Owning your own home

My service charge has been changed from quarterly to bi-annual. Can I tell them to piss off? Where would I find the terms surrounding these payments?

The details of how often service charge payments have to be made will be in your lease. If it requires quarterly payments then you can tell them to fuck off. They can't alter the terms of the lease without your permission, regardless of whether the freehold is owned by a third party or by a tenant-owned management company.

My ground rent and service charge for the first half of this year are due on Friday.
My flat has just gone on the market, so I dont really want to pay 6 months service charge, and the whole years ground rent, as I doubt I'll see any of it back if I complete by the end of April..... Advice?

Can I say here is money to cover until the end of April, and if sale hasn't completed by then, I will pay ad-hoc?
It's a leasehold, BTW. And the guy who owns the freehold is a fairly substantial cunt.

You want to try selling a flat which has unpaid service charges and ground rent? Good luck with that...

Anyone have any experience with building an extension on a leasehold garden flat?
What kind of information can I find out regards speaking to the freeholder/seeking planning consent before offering on a property? Presumably not much at all?

I seem to recall an article around 18 months ago suggesting that around 500K households couldn't handle a 0.25% increase. The last thing the government wants in an election year is a repeat of the 80's defaults, so you can bet the "independent" Bank fo England monetary committee will have one eye on their future knighthoods well ahead of pulling the trigger.

Plus, cynical old bastard that I am, the "ooh, rate rises are coming" article is now about as regular as the "eurozone is all doomed, just you wait" article that fills Saturday finance pull-outs that are basically paid for by the mortgage lenders who are pissed off with folk like me bumping along nicely thanks on their standard variable ever since it fell through the floor about 5 years ago. "ooh, fix your mortgage before it rises" scaremongering has been going for 2 years at least.

Jesus, I really am a cynical bastard. Must get out riding more now the rainy season is coming to an end...

Yep. Best thing I did was move onto a very low Variable tracker rate four years ago despite everyone at the time predicting they will only go up . I now have a low mortgage in comparison to when I was paying 5%+. A rate rise of 0.5% or more would not help my situation one bit now though

Anyone have any experience with building an extension on a leasehold garden flat?
What kind of information can I find out regards speaking to the freeholder/seeking planning consent before offering on a property? Presumably not much at all?

If you can get a copy of the lease then this will tell you what the provisions of the lease are regarding alterations, whether or not you need the consent of the landlord or whether it's an absolute covenant against alterations. If it's a covenant against making alterations without consent then section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 means that the landlord cannot unreasonably withhold consent if the works are an 'improvement'. Whether or not they're an improvement is determined from the point of the tenant, so it almost always will be. However, it probably won't be possible to get a yes/no answer from the landlord before buying the property.

In terms of planning consent you should be able to have an informal chat with the local planning officer to get some idea of whether the extension would be allowed, or whether it would be a permitted development and so would not require consent, but again you're unlikely to be able to get formal planning consent before buying unless the conveyancing process takes an exceptionally long time.

If you can get a copy of the lease then this will tell you what the provisions of the lease are regarding alterations, whether or not you need the consent of the landlord or whether it's an absolute covenant against alterations. If it's a covenant against making alterations without consent then section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 means that the landlord cannot unreasonably withhold consent if the works are an 'improvement'. Whether or not they're an improvement is determined from the point of the tenant, so it almost always will be. However, it probably won't be possible to get a yes/no answer from the landlord before buying the property.

In terms of planning consent you should be able to have an informal chat with the local planning officer to get some idea of whether the extension would be allowed, or whether it would be a permitted development and so would not require consent, but again you're unlikely to be able to get formal planning consent before buying unless the conveyancing process takes an exceptionally long time.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought. Although I was under the impression that the air around the property often falls outside of the demise of the lease so section 19(2) doesn't stand? I'd presumably need a party wall agreement with the other tenant(s)?

Feels like it's pretty much impossible to find out with any degree of certainty whether it's feasible to extend prior to purchase.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought. Although I was under the impression that the air around the property often falls outside of the demise of the lease so section 19(2) doesn't stand? I'd presumably need a party wall agreement with the other tenant(s)?

Feels like it's pretty much impossible to find out with any degree of certainty whether it's feasible to extend prior to purchase.

