Owning your own home

Of course! All the ASHP companies I've tendered factor it into their quotes.

Anyone South London had custom built ins made and would recommend the company? Next room is our bedroom (which believe it or not was the least manky when we moved in). It's getting replastered soon and we want a built in wardrobe, floor to ceiling along the chimney breast wall. I have played around with building something myself using PAX carcasses, however the 50/75/100 cm widths mean we'd end up with 7 matching width doors and one odd 400 something mm wide door or space (without customising all the units down to some specific width, which can get to fuck). I don't mind that as I think an open shelving unit or one door slightly narrower would be ok, but the internal design committee has vetoed it. Ceiling is 2700mm high.

I have seen a few companies that I like the look of that I will be contacting, but personal references are always good.

2 Attachments

you have the skills!

could you go for PAX, 2*50cm on the right; 3*50cm on the left, then buy an extra 25cm door, cut it down to cover some boxing out that side - a faux door of sorts that covers the gap?

We just got a bill through for door from Brent Council for council tax 21 April 2022 - 31 Mar 2023. We told them we've moved out the borough, is it normal for them to still be chasing us for half the total?

That's exactly what I cave planned out, and numerous variations. Still vetoed. I would have 100cm on the right, 58cm deep. Then 3 x 50cm carcasses that come 35cm deep, buy the doors and hinges to match the others, then another 100cm 58cm deep on the left. That leaves the 40 or so cm gap that I would happily have as open shelving.

I could then use some other IKEA based cube storage on top, or hell, even exactly the same kit again cut down to height with a plinth or some other trim to the ceiling. Even doing that it's less than £1300.

Councils want the money but they don't care where it comes from. Call them, give them the dates you left and they should be bale to bill you appropriately if there is anything outstanding and close the account.

I had an unpaid council tax bill years back from when I broke up with my then-partner and neither of us had paid it. Ended up getting a stroppy letter at my new address saying I'd been taken to court and hadn't shown up etc etc, all news to me of course. By the time they'd recalculated the amount owed and taken off the excess from the bill I think it was like £40 I had to pay which included all the additional costs for court etc. Anyway the point of this CSB is that it was resolved with a quick phone call.

More than a heat pump, how much was the quote? I work and install boilers all the time and dont think were even a quarter of HP money.

This is very useful, thanks!

We are right at the bottom of a hill and the reservoir is at the top so our pressure is currently very good (1st floor flat). So I was considering using a heated electric shower for an ensuite upstaris. Just a small combi and single shower at the mo. There should be space in the loft conversion for a small tank however.

7k inc. VAT for the combi system
5.6k no VAT inc. the BUS grant (-5k) for ASHP

Our supply rads

We are right at the bottom of a hill and the reservoir is at the top so our pressure is currently very good

This sounds very promising.

In fact this is the case for my property... so yup, a power shower (the heater kind) is probably all you need. But if the pressure isn't sufficient then a cold water storage tank in the loft is going to be necessary... and if you add a cold water storage tank you want the head of the shower to be below the base of the tank... hence my "put the storage as high as you can".

If you don't need a storage tank it's because the outlet of the reservoir (the base of it) is higher than your loft. If that's not the case, introducing a storage tank eradicates the standard pressure, and now pressure is measured by the difference in heigh from the storage tank to the shower head.

If you can get away without a storage tank you're going to be great.

A plumber should be able to measure pressure and give you a good idea whether this will work based on the PSI of the pressure (they can calculate how high that will lift water and how much pressure will exist at that new height and the flow rate achieved... a typical shower head will still want 1.5bar pressure to feel adequately powered, 2bar is ideal... I suggested a 3bar negative head pump to push the water a single story high and retain over 2bar pressure at the shower head).

Time to speak to a plumber.

7k just for a boiler or is that everything except rads.

