expectations of heating

moneyistooshorttomention

I think it depends on what part of the country you are in perhaps as to standard level of facilities.

I bought my starter house in the 1980s in my home area and I seem to recall it was pretty rare for a house not to have its central heating in place already at that point. By the time I sold it a few years ago - I would have been very surprised if any houses still hadnt got their central heating.

Doubleglazing was something that was still 50/50 as to whether houses had it then and I remember having to do all the doubleglazing for the house - as mine hadnt had it yet. I had very mixed feelings about that when I saw a lot of other nearby houses doing so too shortly afterwards - ie because I meant to sell the house on pretty soon afterwards and it had just lost its "competitive edge" because of that. I've expected for some time that every house would have its doubleglazing - unless the owner was deliberately keeping it "traditional style".

I don't think I have ever seen - or even heard of - a house not having a bathroom and I was born in the 1950s. AFAIK - even in the 1950s every house had a bathroom and had got rid of any outside loo it had had. I have been surprised to read since that some houses went on for rather longer than that without their bathrooms. I did once come across a Victorian terrace house that had had a section of the kitchen boxed-off to be a bathroom and wasn't a proper room as such (that would have been back in the 1970s I think).

Apodemus

AdrianC wrote: »

We aren't on mains gas.
We have a gas cooker and a gas central heating boiler.

I had one of these evening marketing calls where the lady was trying to convince me I needed a new gas boiler...she just could not understand the concept of there being properties that had no mains gas supply. She also couldn't comprehend that if I didn't have gas, it didn't automatically mean that I had electric heating - she had literally never heard of oil-fired boilers or calor gas (never mind wood fuel)! At least she was more entertaining than the usual kitchen/double glazing calls!

wibblewibble

Hubbys grandparents lived in a terraced house in Cardiff which in the mid 1990's still only had an outside toilet at the bottom of the yard and no indoor bathroom. The bath was in the kitchen under the worktop which you lifted up when you wanted a bath. They didn't have central heating either, coal fires in every room, and an immersion tank for hot water. I used to hate going to the loo in winter or if it was raining, or dark ... creepy as heck and freezing cold mind you that did mean you didn't hang about :rotfl:

Frugalista

I have never lived in a house with central heating (I'm 58).

silverwhistle

AFAIK - even in the 1950s every house had a bathroom and had got rid of any outside loo it had had.

Nope. Grandparents in a railway terrace house in the south of England had an outside loo and a bath in an alcove under the stairs at the back of the kitchen in the mid-60s. Definitely after England won the world cup and Southampton promoted to the first division for the first time. :-) Maybe as late as late-60s. No central heating and open fires, though I don't recall the one in the front parlour ever being lit!

glasgowdan

What type of houses are you looking at? We've looked at 37 since Jan, all detached 4-5 beds in small towns, villages and outskirts from 1850s farm houses to grand designs things and they have all had working central heating

Mardle

My ex-husbands parents didn't have a bathroom until the early 1970's. Before that their outside 'toilet' was emptied once a week by a 'honey cart' which came round late at night.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I don't think I have ever seen - or even heard of - a house not having a bathroom and I was born in the 1950s. AFAIK - even in the 1950s every house had a bathroom and had got rid of any outside loo it had had. I have been surprised to read since that some houses went on for rather longer than that without their bathrooms.

Houses have to have a functional kitchen sink and an indoor toilet/washbasin to be mortgageable these days, but that's not quite the same as having a kitchen or a bathroom, especially when the ceiling collapses in one and the floor is dodgy in the other. That was the situation in 2014 when daughter purchased.

She didn't move in for a few months, until these matters had been addressed.

And there still is an outside loo, though it probably hasn't worked for years.

There was no bathroom in the country house my parents bought in the early 1970s. There was a chemical toilet half way up the garden, a kitchen sink with cold water and a coal-fired Aga that gave the luxury of hot. There was a larder, and as I recall, we discovered that the rats had cleverly linked it via underfloor tunnels to an old well!

lincroft1710

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

AFAIK - even in the 1950s every house had a bathroom and had got rid of any outside loo it had had.

In the 1950s there were millions of houses without bathrooms. Most big cities had thousands (if not tens of thousands) of Victorian terraces with outside WC and no bathroom.

Kitten868

Haha it's all in Dorset. The one we've put an offer on I'm guessing is excouncil from the 60s. It does have an indoor loo too. Sorry for that confusion.
A different one is exhousing association. The rest are exrentals but one wasnt. You've guessed right we are pretty poor so going in bottom end.
There's pretty much nothing on the market here either so maybe some people are trying to make the best of the bad market while they can. Thank you all.