Owning your own home

The one you posted is a probate sale isn’t it? They’ll be wanting speed over inflated cash (from my limited charity experience dealing with pronates and executors).

That's great, thanks.

@jv It's solid, heavy and I know it was expensive. Definitely not a laminate but could be a composite. I was told I wouldn't be able to saw it unless I had something diamond tipped

Yeah the whole place is. Various sized homes with the idea that you live there all your life. Small flats to start then mid sized house lad to the bigger ones like that one. All pedestrianised. Got it’s one run of shops/ pubs / schools.
New Ashford train station too. Was just weirded out by the people we met who were super into the lifestyle and living there. The pubs and shops were shit though.

More shenanigans. More stress.
New buyers' solicitor is querying some of the work we've had done over the years. Insisting we provide planning permission or proof that it's not needed. We have no planning permission or Building Regs certificates other than for the bifold doors.
1) We built a rear semi-extension on the exact footprint of an existing conservatory six years ago. We put on a proper roof, one extra brick wall (one was there already), and bifolds.
We removed the windows and doors from the rear of the kitchen to make it semi-open plan but the load bearing middle section is still in place.
We're claiming permitted development.
Solicitor saying as it's "open to the kitchen area" building regs would be needed.
We're not going to get it signed off.
Is this where Indemnity Insurance may be needed?
2) We had an en suite put in the main bedroom in 2010.
It connected to the same soil pipe as the main bathroom which is next to it separated by a wall.
Solicitor saying it would have needed Building Regs certificate.
Do I need to worry about this?

Can answer the 1st one but the 2nd one seems nonsense. Ive never heard of needing building regs certs for adding a toilet in although it maybe different down in London. Part of me thinks like the solicitor is trying to get them money off.

Yeah I can't see their argument on the en suite as it didn't involve any re-routing of the soil pipe. Plus it's 10 years old.
They're also saying the rear decking and extension "would appear to use up at least 50% of the garden" so the decking would also need planning...??!

How much is indemnity insurance? Online says "few hundred pounds".

Survey is this Thursday so hoping that sorts a few things out

Planning and Building Control are separate entities. Planning (and Permitted Development) relate to what can be built, Building Control is required to confirm that the proposed/built works comply with the relevant Building Regulations.

Item 1 would definitely have required Building Control sign-off. Assuming item 2 was a new bathroom and not a refurbishment of an existing ensuite, then it would also have required Building Control sign-off.

A retrospective Building Regs certificate from your Local Authority is likely to be slow, intrusive, and potentially expensive if the works do not comply with today's Building Regs. Indemnity insurance for both will be the easier/less painful option.

Thanks - I'll prepare for that then

Item 2 is definitely the more tedious of the 2 and is just solicitors being solicitors.

Does your extension and decking take up more than 50% of the garden? That's quite hard to do unless your extension/area of decking is exceptionally large (oo-er), or your garden is exceptionally small.

Assuming they are more than 4 years old, and you have evidence that dates them, then you could apply for a Certificate of Lawful Development should their solicitors look to use the above to try and negotiate the selling price.

I just bought shutters today. Some of the café style ones for the bay window. Delivery is stated as 8-11 weeks. They don't tell you this until the very end of checkout. Annoying.

never gets old

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Certificate of Lawful Development is a good shout
Decking was finished June 2016 (and it can't be 50%+ of garden but I'll get measurements tomorrow) and rear extension/work was completed November 2015.
Have invoices and emails confirming those dates.

As said solicitors being dicks, until you need them to do something for you and they are useless

It’s not really shinanegins - the buyers should know the status of any major work that’s been done and that it’s been done properly.

I guess you can indemnify against planning shitting the bed and demanding your extension becomes a conservatory again or something crazy but I’m not sure what you can do about the lack of BC which is what it is. It takes a bit of sophistication on the buyers part on what to do about it.

Reinstate the doors and separate it from the main house. It's now a conservatory and exempt from both building regulations and planning.

That is annoying — I understand they are all made in the same Chinese factory (much like bikes I suppose) regardless of retailer so I expect my lead time will be similar.

Are you fitting yourself? How much did your bay come to?

Builder is due to come back to me with quotes today. One of the jobs is replacing the loft bathroom and fitting a shower pump to push hot water up there from the floor below (and to also improve HW flow to the bathroom on the 1st floor). The builder said yesterday that his plumber might have another solution that he is going to call me today to have a chat about. My guess is that this will be a Megaflo cylinder.

What do I need to know about that? Other than it could do away with the current HW tank and the loft CW storage tank and improve pressure. Anyone had one installed? Is it worth it?

There's a discount on at the moment so the three shutters came in at £501

I had a Megaflo installed when we did our loft. Lots of hot water, lots of pressure, just works. Assumes you have enough mains pressure in the first place though.

Mains pressure seems OK. No idea what the actual pressure is, but if the shower ran at the same pressure hot as it does cold, that would be great.

I'm guessing it would be an indirect one seeing as our current HW is gas? Are they any better/worse than direct?

Mega flow is great, but it's only as great as your supply pressure, as Jellybaby says.

If you remove the feed tank, you can't fit a pump later.

You can do feed tank + megaflow + pump, the megaflow being used a standard hot water cylinder. But then any cylinder will do.

You can measure the supply pressure - I would before making a decision. The supply pipe can also be a limiting factor, so check that too. They can be old and narrow.

Also check for pressure reducing valves around....we have one, presumably to protect the now defunct water softener on the first floor.

I'm guessing it would be an indirect one seeing as our current HW is gas? Are they any better/worse than direct?

Not really sure. I guess mine is both in as much as it is usually heated indirectly by the gas boiler next to it but it has an immersion heater element too so I can have hot water if the boiler is off/broken. Not used the immersion heater yet.

I upgraded my supply pipe when the Megaflo was fitted. Seemed sensible to ditch the lead and put in MDPE anyway.

I rate unvented but if your mains water pressure in the house is shit, it'll be shit. Megaflo is just a brand of unvented cylinders, theres tons they all so the same thing.

The difference between direct and indirect is you use a electric immerser to heat it directly or a boiler to heat it indirectly. Yours would be indirect heating it from a boiler, heats the water a lot faster too than using immersers.

Just seen after I answered what other have too.