Yeah we fixed (nervous at the time) our last 10 years of mortgage in 2017 or 18, rate did come down a hair after that, but honestly is a few hundred quid over 10 years not even worth the mental math. So in an incredible position now. But would say for the sake of nothing else but your mental health, fix for 5 years, then you just don't have to think about it for a while, you'll know your outgoings and you know when you'll have to think about it again, and for me at least thats worth something. Also mortgage free in another 5 years i think, might be less, such a good feeling. Have the option of paying it faster with only a small penalty (£500 or £750 maybe?), however the rate was good and TBH its a non issue.

Those new accumulator (with a membrane or an actual pump) cold water storage tanks are ace. Mate got one as their incoming pressure and flow rate changes wildly through the day (fairly common I guess). Now they have 3.0 bar and 12-16l/m out of every tap and shower in the house, even with 2 taps on at the same time (or 1 big shower and 1 tap its still excellent). Didn't cost that much, basically a huge plastic sealed storage tank can be almost anywhere in house and a pump that goes on the side of it. Pump does make a noise, but can be programmed to only pump at times of day when your not at home, or at least not in the middle of the night!

'ACCU boost' is the brand, big grey silver plastic thing.

If you get it installed could you take some photos or videos (or I can send some people round to do it)?

Would be for use on one of our websites 🙂

For a location fee, sure! 😉

Mine is November next year. Can you increase you LTV to the next bracket given the uplift in value of the place from the work you have done (kitchen) and market appreciation? That's my plan to help ease the spike

Got a sofa from furniture village last year. They've sent me a couple of discount codes. If anyone needs one PM me

It depends how badly the market sinks in the interim.

I'm at 69% LTV at the moment on an 18y mortgage for $483k remaining. At the moment the deal would be so-so... but if the market really truly crashes I should still avoid neg equity but the risk is that LTV would be moved back into the higher interest rate bucket (> 80% LTV).

I can probably argue the home improvements, and can throw my savings on the mortgage... but both will only slightly buffer the impact.

More likely, things will stabilise when this gov stop fucking around and when this Winter has passed and the impact of the Ukraine war is more known... hence, I'll probably choose to ride the variable for 6 months before fixing again. There's way too much risk priced into the current rates.

surely a % of revenue impact?!

Anyway if you were happy that would be awesome - I'll whatsapp you

As well as @Velocio ‘s good advice you also need to watch lending multiples - as the % loan to value rises the amount lenders will give you against your earnings drops.

It can be a real issue for people who, say, borrowed 5x earnings at 80% LTV, house prices drop and they’re then borrowing at 90% LTV and no one will lend them 5x earnings any more so they have no option to stay on the standard variable rate.

It’s mental, but in 2009 there were plenty of folk who were paying variable rate who couldn’t remortgage on to a lower rate even with the same lender because they in theory couldn’t afford it, despite the fact it would bring payments down.

It’s mental, but in 2009 there were plenty of folk who were paying variable rate who couldn’t remortgage on to a lower rate even with the same lender because they in theory couldn’t afford it, despite the fact it would bring payments down.

These are the same folk that had l̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ self-certified their income, right?

No. It could easily be change in circumstances such as partner being out of work or divorce or increased living costs (oldies moving in)... there's a lot of reasons people can't afford things and it doesn't have to be their fault.

There were some fibbers for sure, but self cert was often just ‘can you afford this yes/no’ rather than putting down a specific lie. Weird times.

Lots were self employed people whose income dropped. Others were on the same income and could afford the higher rate but were annoyed they had to.

There were also, of course, all the people who took out 110% mortgages with Northern Rock, because why not? Free money.

A power shower would fix the problem, because they have a built in pump. So even if your water pressure isn't great, they will pump the water up and heat it.

You don't need a storage tank with a power shower, because it has a built in pump to raise the water pressure.

Also the water tank doesn't have to go in the loft or up high, ours went in the cellar, we still had decent water pressure (without a pump). The pressure is balanced by the pressure from the mains supply.

Apart from this your advice is fine :P