The House Thread

[Boydy]

Back on the topic of gas, it seems we're getting shafted in NI as usual:

1729597501513113732

[Lofty]

Is the general expectation the base rate will go down on 1st February based on the news about mortgage rates going down? We agreed to move onto a new deal from 1st March when rates were looking dicey but have the ability to renegotiate before that comes into play in the meantime.

[niko_cee]

Are rates expected to go down that soon? I saw some outside suggestion of April, but though consensus was still later in the year if at all. Sounds like the mortgage market is becoming more competitive though.

[Ben]

I wouldn't think so. They've been crying cautiousness, which isn't a bad thing if they hadn't spent the last 12 years not doing anything about it.

[Don]

Coming to the end of my tenancy with my tenants for our 12 month contract which was agreed with an Estate Agent.

Both the tennant and I were happy with renewing for a further 12 months but wanted to save on fees we both pay to the cunts so thought we'd just deal with each other direct.

The tenancy agreement didn't seem to contain any relevant clauses but theyve whipped out a signed "terms of business" agreement which states:

The Landlord may terminate the Agent’s Service by providing the Agent with not less than 1 month’s written notice but termination will only take effect upon any Tenant or Occupant vacating the Property following expiry and/or earlier termination or surrender of the Tenancy. The Agent will be entitled to Fees at the agreed rate from the Landlord in respect of any Tenant or Occupant introduced by them for however long that same Tenant or Occupant remains in the Property whether or not the Agent negotiates the subsequent extensions of the initial term. The Landlord will only be entitled to withdraw from the Agent’s services with the Tenant in situ when the Tenancy is a statutory periodic, in which event the Landlord shall pay the Agent a Withdrawal Fee equivalent to 2 months’ rent at the then current rate together with VAT thereon. Any such notice of termination served by the Landlord is without prejudice to any claim for a breach of contract that either party might have against the other.

So they've seemingly got us by the balls. I get they may want compensation for finding the tenant but if that's the case why not front-load the charge and be open about it? Filthy cunts.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Pretty standard clause with any form of third party agency, in my experience.

[Waffdon]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86777493#/?channel=RES_BUY

I get it’s probably a rot and damp fest but that seems ridiculously cheap. Surely some handy man could easily do that up and sell it for 3x the price. Errol isn’t exactly a shithole either

[Ben]

No warranty, no testing. It's a massive gamble. You're not wrong that it could be doable and be flipped for half a mil, but it could also be just as easily condemned by a structural engineer.

[Don]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckkvkv32e1ro

Child grooming gangs and country lines ain't shit compared to these management companies. I had a brief taste of it in MK where I saw the inner workings. That was a new-build flat and I saw how it developed in the first few years but that was at least pre-cozzie livs and at MK rates.

How these Londoners are swallowing it all up and not yet revolting en masse fascinates me. People just perceive housing costs as some sort of non-negotiable in this country, feeling powerless to influence them, akin to being robbed at knifepoint. As with all white-collar crime, the criminals are protected by the balls-deep bureaucracy.

On a housing crisis related note, this came up on X just now too:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145778303#/&channel=RES_BUY

:happycry:

[niko_cee]

That house is absolutely massive and it's in Canonbury, to be fair.

[Spikey M]

Alternatively you could buy this (https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144656861) in my endz and jump on the train for an hour.

Taz is absolutely correct. Houses have become investments, rather than homes and it's terrible for everyone that isn't a millionaire.

[niko_cee]

I'm quite glad I'm entirely out of the service charge game. Must be such a racket considering how utterly useless they are whenever you try to get something super basic done. Think it took FirstPort about 4 years to stop sending me bills after I had escaped their clutches.

[Spikey M]

When we had the flat, I had an absolute war wit the management company over the Building Insurance. Their "preferred provider" wanted £600 a year for each flat, despite like for like Insurance being available for less than £300. Robbing bastards. It's an absolute grift.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Mine has gone up from £75 to £111 as of 1 April this year. Why? Absolutely no idea, apparently you can just multiply anything by 1.4 and that's life. Of course it also works that way for salaries, oh wait, no it doesn't.

[Jimmy Floyd]

How these Londoners are swallowing it all up and not yet revolting en masse fascinates me.

Because the alternative is going to live in a cheap part of the country and that's a fate worse than death. Plus, you know, they're Londoners, it's home.

