Owning your own home

Leave a frozen pig on their doorstep.

If you want a fight,
you underpay the next instalment of management fees by £108,
with the L&TA1985 explanation.

I've asked them for invoices for both the certificate and the "we're venal cunts" charge, interested to see what's on the second one.

Forget the cars, you need a house, with no managing agents...and a garage with lighting.

Yes, however we have a problem there.

Such a house in London is circa 1M, which I can't afford, such a house in the countryside is much less, and I can afford - but my girlfriend won't consider living anywhere other than London.

I'd like to move to the countryside, but Mrs Hefty won't let me either.

We should definitely start a LFGSS kibbutz.

Kolkhoz, pls.

Thanks for replying, I didn't notice till now. In this instance the new building itself is nice, it was just collateral damage to various bits of our garden.

I spoke to the surveyor, who said in this case (doubtless not all), the owner has to put things back as they were, using the materials originally used. In the end I got the developer to do it, I think once he found out I knew this information and his assurance that the state he'd left us in wasn't "good enough" (his words :)).

The lesson i'd take from this, is always have a survey done - the instigator of the works has to offer it at their expense before the project starts.

The house opposite me is fully detached with a garden and garage, in a cul-de-sac, one road away from a park and 10 mins walk from the train station. It's in London (just), and sold for £575k about two months ago.

Kick a man when he's down why don't you.

When I sold my flat 3 years ago the managing agent actually wanted 450 quid plus vat to answer some very standard and straightforward questions on the service charge and what the costs and anticipated costs of the building were.

Yep. Even if you plan to consent to the works, you should do so in the condition that a schedule of condition is carried out on your property.

52 pages of a full fat survey on the gaff we're buying has made for some interdasting reading. Could be better, could be a lot worse.

bits of damp and some ventilation issues in some of the rooms, some floorboards need resealing, some windows want replacing, minor evidence of subsidence within the bounds of acceptability for a house built on clay and dead dinosaurs, no evidence of rot or wood eating bugs tho not conclusive. the word 'serviceable' and 'to be expected of a property of this era' is used a lot.

will we die?

Do you want me to PM you my survey to make you feel better?

eish.

what was the worst offender?

sounds allot like mine except i had the added bonus of beetle infestation.

House was built in 1896 and mostly original, my wood got inspected and was given the all clear.

Its been just short of 2 years and apart from the huge heating bills we are all still alive.

Don't panic, it sounds normal.

this is a 1930's mid terrace with parquet and the odd bit of concrete flooring.

if we were to factor in any repair costs into the price, how would we go about doing this? obviously i don't want to alienate the seller too much and we're pretty far along in the process, but that said, i wouldn't kick the prospect of knocking off a few quid out for eating crackers in bed.

Just be open about it, if you have a good relationship then walk them through the concerns you have and gauge the response. Depending on the severity they will prob be aware of some of whats been flagged up.

I have been on both sides over the years, as long as you don't go OTT with your demands I think its half expected. Do your research on remediation cost, and go in with a fair offer. Be prepared to haggle and if you really want the place, to suck it up if they tell you to do one.

Say something along the lines of 'we understand this is a period property (not a showhome etc) and the sellers have clearly maintained it well.... but these are unanticipated costs and were not factored in when we made original offer... We estimate in the region of £££ to rectify... Would seller consider contributing as a goodwill gesture etc'.

It's a game, they're expecting it.

We offered £5k less than our original offer, seller suggested £2.5k less... we suggested £4k less and they (sellers son) threw all toys out of pram so we ended up agreeing on £2.5k. Relatively painless process, getting quotes etc to support helped.

sound advice.

wrt getting quotes, what's the polite way of doing so considering presumably some sort of access to the property will be required?

are we to communicate this to the seller via our solicitors? EA's?

I’d go to the EA directly. If they offer to get their own quotes obviously tell them to naff orf.

"what's the polite way of doing so considering presumably some sort of access to the property will be required?"

Something along the lines of "Do you want to sell your house or what?"

#gpwm

You can try. But if they tell you to piss off, what do you do?

Issue a small claim to teach them a lesson.