whole wall.. That would be so messy.

3 Attachments

All me at the moment in here woops...

1. Insurance won't pay a penny (sort of appealing it but unlikely they'll change their mind. Asked the lady on the phone if she'd seen The Rainmaker..). Reason being it was gradual. I disputed this - most damage done after a particular day. Completely get where they are coming from in that the render is old / not maintained - though it is hard to inspect cracks proactively 20m up with no access
   
2. Neighbouring flats in my building - building is a disaster. It isn't often proactively maintained. If I come cap in hand for the repair works including to my own flat, and they can't contribute, we effectively have a dysfunctional management company. I maintain a "rainy day" (Aptly named) fund so can fund my 1/5th of it, but I am not willing or able to pay the full whack, and don't think I should given it is the building's fault which we collectively maintain - like we do with the roof. It's all done on goodwill really - don't know how enforceable it all is.
   
3. Texted my (3+ car/ 2nd or nth home) neighbour next door on it on Tuesday lunchtime (Hi __, please can I pop round for a quick chat one day this week when convenient..). 2 full days later and he's fucked off to another of his properties without even writing back. Going to essentially need access, scaffolding, and hacking render off may be messy. His stance will be no. Gone over all my leases and even though 18a was build about 50 years later, nothing obvious on access rights. Not sure how that gets solved - do it anyway, pay a solicitor, get council involved.
   
4. It is fucking the neighbour below me, who is close to completing, but this must be putting off their prospective buyers. They have 2 kids and are in a 1.5 bed flat and need more space. It is harming everyone.
   
5. 2 builders lined up to quote which is good.
   
   

Rant over.... One step forward two steps back and all that.

Tips I have learnt from this

1. Don't buy a flat if you can avoid it (houses are spenny so this one is hard).
   
2. If buying a flat, try and check the building is proactively maintained, is well funded and has a sinking fund. We spend 70% of our service charge on insurance.
   
3. Avoid places that rely on access from 3rd parties. A normal terraced house would have been fine here.
   
4. Do DD on neighbours (I half did this one)
   
   

Edit - been encouraged not too worry to much about the neighbour. And I am focusing on my building and damp first off. Still a shame we couldn't properly fix the roof last year (see pic above, near chimney stack) as they couldn't get to it without resting scaffolding on their roof.

Don't buy a flat if you can avoid it

This is true. It's also true that the only people who know enough to 'safely' buy flats will have previously bought flats and have realised you shouldn't buy flats.

absolutely. Having said all that, if a flat met certain criteria I wouldn't be averse to it (was properly converted with sound insulation between the floors, has 2 flats max in the building, had evidence of proactive maintenance, wasn't a shithole in the shared areas, had a low turnover of sales (people live in my building for an average of 5 years), decent sinking fund, no dodgy access, absolute lease)).

properly converted with sound insulation between the floors, has 2 flats max in the building, had evidence of proactive maintenance, wasn't a shithole in the shared areas, had a low turnover of sales (people live in my building for an average of 5 years), decent sinking fund, no dodgy access, absolute lease

your query returned zero results