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Martin Lewis Blog: 'House offer accepted, now they want £20,000 more! What should I do?'
A passer-by stopped Martin in the street recently to ask his opinion on her house buying dilemma. You can check out his view in a video he posted: Martin Lewis: 'House offer accepted, now they want £20,000 more! What should I do?' What would you do? Stand your ground? Walk away? Pay the extra? Negotiate? Tell us your…
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New to the House Buying, Selling & Renting board? Start here
✅ This board is for... * Questions about buying or selling a home * Questions about renting a home * Questions about being a landlord 🚫 This board is not for.. * Debating the state of the economy * Debating house prices in general * Political debates Note: In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place…
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Tenancies in Eng/Wales: Guides for landlords and tenants
post 1 This thread is intended to provide information to both landlords and tenants relating to Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) in England and Wales. Updated April 2020 to include the Coronavirus Act 2020 and July 2020 to include the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020. Topics covered: Post 2: Repairing…
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Buying a house that has no building regs or certificates for loft conversion or log burner
The house I'm buying has a loft conversion that was done before the current owners and the current owners installed the log burner. It was last sold in 2021. Loft isn't being used as a bedroom, has proper stairs and a window but is being used as a habital room. Log burner is newish, not sure when it was installed or who…
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New "Have a Look at This" thread
The other one has disappeared and any posts I have made are not listed in either my posts or thanks. This thread is for things like: . Spotting pets in properties . Anything awful - decor, extensions etc . Quirky properties . Timewarp properties . Properties in serious repair and anything which is different and of interest…
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EPC misrepresented as A, actually a B
We are in the process of purchasing a new build which was advertised and represented to us during viewings as being A rated. We agreed a purchase price, which was partly driven by this rating. During the conveyancing process, we saw the EPC actually certifies the property as a B, albeit a high B. We gave the developer the…
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Responsibilities of being a director of a freehold
So still considering buying freehold for our leasehold block of flats, still worth it with new legislation? Regarding directors, we need two. What are the responsibilities of the role?
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Query - air and light - leasehold
Hi all I am in the process of buying a leasehold flat and haven't had a survey done - it is 12 years old and I decided it might not be necessary - is this advisable? My vendors are pushing for early exchange and completion as they lost their previous buyer, and mine has taken a while (price agreed November last year)…
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Selling - Can;t get Building Control Certificate for old works (>10 years)
Hi Everyone, A few different moving parts here so very grateful for any suggestions / out of the box ideas. We're selling our house - conveyancing has thrown up we didn't get a BC completion certificate for an extension we did 11 years ago (dunno why - we simply forgot to chase up). Lacking a certificate, it turns out it…
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Claim refund on additional SDLT on second home after selling first home
Does anyone have experience in claiming refund for the additional stamp duty in this scenario? We are living in Property A. Mortgage is solely under my name. It is residential mortgage which requires me to use it as my main residence. We want to buy property B, which will trigger the 5% additional SDLT. With our joint…
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Lodging complaint about estate agent for emotional blackmail
My friend wanted to buy a house and the offer was accepted and after the survey the house needed about 8,000 pounds of very urgent roof repairs according to the structural survey (as well as a load of other stuff that needs doing in the next few years such as damp course, leaking chimney, repair of non-moving structural…
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Selling home emotions
We have been living in our present home for almost 30 years, but it’s too big for us now and we feel that we ought to sell it and buy somewhere smaller. Even though this is clearly a sensible idea, we are both really unhappy at the prospect of moving. It feels quite a lot like a bereavement. We have found a really nice…
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Additional Dwelling Supplement in Scotland - seeking advice
Hi folks - newbie here needing some help. Our situation's a bit out of the norm so we're struggling to get reliable advice. Up until recently I was a Church of Scotland minister, living in a tied house - a manse - that came with the job. We've been here for 20 years, but I've recently changed jobs and as a result we'll…
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ID1 form – do I really need to see a solicitor in person?
Hi all, I’m currently going through a property transfer and have been asked to complete an ID1 form. I’ve been told by one solicitor that I need to attend in person with ID and a passport photo, but I’ve also seen online that some firms offer this remotely using digital verification. I’m a bit confused as to what’s…
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Removing blanket restriction from title deed for a remortgage
Hi there A long and incredibly stressful story short, we need to remove a blanket restriction in favour of my father from our title deeds to be able to remortgage. We have approached two solicitors one who says that @Land_Registry are likely to reject the removal and another who sadly agreed to look into it and now never…
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How can you confirm the buyer is financially qualified to proceed
I have been with my current estate agency for at least 10 months and it is going down hill due to continuous lies, no communications even within their team and providing details that belongs to other clients and the list goes on. Worse of it all, I had found out that the buyer mortgage appointment was two weeks after the…
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Letting Agency not giving bond back
Hi all, I rented a property through a well known chain and paid £1000 bond. This was placed in the Tenancy Deposit Scheme After a year I have moved to another property and on agreement there was £250 deductions for cleaning the property. The letting agency promised it would be done and this went on up until a few weeks ago…
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Do we give up trying to move now?
Bit of context this has been going on since Feb 2025. We have had 3 chains fall through over the past year. First couple buying ours split up, second our buyer didn’t have the funds so pulled out and then most recently this year the house we were purchasing decided he was no longer going to sell. This happened 4 weeks ago…
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Prescribed information and Renters Right Act
Hello My current tenants are on a fixed term renewal AST of 12 months which is due to end on 10th May 2026. On 1st May 2026 the Renters Right Act comes into effect which means the tenancy will automatically become periodic. If my tenant's are staying then regarding deposit protection, will I just need to inform the deposit…
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Rats in a neighbours (house association property). Advise
I live in an end terrace of 3 houses. Recently I've noticed slight activity in my loft space so I threw my motion camera up there and it has spotted a rat in there. I own my house but the two other terrace houses attached were formally council houses which were sold to Vivo Homes housing association which works pretty much…
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I’m being asked to pay two solicitors
Strange situation - wanted to instruct a smallish firm of solicitors for purchase of leasehold flat. They advised they can’t deal with Building Safety Act aspect so would refer me to another. They took £270 on account over phone but now second form quoted me £2300 for purchase conveyancing and want £400 on account. i…
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Why don't we build more timber homes, like the US does?
We don't have hurricanes, serious floods, wild fires, extreme winds or anything. I don't understand why we don't build more timber homes? I'd love to one day own a really nice timber home, something like this would be amazing
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Paying for HC1 form
I need to order a copy of historic title deeds from 2003 for a client, by post using form HC1. As I don't have any bank accounts with a cheque book these days, is it OK to pay Land Registry with a postal order (old school I know!)? Any other options? I looked at various 'firms' online offering reseller options for this,…
