Need help with home repairs

MickBarrigan

Hi, I bought my house a year ago from my landlord, lived in it for 5 years before purchasing.
The house just seems to be falling apart, upstairs floors all creak and floors boards seem to be rising up. Front door has cracks all around it when it's windy it rattles. Downstairs floors seem to be sagging in places and damp in walls. I can't afford the repairs and I can't afford to sell. Any help or advice. Please help.

Grumpy_chap

MickBarrigan said:

Hi, I bought my house a year ago from my landlord, lived in it for 5 years before purchasing.
The house just seems to be falling apart, upstairs floors all creak and floors boards seem to be rising up. Front door has cracks all around it when it's windy it rattles. Downstairs floors seem to be sagging in places and damp in walls. I can't afford the repairs and I can't afford to sell. Any help or advice. Please help.

Have the repairs all come to light only in the year since you purchased the property?
If so, what has changed in that year to cause the property state to change?
If not, what allowance did you make for addressing the issues when preparing your budget ahead of purchasing the property?

If you are finding that being a property owner is more challenging than you envisaged, is that only financially challenging, or financially and practically challenging, or only practically challenging?
If it is a financial challenge, you could prepare a budget using the SoA (statement of affairs) template used in the Debt Free Wanabee (DfW) areas of this forum.  SoA is a useful tool for budgeting regardless of whether you have debt challenges.  The "lemon fool" SoA is widely recommended in the DfW area, though other templates are available.  If you share your completed SoA in the DfW boards, people will help to identify where you might be able to find efficiencies.

Nearlyold

Have you got any mates who are builders  etc. who could take a look. First thing  is to establish what the issues actually are. Until you know what's causing the problems you describe its difficult to help much further. Can you post some pics of the cracks round the door, could just be the sealant beween the door frame and the walls needs redoing and/or draught strips between the frame and the door.

MickBarrigan

The problems where there before I purchased, I just thought I would have longer before I needed to address them. They have gotten a lot worse in the past 9 months. I have been very foolish, I don't have any budget for home repairs as I am just about keeping up with the mortgage repayments. As I am only a year in I don't have any equity in the house so I don't really want to sell.

MyRealNameToo

MickBarrigan said:

The problems where there before I purchased, I just thought I would have longer before I needed to address them. They have gotten a lot worse in the past 9 months. I have been very foolish, I don't have any budget for home repairs as I am just about keeping up with the mortgage repayments. As I am only a year in I don't have any equity in the house so I don't really want to sell.

Welcome to the joys of home ownership

Selling shortly after buying is generally a red flag to most buyers anyway so unless your area's house prices have boomed it's likely you'd be selling at a loss. 

Ideally you at least want to get someone to have a look at things to see if anything is major and will deteriorate without rapid action. 

Floorboards can work loose overtime and will make noise when walked on. Generally easily fixed with new screws to hold them in place. 

MickBarrigan

I didn't really want to buy it in the first place because of the problems. I was just going to become homeless if I didn't, then I got caught up in buying my own house at 43 which I didn't think would happen.

Martico

The advice to fill out a Statement of Affairs is good - for your own knowledge and ability to budget. If you're willing to share this (by formatting for MSE and copy/pasting) then you'd get some good pointers about where you might be able to cut back to start saving for events such as house repairs. The debt-free wannabe subforum here would be the best place to post this, if you're willing. It'd be non-judgmental advice.
Either way, however you can it'd be wise to work out a way to save an emergencies pot that you could use for repairs and suchlike. Good luck

theartfullodger

Get as man lodgers (get agreements signed) as you can squeeze in. (Check insurance), then hopefully you'll have some funds.

Good luck, sorry.

RogerPensionGuy

Was a survey completed before buying it? 

MickBarrigan

No survey as I didn't have the funds, it was privately sold as well as I was the tenant here. The landlord tried to remortgage the house for her other properties, she didn't get the offer she wanted and decided to sell, I did offer to just pay more in rent, she said no. A few weeks before she decided to sell, she came round with a friend and where looking at some of the problems. She was aware of some of the issues and kept saying she would get them fixed and never did. I lent the money for the deposit from my parents. I owe them £15000 (which I am giving them only £100 per month for) I owe the bank £115000

RAS

OK, some things you can look at, based on years of living in dodgy HMOs and being a skint home owner.

Draught proofing is very cheap.

You can get strips that fit onto the door frames and cost very little. They'll pay for themselves in comfort and reduced energy costs in months if fitted now. 

It's also amazing what impact it makes sealing the gap between floorboards and skirtings, with HM paper mache.

If you've got standard windows there is very cheap E profile tape that helps seal gaps and reduce rattling. If necessary you can stuff gaps between lower sashes and the frame with rags as a temporary measure

Go round the outside of the house and look at the damp proofing layer. Check you haven't got soil or leaves built up over the damp course, or things like climbers trapping moisture against the wall? There should be at least 10cm between the ground and damp course. Remove any impediments.

Check the drip line under window sills, as they can become filled by paint.

Get gutters cleaned and check downpipes for sealed joints. If you've got a friend with a ladder used to working at heights, they might help for very little. 

Deep clean inside yourself and get a lodger or two. You can earn £7k tax free, over that you need to keep accounts.