Energy Price Guarantee No Longer 2 years just 6 months at current level

BooJewels

PennyForThem_2 said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

I've seen my other half's parents half-heartedly looking at houses in estate agents' windows.  They pick up on any negative against their current house (e.g. no dining room, small kitchen), while completely overlooking the advantages over their current one (e.g. safe instead of dangerous wiring, boiler isn't ancient and giving up).

With this sort of psychology there's no chance of them moving - they can't pay anything on top of the value of their current place, so I fail to understand why they think someone else is going to buy theirs at a price that's higher than another that's better in every way.

If everyone thought like this, nobody would ever move.  Our current house has lots of disadvantages over our last one but these were outweighed by the advantages so it was a good decision.

Basically they pretend they want to move but lob obstacles in the way and waste everyone's time.  It's probably an "old" thing.

I am 70+.  I live in a 4 bed house - double glazed, wall insulated since 1990's, loft insulated.  I live 3 miles from town centre overlooking a Council controlled lake and park. What is not to like?  I don't want to downsize - it would cost me to go to a possibly better 'intstagram' designed house from my own.  Where are the incentives for me to give up my home?

Yes - IHT.  As property rises so does this risk.  At the moment although the 'design - afa surface appeal' is not great and an 1990 ambiance indoors, the structure is fine - cavity wall insulation,new roof, loft conversion, soon solar panels, recently painted, double glazing.  I would expect any buyer to update.....

I need a substantial incentive to move, tbh.

I hear you - that's just how I feel too.  The very things that would make me move are the very same things that make it unaffordable - largely a nicer and more suitable location.  I want to live in the kind of place I can't afford, even if I significantly downsized.  My son completed on a new house last week and my sister is in the process of buying, so this has given me slightly itchy feet too - so I have vaguely looked, but at my age, I'd have to be a cash buyer and my home won't cover what I'd like, in the type of place I'd like and then the costs of actually doing so, so unless my lottery numbers come up, it's not a realistic option. 

I have no idea how your would categorise the internal ambiance of my house, I shudder to think.   A tradesman recently said "Corr, what a fabulous, quirky house - it must cost a fortune to maintain, which is presumably why you haven't done any".     Rude! 

And soaring energy prices don't come close to being a suitable incentive.

ariarnia

BooJewels said:

I have no idea how your would categorise the internal ambiance of my house, I shudder to think.   A tradesman recently said "Corr, what a fabulous, quirky house - it must cost a fortune to maintain, which is presumably why you haven't done any".     Rude! 
.

quirky is a great word. it would work for us to. i know some people love to move but we havent moved since 2010 and the kids were tiny. then we ended up buying the house we had rented for 10 years just to avoid moving but i think the longer you live in a house the more character and memories it gets. people who love to move will talk about shedding bagage and posibilities and all that. but give me a comfortable safe space anytime

BooJewels

ariarnia said:

BooJewels said:

I have no idea how your would categorise the internal ambiance of my house, I shudder to think.   A tradesman recently said "Corr, what a fabulous, quirky house - it must cost a fortune to maintain, which is presumably why you haven't done any".     Rude! 
.

quirky is a great word. it would work for us to. i know some people love to move but we havent moved since 2010 and the kids were tiny. then we ended up buying the house we had rented for 10 years just to avoid moving but i think the longer you live in a house the more character and memories it gets. people who love to move will talk about shedding bagage and posibilities and all that. but give me a comfortable safe space anytime

Both my sister and son are both approaching their moves as an opportunity to shed baggage and I would no doubt do the same (I really would have to, if I downsized), but it's also tricky emotionally for me too, as I've lived here 34 years now and raised my son here and my husband passed away last year, so there's a strong emotional tie here to what has been a happy home, but I also wonder if a fresh start as a new me, has some merit too.    But for now, staying has a lot more ticks in the plus column.  It feels like spending my potential moving expenses on improving here, makes more fiscal sense.

wittynamegoeshere

If you feel you need an incentive to move then times obviously aren't particularly hard.

If it was actually needed then there wouldn't be a decision making process, it would just be essential so would already be happening.

Countering that (as expected) accusation that I was shoving my OH's parents into moving - definitely not, they're 100 miles away and if they moved it would be to nearer!  I'm happy either way, although things may get more difficult as they get older, so the stress of moving now could be less than whatever stress may or may not happen later.  The actual situation is that one wants to move (allegedly), the other doesn't, but you'll never hear a decisive answer from either, it's all daydreaming and pondering.  In reality they probably both like the idea of moving but couldn't actually confront it.  They have a truckload of ornamental stuff, I've told them that if they want to move all they have to do is put their stuff in boxes and be ready to move out, I'll take it from there if they want.  I wouldn't know where to start packing their belongings, I run a retail business and I have less stuff than they have.  This in itself will mean that they'll probably never move outside of their imaginations, unless some external event makes it necessary.

