House buying, renting & selling

Discussion List

• Proceeds of crime

  I have found out tonight, that my son-in-law may be charged with fraud. It turns out that he's been stealing money from his employers and that some of that money was used to pay the deposit on the house he now shares with my daughter. The house is actually in my daughter's sole name and she has subsequently remortgaged in…

• Leasehold property about to exchange - unhappy with underlease

  Hi, We are pretty much ready to exchange on a new build leasehold property in London. Today received the contract/underlease and it appears to be very heavily weighted in favour of the landlord/freeholder, so am hoping to get an idea of whether it seems odd and what our rights are in terms of changing the terms. The flat…

• Experience of letting agencies and landlords

  Just wondering what people's experiences are with renting in terms of contact with the landlord. On my first rental, the letting agency gave me all of the landlords details and I only ever contacted the agency when I moved out. Anything else I went directly to the landlord for. Initial I thought my contact would be with…

• Buying house but may not stay in the area

  I am thinking of buying a house in the area where I currently work. I have a 4 year contract and have enough money for the house deposit whilst keeping a considerable amount in my savings. Unfortunately I am not sure wether it is a good idea as I may quit the job within the next year and may leave the area. I have already…

• Moving house and changing the locks...

  We're due to move house next week and wondered if anyone has any advice regarding changing the locks. We are definitely getting the door locks changed (any ideas on cost?) but wondered if we should get the window locks changed too? Think we are going to get new doors for the garage anyway so won't need to worry about that.…

• Family of a landlady staying too long at the council flat

  I have been living in this house for about 2 years now, there is 3 tenants and landlady in the house. But her family is here everyday, using basically everything they can, sometimes staying over almost 2 weeks, especially one of them. They all have council flats but they will come here and use washing machine , tumble…

• Buying house unregistered with documents missing

  So, we are quite invested in the process of buying a house in an area where it appears common for land to be unregistered with the land registry. Last week we found out by chance when asking why the searches hadn’t been carried out that a couple of documents are missing. 1. The plan to the root of title dated 1988 2. The…

• What should I pay under partywall agreement

  Hi Hope someone can help. We have renovated our house. We had a party wall agreement in place with the neighbours. The work has been assessed and no structual issues have arisen. However do to the weather and our house not having a roof we have some small issues of damp on their walls which has dried out and some plaster…

• Renting Administrative Costs

  Hello everyone Apologies if this subject has already been dealt with, but can anyone tell me if there are any rules and regulations in force or proposed for regulating the costs of administrative fees payable when applying for a rental property. The fees seem very disparate and some are, quite frankly, ludicrous. I have…

• Land Registry Restriction Question

  Hello, I'm in the process of remortgaging my house and have come across an issue with some restrictions which were placed on the property register. The restrictions read as: RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate by the proprietor of the registered estate is to be registered without a certificate signed by a…

• Offers over in a slowish market

  My first offer was just rejected a few hours ago. The property is on the market for offers over 275k - its been on the market since June, originally marketed at 325k. i went in at 265k, which maybe some people think is too low, but i figured its been on the market a while now, so why not. The estate agent told me the…

• Question about a tenant applying for universal credit

  Hi I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask for advice regarding this matter so sorry if it isn't. I became an accidental landlord to one property so I tried the best I could finding out everything but not sure what I do. My tenants have been in the property for over 4 years, they have been great tenants. There was 4…

• Floor drop caused by drains. Will I need to pull out?

  Hi, What a nightmare house moving can be! The bungalow we want to buy had an issue with floor having dropped in the ensuite, being flagged on our full survey. We have now had a structural engineer go round and survey the issue and the property. We have not had his report yet, but I spoke to him, and he advised that a void…

• New Home - Challenges

  My wife and I have just downsized into a new build. The logic being that we wanted somewhere smaller; with less maintenance, which was closer to our daughter. This was our 6th private purchase and possibly the most challenging. Why? A. Developer said all ducting in and signed off by Openreach. Openreach disagreed. Result 4…

• How much lower than the asking price is considered reasonable offer?

  At the current London property market, if a property is advertised as “Guide price £450000” and been on the market for few months, would £400000 be a reasonable offer? Generally how much lower would be a reasonable offer?

• Grounds for recourse post-purchase

  Hello everyone - looking for some advice post-purchase. My partner and I completed on our new home about a month ago. Before moving in we had all of the necessary searches and paid for a homebuyers survey for our own peace of mind. In addition, the seller agreed to a 6 week warranty (we have in writing) for works done to…

• Freehold V leasehold

  We have a detached leasehold house. We THINK there’s about 40 yrs left on the lease & we pay £15 p year. We are both 65. My Oh wants to get a quote to buy freehold, I’m more reticent, only about the potential cost, but I’ve agreed to get the quote ( which costs £95). What advantages are we likely to gain or would it all be…

• Buying a house without building regs for loft

  Hi Am in the process of a house purchase and it has come to light that the loft conversion had the planning application granted in 2014, but, does not have building completion certificate. I met the seller face to face who is a builder and had built the loft. He said clearly that the Building control wont give a…

• Partner wants to pull out after exchange.

  Hello, first off I presume this has been discussed and answered before so apologies for that. I have had a quick look through threads but haven’t been able to get an exact answer. I’m after some advice. I was due to be buying a new build property with my partner. We have exchanged contracts but not completed as the…

• Mortgage valuation rejected

  I have applied for my mortgage with the Halifax for a property that was built in 2009. Everything went smoothly until the valuation was booked. This was cancelled by the valuers due to Zero Exposure. My mortgage advisor was unable to provide any further explanation other than I would no longer be able to get a mortgage…