Owning your own home

Freehold flat != share of freehold

If it's a true freehold flat then it's likely unmortgageable with some lenders, but I assume you already googled this.

http://www.fridaysmove.com/why-lenders-do-not-wish-lend-freehold-flats/13225

It's demineralised too, so it's good for steam irons.

I wouldn't drink it and demineralised water does taste odd even if it was completely safe.

I live in a share of freehold property, a house converted into 7 flats. It's fine, like any other, except you don't have to worry about the lease so much. in our case, basically you own a share of a company that owns the whole house. It can be a bit of a pain in the ass dealing with the other neighbours but ours are pretty nice and we make a bit of an effort to stay on good terms. however there is still a lease (you lease the flat off of the company you part own) so ensure the underlying lease is long enough to be acceptable to your bank. Ours wasn't so we got the seller to extend the lease to 150 years (cost them something like £2.5k).

PM me if you need ay proper / longer advice

I have fake grass, in a very small years ( side return. Total area about 6m square. There would never be grass there, only paving or tarmac or something equally shit. There is nowehere to store a pair of shears, let alone a lawn mower.

It transformed the space from a horrible mess to a soft, colourful welcoming garden.

I am now inspired to keep it nice, use it for paddling pools, grow herbs on hanging pots etc.

100% recommend.

Is that a question or a statement?

@amey @ChainBreaker You're on your own I'm afraid. But I would love a garden (that I don't share with 11 strangers).

Pretty much as @fredtc says @Pifko.

I'm in a similar thing. Share of Freehold with the flat below and the flat above. I'm a director/shareholder of the company that owns the freehold, and a signatory on the account, and it's hardly any work each year to keep it ticking over. The freeholder (the company in our case) has to sort out the buildings insurance, and the costs are split up between the flats (we all contribute directly to the freehold company's bank account via monthly standing order). The liability for other things should also be set out in the agreement (we're all jointly responsible for the roof in slightly different shares, getting the trees crowned every 3 years, etc). Done right the monthly standing order (the management fee if you were just in a leasehold flat) pays for everything and also accumulates a little spare funds for inevitable unforeseen problems.

Certainly shouldn't put you off, and owning the freehold takes away all of the lease worries. With even fewer other freeholders it should be even easier.

About to remortgage. Bit worried about being overvalued.where is a good place to read about negative equity, how to value a house, etc and so on.

Overvalued is a good thing surely?

Depends if you want to increase your borrowing amount or not and then what you'd use the cash released for.

Higher valuation will push down interest rate at any £ borrowing amount clearly.

Choosing a builder.

I'm not entirely convinced by flashy websites or checkatrade, I have a few personal recommendations but they're both flat out. How about knocking on a few doors in our road that I know have already had similar extensions in the last 10 years?

Or...?

edit: this was a fresh question btw not a reply to Butternut above!

How about knocking on a few doors in our road that I know have already had similar extensions in the last 10 years?

This.

You will possibly find that they were all done by a few builders.

Discovered some twat registered a company at our new address in October when it was vacant. After dealing with a twat who had his car registered at our old address and racked up numerous parking fines and crimes I'd like to nip this in the bud as soon as possible. Any advice, is this a police matter, Action Fraud or do I just contact Companies House?

you are SE way, no?

Companies House, most probably.

And HMRC - of all people, you don't want the VAT man on your case.

Yeah I got some post from HMRC for the company already. Definitely contacting them.

Not anymore, we sold in July and moved in with my folks in Bucks as there was a small delay with the new place. Still here :S

ah - i was going to recommend my dude.

re fake grass

i got some fake grass in the back garden. there's only one person (if you can call him that) who likes it. the picture was taken this morning.

it's hilarious, the thing loves the little patch and is always playing with it.

so be warned. the foxes will find your fake grass and will be tugging and urinating all over it in no time i'm sure

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i hope you like the fence too, i put that up myself

i hope you like the fence too, i put that up myself

The other one is a bit wonky...

I've seen better rockeries.

To be fair, that fox is not spoilt for choice for comfy places to hang.