No longer in use

Chrystal

Am I right in thinking that the people buying your old house are the people you are buying the new house from?
Is there another house that they can offer you?
You must feel absolutely fed up with the whole rigmarole. Unfortunately I don't have any legal expertise to offer, but what does your solicitor say?
I really hope that things start going your way very quickly. ((((hugs)))) XX

Honeysucklelou2

Sorry that there are more difficulties with your housing situations. What a good job though, that the poor construction was discovered before the sale had gone through or you had moved. Are there any other properties within your locality?

crazy_cat_lady

Oh, how horrible to read this. I can't imagine how you must be feeling if Christmas hasn't been great, and you're having further problems with the housing situation. I really hope that it gets sorted out for you...

MeandO

Thank you all.

I explored all other options yesterday, but unfortunately none were very positive and will be extremely complicated. It looks like I will just have to cross everything that the house is 'repaired' to a good standard and go from there. I'm at the end of my rope with it all now, I can't do much more about the situation so I'm just going to have to get on with it and see how it turns out.

The new tumble dryer arrived early this morning, bought after Christmas with a £20 off voucher. We took the old one to the the recycle centre last week avoiding a charge for it to be collected. I'm glad it arrived early as it meant I could get to work on time and not have to worry about making hours up.

DS and I had a terrible night's sleep last night. DS was crying twice, upset and scared about something he'd seen on TV - an advert for a kids show which has a witch in it which seems to freaked him out. He's not normally like this, has never been scared of the dark or anything, but suddenly seems to be bothered by these things. He was crying and calling for me at 4am this morning so ended up in my bed which meant neither of us got any further sleep. I must have only got about 3 hours last night so am not feeling the love today.

The internet broke this morning so had to fiddle with that; the ex rang at a ridiculously early time wanting to speak to DS; OH phoned just as I was rushing round to get things done; I was waiting on delivery men and then DS spilt stuff all down his school jumper so had to change and the car would just NOT defrost despite drowning it in de-icer and leaving it to run for ages. When I eventually got to work, others had parked so badly across two spaces that I had nowhere to park so I had to park elsewhere then move the car later.... basically, this morning wasn't fun and my patience is running very low!

I've had to chase the builders again today as they have still not responded to my email of two days ago...

I really hope 2019 eases up on me a bit soon.

ToeDipper

De-lurking because someone I know had similar issues with a new build.

His was a terraced house in a small development of terraced houses and flats. After completion it turned out nothing had been done properly - inadequate fire safety, balconies not properly tied into the building, subsidence etc.

Everyone had to move out for a year or so whilst the issues were fixed. The developer (or presumably their insurer) paid for the remedial works, but also for a structural engineer to act on behalf of each owner.

Is that something you could insist on as part of the contract? If not, I certainly wouldn't proceed without appointing my own professional to inspect the works - the whole point of buying a new build was to give you peace of mind on this stuff so don't leave it to chance and hope!

MeandO

Thank you for the advice ToeDipper, sounds like a good idea.

After fighting with the company all week over their plan to 'remedy' certain areas they considered needed fixing, I then received the news that the whole house is being knocked down and rebuilt. At least someone has some sense. There was no way that house could be patched up.

Meanwhile, I have found another property to look at. It's £90K cheaper than the new one, obviously much smaller, semi detached and an old property, but it looks perfect for DS and I. The trouble will be convincing my Dad that it is a good idea after what happened with the last old property I bought. He worries terribly and I don't want him thinking I'm ignoring his advice as he does know what he's talking about, but once he gets something in mind, he won't deviate. Obviously at the end of the day it is not my Dad's decision, but my parents have helped me so much and I don't want them to think I don't appreciate all of their help and advice and go completely against what they advise me to do.

Anyway, I am viewing this property next week. I intend to get it fully checked out as much as I can by a professional whose opinion I trust.
It would also mean I can pay my mortgage off within 6-8 years instead of the 22 it will take me to repay the larger house and if anything happens to my job, as is always a risk, my mortgage repayments would be much easier to cope with.

We'll see what happens next week.

In other news, I have sold a piece of large office equipment I used for my home business. The sale of this means that my business is no longer 'operational' and my Etsy shop will be closed. It was always the plan to close the business at some point as sales and profits have gradually declined dramatically over the years with more and more plagiarism and then mass production of products (too) similar to mine. However, the business has done me well for 6 years and I will be sad to close it down. It was something I achieved on my own and helped me to believe in myself more. It also enabled me to overpay my mortgage, save money and usually paid for Christmas and although it was a lot of hard and rather lonely work at times it did demonstrate how much I love working for myself and building my little empire so perhaps I can look at doing something else in the future.

The item is being collected tonight and will bring in £180 which I will put straight into the house fund. I can then get rid of a second desk (which I have gifted to a neighbour for her daughters) and start clearing my little office room.
The desk has been in the family for over 30 years too, so I will be sad to see that go, but it's no longer needed and going to a home that has experienced a lot of turmoil lately and will be appreciated.

I topped DS's dinner money account up today by £20 and have YNAB'd a grocery spends and £9.99 on a birthday gift for DS I bought yesterday. The gift was £8 cheaper in Argos than Amazon, so I bought it whilst it was that price! Funds have been transferred from the gifts account to cover it. I will order a few more things for him today but there is plenty of money in the gifts account to cover those.

Breakfast and lunch continues to be brought into work and it's just me to feed tonight, so tea will be something simple from the fridge.

I wonder what next week will bring...

crazy_cat_lady

You sound a lot more upbeat at the moment MeandO - sounds like this house is well worth a look at. You don't need to decide if you want it until you've seen it - and 90K is a huge amount of money...

Chrystal

Hi MeandO :wave:
Glad to hear you sounding a bit more upbeat and hoping that everything goes well with the house viewing this week. Maybe this was meant to be... you didn't really like the 'new' house or it's location, so perhaps it will work out for the best in the end.
I'm almost certain that you can get a 'complete' survey (or you used to be able to!) whereby you are covered by their insurance for anything that goes wrong, which hasn't been pointed out to you. in their written survey results. It obviously costs more than the normal survey but well worth it for peace of mind and maybe to ease your Parents minds? Might be worth checking out anyway. ((hugs)) X

MeandO

Thanks both, unfortunately the house was an absolute no-go. Loads of problems inside and out and they're just the ones we could see...

crazy_cat_lady

Well at least you had a look though, and you know it was a definite no, rather than spending time wondering what might have been. Sorry it wasn't a goer.