Owning your own home

;-)

I juat had to put South London 1st... as they say, once a South Londoner, always a South Londoner... until I can find somewhere to buy... lol

I hope this is the right place to ask, just need some advice. My lounge ceiling is the balcony to the flat above. It's in a poor state so when it rains it leaks in to my lounge.

The lady with the balcony is being difficult. Who's responsible for this? I'm looking at paying half for getting it sealed up, but she wants a whole new balcony and thinks I should pay half. £900 sealing vs £15k for a whole new balcony.

Ideally she would pay for it being sealed due to her neglect and if she wants a new balcony she should pay for that as its her balcony and note to do with me.

Any advice please? Thanks

Do you know if these are any good:

https://www.downlights.co.uk/jcc-fgled3-fire-rated.html

Another reason to use a thicker cable is voltage drop if the run up the garden is particularly long. 2.5mm armoured minimum.

Good point. A to B is 27m but by the time the cable is routed to the side and back to where the power is needed it's closer to a 35m run.

Can anyone recommend a plumber in North? (Kentish Town...)

@rodabod, looks like the list has found it 2nd audience... you are obvs the 1st!

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/291015/#comment13145697

Ticks a lot of boxes, the bulb is integrated into the unit so it might be a fiddle to find replacements if that time ever comes. I've tended to stick with gu10 as the bulbs are easily available and the technology is improving all the time. Is your ceiling void really that shallow?

I've installed a lot of click flame guard, the click fitting for connection speeds up installation/testing. I can see with a bulb they would end up being more expensive than your option though.

I am looking to put an offer on a place in North London but the solicitor I had planned to use might not be available. Can anyone recommend a solicitor? Martin Browne at Gisby Harrison still a good choice?

@Brun, @dave4 and myself all used a lovely lady called Wnedy who was very efficient and north London based. I don't have her details to hand but can dig them out if one of the other two doesn't have them.

I'd definitely be interested in the solicitor as well - none of my pals have been happy with theirs so a recommendation of a good one would be much appreciated.

I've used Martin twice now (last was November '15) and he's been excellent on both occasions.

I know a few people had issues earlier in the year but i think they were down to other people within the company? Someone else might remember...

Is your ceiling void really that shallow?

No, the bathroom is on the top floor so I have the whole loft space for install.

click flame guard

These? https://www.downlights.co.uk/fire-rated-led-downlight-click-flameguard.html
I can see the appeal of a replaceable bulb. My bathroom is only 1.7x1.9 any recommendation on how many i would need?

Great - going to be a useful resource! I've used MyBuilder a few times to get odd jobs done, but the quality of workmanship usually has been less than perfect.

@BleakReference, I read your post on your situation from a few pages ago. Sounds like you're in exactly the same boat I was a couple of years ago. I sympathize man. I spent my late 20s getting into debt, my 30s getting out and had all but given up on the idea of ever being able to buy. Eventually between me and my lady we scratched together a meager deposit and was looking at part-buy schemes. Luckily for me, a benevolent relative gave us an early inheritance and we were able to offer a better down-payment than we otherwise would have. Either way, buying really was a life changer. Beyond bumping off a granny I can only recommend scraping together as much as humanly possible and going for it.

It used to piss me off so much when my folks bemoaned the money I "wasted on rent" every month, when I didn't have a fucking choice! I never saw it as wasted and always cited the rest of the world's culture of long term renting and saw it as a necessary and unavoidable cost of living. I have to say though, having finally done it (albeit with help from a relative) I can sort of see where they were coming from. For better of worse the UK housing marking isn't set up for the kind of long term renting you get on the continent or in the US. It's set up to make money for homeowners and investors. it's vile and fucked and yadda yadda but I think you can avoid being on Team Fucked without having to join Team Fucker. You do this by buying a home and living in it.

Honestly, it changed my life overnight. In a stroke we had financial security, a home we could finally make our own, our outgoings were slashed and we had more disposable income to make something like a life.

Knowing what I know now about how profound that change is, I would have been much more proactive about getting out of the rent cycle. Staying with parents, saving my arse off, taking a second job etc etc. Anything to break the cycle of rent, debt and nothing to show for any if it.

Best of luck man.

@dogtemple - Have a read of the party wall act (google the explanatory booklet). I believe that the roof between you would be treated as a party structure and as such you have entitlement to not be leaked on. The act provides the mechanism for maintaining the structures between two flats - whether it's a wall, roof or separating floor. A party wall surveyor will be able to advise further!

