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Martin Lewis Blog: 'House offer accepted, now they want £20,000 more! What should I do?'
A passer-by stopped Martin in the street recently to ask his opinion on her house buying dilemma. You can check out his view in a video he posted: Martin Lewis: 'House offer accepted, now they want £20,000 more! What should I do?' What would you do? Stand your ground? Walk away? Pay the extra? Negotiate? Tell us your…
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New to the House Buying, Selling & Renting board? Start here
✅ This board is for... * Questions about buying or selling a home * Questions about renting a home * Questions about being a landlord 🚫 This board is not for.. * Debating the state of the economy * Debating house prices in general * Political debates Note: In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place…
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Tenancies in Eng/Wales: Guides for landlords and tenants
post 1 This thread is intended to provide information to both landlords and tenants relating to Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) in England and Wales. Updated April 2020 to include the Coronavirus Act 2020 and July 2020 to include the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020. Topics covered: Post 2: Repairing…
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When the Managing Agent Controls Everything and Everything Goes Wrong
This is my experience as a cautionary tale about the risks of owning a leasehold flat where lease enforcement and all communications are funnelled through the managing agent. This is a longer post because modern leasehold systems are anything but simple, and the detail matters. TL;DR The agent controlled whether lease…
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Land Registry questions
Hi everyone The Land Registry is here on our Forum to help answer its customers' questions. If you have a question pop it on here and it will do its best to help. Related on MSE: 50+ House Buying Tips Free First Time Buyers' Mortgage Booklet 2018 Remortgage Guide 2018 Ultimate Mortgage Calculator
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Pull out of flat purchase because of uncertain parking?
Hey — would really appreciate some thoughts as I’m in a bit of a strange situation with a flat I’m in the process of buying in London. I viewed a flat that was marketed as having secure allocated parking. The listing heavily emphasised this (including photos of the space). When I spoke to the seller at the viewing, they…
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New "Have a Look at This" thread
The other one has disappeared and any posts I have made are not listed in either my posts or thanks. This thread is for things like: . Spotting pets in properties . Anything awful - decor, extensions etc . Quirky properties . Timewarp properties . Properties in serious repair and anything which is different and of interest…
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Leasholder charged £40k for 'decorations'
I am a leaseholder and bought my house around a year ago. Mine is the only house in the complex and is next to a set of apartments which are in a Grade II listed building. My house is not listed. I and the other leaseholders in the complex have recently receievd a Section 20 notice from our freeholder housing association…
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Going from renting to buying, struggling to get mortgage
Just wanting some advice. We did a voluntary surrender with our property back in 2018 due to a long process of the lender not accepting any offers that we had. We ended up moving into rented accommodation with the local Housing Authority were we have been since. We enquired about the Right to Buy Scheme but found that it…
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Misinformation in Planning Application
A planning application has been submitted for a new build preschool. Old prefab preschool had capacity for 30 - new build 42. Applicant compares our village population of 750 to suburban area of up to 100,000. Applicant states they will employ 5 staff - legally a minimum of 9 are needed. At the last committee meeting the…
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Giving notice for a rental that started before the law changed
I rented a property a few years ago under an assured shorthold tenancy. It's renewed as an assured periodic tenancy from then on with a rent increase each year. I had no rent rise early 2026 but the landlord has now proposed one, with proper notice, for this summer onwards. My landlord has been fine and there's been no…
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Managing Agent not consulting or advising Leaseholders
Background I am a Leaseholder in one of two blocks of flats, the Managing Agent, who is notorious for failing to act in the best interests of the Leaseholders, or to keep Leaseholders or their Recognised Tenants Association timeously informed of management events, or their actions. The Agent is currently overseeing a…
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Renting a house to family while overseas
We are moving to Switzerland this summer and our daughter and son in law are selling their property and moving in to ours. We are not charging them rent (savings their mortgage is a gift to the newlyweds) but wondered about the best arrangements for bills etc. We are in our mid/late 50's, mortgage free and owned the place…
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CGT on family home
Hi All, About 20 years ago my mother who had split with my dad died and left half the family home to me and my sister with my dad remaining in the house. Around 10 years ago he died leaving the house to me and my sister. We decided to rent the house out to the same couple until we decided to sell the house. Sale completion…
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Redrow won’t submit a Section 38 to the council, so they can continue charging maintenance fees
I live on a Redrow development. For the past five years we’ve been paying ever‑rising maintenance fees to a company called FirstPort, who in turn hire Community Property Care to carry out the general maintenance. Overall it’s little more than a shoddy grass‑cutting service, but that’s a story for another day. We pay just…
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Can/should my estate agent give me info on the full purchase chain?
I'm currently in a chain that's 5 links long (was in a 4 link chain before but it fell through). I'm rather keen not to just know about my vendors and buyers, but my buyers' buyers and their buyers. I'm pretty sure my estate agent knows the details of this (like their estate agents and properties, at least, not sure about…
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Garages
Hi, I live in a block which has a small number of garages, so only some flats have a garage. On reading the lease it states that where a garage is demised to the flat it includes the garage door and such parts thereof as are not stuctural. Am I right in saying that the MA should not be charging all leaseholders for…
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Buyer pulls out on completion day.
We are in the process of selling a house and our agreed completion day was today Friday 8th May, our solicitor asked us to send an email to them confirming to go ahead with the sale which we did, apparently this email has to be sent on completion day. An hour later we got a call from our solicitor telling us the buyer had…
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Self Storage renewal price 13% above undiscounted list price. Is it legal?
Screenshot above is what they say the un-discounted, non-new customer price is versus what they're now charging me (13% more). I'm not using their insurance or other extras so is a like-for-like comparison. The price was £58 before and the increase based on "a review of list prices across our stores and unit sizes" but…
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Services charges on an over 55's flat
A friend is buying on these - how can they be sure that the service charges won't go increase a lot in 10-20 years?
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Tenant obstructing access rights.
Posting for a friend. Two adjacent terraced houses, both tenanted, different landlords. One is an end of terrace and the mid terrace has a right of access to their own back garden, through the back garden of the end of terrace. This is written in the deeds of both properties. Tenant of the end of terrace has started to be…
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Buying but not moving in immediately - any advice?
I'm buying my first property (first floor flat) and hoping to complete within the next few weeks. I won't be moving in on completion day, as 1) I am currently staying with parents while the sale goes through so no hurry to move out, and 2) I'm very limited on what days I can take off work. So no need for any stress on…
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Can I charge my property management company?
I have informed the property management company that manage the shared outdoor spaces around my property on a few occasions that I don’t want glyphosphate weed killer spraying near or on my property. They went against this last year and I made a formal complaint, I had CCTV footage of it taking place. They have only gone…