[Waffdon]

I honestly expected worse. The little bed sits for 300k+ is much worse value. The house is a lot bigger than the front image that’s being posted looks

[Ben]

It's still pretty wild though. My house is a similar size and makeup (minus one bathroom) and it cost less than 10% of that last year. It's been well established in this thread that the North is shit, but is it that much shitter?

[Waffdon]

North England, yes.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's still pretty wild though. My house is a similar size and makeup (minus one bathroom) and it cost less than 10% of that last year. It's been well established in this thread that the North is shit, but is it that much shitter?

It's not that it's shit per se, it's that every multinational employer, every high paying job, every wealthy foreign investment, every multi-millionaire property speculation, every public and cultural institution are in London and none of them are where you are. Every possible force that could go into inflating the housing market is in effect and only a fraction of these forces have the same effect on people's salaries. That's why in Blyth, for example, people earn far less than they do in Islington, but home ownership rates are 60% whereas in Islington they are 30%.

[Spikey M]

I'd rather live in Northern England than in London. Maybe not Middlesbrough, mind.

[Manc]

I've never understood the whole lol at the north vibe. As with everywhere there are great bits and shit bits.

[Shindig]

Aye, and it's largely well connected with public transport.

[niko_cee]

It's still pretty wild though. My house is a similar size and makeup (minus one bathroom) and it cost less than 10% of that last year. It's been well established in this thread that the North is shit, but is it that much shitter?

You have a 340m2 house?

[Lewis]

The only issue with that three million pound house is that its council tax will be a relative pittance compared to some poor bastard getting rinsed on a shared-ownership round the corner. You could go a long way to rectifying a lot of this unfairness with proper council taxing/land value taxation. Let's see who really wants a three million pound semi-detached when they would be better off levelling that entire street and building nice mansion blocks.

[Ben]

You have a 340m2 house?

Didn't see that. :D

As you were. Bargain for £3.5m that.

[Baz]

If this pub (https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144473537#/?channel=COM_BUY) wasn’t renowned for flooding I’d be seriously considering buying it to live in. What a bargain for something so big, and in great spot seconds away from the East Lancs (and right near the M6) with a car park, [tiny] outdoor area and it literally backs on to a lovely bit of greenery called Carr mill dam.

[Mike]

Could walk to mine too!

[Dark Soldier]

Viewing property tomorrow. Sent images of it to me mam. Turns out me stepdad, who is a labourer, built the fucking property. Well, converted it into the flats I'm viewing. Worked with the landlord for 15+ years. So a nice name drop is gonna go well I think.

[phonics]

I'm filling out my mortgage application tonight :cool:

[phonics]

What was that website that showed you markup/down history on places?

[SvN]

The area I live in has become a right shithole in the last 12 months, mostly because of 2/3 families that have moved into the council houses across the river. We've had the police at our house asking for CCTV footage/witness statements 5 times in the last few months. A local dad walking his 7 year old to school got beat up by one of them for telling him to slow down when he was racing past the nearby school at 8:30am.

Unfortunately, childcare costs mean we can only really afford a sideways step at the moment, so moving is out of the question. Still doesn't stop me looking at RightMove and dreaming.

[Luke Emia]

What was that website that showed you markup/down history on places?

Rightmove and Zoopla will both show you previous sale prices(as long as they have taken place in the past 20 years or so) and then give you a current valuation based on market conditions but that part isn't perfect.

[SvN]

There's also this Chrome extension (https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/property-tracker/abgkpdjomdmemeefdefalbeogkmlmand?hl=en-GB&pli=1) that shows the history of the listing price.

[phonics]

There's also this Chrome extension (https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/property-tracker/abgkpdjomdmemeefdefalbeogkmlmand?hl=en-GB&pli=1) that shows the history of the listing price.

That's what I was looking for. With my refreshes I'm seeing them listed at different prices across Zoopla/RightMove as well as going up and down so I'd like to track it.

[Dark Soldier]

New flat paid, contract signed, move in Sunday. Good area too. Can't wait.

[Don]

Man said good area like he's emigrating. "Non-shit"/"White" is what you mean.

[Spikey M]

The chip you have on your shoulder is getting out of hand lad.

[Dark Soldier]

Man said good area like he's emigrating. "Non-shit"/"White" is what you mean.

I meant good transport links you fucking off-gammon

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145298237#/?channel=RES_BUY

Just found my Dad's place for sale. The Ukrainian has been busy, barely recognise it.