The extent of the premises subject to the lease will again be defined in the lease. You're right that if the extension encroaches outside the area demised by the lease then section 19(2) won't apply since the construction of the extension would be a trespass into adjacent air space. If that's the case you'd need the consent of the landlord (probably, it might be another tenant but that's unlikely) and the landlord would be entitled to refuse to grant consent, or could impose conditions at will. In those cases landlords will often want a share of any net increase in the value of the flat arising from the works.

I doubt you'd need a PWA award, as the exterior wall which would become the interior wall in the course of the construction of the extension wouldn't be a party wall as it would all be on land owned by the freeholder and leased to you. The Party Walls etc. Act 1996 defines a party wall as being 'a wall which forms part of a building and stands on lands of different owners' which it wouldn't be in this case.

Generally speaking you're also right that it isn't possible to get a clear answer as to whether or not you can extend a flat before you buy it, simply because the process of getting all the consents required takes longer, by a considerable margin, than the process of buying it. Sometimes you can buy flats or other properties with all the necessary consents in place, but of course you pay for the privilege. By not paying that premium you're assuming the risk that the extension can't be carried out.

I doubt you'd need a PWA award, as the exterior wall which would become the interior wall in the course of the construction of the extension wouldn't be a party wall as it would all be on land owned by the freeholder and leased to you. The Party Walls etc. Act 1996 defines a party wall as being 'a wall which forms part of a building and stands on lands of different owners' which it wouldn't be in this case.

this isn't quite correct. if there is work to be carried out on an existing wall or structure (ie tying in bricks etc), or building up to/astride an existing wall/boundary, or excavation, the work will almost certainly be covered by the act.

PM me if you need any advice.

What if the extension requires steels which cut into the party wall, or involves digging foundations close to party walls?

ah, you've already said that. :)

Anybody in the market for a nice top floor conversion in the Muswell Hill area, with an interesting past?

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/serial-killer-dennis-nilsens-flat-goes-on-sale-for-100k-profit-after-a-swift-makeover-9154198.html

I think this thread caught that last time it was on the market, pre-makeover.

Yep.

http://www.lfgss.com/thread31271-69.html#post3811304

Well it's £100K more now so a real bargain!!
Plus they are not advertising it's history. Dunno what is worse, the price or the it's past

Living in muswell hill would be the worst thing about it

I wouldn't have a problem, so long as the saucepans are new.

in fact, anywhere with the word 'hill' in the title can >>>

Fuck.

I need some advice on mortgage deposits, not sure if anyone here can help, but anyway...

My wife and I have been accepted for a part buy part rent property and I had a chat with their financial advisor on the phone earlier. All was going well and we were just about to book an appointment for our financial interview with them when I told her that our deposit was being gifted from my mother in-law in Japan.

We had been told a 5% deposit would suffice, we even would've had enough to cover 10%, but I was told that no one would offer us a mortgage with less than a 15% deposit. That has completely fucked us. Does anyone have any experience of this situation?

my friend just got a 10% mortgage half of which was funded by family. the lender does not need to be informed where the money is coming from.

in fact, anywhere with the word 'hill' in the title can >>>

Better than anything with 'river' or 'stream' or 'lake' in the title these days.

my friend just got a 10% mortgage half of which was funded by family. the lender does not need to be informed where the money is coming from.

This has been covered already. Some lenders DO need to know where the money is coming from.

Santander told me they would require a statement from my parents stating that they would have no interest in the property and are just giving me some cash.

obviously gift better but can also do via a loan as long as the parents have a second mortgage ie rank behind the bank so then bank know they get first cut

Just had an offer on my flat of £339k. Asking price is £350k. Cash buyer.
It's been on the market exactly one week. I'm not sure if I should accept it, or hold out for something better. The agent says a cash offer of this amount, is probably better than asking price offer with a mortgage. I'm really not sure what to do.....

I'm looking for a quick sale, so tempted to accept. But also think it's only been a week, so there will prolly be more offers soon.

Should I go back to them with something that is in the middel of the asking price and their offer, or will that make them walk away?

Confused!

Reject it. See what happens.

Completed yesterday! It got nasty towards the end with the estate agent threatening to put it back on the market due to price increases. I was tired of the whole thing so we told them to stick it and they backed down. Need to buy all white goods though.

Reject it. See what happens.

But if I reject it, and they dont offer again, can I go back to them with my tail between my legs and accept?