The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

armchairexpert

Thanks Tahlullah! The weekend was so sunny that I think the entire city was out on Mother's Day (which was yesterday, Sunday, over here) having picnics. We tried to go to the Botanic Gardens but after seeing cars parked up and down the verges several blocks away gave up and went local. The girls tried to build a dam over a creek and we lazed around a lot. Apart from groceries (bit higher than usual because of the pizza and the picnic) we had an entirely NS weekend. It's so much easier in good weather!

Cherryfudge

Ooh, that sounds like a good weekend! If you get tired of all the sun, maybe you could send it back to us. The weather has broken and I'm missing it already!

armchairexpert

Dishwasher finally due back tomorrow. I don't mind doing dishes by hand, if I'm honest, but the dishwasher makes my life easier because Mr Expert prefers it and he will unload it before I get up in the mornings.

Huge looming AGM next week for my mother's unit (that I own) - there's massive subsidence under four of the eight units and we just paid out $500 each for an engineer's report. I suspect we'll be up for several, possibly tens of, thousand dollars worth of work. This is strangely not worrying me as much as it perhaps should, and it's because I don't really think about the investment unit much. We'll borrow back against that mortgage, and we can manage a slight increase in mortgage payments - even if it's an extra $50K it'll be about $200/month I think - and it'll just keep jogging along. At some level I just have to decide to not care about this since I can't do anything about it.

Cherryfudge

That sounds like a big thing but... actually I think you have just the right attitude. Don't fret about stuff you can do nowt about.

Thinking further though - at some point the units were built and if you were in the UK there would have been a survey and legal searches done. Is it the same in Australia, and if so, is there a possible claim against builders/lawyers for missing the cause of subsidence? Or is it one of these causes that couldn't have been foreseen?

armchairexpert

It is the same here, but what's happened is a couple of things. One, the units were built in the 70s and the land is subject to subsistence anyway, so it is a bit inevitable - lots of cracking and subsistence in the surrounding suburbs too - and two, some large trees on the property have caused a lot of damage via their roots. Previous owners have been reluctant to spend the money to get the trees removed because it's thousands of dollars, and it has just got to the tipping point now. So no negligence, unfortunately! I used to be a property and insurance lawyer so I would be all over it if there was. It's just a combination of old buildings, and owners who don't/didn't have a lot of money to spare so no preventative work done.

I'll be fine, tbh. There's no equity at all in that unit, we bought it on a 105% mortgage and the current LTV is still around 95%, but we own two-thirds of our actual house so we can refinance if we need to. It's some of the other owners I feel for: the unit next to my mum's is owned by this lovely woman in her early twenties who clearly doesn't have any money to spare and was concerned about even coming up with the $500 to get the report done.

Cherryfudge

Well, with your background I guess at least you save on expert legal advice! Trees can be a big problem, I know. the most important thing must be the safety of the people living there...

I had never thought of 1970s houses as being 'older' but I'm showing my age! LOL. I think Australian norms may be different too. There is an estate of 1970s houses near us which is certainly well established. Our house was built in 1936 and the house we're clearing, which belonged to my Mum, is 1870s. Mind you, it needs plenty of work and has been revamped at least twice including having a wall rebuilt because of subsidence.

I hope it all works out with your mum's unit... and yes, very hard for the neighbour.

armchairexpert

Oh yeah I don't mean older like old (although you're right, Australians think 100 years is ancient. Well, white Australians. Indigenous Australians not so much!) just that they're old enough that any subsidence would probably be "just one of those things that happen" 50 years down the track.

1870s sounds lovely. Now that sort of age, you really don't get any of around here!

Tahlullah

I guess if you are more at one with the Earth, you are more forgiving and understanding of the way the water ebbs and flows and the land heaves and slips.

Actually, subsistence is 'just one of those things' when you look at it that way.

The UK really do have a love of old buildings, and it is completely justified when you look at some of the buildings they throw up nowadays. Clearly showing my age as well!

THe woman next door. Was a survey not undertaken at the time? Perhaps people bought knowing there was a potential issue, but didn't think of the ramifications. That is sad. As you say ACE, you can afford to fix it if necessary, but what does your neighbour do?

I would like to think that in the UK, they wouldn't have allowed the properties to be built, but I am being naive. They are continually building on flood plains, so why not land prone to subsidence?

Hope it gets sorted for you - and the neighbours.

armchairexpert

Sorry I don't think I'm clear; the land isn't slipping away, like it's not a flood plain or anything! Some huge tree roots have grown under the buildings and pushed up all the ... doohickeys that keep the buildings up, which is causing the walls in four of the front units to develop huge cracks, not my unit but because the common property (the tree) is what's causing the damage, it's everyone's problem to fix. And also it's a dry sandy soil on a slope, which doesn't help, and is why I'm talking about the land being part of the problem. It's just a standard residential area though. I may be using totally wrong terminology, sorry.

Got the AGM agenda today and as well as "discussions on the recommendations for the building report" there are quotes to fix the falling-down fencing and moving an electrical box and that's another $2K per unit! I mean you'd have to build maintenance costs into buying anything, but it is all happening at once. I may need a wee chat to my bank.

And I haven't helped myself by deciding, yesterday, to go do some fun shopping for once. I've been very well behaved all year, and I don't own a single pair of winter-weight trousers so we all went into town and I bought an eye wateringly expensive pair of cords which I had better wear approximately twice a week for the next five years in order to justify. I never do this, but I'm nearly forty and I'm sick of wearing cheap clothes all the time. Anyway. Then Mr Expert decided he needed a bunch of things (he goes through clothes way faster than I do) and between us we spent $500, not counting lunch at a dumpling house for our very patient daughters who weren't getting any new clothes themselves! I have spent the morning juggling money in YNAB and it means we won't put anything towards savings or emergency funds this month, but having had my little binge I'm all set now. One hopes.

armchairexpert

I got the engineer's report right after posting! Right, so, it looks like what's happened is poor stormwater management and clayey soil, basically. Stormwater floods into the soil, soil swells, then we get a long dry summer (I live in one of the driest parts of the country, it can go 6 weeks without raining in summer) and it all shrinks and cracks, rinse, repeat, ta da, walls cracking.

Anyway we've agreed to put off the less critical works and it looks like we can do some temporary remedial work to slow down the problem while we save up for majors. So no remortgaging just yet, phew!

Makes me so grateful that Mr Expert is a dab hand at DIY in our own house!