^After three and half years, we're selling our two bed flat in South London and buying a beautiful four storey house in a town we dig on the Kent coast. The bump up in mortgage was starting to make me feel a bit twitchy last week until I remembered that it will still be less than the rent we paid on a tiny one bed flat in Kennington five years ago. Madness.

Thanks buddy. My deposit is so meagre I don't expect my outgoings to drop very much but the idea of putting down roots BEFORE I have to leave London altogether is very appealing. For you I imagine that's even stronger with the baby in tow. Me, I just want to be able to paint my room.

Found a place in Lea Bridge that might work - total doghole but it'd be mine. Fingers crossed.

I used Martin Browne for two flat sales and the house purchase. Of all the parties involved he was by far the best. He wasn't that communicative, so you needed to be proactive about getting progress updates, but otherwise he was hard to fault.

I used Ann Hines here http://hugginslaw.co.uk/about-us-ann-hines

Seemed decent when I used her a few years ago. Based up in NE London, although you're rarely going to meet them, most likely not at all, so location isn't too important.

Get a Part P qualified sparks in to do an EICR (electrical inspection condition report) and any remedial work (if necessary) to make it safe. No one but the qualified original installer or the council's Building Regs person can sign off the original work. That EICR and proof of remedial work is the next best thing to the original.

We had the same problem, did the above, and sold our flat without any problems. Oh, and I threatened to take the original contractor to the small claims court - which I was fully prepared to do - and after six months of silence he was soon round with £400 in an envelope and a bucketful of excuses. From now on: no Part P qual/NICEIC number, no work.

So a bit of a long one after doing a fair bit of research on MSE.

• I’m planning on overpaying on the mortgage but trying to work out whether it’s worth saving first to make the most of my money (and try and rebuild some savings).

• On the MSE “is it worth overpaying calculator” it says I need to earn 3.4% interest (before tax) with my 2.69% mortgage.

• There is a TSB account @ 5% up to £2k and a First Direct @ 6% (but only accumulable at £300p/m with £3,600 total).

• Neither of these are wild figures, but what I wanted to sound out was whether it is worth using up both of those obvious routes before overpaying?

• my logic is it will give me a practical emergency buffer while “beating” overpayments ( 5% > 3.4%).

• in the short term this is binary, but in the medium term it isn't. So I can over pay in a year or two.

Just on the saving being better value, does that all stack up? (Creating a buffer obviously has its own benefits).

Cheers.

NB. Overpayments are permanent and can’t be offset/redeemed etc.

In fairness it's your choice to have only NICEIC but it's a vast oversimplification of the regulatory requirements. Any notifiable work can be signed off by a representative of the local council or registered 3rd party (prior arrangement before the work commences is necessary) or by any registered electrician, they could be registered with NICEIC, NAPIT or Stroma or there are some smaller registration bodies.

Electrical Installation Condition Reports also require an electrician to have a certain level of qualification and experience, usually C&G 2394/2395 which is contained in the full electrical apprenticeship (or C&G 2391 the older qualification) plus you need a specific insurance type and registration with a professional body that recognises your skill in carrying out EICR's. Part P has little or nothing to do with it and is a far easier qualification to obtain.

However most electrical work is not notifiable, CU replacement, adding a new circuit to a CU some garden and some bathroom electrics are. I'm still simplifying it but there's not always the requirement for notification.

It's true that anyone working professionally on your electrical system should have a good working knowledge of BS7671 and Part P and follow those rules and regulations, in which case they should probably have the up to date qualifications in BS7671 and Part P.

This is what I've been doing and though it sometimes feels like you'd be better off dropping in overpayments on the mortgage, or rather that the uncomfortable feeling of saddling yourself with mortgage level debt would be eased by doing the mathematically incorrect thing.

If Lloyds are still doing it they have a 4% up to £5000 current account, TSB also used to let you have two of those current accounts so you could have £9000 as an easy access buffer/emergency fund, plus the First Direct Regular Saver all out performing overpayments. If you're particularly risk adverse you could open a Santander 123 Current Account after that and earn 3% on up to £20,000.

Personally even if the money wasn't outperforming overpaying I'd still ideally want an emergency fund and would prioritise that for peace of mind.

On the MSE “is it worth overpaying calculator” it says I need to earn 3.4% interest (before tax) with my 2.69% mortgage.

Note that with new tax rules introduced this year you will probably find that the first £1,000 or £500 of savings income is not taxed at all so that might bring your 3.4% figure down to 2.69% although do make sure you're comparing like for like in terms of interest rates - sometimes the mortgage rate is given non-compounded.

Tax rules explained here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings/how-much-tax-you-pay