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badmemory

Whilst it is a major pain about the drain situation, at least the neighbour told you what he knew.  Just think what the consequences could have been if you didn't find out until a year down the line.  It doesn't bear thinking about.  Talk about the proverbial hitting the fan.  I think you may well have dodged a(n even more expensive) bullet there.

MeandO

Thank you both. X

Yes, it has to be sorted and I’m glad it hadn’t caused other issues, but it is frustrating to hear from another neighbour today that the previous owners knew about it and did nothing other than laugh and claim it wasn’t their problem as they were selling the house. Shame they couldn’t have at least told me about it if nothing else. Judging on the state they left the house in it doesn’t surprise me though.

As the drains have thrown up an unexpected cost I have to cut back elsewhere, so have decided against making alterations to a window in the bathroom. I was going to have the window altered to fit a bath along that wall, but I’ll just change the plans for the bathroom and work around the window issue.

Today I’ve listed 3 items on eBay, hopefully they sell and bring in some more £’s towards paying for everything. 

I’ve ordered a bath (has to be freestanding now), shower enclosure, basin and taps for that bathroom now as I saw a deal too good to leave. It has cost me £480 all in and I should hopefully receive £48 cashback too. It’s a saving of over £600! The toilet, shower tray, shower and other bits needed weren’t such a good deal, so I will shop around for those. 

The plumber’s quote was not that much cheaper than the previous guy who quoted, but I have gone with the second plumber as he can do it sooner and was more thorough. The entire bathroom from top to bottom including ceilings, floors, walls and everything in it will cost me about £4000, which I think is a pretty good price tbh, it’s not the smallest of bathrooms either. 

Sayschezza

If they are shared drains with the neighbours it's shared costs. 

badmemory

Have you had a word with your solicitor?  If they knew & didn't say it could be a problem for them.

Just wondering if it is shared drains or if like a problem I had a few years ago when a broken culvert 0.5 miles away caused the draining water to back up & lap against my doorstep halfway up a hill above it.

Mrs_Money_Penny

Your bathroom sounds lovely. Think of how nice the house will be after all the work. You will be a lot happier than you were in your old house. I would mention it to the solicitor about the drain issues it won’t cost You anything to ask. Take care xx

CRANKY40

Get back onto your solicitor as soon as possible and see if you can claim money back for the drains. Where I used to live the new neighbours had to have a flue liner fitted or my kitchen filled with smoke when they used the wood burner and if they'd lit the gas fire in the living room I wouldn't be typing this now because there was a leak in a pipe. They claimed £20k back from the people that they bought the house from for major defects. Definitely worth a quick word with legal people. 

MeandO

Thank you all. Unfortunately there is very little that can be done as, unless asked specifically about the drains and then providing a false answer, the seller has not lied. Basically, it's more hassle than it's worth and likely to be unsuccessful in pursuing any claim. I've resigned myself to paying for it, so I'll just have to jiggle budgets around and try and make cut backs elsewhere unfortunately. The people I bought this house from now live on the same road as me as they purchased a house on the same street so I will struggle to be civil to them if I see them. I would be ashamed to show my face if I was them. How two 30-something medical professionals can live in such filth and grime and not even bother to clean so much as a toilet seat when they moved is beyond me. Absolutely disgusting individuals. Anyway, time to draw a line and move on I think.

I have had a few tears this morning. Everything feels like a struggle and such hard work and I'm so tired. Work is a bit of a nightmare at the moment too which is not helping. We have poor management to say the least and there is a lot of buck-passing daily, so those of us who will do the work just get loaded with more and things that aren't our jobs. It will never change though and I earn enough money to allow me to work part time and keep a roof over our heads so I just have to suck it up and try and not let things bother me so much and be grateful for what I do have.

MeandO

I just had my water bill for the year ahead after having the water meter fitted this week. Still, the water company wanted to charge me £14.50 more a month than I was paying in the last house, so after a quick phone call to a lovely lady, they've reduced it to £30 a month - the same as I was paying before. I don't know why they don't just look at previous useage and base it on that to start with though, it would make more sense!

I didn't do much in the house yesterday, I was struggling a bit tbh and my mood was very low. I did take a couple of horrible shelves in the box bedroom/office down that the previous owners left and filled in LOADS of holes after I removed all the picture fittings and screws from the wall. Lazy people didn't even bother to fill a hole or remove a picture tack! I then put up one of our shelves from the last house and listed the two shelves I'd removed on FB for £8. Someone is already interested, so hopefully they sell and make a little bit of money towards everything else.

My first mortgage payment came out today and I'm looking forward to seeing the mortgage account updated once the payment shows and the interest is added on too. I'll only be overpaying little bits until I have built my savings back up again once all the renovations are paid for and the house is finished, but I do look forward to the day I can make larger overpayments again.

Honeysucklelou2

It’s amazing to see the new mortgage figure in your signature.  

MeandO

Thanks you HSL2, although still a huge amount of money, it's not as bad as it was!