SKI-er or Sk-ater. We know how to enjoy ourselves

seven-day-weekend

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

I notice it is a 5kW (ie equivalent to an old fashioned 5 bar electric fire - only more than a three bar fire would have blown the fuse).
Is that small enough for you not to require a nasty big air inlet to be installed?

The trend is towards forcing house owners to install such stoves that are "room sealed" with their own air inlet pipe from outdoors.

Yes it is. Anything bigger than 5kw has to have one though

We do have to install a CO alarm, and one comes with the stove, but we already have two, so this will just be extra safety.

It does have to be signed off under Building Regulations. My husband has taken plenty of advice and he is going to fit it himself and then ask the Building Inspector to sign it off. Then if there is anything he has overlooked, they can tell him what it is and he can put ti right. So it will have all the right documentation.

margaretclare

This whole thread is interesting if you set it against other threads regarding 'deprivation of assets'.

Just been thinking about that recently given that I've spent a sizeable chunk on cosmetic surgery, re-scheduled from this month to next month because of my cold. We're planning a holiday in June once I've well recovered.

Have I 'deprived my assets'?

Errata

Have I 'deprived my assets'?

No idea, depends on what your 'assets' total. If you have a million quid, probably not.

seven-day-weekend

margaretclare wrote: »

This whole thread is interesting if you set it against other threads regarding 'deprivation of assets'.

Just been thinking about that recently given that I've spent a sizeable chunk on cosmetic surgery, re-scheduled from this month to next month because of my cold. We're planning a holiday in June once I've well recovered.

Have I 'deprived my assets'?

Only if you intend claiming any means-tested Benefits

Savvy_Sue

Or possibly if you find yourself needing residential care in the near future. Which I know is more like an 'over my dead body' scenario in your mind, if you'll excuse the black humour.

However, given the benefits you're expecting to gain I think a strong argument could be made for it not being DofA. You can legitimately make home improvements or repairs, I believe, as long as it's along the lines of "kitchen needs refitting to make it accessible to me" rather than "my old units are looking tatty but are perfectly serviceable so I'll replace like for like".

However, each case may need to be argued on its own merits. And it may depend on the sums involved and the timing: giving your granddaughter £25,000 for a house deposit which coincidentally took you below the threshold for help with residential care just before needing it would certainly look like DofA, but if you'd done that 20 years ago when you were still completely fit and healthy it would be more of a judgement call.

margaretclare

What made me think of it was this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4398789

and in particular, this post:

The upper savings threshold in England is £23,250 - anyone over that limit is expected to cough up in full - the lower savings limit is £14,250 - anyone over that limit is expected to make a contribution.

It occurred to me that there may be a lot of people out there who're in the position of owning house property but only having these hardly princely amounts of savings between them. I've just depleted mine by a sizeable chunk and now, back again below the lower of the 2 figures quoted above.

Errata

There are a lot of people in their 70's and 80's out there who only paid £4k for a house which they only had to sit in for it to increase over the decades to c£200k.
As my stepdad pointed out, he did nothing except slap on a few coats of paint and rolls of wallpaper over the years, so as far as he was concerned the increase in value for his house was 'free money'.

margaretclare

Errata wrote: »

There are a lot of people in their 70's and 80's out there who only paid £4k for a house which they only had to sit in for it to increase over the decades to c£200k.
As my stepdad pointed out, he did nothing except slap on a few coats of paint and rolls of wallpaper over the years, so as far as he was concerned the increase in value for his house was 'free money'.

It probably was, but he never dreamed of all that 'free money' in the years when he was working and - maybe - struggling to pay the mortgage.

I didn't live here as long as that so can't claim that it's all 'free money'. In addition, since my first husband and I moved here in 1990 this 1930s bungalow has needed quite a lot of modernisation and updating to make it more comfortable and easy-care. DH and I have certainly done considerably more than 'slap on a few coats of paint' etc. We couldn't have gone on living with it as it was - the 1970s bathroom, the inconvenient outdated kitchen, the uneven access to the front door, a whole lot of things. Plus, the roof had to be completely replaced, that was 10 years ago. One of the first things I had done was rewiring, that was out of my redundancy money in 1992, plus a new front door and back windows because I didn't feel safe.

However, it has been worth it, we're warm and comfortable. My point, however, was that whatever the house property is worth, the people you're describing may not necessarily have a lot in the bank.

pollypenny

Errata wrote: »

There are a lot of people in their 70's and 80's out there who only paid £4k for a house which they only had to sit in for it to increase over the decades to c£200k.
As my stepdad pointed out, he did nothing except slap on a few coats of paint and rolls of wallpaper over the years, so as far as he was concerned the increase in value for his house was 'free money'.

However, for most of us, whatever price we paid for our first homes, it was usually a struggle.

Our house cost 3,500 in 1970, north Wales. We could not afford the extra £300 for central heating.

On moving for the kids to go to a good school, we very very cautious, opting for a large, rather run down place. Thank goodness, it was a hell of a struggle when interest rates hit 15 per cent.

We were never able to save much until youngest graduated. In fact, our savings basically consist of our pension lump sums.

If our properties are worth a bit, then jolly good! We had to work damned hard for them!

margaretclare

I agree, pollypenny. In fact, although DH and I were in responsible jobs for most of our careers, we were never able to save at all. We've been pleasantly surprised that saving has been so easy since we stopped working in 2002.

For him, 2 divorces plus bringing up 4 children made it impossible to save. For me, living in a 3-storey weaver's cottage in the Pennines for 17 years - an absolutely bottomless pit which swallowed money - made it impossible for me to save.