Owning your own home

@BleakRefs also thanks.
I've been away and not great at checking mail so I've missed it. Sum is due in 8 weeks in order to qualify for a discount if paid in total.

Some of the estimates are mind boggling.

Uzma gets top marks on responsiveness to date - all KYC / onboarding completed within 24 hours and drafts of all relevant docs circulated!

Just packing. Want to taste blood, feeling lethal.

you have 8 weeks to come up with 25k ?! whats the work ?!

Never again for me.

Last two moves have paid for a packing service - fucking glorious.

Is there an active residents association where you are?

I considered it and I am time/energy poor but wanted to go through and ditch a lot of stuff which I could only do in the process of packing. Do they just basically stick everything in boxes one end and take them out the other?

Yep and it's wonderful.

Ours also did dismantling and reassembly of the bed, sofa, wardrobes etc.

No, 8 weeks to pay in full for the privilege of a 5% discount. Payments can be spread over up to 10 years at ~4% iirc

A fair chunk of it is a new pitched roof but loads of other vagaries including what is described as a 'high definition CCTV drainage survey'.

Yeah we’re getting disassembly/assembly, no way would I have had time/space to do that

25k split or 25k per flat? Either way yikes

Per flat

No, not that I'm aware of. Trying to mobilize leaseholders, one an absent landlord and the other was displaced for the last two years due to the council flooding her flat when they 'fixed' some plumbing in the apartment above

Christ, I looked at a flat in Ruskin Park House and everyone was being hit with a 14k bill for general upgrades, chiefly to the communal heating system IIRC, no wonder so many were for sale

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67841871.html

This could be a really cool project

Latest news on the new neighbour's loft conversion and party wall thing.

Had the surveyors (mine and the neighbour's) round yesterday for the schedule of condition. Slightly odd business given that next door have cracked on and got the whole dormer up already.

The report will make note of the cracks that have appeared in my plaster (just the plaster, hopefully) and were clear that the neighbours would be responsible for fixing it. They also pointed out that the builders shouldn't have been on my side of the flat roof without access being granted.

I can appreciate that they wanted to get the loft conversion done while all the other stuff was going on, but am not very impressed with how they've gone about it.

Huh. Hmmm. Not sure what to suggest. The process for challenging this stuff struck me as opaque and best left for group action - presumably you’d need to lawyer up and get a tribunal or similar.

Assume it’s been a long long time since the last works took place? It might be that the work needs doing and the costs are reasonable - you’ve just been the guy left holding the baby.

Yeah I saw that one this morning - it's not a huge amount bigger than our current place. There's a semi on Nottingham road that I quite like but never been on that road.

Got a couple of viewings tomorrow.

I did find it a bit strange that nothing has appeared on the Council Planning Portal for this. The loft conversion is permitted development but it still should be processed through there and the side return should also be on there.

I left the lawn for too long... Took me three fucking hours to get it all fucking done, four and a half batteries worth of trimming, mowing and blowing...

Totally over it, gonna start getting someone in to do it... #golfthread

Why would permitted development appear on the planning portal? Only if someone's applying for lawful development certificate I'd have thought.
It should have building control app but don't think planning portal holds all of them.

Mortgages. Gah. Some lenders provide a total amount repaid figure, when they do, is this based on the borrower sticking with the SVR?

This. You can apply for a certificate of lawfulness after the fact under PD. Building control can also be done privately via an approved inspector which I don't believe will be registered on the local authority website.

Typically it's based on you sticking around for the full term, with whatever introductory deal you have followed by the rest at today's svr, so kinda meaningless

so kinda meaningless

Not entirely... lots of people out there trapped on SVRs that they’d love to be able to get out of.