BooJewels

wittynamegoeshere said:

If you feel you need an incentive to move then times obviously aren't particularly hard.

If it was actually needed then there wouldn't be a decision making process, it would just be essential so would already be happening.

No, they're not particularly hard for me at the moment - but it has come at a very high price - my parents both passed away and I inherited and so did my husband and I got his pension pots - but I need to be very careful to ensure it lasts.  But this is the first time in my adult life that I've not been hard up. 

But I still don't get your insistence that moving is an easy solution to reduce energy bills - it costs a lot of money to move house and you have to have at least some of that upfront (and may lose some of it if the house falls through - that happened last time I moved) - and be able to secure mortgage funds or have cash going forwards - which may not be as simple as you're seemingly thinking.  People may even have negative equity on their current property.  I would suggest that if you think it's that easy, you perhaps aren't experiencing hard times either.  For some - including me in the not too distant past - it would be financially unthinkable.

[Deleted User]

This really is becoming the new version of Norman Tebbit after all!

EssexHebridean

wittynamegoeshere said:

Snip

Countering that (as expected) accusation that I was shoving my OH's parents into moving - 
Snip

There was no such accusation from me at least - I was actually thinking about the media's seemingly constant barrage of suggestions that people should want to downsize in their old age. It's interesting you read it that way though.

What DID stand out from your post that I was commenting on was the fact that you seemed to feel that just because you value certain attributes in a home, the fact that they valued different ones made them "wrong". 

BooJewels said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

If you feel you need an incentive to move then times obviously aren't particularly hard.

If it was actually needed then there wouldn't be a decision making process, it would just be essential so would already be happening.

No, they're not particularly hard for me at the moment - but it has come at a very high price - my parents both passed away and I inherited and so did my husband and I got his pension pots - but I need to be very careful to ensure it lasts.  But this is the first time in my adult life that I've not been hard up. 

But I still don't get your insistence that moving is an easy solution to reduce energy bills - it costs a lot of money to move house and you have to have at least some of that upfront (and may lose some of it if the house falls through - that happened last time I moved) - and be able to secure mortgage funds or have cash going forwards - which may not be as simple as you're seemingly thinking.  People may even have negative equity on their current property.  I would suggest that if you think it's that easy, you perhaps aren't experiencing hard times either.  For some - including me in the not too distant past - it would be financially unthinkable.

In some cases, as said earlier in the thread, "downsizing" can also cost money as the smaller properties more suitable in particular for those who are more elderly sometimes actually cost more than somewhere a little larger, with stairs, for example. This is exactly the situation my Mum would be in should she want/need to move. 

BooJewels

Thanks @EssexHebridean - that was the other point that was on the tip of my tongue that I'd intended mentioning.   My sister is a case in point - she's using her inheritance to move somewhere nicer and was aiming for a bungalow (thinking long term and her area has a good supply of them), with decent garden space for her dog.   

There were seemingly many in the right price range, but they were either in good nick and quite tiny, or needed significant work.  In the end, she's going for a 3 bed semi with a good garden, on a quiet cul-de-sac, backing onto allotments, new kitchen and wet room for £10k less than the lowest bungalows she'd been viewing - and it doesn't need any work.  So it's bigger and cheaper and in better condition. 

Miser1964

So we'll now be reliant on the billionaire Rishi to decide how much we'll  be clobbered by sky-rocketing energy prices. What a time to be alive. 

wittynamegoeshere

We paid £99 in online agent fees to sell our last house, plus £50 for the optional street sign.  I took the photos, wrote the details and did the viewings.  Then it was a few £100s in conveyancing.  Even the full removal service, where we just put things in boxes and they did all the lugging was a matter of £100s.  I don't remember the exact figures, but it was probably around £1000 all-in, door-to-door.  This was 4 years ago, so reasonably recent.

Stamp duty shouldn't normally be payable if downsizing in most of the country these days, even if the original house is over the limit that's the new buyer's problem not yours.

We did have a mortgage on the last house but paid it off when selling then bought the next house with the change, so now own outright.  We upsized, but to a cheaper part of the country, so got more house for less money.

It all can be done, it took a lot of planning and a few worries but it all worked out in the end.  We're definitely not rich.