Owning your own home

Interested in the Velorution stuff potentially.
Other half interested in Vitsoe. If you could post pics

My nan has moved into a home and won't be going back to her house again.

My parents are trying to work out what to do with her place - either the rental income or sale cost are needed for the care home.

The house definitely needs a lot of work - rewiring, old polystyrene tiles ripped out and new ceilings, new carpets, new kitchen at the very least.

The options would be:

A) Rent out as is
B) Refurbish and rent out
C) Sell as is
D) Refurbish and sell

Option A seems unlikely, B seems the most sensible. The place is in Chingford which is increasingly where Walthamstow price exiles are heading (but my parents aren't, so I will probably have to do a lot of the organisation).

If they decided to sell, I would rather buy a house that was a C than a D - but I know that discussion has been had in here before and that opinions are mixed, and I guess society at large would probably rather a neutrally-renovated house than a fixer-upper.

I don't really know what to advise them - I think B, unless there are strong opinions otherwise?

B was what my parents did when similar happened to my grandparents. I don't know if there was any reason for doing that other than the fact that the rent was sufficient to cover home costs. If you can do it relatively easily, it at least defers the decision on selling I imagine.

In terms of C Vs D, I'd expect a discount on a home needing a lot of work (C) simply to compensate me for the risk - I wouldn't know what state the wiring / planing etc was in. I suspect that that discount I'd want may be greater than the cost of a simply renovating the house (D).

C over D. You will not recoup any development costs if you renovate (double check with an estate agent).

A is likely not workable, unless youre ok ignoring tenants' requests for work. If it needs rewiring, will it even pass an EICR test

B is an admin overhead, and given the above, not worth it. Then there's hassle with enduring power of attorney, possible trusts, and faffing with (sad to say) probate complications with a tenanted property.

Particularly in the current market, I'd be self-selling as-is.

Shelves.

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I’ll get in line behind tbc

C no question

I’d be holding on to a property in Chingford - prices in E17 have continued to go up at some of the fastest rates in London. Chingford and Highams Park will inevitably benefit from the overspill. Refurb for rental could probably be achieved at low cost but if selling then don’t bother as doubt it would be worth the time/effort. Just clean it and give it a lick of paint

Whereabouts in Chingford?

Refurbish and rent out

The refurb would be deductible.

@tbc have you / your parents seen her will to check if the property is subject to a trust ?

I'll add my name to that list, please.

In this week's "first world problems" digest, we are on the verge of sacking off our current builders. Despite starting off strong, they have repeatedly fucked us off for other work and when they tried to save face by getting new guys in "for the whole week", those new guys spent Monday and Tuesday ripping out the shit work that the last guys did, then got pulled to other jobs from Wednesday onwards (f I could just get these 2 guys to do all the work, I'd be happy). We've asked them for cast iron dates that work will be completed (because I'm trying to avoid paying for work twice [we still owe them money but have paid for some stuff that does need fixed]) by tomorrow night. If a full project plan doesn't materialise over the weekend, we'll be back to square 1.

In hindsight, it all makes sense. These guys started up their own firm because they didn't like working for their previous master. They are skilled trades in what they do themselves (spark and chippy), but they have no clue how to manage a busy book of business. As it stands, due to half started/finished rooms, we can only use less than a 1/3 of the house.

Sounds like you should try and contract directly with guys #2, who seem to actually know what they are doing

I would love to, but they are in the direct employ of #1. We know where #2 live though (in conversation they live on the road we moved from) so we're not totally above seeking them out if/when they get annoyed working for #1.

Thanks for the advice everyone who contributed. It's interesting the mix of advice and definitely gives us something to think about.

@Tenderloin the house is on Mayfield Road, a quiet road off Larkshall Road about a 5-minute walk from Station Road (the Prezzo/Co Op end).

@princeperch I think the house is left to my mum in my nan's will, but my dad has lasting power of attorney which I think means it's over to them anyway. But (as you can probably tell) this isn't something I know too much about.

Sounds like a lot of hassle, give you a tenner for it and I'd be doing you a favour.

I'll put that to my dad and see what he says.

If we go to best and finals you might have to up it a bit.

Before you take any major decisions you need to get a copy of the will and check how the house is held at the land registry.

If she's now liable for care home fees the house might be held as tenants in common between her and your mum and if so, the council have a challenge to force its sale for care purposes i.e its unlikely they can because your gran doesn't own 100pc of the house and it's essentially ring fenced. If however you sell it and then she gets 300k or whatever then that will possibly go towards the funding of her care.

In short, dependant on what the will says and how the house is held and how much she has in savings you might be better off doing nothing at the moment because by selling it you might be inadvertently opening Pandoras box.

Gosforth handyman on YouTube has been dealing with the damp issues in his 1930s new house over the past few videos.

Cracked drain.
Concrete slab above the original DPC
Ventilation being blocked.

So we completed Friday "yay".

But wife had her appendix out Thursday, I did the move myself with hire vans and brother.

Walked into the house to filth and a moth larvae infestation In all the carpets.

Staying with parents currently.

FML.

/Rant

I’m going to the dump this morning with a car load of chemicals and crap that was left in our new place.
On the plus side though I did find this light shade which we kind of like.

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Someone posted a picture of a fancypants bin with recycling compartments. Was it in this thread?

Simplehuman?

That's the one - Thanks

I’d sell as is;

Unmodernised houses have a weird premium on them (it’s clear what you are buying and it’s a blank slate). There will be demand and you won’t get loads of hassle during the sale.

Modernising it exposes you to having to deal with builders and suppliers and all the chaos that causes. As you won’t be living there it’s likely to get fucked up in some way. You will resent having to buy your way out of trouble when it goes wrong. It’s risky and fraught.

Then Renting is a ballache and the yield on houses is poor.