House buying, renting & selling

Discussion List

• Retirement flats

  I wonder if there are any tips, dos and don'ts etc on the forum? My Grandma is seriously looking into selling her house and buying a retirement flat/sheltered accomodation. It is a new complex in an ideal location which will still allow her to get out and about by bus whilst having a built-in community centre, laundry and…

• Can anyone advise me on my rights?

  I'm 25 and have been staying in my nans spare room for the past year, she has a council retirement property in hertfordshire. I have always lived in London and after leaving my mums house (overcrowding) I rented a room in a house, then moved in with my boyfriend, stayed on various friends sofa's and finally ended up where…

• Stay well clear of this Estate Agency in London

  Just a quick piece of advice for fellow moneysavers alike. Stay well clear of London based Franklyn James estate agency operating both in Narrow Street (Limehouse) and Westferry Road. Whole situation with first buying a house and then renting from them has left us bewildered and utterly despaired. If that was not enough…

• Voluntary repossession - what does it mean for a prospective buyer?

  My partner and I are first-time buyers, and are currently renting. Towards the end of August we put in an offer on a house and it was accepted. The couple who were selling were in the process of separating, and had moved out of the property earlier in the summer. After that things dragged a little bit - partly because we…

• shared mortgage

  Hello, I wonder if anyone can help a first time user. My mother owns her own house (no mortgage) I would like to buy 25% of the house off her. We don't want a joint mortgage because that will effect her will, as she plans to leave her percentage of the house (if I am able to buy it) to all her children. Does anyone know if…

• Eviction Help!

  My tenant is 8 weeks arrears in rent and on a AST. I served one AST and got dates wrong so it's not valid. He signed the AST on 12/07/08 and was for 6 months now he is month to month. Do I serve section 21 or section 8 notice and what date do I put down as possession date. When is the earliest I can serve it? HELP PLEASE...

• Selling back to HA after buying

  Sorry but but I did a search and couldn't find anything... has anyone any experience of buying their Housing association property under the right to buy scheme? I bought mine some years ago but am now under the deepest fog and must consider selling my house to pay off some debts. Under the rules if it is less than 10 years…

• EA pricing strategy

  Just taking the first steps to putting a house on the market. Looking at agents' websites, most list houses at a certain price, others "offers over" and I've seen one where all houses for sale are "offers between x and y". Any experience of such strategies and advice will be appreciated.

• Verify that an area has a history of subsitence

  How can you verify this ? Is it captured in any searches done by the solictors or do you need to a full structural survey to have this covered ? Sorry, I have meant to reffer to subsidence, of course.

• insurance following subsidence

  We are about to purchase a new house that has been underpinned in 1986. Is the insurance company that currently insures the property duty bound to continue the insurance in our names? or can they turn us down and are we free to get insurance elsewhere.

• council housing problem

  hi people need some advice if poss, my partner and i are sharing a one bed second floor flat with three children (ages 7 to 6 weeks) We applied for housing transfer in march but because my partner had arrears (he is main tenant I am not on rent book) we were refused. Arrears were paid in full and we then had to wait six…

• Rent Admin Fee

  Recently me and my flat mate decided we wanted to move house so we contacted Thornley Groves of Altrincham to move into a new house, they asked for one months rent of £575 + Deposit + and admin fee of £185, which I found ridiculous. (the admin fee was ridiculous) We bartered the agent down from a £650 p/m rent to the £575,…

• Do any estate agents accept renters on DMP?

  Hi, I wondered if anyone could give me some advice please - I'm panicking!! We have been renting our flat for 2.5 years and have never missed a rent payment or got behind with any essential/utility bills. We literally are MODEL tenants - have decorated and fixed any leaky taps, etc, ourselves. We haven't given our landlord…

• Rental repairs and withholding rent

  We have been going on since August now trying to get our oven fixed. We are really at the end of out tether now - the landlord is continuously making excuses up as to why it has not been fixed yet (can't find the right oven, not in stock etc etc). We have 2 months rent to pay then we move out - so possibly LL is…

• Intentionally homeless, advice needed!! (might be long!)

  Hello this is my first post on this site so please be gentle with me! I have done alot of reading though so I hope I have chosen the correct section to post. I will try to keep this brief, so if it doesn't sound right or make sense just let me know. Basically two years ago my husband lost his buissness, he spent alot of…

• Re-Negotiating Rent

  I got my renewal notice for my flat today (23rd), and was wondring how i'd go about re-negotiating the rent, and if its worth the effort. Basically, I need to give a months notice which will be the 6th December if i want to move out.. that gives me a week and a bit to sort anything out with regards to this place.…

• Selling house - furnished or unfurnished better?

  Hi I will soon be in the position of having to try and sell a deceased relative's small 2 bed flat which now belongs to me. It is fully furnished - items in pretty good condition but not that modern or fashionable thesedays probably. Includes a newish fridge and washing machine, venetian blinds and everything else really.…

• House on the market - opinions please

  I had originally want to do a part ex with bellway but that didn't work out in the end so I decided to get my house on the market. It's been advertised for almost two weeks now and I've had no word about any interest. I'd appreciate it if anyone would take a look and see if there's anything that could be done better,…

• Govt Reneges on help for Tenants in LL Repossession Cases

  Shelter and Crisis have jointly condemned the Goverment for failing private tenants by not including legislation in the Financial Services and Banking Bill which would have helped to protect them when their LLs properties are repossessed because of mortgage arrears. This is in spite of repeated pledges that action would be…

• Logistics of paying for work required on a house

  Hi, We are buying a property and have had an offer accepted on the property for x thousand, everything is in place for exchange of contracts. We waited until we had a mortgage offer before instructing a full building survey and we know it will come back with a list of things to fix. The vendor knows this too. If we agree…