Owning your own home

We had the shared maintenance/no service charges arrangements in our last place. House split into two maisonettes. I was fine with this. I was happy enough just to crack on with sorting out some of the communal path areas and paid for a bit of concrete to be relaid myself (£140). But it was a bit of a ballache when it came time to sell as it put a lot of buyers off. Eventually someone thought the same way as us and paid asking price for the place so it wasn't a big deal in the end. Although, we never tried to discuss major works.

Also, when we bought this house, there was/is 20-30 years of neglect to deal with by ourselves, so freehold is not exactly a get out of jail free card. Quite the opposite.

To what extent were you able to explore different options for the maintenance arrangement before giving up?

none. the owner of the other flat in the building was a complete absentee... there were no agreements in place to split cost of any work, nor was there evidence of any work being carried out whatsoever

iirc it would have been fine if there was some sort of contract/written agreement of shared maintenance bills being split as well as evidence of repairs being carried out. ideally the bank wanted to see that a management scheme was in place. it probably varies by bank

there was/is 20-30 years of neglect to deal with by ourselves

Speaking of which, chimney and flat roof have been renovated (or, in the case of the chimney, mostly rebuilt).

On to the pitched roof on the front.

There is a botch job on it at the moment where the roof meets the side walls. Angled tiles have been concreted down to act as flashing. Apparently they have soakers beneath them. They kind of work...but the cement is cracking where the roof expands and contracts with the temperature.

Roofer reckons we could get away without taking them all up and replacing with a proper lead flashing and new tiles. First suggested just sealing the cracks. I dislike any serious work being solved with sealant, so he's now suggesting we just re-flash where the cement has failed.

I don't like the sound of this either. But I get the whole not broke don't fix it thing. and it's £4k to get it all taken up and flashed properly, and it's more time with a scaffold on our house. But I have the money, and I hate things not being quite right, or the idea that the cement will fail further down requiring more roof works later on.

What would the hive mind do?

In the Scottish system of “offers over” you look at the home report, then offer what you think is slightly more than anyone else will?

Or do you go on a % of asking price, so say 125% of £510,000 for this: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/73973025#/

There's a house opposite us that has those angled tiles and mortar in lieu of flashing. I always thought it seemed like a bit of a bodge for the expandy contracty reasons. I was looking at it just this morning as it goes. We got our flashing replaced and the parapet wall re-rendered. The flashing was originally stepped along the brick line with no render. But the bricks were starting to crumble so the whole thing got new, straight flashing and render.

Yeah basically.

Your friendly estate agent will be able to suggest what % over the home report is reasonable for that post code.

Unless it goes to closing date...

What does “unless it goes to closing date” mean please?

Do it properly with flashing and stuff, while you still have money & momentum.

That's a big house.

I saw one in Edinburgh that was bigger though - 850sqm on Heriot Row.

Upwards of £4m though...

I think it’s pronounced Hoos.

it depends on the market

• in less spicy markets, you can probably work it like the english system and offer what you think you want to pay, with a recognition that the HR number is the 'value' and that's what you'll get a mortgage against. if the thing has been on the market for a while, you can even get properties for under HR. it happens

• in spicy markets, listings will typically go to a closing date - i.e. sealed best and final offers - and in these instances you'd typically look at the HR number and then add a percentage on top of that (again how high you go depends on (i) the cash float you have to cover the gap between the mortgageable value and what you offer and (ii) how SPICY the market is (e.g. in our last sale, we had 13 bids at closing which ranged from 5k UNDER HR to 25/30% OVER the HR). they typically say in a buoyant market you need to be bidding 10-15% over HR to be in with a shot

Ok, thanks. My thinking is that for a year we will rent our place in London out and rent something in the borders/Edinburgh- but I hate renting, so exploring options.

Do it properly with flashing and stuff, while you still have money & momentum.

That’s what I want to do. I can’t understand roofer’s reluctance to do it - he thinks we would be better spending the money on something else.

They can't be arsed. We had a crumbling unused chimney stack at the back of the house that was about to chuck half a ton of bricks into either ours or our neighbour's garden. I overheard the roofer saying "just butter it up, they'll never know". So insisted they take it down and cap it off.

You'll find a lot of smaller properties with flats (e.g. houses split into 2 or 3 flats) won't have separate formal maintenance agreements. My previous flat didn't and it wasn't an issue for me buying it or the people buying it off me.

It is reasonably likely that the leases will contain some mechanism to ensure that the flats are maintained so that would be the obvious place to start. Obviously just because it's in a lease doesn't necessarily mean that people are going to spend the cash.

Vendor sets a date by which any interested parties submit a blind bid via their solicitor. Then it’s a waiting game until that afternoon to see if you made the highest offer.

Slower and worse explanation than above.

You offer what you can afford, if you listened to estate agents they would have you offering stupid over as they get a bigger bump.

Seems mental that stuff so simple is questioned

Possibly. I can see why it's epic ball ache to do it. He's also Step Flashing or nothing, won't contemplate doing a straight run.

Original quote had it being patched repaired but I suspect the process of getting stuff up and over to do the flat roof and chimney has damaged it further which is why he bought it up with me. I'm glad he did, I didn't really understand the implication of fixing it with sealant that was quoted for.

Also, why didn't I suggest putting decorative ridge tiles on....gah FML.

(also suspect most of his work involves people pointing at something ruined and saying 'fix this in the cheapest way possible' so it's a bit weird to him having someone doing preventative maintenance / renovation and saying 'do it the way it should be done, there's money to pay for it')

£4k just for re-flashing sounds a lot. I think flashing and rendering ours was bundled in with 2 new velux windows and all that was £4k. I think. Maybe £1500 for the flashing and rendering.

It's a fair bit of money I agree. I'll ask him to talk me through the process so I can understand what is involved.

Popped into the local estate agent (who seem like decent people), they reckon that with the current market our place would rent out for £1,500/month "in under a week for sure".

Which gives us an idea of budget for a place north of the border.

However, I assume I'd need to tell my mortgage provider - I presume they're likely to move me off my current mortgage onto a buy-to-let?

I presume they're likely to move me off my current mortgage onto a buy-to-let?

Not always.

However, I assume I'd need to tell my mortgage provider - I presume they're likely to move me off my current mortgage onto a buy-to-let?

Have a read of the t&cs. One of mine allowed renting the property and another allowed it if I notified them.

Our old HSBC mortgage allowed rental for 12 months - you just had to inform them first.

Don't forget incidentals, management agents costs, rental insurance etc.... not like that £1,500 will just get magically transferred into your account.