Owning your own home

Underpin, dig basement, make money

"However as a Retired Chartered Structural Engineer I can honestly say that this is a cosmetic and not a Structural issue and has occurred over the life of the structure ( some 80 years ).
If something were to be done it would be limited to dry packing the gap with earth dry sand cement mortar as part of normal Maintainance Works."

Understandable enough if those are the numbers. In that case, the cost of someone else designing and implementing any repair works should be factored into the overall project budget.

lol true

clear photoshop, no serrota or bespoke artisan garage doors pictured

This, this is certainly an idea.

Our house had much larger cracks than that, and we didn't have to underpin, just helicoiled and made good, all planned and signed off by a structural engineer. He told us the rough rule of thumb, if you can fit a hand in, then its fine, put an arm in you helicoil, put a body in then you need more drastic measures.

Wow, that's quite lax! I certainly wouldn't in general be advising that knuckle-sized (15+mm) cracks in a masonry house are "fine"

Burland et al classifications are widely accepted as the go-to damage categories. 15mm+ is severe...

Every situation is different though and individual inspection is key to determine the cause rather than just the damage.

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Well this is in a old stone house where the walls are about a metre thick. I'm sure he was being purposefully glib to put our minds at ease! And touch wood since we renovated there has been no further signs of movement.

Every situation is different though

:-D

Sounds like knew what he was doing then!

It's a sturdy house, survived a ww2 bomb landing at the bottom of ther garden...

If I had flexible enough arms, in the vein of Elastigirl, I probably could reach through the gaps in our random stone walls and knock on the neighbours lounge plaster.

In a similar fashion, I was taking paint off lime plaster upstairs and a piece came away. I presume a rodent made its nest a long time ago, because I can't see how a lime plaster was applied to such a loose substrate.(equivalent of straw sweepings).

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If the geezer is a retired structural engineer then I'd probably be inclined to believe him and just get on it with. It's very likely not going to fall down if it's been there for 80 years and not done so yet.

I'm looking for a Planning Consultant in London to help me with some advice pre-purchase.
Any recommendations gratefully received.
Thanks!

No personal experience but these guys have popped up when I've been browsing through old planning permissions. https://samplanning.co.uk/

Id recommend spending some time looking through local PP, finding a local company that has had recent success.

Menlo Park, California, neighbors are protesting a new being built next door.

https://twitter.com/NimbyPatrol/status/1496322453974536207

Is that brown box bit the original house? Looks like 6 or 7 additions on that thing though? Kettle calling the kettle?

Seen a few plots of land recently, always don't understand why they are so much, when obviously the farmer will just sell the patch immediately next door (because you've put all the services in by then) a few years down the line when theres a new Case model out.

Planning for windows' does my nut in. Currently doing one,though its like for like. Ish. Already a UPVC window job, every one in the building and the street have different. Only original sash left is the rotten ones in folks downstairs toilets where it just wasn't worth the bother to replace. Council insists we should all copy this rotting EPC fail nightmare window.

Latest faux wood foils, and getting a multi unit window (so faux sliding sash, or actual sliding sash, but with 6 individual glazed units in it, rather than 1 big one, with faux Georgian bars inside the units) look absolutely fine, unbelievably close to original. Its only when you go to physically open the window, and your face is against it, you go 'oh, its plastic, not wood!?'.. And yup, council suggests even this is not allowed. Even though the 1989 brown saggy plastic monstrosity with a single 2m high glass unit with not even faux Georgian bars inside, is currently OK because it was fitted ages back.
Standard argument that everyone has when living in a conservation area. Should have just just done what every building developer company does, and demolish /smash/destroy over the weekend, so that no one in a position to stop them, can. And then the damage it done, so its all OK.

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Planning for windows' does my nut in.

But you can slap a load of solar panels on your pitched roof no probs

sanctuary are arseholes and the way they went about this is so underhand. they should make them reinstate the towers

GCC/Planners have the power to do this, as many authorities do. But they never will act on it.

Sanctuary like many other firms like them, hide behind 'but we are already making 'affordable housing, therefore let us do what we want, we're only making 35% margin on these affordable homes'.
Bigger issue with any large housing development I have, so so so much of the area of the development is given over to parking of cars at street level. Anywhere else in the civilized world would have enforced an underground/stacked/concealed parking structure, which then allows MORE buildings to be put on the site (and still achieve 'green feel') or just have even more green space. Having 15-20% by area of the site as housing and the rest as one jumbo car park just smacks of fail to me.
Argument for a different thread.

GCC/Planners have the power to do this, as many authorities do. But they never will act on it.

I haven't followed this case closely but it feels here that the council knew this was likely to happen and decided not to take steps to prevent it (e.g. by listing the entire site).

Deals like this are a bit incestuous because you are trying to balance maximising sale proceeds for the NHS trust that used to own the site versus optimising the end product for homeowners versus some kind of reasonable developer margin. It appears to be practically impossible to regulate developer margins to a sensible level, so any reduction in the value of the end product or increase in development costs gets passed to site owners over time.

Sounds like the hospital trusts need to be their own developers, or council authorities need to become their own one stop shop for the whole start to end again.

Often happens, especially with old hospital sites, central scotland had loads to dispose of over last 30 years. A deal is made, plans struck, but the developer soon goes after the easy money of new builds on clear land, and whilst there at it a few of the problem buildings magically catch fire, or become so run down that the viability reduces and they can clear them, for more easy boxes (Cala at Jordanhill nurses college just done this with more existing buildings).

Its a wide spread problem, and the end user is the one that looses out the most. A place to live dictated by the returns guaranteed to the investors, not to quality of life of the users. BUT like most things, if the consumers stopped buying them, maybe things would change, but there is often someone who will buy, and so the supply will continue!

Back to cargo bikes. Tern GSD mk2 now need a tandem 2.4m rear inner gear cable, mk1 you used to be able to fit a normal 2.2/2.25m (Elvedes I tend to use supply in this length as standard). Honestly, WHY.
Also a 160+ link chain is required. Mk1 you could use 138 link normal e bike chain.

Got my lender valuations back and it is 10% less than my offer. Frankly I am dumbfounded, as my offer was asking price, and I actually think the house is worth more than asking given market comps.

I assume trying to persuade my lender (HSBC) that their valuation is miles off is not going to work, so what are my options? Anyone have experience of lenders who take a different view of valuations?