Owning your own home

Fruit boxes are pretty good for books. Small enough that they're not too heavy when full and pretty strong

I've been slowly 'acquiring' these over the years:

They are all the same width and length and stack perfectly. Great for moving house.

haha the thing is i was being quite covert about the whole thing by emptying out nearly empty boxes and then keeping them to one side always whilst looking a bit shifty and keeping one eye on the only member of staff on the shop floor...then bolting out of the entrance with my 3/4 boxes. now i just walk up to the back of the store, go into the back with one of the guys there and collect them out of the cardboard crusher, that's much easier!

oh and the estate agent still doens't have the keys and we're due to complete tomorrow. is this normal? they were like 'i don't know what you're worrying about maaaaaaate'.
please avoid 'central estates' in walthamstow like the plague. absolute cunts

We've been getting boxes from Lidl too - on a Sunday when they're putting out stock they have great big containers full of broken down boxes, and are perfectly happy for you to take them. They still have their lids as well.

We may be in a position to offer some, but not sure, as Sharps aren't coming for a few weeks to put in all the storage, so stuff will have to stay in boxes for a while...

It's a sign of how wasteful this country can be. Last time we moved (8 years ago) the removal company did all of the packing (and supplied the boxes).

After moving in we contacted the removal company to see if they wanted the boxes back (50+ good quality sturdy moving boxes still in good condition). Nope, not interested. Freecycle/Local forum? Nope, couldn't shift them. Friends/family, nope.

After about a year of trying to shift them they ended up going in the cardboard recycling bin at the local tip.

a friend of mine is looking to get a regular mortgage for a buy to let property

whats the worst that could happen ?

Good luck getting landlords insurance without a BTL mortgage.

We did this,
well got boxes from Sainsbury,
as this was back in '96-7, before Aldi/Lidl were everywhere.
Small tip:
Don't completely fill any one box with crockery.
If a box is dropped, it will be one full of breakables, rather, than say, books.

The mortgage company find out and withdraw the mortgage after the purchase, leaving your friend liable for the entire cost of the house?

They get done for fraud.

sounds like i should advise him against even though the rates look well advantageous

I'm not sure what the risk of getting caught is.

thats the thing i don't think they would even think about / bother with checking as long as the payments are coming in

Coming at it sideways, if he is looking to live in it eventually he may be able to get a consent to let, but these differ between lenders and will most likely increase the premium and only be good for a year or so, I'm sure a mortgage company would be mighty suspicious mind if he tries to do this straight after purchase. Get a BTL mortgage if it's a BTL property, and then life is a lot simpler, or save £100 pm on repayments and chance it, plus getting it rented through an agency may be tricky.

Stella Creasy will be announcing the winners and losers of the Housing E17 awards this Saturday, best and worst estate agents etc

^^^ i know someone who got totally fucked over doing this, even though they were letting to a relative. Too much information gets put into forms and automatically crosschecked, the bank will find out. Council tax, tv licence, gas and electric bills etc, hmrc, not sure which ones of these the banks can access but they will find out one way or another.

interesting... (!)

based on AirTime's experience above, reads like Central Estates might get a mention!

this year will be interesting to see how a couple of regulations from last year affect things,

1. the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) which came into effect Apr'14
   
   

(which includes the need for lenders to stress-test mortgage repayment affordability)

1. BofE Financial Policy Committee statement on housing market powers of Direction from its policy meeting, 26 September 2014
   
   

The BoE's Financial Policy Committee said that from October, it would only allow 15 percent of new mortgages to be at multiples higher than 4.5 times a borrower's income, and that all lending would be subject to extra affordability checks.

from speaking with one high street lender, the jist of the regulatory changes / guidance from last year for them seems to be that there's now a maximum loan-to-value ratio in place of 4.5 times (where before there was none), which prevents us first-time buyers un-sensibly bidding-up house prices beyond our affordability!

Why did they knock you back on the pre-app?

We're in! It smells of paint and floor lacquer, and we've had to turn the boiler off because it started to smell of gas and was cutting out. Downstairs is a long way off being finished so there's a ice cold draught coming in. Still feels nice to be in though, and the floor looks amazing.

Nice!
We popped round the soon to be new place last night for a brew and chat about what's getting left behind. We knew all the fitted kitchen stuff was being left but he also said we could keep most of the bedroom furniture too if we want it. It's nice stuff and we need it so that's ours. Not loads left to do, the offer on the place he's moving to was accepted, he's doing his mortgage stuff Monday and our survey is getting done then too.

Central get worst sales and worst lettings agent in Walth, the manager even collected his awards in person!

We finally got ourselves moved on Friday, after a pretty horrible couple of months. Massively in hock to gf's father until my old place sells again, having lost two buyers, but all is good. Movers were great, would recommend if anyone needs. We'll be surrounded by crappy furniture and boxes until all the storage is fitted, but can easily live with that. Within 10 seconds of leaving the house, we're walking the dog in Parly Hill fields. Life is good.

Our lender is giving us consent to let rather than forcing us to switch to BTL as we're going abroad for a year or two. Not sure how many lenders are prepared to do this though.