Owning your own home

Yeah, I couldn't find much. My partner reckons it was rated good by ethical consumer magazine (off to the golf club I shall go?), but I read that as D rating = not so good.

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/home-garden/shopping-guide/eco-friendly-dishwashers

ethical consumer magazine (off to the golf club I shall go

Golf is the antithesis of ethical. It's a game by, and for, and of, cunts. As is that thread...

Anyone have wet underfloor heating and would you recommend?

Ethical consumption is the sort of subject it'd be good to be heard opinionating loudly about at the golf club bar, before the 1 mile drive home in the Range Rover.

We had it in the open plan kitchen living area at our last place - it was brilliant.
Wish we had it at our current place but installing it would cost too much…
I’d be looking at reasons not to have it, rather than the reverse.

Not sure which of the home threads this should go in.

I want to get rid of the water tank in the loft (saggy ceilings, that's a separate job) and put the whole place on mains fed cold water. The only plumber who bothered to quote suggested we need a sealed/pressurised tank to match flow rates. Does this make sense? Also does anyone have solar hot water? While I'm speccing out the tank wonder if I should consider this also, given energy prices any "free" energy has to be a consideration.

Thoughts and opinions gratefully received.

Yep, we have it throughout our whole ground floor, installed during a refurb and therefore buried under 4 inches of screed. We love it and would never go back, the best part is that if you are wearing slippers you never really know if the heating is on, the heat is just so consistent.

The only negative is that it limits your flooring choice somewhat, but we have LVT and that works well with it.

I'm guessing he's talking about a unvented cylinder, which will match the hot pressure with the cold main pressure but if you've got a combi its not like a need imo.

We were on a course and there was a surveyor there and he said the only way he would have had solar panels is but using them to heat the water, which makes sense as you get fuck all from the grid now.

Thoughts and opinions gratefully received.

Right now I guess a lot of plumbers just want to be doing new boiler installs and repairs for people who have had a boiler fail or is on its last legs and are terrified of having no hot water / heating and will pay accordingly. These jobs pay well and are comparatively low risk.

That might explain why you've had few quotes I guess...maybe broaden out from regular plumbers - if that's the type of person you've contacted. There are heating installer types who might be better suited to this kind of job, or even a builder.

As below you don't need a pressurised cylinder but they can be great if you have the space and the mains pressure is up to it. If the mains pressure isn't great then the trouble is you won't get great results from a combi either, so mains is the first thing to check.

I think the current situation with solar panels is a bit of a joke tbh, which is sad;

• expensive to buy and install
  
• can fuck up your roof in doing so
  
• look shit, unless you have concrete roof tiles, in which case they are a relative improvement
  
• fitted by cowboys
  
• one more complex system patched in to a whole bunch of complex systems that require expensive 'specialists' to maintain / repair
  
  

:(

I have got a couple of quotes for a solicitor to look at the leases for the garages I would like to buy and they’re all around 2k+VAT.

For a house that’s fine, for a 15k garage it’s a lot. Garages may cost 30k if I can buy them both, but that is tbc.

Do any university legal schools offer student review guided by a lecturer that I could use, or similar?

Tried getting quotes from firms out of town?

Conveyancers are all pretty busy ATM so I wouldn't expect anything done cheap.

One of my quotes was from a place in Ringwood. Still 2K+VAT.

:(

Do any university legal schools offer student review guided by a lecturer that I could use, or similar?

Unlikely I'd say - even free legal advice centres can't offer that kind of transactional service - the indemnity insurance is too expensive.

Sort of but I don't think you'd qualify (priority to those who can't afford, focus on specific areas etc)
https://www.uel.ac.uk/our-research/research-royal-docks-school-business-law-rdsbl/uel-legal-advice-centre

Saw it yesterday and it is an irredeemable dump. Good luck to whatever mug buys it for £975k.

Is it only Aldersbrook you're looking at bc of schools? You get better vfm up by way (+ its actually better)

Yeah - the primary is really good. But where are you thinking? We looked a lot in Woodford Green earlier in the year and didn't think it was any better value. Also had an offer accepted on a house in Loughton before we pulled out due to survey.

Woodford Green
Loughton
Aldersbrook

Upper Walthamstow, Snaresbrook, highams park, South Woodford

I actually lolled

Need some help with boundary hedge (at front) and wall (at rear).

Re hedge - The hedge is planted in our drive so think we own it. However, I assumed that it was a shared responsibility between us and our neighbours to trim each side of the hedge. Our neighbours (who seem like chancers tbh) are claiming that it's our responsibility for trimming the entirety of the hedge. From what I've found Googling, I don't think we have to unless it's actually damaging/dangering their property (it isn't) but I can't find anything really concrete I could send to them to get them to leave us alone. Any ideas?

Would it be easier to just trim their side of the hedge once in a while? Probably yes, but I don't want to set a precedent. Which leads me on to the wall...

The wall, which is between us and the same neighbours behind the property, is quite badly damaged and needs replacing. We would obviously rather not have to pay for this (or 100% of it at least) but again, the neighbours are claiming it's 100% our responsibility because it's on the left of our property. From what I can find online, this seems to be a bit of an urban myth? But again, I can't find anything concrete to say who does actually own the wall. Short of hiring a solicitor, is there any easy way of finding this out? And anyway we could force them to split any costs? Especially as the damage seems to mostly be caused by how overgrown their garden is.

Would it be easier to just trim their side of the hedge once in a while?

Yup

The wall

Usually owned by and the responsibility of one side. Should be marked in the deeds.

the neighbours are claiming it's 100% our responsibility because it's on the left of our property. From what I can find online, this seems to be a bit of an urban myth

Agree that it’s bollock. We have a garden wall doing the same and the agents tried to claim it was the neighbour’s responsibility using the left/right thing.

What do your /their title deeds say?