Owning your own home

@Howard sorry, in retrospect that was inadvertently more rude than i meant it.

also, i move once a fortnight and have spent maybe 300£ in fuel over the last 12 months, including running the engine when the solar panels aren't quite giving me enough juice to run everything...

My folks' boat had a whopping engine in it, but spent very little on fuel.

It did have big fuck off sails though...

Washing machine stolen from kerb while waiting for the van to arrive. Fail.

wtf

#london

I think that's where we were going wrong. Reckon we would have been a little quicker point-to-point though ;)

Holy shit

I mean...those things are a pain in the ass to move...I'd have thought you'd needed to pay someone to take it away.

Hopefully they turn it on without removing the transit bolts.

Getting confused/anxious about remortgaging again.

Coming to the end of a 2 year fix 4.79% - £1,299 pcm

Offset - 1.54% tracked over the base rate (so 1.79% right now - £964.28 pcm) for 2 years then 3.49% over the base

Or, stay with the Halifax and switch to either;

2 year fix - 1.64% (then 3.74% variable) - £941.92 pcm

or

5 year fix - 2.19% (then 3.74% variable) - £998.49 pcm

I don't think we'll be saving enough to make adequate use of the benefits of an offset to warrant switching a gambling with a varying rate. Especially as the base rate is touted to be pushed back up to 0.5% next year which would put the offset/tracker close to the 5 year fixed deal anyway.

Then, Brexit.

What do, internets?!?!?!?

I was you last week. Substantial diff between 5 and 2 year, £90 pcm. Going with 1.28% 2 year fixed with barclays, £995 'arrangement' fee, legal and valuation included. I am going below £750 pcm.

Not a huge amount of admin as my mortgage advisor is great. Took maybe a week to collate a 'remortgage 2017' folder in dropbox, thats about it. Now lets hope it doesn't get massively under-valued.

BoE are already putting out feelers about raising interest rates over the next couple of years so i'd be wary of a short term fixed because that's just delaying the problem.

You could go with a tracker and keep an eye on rates but i'd go with the 5 year fixed then overpay the difference between it and your old rate. You'd come out ahead of all the other options in terms of remaining balance etc and have the safety of easy financial planning for the next 5 years...

the 5 years makes me feel more comfortable but wary of making the "wrong" decision and being stuck for 5 years.

It would already be £300 cheaper than what I'm paying now, plus my student loan will be cleared by the end of this year so I would almost immediately have an extra £600 every month to put into savings if I wanted to.

I get the benefits of an offset, and chances are I would be saving something. But if our circumstances change and we have to use those savings, we'd be stuck with a "risky" mortgage and none of the offsettyness to combat the riskyness.

Say mrs_com or I lose either job, or one of us flips a table and quits, or mrs_com becomes pregnant. Having a manageable* fixed amount every month might remove some of the anxiety.

*basing that on it being less than it would be to rent anywhere in London for the two of us.

It would already be £300 cheaper than what I'm paying now, plus my student loan will be cleared by the end of this year so I would almost immediately have an extra £600 every month to put into savings if I wanted to.

I'd seriously consider the long term fixed and continuing to pay the same amount (ie overpaying by £300 a month).

I assumed term (23 years) and mortgage value (£250K) but you'd be roughly £20k better off after the first 5 years in saved interest and lowered principle by using that £300. Over a full 23yr term, you'd save £20k in interest alone and repay over 5 years quicker...

If your circumstances change, you can always stop overpaying for a short amount of time...

If you like the place enough to stay 5 years, I'd go 5 year fixed in a heartbeat.

From where we are, risk is significantly skewed to the upside so I'd go with 5 year fixed.

You can lock your self into a £300pcm 'saving' with no need to worry about the Stock Market/Brexit/Trump, for five long years.

Any other deals rely upon good fortune to match this.

5 years takes you beyond March 2019, the next UK GE and the US 2020.

Party wall agreements, what's the best way to go about this? I'm in a Victorian terrace and in the process of a loft conversion. Planning has just gone in so now I need to sort out party wall agreements.

Neighbours at one side have been there many years. I know them to nod and say hello to but not much more. I was thinking that I'd just knock on the door and have a chat with them but what do I actually need them to sign/agree to? Anything I should have printed out for them, information they should know?

Neighbours on the other side haven't been there that long and I don't know. They're council tenants so I assume the property is either owned by the council or rented. What's the easiest way of finding this out, the land registry?

I will probably knock on the door to let them know about the building works but they don't speak much English so attempting to find out who I need to contact for a party wall agreement may well be beyond that conversation.

I've no issue going down the surveyor route if that's what people want but I'd like to get it all sorted with the minimum of hassle.

Also, who tends to be liable if there is stuff that needs making good at either side? Is it covered by the builders' insurance, should I take out insurance, is it generally not required, etc?

making the "wrong" decision and being stuck for 5 years.

Rates can only go down by 0.25% - They can go up by 10% - 15%

Easiest thing to do is make a spreadsheet of all payments, adjust it for interest rates going up, and seeing how that impacts your outgoings.

My bet is that, as soon as your planning goes in, they will be contacted by firms that keep an eye out on the council's planning portal, just for this reason.

Had a girl from the estate agents round the other day to talk us though their services and she thought we'd be really impressed by the story she told where she got ONE offer on one of her properties, so the person offering had no competition, the vendor was happy with the price, but the agent went back to the buyer and asked for their final offer (dunno what else she may have said or implied) and they upped their offer by 18 LARGE. That's money they didn't have to spend just because of agent shenanigans! Cuuuuuuunnnntttttssss! The lot of em.

Yeah, the estate agency business seems to accept borderline fraudulent behaviour (i.e. hinting or just lying outright about other bids) as par for the course.

Estate agents work for the sellers. Most of whom want top whack for their property. The whole system lacks transparency opening it up to underhand tactics.

I mean I want top dorra but done right, yer nah?

MA has now backed off his "you do offset, you do offset NOW!" stance after I said "eh, what about 5 year fixed" so is going to look into switching. He said he would arrange the switch for me as it could save me costs, time and paperwork. Which would be true, but if I stick with the Halifax, I can do it online without any of that.

I'm torn. He was a massive help when we got our first mortgage, I would have been totally lost (or at least it would have caused considerably more stress). But if I can do this myself easily with the Halifax, assuming I wouldn't get a mega deal elsewehere for a 5 year fix, I'm tempted to tell him I'll just do it myself.

But on the same hand, I want to keep him sweet as if I do need to do anything tricky in future, he could be valuable. I suppose if he just gets me the same deal as I can get myself with no extra hassle and he still gets commission from the Halifax, I'll let him do it.