Owning your own home

People paying 6 months up front and viewings get fully booked the day the advert goes up

Sounds like the rents are too cheap and very attractive.

Chronic housing shortage unfortunately! Odd below market price place goes up and here rumours of people living in places where the rent hasn't gone up for years

The house next doors to ours, almost identical, is 2.5x my mortgage in rent per month.

The house next doors to ours, almost identical, is 2.5x my mortgage in rent per month.

Same here, but I have ~70% equity in my flat so it's not an apples/apples comparison.

we are in the fortunate position of having to decide what to do with an inherited lump sum. Options look like paying off a (not insignificant chunk) of mortgage, or doing a loft extension. Are just approaching year five of a twenty year stretch, family are growing, there's no bad decision here, right? My gut says pay off debt, partner thinks home improvement to be prudent. Is there general advice? I feel like Martin Lewis would be on my side.

@zazkar
You need to do some sums.

If you pay off a chunk of mortgage, what does that save you in interest, X?

If you do a loft conversion, how much does the value of the property increase and what's the net gain, Y?

Which is biggest? X or Y?

PS. I assumed you're asking the question purely from a financial POV. If a loft conversion would improve quality of life, then go for that.

If you are likely to do a loft extension anyway, then I would do it now.
If you paid off debt, you would potentially have to borrow the money anyway to extend, and costs of doing the work will only get more expensive over time.

The alternative is moving house, but the cost of that with stamp duty etc might be on par, or more expensive than the loft conversion.

Depending on how manageable your debt level is, I would prioritise:

1) Pay off any short term / high interest debt such as credit cards or overdraft
2) Establish rainy day fund
3) Home improvements required for quality of life / house moving avoidance
4) Pay off long term debt

You've already committed to the mortgage. How much better would an extended house make your life?

After that I'd be putting it in stocks ISAs, cash ISAs and savings accounts. You can use it on the mortgage down the line if you need or leave it generating wealth.

Another guy to fix the gutter. Not overly confident, so wanted to check in.

Downpipe goes into concrete with no access. The whole thing is blocked - we ran a hoze down but no specialist equipment.

He says to cut and put a shoe into the drain.

This makes sense to me and would be easier to maintain.

Anything I'm missing?

3 Attachments

He's just gone out to get the shoe.

I fucking hate paying people to do things on my house. It's basically roulette with worse odds and no upside. You're just hoping to land on zero.

Open a pension with vanguard and in your partner's name too if poss.Chuck it in there and invest in vanguard vwrl.Leave it there until you want to retire, collect the tax relief at source and if applicable by self assessment. Free money going in.

Draw out the tax free lumps from both pensions, free money comes out.

Pay your mortgage off at that point.

@zazkar if you need access to anything you decide to save (for a rainy day), there are some decent Cash ISAs kicking about at the minute. I’ve just put a few bags into one offering a really good rate, and I can get at it if needed.

Why can't the guy rod it, or jet it, to clear the blockage?

Can't believe that a really, really, really nice bike isn't getting a lookin with the inheritance money...

As your gulley is not recessed into the ground, if you divert the downpipe into that it's likely that any slight blockage from leaves etc, or indeed a heavy, gushing outflow during heavy rain, will splash all over the shop and contribute to your wall becoming even more damp than it is.

Thanks.

Now he's done it this is the news I wanted to round my day off with.

I fucking hate this shit.

Why can't the guy rod it, or jet it

We blasted it with a hoze. Because of the angle of the roof you couldn't get a rod down there, but he didn't have any anyway.

Would any overflow help clean the paint spilled on your driveway? win-win!

I think I'm going to get one of these drain guard things and tidy it myself.

That way it'll look neater, prevent as much shit getting in, stop splashback, and provide access. Plus I can diy all of that because it's at ground level, rather than relying on an overweight chancer.

Also debating on using that water blocking brick cream stuff. Logic being that if it's only on one section at the bottom there's enough spare wall to draw damp and disapate(sp?) across the surface of the wall.

Ha! Fuck off.

That was actually resolved thankfully. Including keeping our neighbourly relationship in tact.

nah, it will be fine, just keep it clear if you notice it getting blocked up.

Did the downpipe not go into the same drain?

I'm sure you've thought of this but do you have standing water on the right? Not good for damp either

Did the downpipe not go into the same drain?

Yes. Idk why if it's a neatness thing or to prevent the splashback.

but do you have standing water on the right?

Yes. Most of the time it's OK, but the gradient is not correct. There is a slight dip for c.1m. I wanted the patio guys to cut it all out with a angle grindet and put some stones, but they assured me it was fine / too much effort....

... That said having seen where the drain runs they would have likely cut into it and fucked it. So I wasn't right.

I should add that the pic is after the initial cut in the pipe, so a whole vertical drainpipe* worth of water had just been spewed out in one go.

*less 2ft of compacted moss sludge