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Buying a house that has no building regs or certificates for loft conversion or log burner
The house I'm buying has a loft conversion that was done before the current owners and the current owners installed the log burner. It was last sold in 2021. Loft isn't being used as a bedroom, has proper stairs and a window but is being used as a habital room. Log burner is newish, not sure when it was installed or who…
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Query - air and light - leasehold
Hi all I am in the process of buying a leasehold flat and haven't had a survey done - it is 12 years old and I decided it might not be necessary - is this advisable? My vendors are pushing for early exchange and completion as they lost their previous buyer, and mine has taken a while (price agreed November last year)…
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Lodging complaint about estate agent for emotional blackmail
My friend wanted to buy a house and the offer was accepted and after the survey the house needed about 8,000 pounds of very urgent roof repairs according to the structural survey (as well as a load of other stuff that needs doing in the next few years such as damp course, leaking chimney, repair of non-moving structural…
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Selling home emotions
We have been living in our present home for almost 30 years, but it’s too big for us now and we feel that we ought to sell it and buy somewhere smaller. Even though this is clearly a sensible idea, we are both really unhappy at the prospect of moving. It feels quite a lot like a bereavement. We have found a really nice…
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Additional Dwelling Supplement in Scotland - seeking advice
Hi folks - newbie here needing some help. Our situation's a bit out of the norm so we're struggling to get reliable advice. Up until recently I was a Church of Scotland minister, living in a tied house - a manse - that came with the job. We've been here for 20 years, but I've recently changed jobs and as a result we'll…
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Removing blanket restriction from title deed for a remortgage
Hi there A long and incredibly stressful story short, we need to remove a blanket restriction in favour of my father from our title deeds to be able to remortgage. We have approached two solicitors one who says that @Land_Registry are likely to reject the removal and another who sadly agreed to look into it and now never…
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Letting Agency not giving bond back
Hi all, I rented a property through a well known chain and paid £1000 bond. This was placed in the Tenancy Deposit Scheme After a year I have moved to another property and on agreement there was £250 deductions for cleaning the property. The letting agency promised it would be done and this went on up until a few weeks ago…
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Do we give up trying to move now?
Bit of context this has been going on since Feb 2025. We have had 3 chains fall through over the past year. First couple buying ours split up, second our buyer didn’t have the funds so pulled out and then most recently this year the house we were purchasing decided he was no longer going to sell. This happened 4 weeks ago…
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Prescribed information and Renters Right Act
Hello My current tenants are on a fixed term renewal AST of 12 months which is due to end on 10th May 2026. On 1st May 2026 the Renters Right Act comes into effect which means the tenancy will automatically become periodic. If my tenant's are staying then regarding deposit protection, will I just need to inform the deposit…
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Rats in a neighbours (house association property). Advise
I live in an end terrace of 3 houses. Recently I've noticed slight activity in my loft space so I threw my motion camera up there and it has spotted a rat in there. I own my house but the two other terrace houses attached were formally council houses which were sold to Vivo Homes housing association which works pretty much…
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I’m being asked to pay two solicitors
Strange situation - wanted to instruct a smallish firm of solicitors for purchase of leasehold flat. They advised they can’t deal with Building Safety Act aspect so would refer me to another. They took £270 on account over phone but now second form quoted me £2300 for purchase conveyancing and want £400 on account. i…
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Why don't we build more timber homes, like the US does?
We don't have hurricanes, serious floods, wild fires, extreme winds or anything. I don't understand why we don't build more timber homes? I'd love to one day own a really nice timber home, something like this would be amazing
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Paying for HC1 form
I need to order a copy of historic title deeds from 2003 for a client, by post using form HC1. As I don't have any bank accounts with a cheque book these days, is it OK to pay Land Registry with a postal order (old school I know!)? Any other options? I looked at various 'firms' online offering reseller options for this,…
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RTM managing the building themselves
Hello, As a Director of a RTM of 23 flats and frustrated by the MA we are considering managing the building ourselves. What are the major things we need to take into consideration? We've already negotiated our own companies to provide services cheaper than MA eg our own accountant, our own broker for building's insurance…
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Solicitor requested release of funds without consent - now bank offer is valid for 28 days only
Hi all, hoping to get some advice on a situation that’s become quite stressful. My partner and I are in the process of buying our first home, which is a new build property. We have instructed one of the solicitor panelist, as per the developer advice, but we are having some major issues. We have reserved on the 9th of…
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Stay as a landlord or sell?
I have a rental property that I decided to sell last year. House went on the market and has annoyingly and for no good reason fallen through twice .It is back on the market ,but the market seems to be very sluggish. I am toying with idea of giving myself some breathing space and renting it out again ( I don't need to sell)…
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Estate agent overcharged commission fee
My estate agent has been overcharging me commission for their property management and tenant find service as a landlord client. I just noticed the discrepancy when filing invoices and comparing it to the signed terms and conditions. It stretches back to the first invoice in May 2024 when the first tenant moved into the…
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Service Charge Help / Advice
Hi All A person has died in our block (1 of 20 flats), has no heirs and the flat has been empty for some time, looks like going to be claimed by the Crown. Management company are still billing all of us for this flats service charges. Can they do this? Seems unfair because they are taking the unpaid service charges for…
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Maisonette insurance problem
Hello, I am haping to get some insights from anyone who has passed through something similar, or has some fact base based information.This is on building insurance for a maisonette. I am a first time buyer, trying to get a ground floor 1 bed maisonette, in a building with 3 other maisonettes. It is leasehold, building was…
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New Build in Scotland Disputes with Builder
Hi All, We bought a new build in May 2024 and we our windows and doors have not been water tight throughout the two years. The two years will end on may 2nd 2026. The builder has been out over 20 times and cannot fix the issue, its causing damage to our property. We have lodged this via NHBC and complained officially to…