[Waffdon]

That explains a lot

[Spikey M]

The blow jobs that must have earned him. :drool:

What a man. RIP.

[Shindig]

Those wooden support beams in one of the bedrooms are ... an interesting look.

[niko_cee]

Puts Ed Two Kitchens Milliband to shame.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Those wooden support beams in one of the bedrooms are ... an interesting look.

The support beams are on the top floor which is a studio flat. Was originally built for my Brother.

House was one floor when my Dad bought it back in the day.

[Manc]

That explains a lot

No wonder he doesn't work for a living.

[niko_cee]

Considering sticking a bid in for this (https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146263277#/?channel=RES_BUY), could build my own long room and watch Jimmy ply his trade if he's allowed across county lines.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Only half a mill for that? Fill your boots.

[phonics]

Currently looking at flats in the Harbour. The dream one is this place but it's about 50-70k above what I can afford.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146782181#/?channel=RES_BUY

The drop off from that at 315 to the ones I'm looking at for 220-240 are massive. When I write that sentence, the drop off is probably about 100k in quality so makes sense...

[Waffdon]

315k for a flat. Fuck me. I’m thankful for being Scottish

[wullie]

I like an exposed beam but I don't think I could be doing with that one that cuts the main room in half.

[phonics]

It is a little much but as you say, exposed wood :drool:

[Shindig]

I'd bump into that at every opportunity.

[niko_cee]

Got sent a house today by an agent before it went up on rightmove that looked good, perhaps a little too good. It has since gone up as an entirely different, much shitter house on the same road. :moop:

Baffling as it was a full marketing thing on some weird agent platform called Street.co.uk, so they must have had this other house for sale at some point although there is no record of it having sold within the last 20 years.

[Raoul Duke]

Classic bait-and-switch. Lure you in with something fake, get you to sign-up/agree terms with them then send you the dregs they actually have

[niko_cee]

I was actually going to see something else with them, but this seems fairly high level incompetence even from an estate agent*. Here's a surprisingly not ridiculously over priced recently renovated house for X, oh no, sorry, what I meant to send you was the one over the road that we actually have on the market that hasn't been touched in the 30 years since it was built and is about 50% smaller, also for X. :/

There was some story about that other one having been withdrawn from the market despite offers over X having been received, although I never saw it come on and I watch it keenly. :happycry:

I'd almost reconciled myself to the misery of the suburbs and everything. Back to the grand design by the cricket pitch.

*That said, the other day another one forwarded me an email chain in error, they were trying to send me some information that they had already sent me and I'd asked for something else mentioned that wasn't included, so now I know that some retired IT bod is also interested in the cricket pitch. Alas. Had a foreign sounding name though so hopefully the bid openers at the council are all massive racists.

[niko_cee]

For reference this is what was promised:

https://street.co.uk/platform/properties/9a55e9d0-9f53-4558-828e-18c6d0ac5215?type=sales

And this is what materialised:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146979386#/?channel=RES_BUY

It's missing a floor.

[Waffdon]

TTH rolling in the money. Love to see it.

[niko_cee]

Hardly. I was expecting to sell my house in Guernsey and live like a king over here, but it's just endless dystopian suburbia for about the same money. Large developer built areas are just dreadful.

[Waffdon]

Move up to Auchterarder and live like a king

[niko_cee]

There was probably a better chance of me persuading my wife to move to Australia, as had been my original plan.

[Waffdon]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145717640#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145901372#/?channel=RES_BUY

Should be in your budget

[niko_cee]

There's actually a house down here I think I've posted on here before which I refer to as the footballers' wives house which is a bit like that second one. I think it's pretty much at the end of the Gatwick runway though and in the middle of buttfuck nowhere which is a bit of a turn off.

My uncle lives in Perth, think he has quite a nice house.

No thanks.

[Waffdon]

Perth itself is a bit of a shitehole these days but Perthshire is absolutely lovely. Doubt I’ll move back to scary Dundee now.

[Lofty]

You could always move to sunny west lancashire.

[niko_cee]

I'd forgotten how depressing house hunting can get.

Doubly so here, where everything was built in the 90s*, has been inhabited by the same boomer fucks for 30 years and is part of a suburban close boarded fence hellscape, where your pitiful garden is overlooked by at least 5 other houses.

Kill me now.

*Or, if older, has been inhabited by same said fucks for even longer.

[Lewis]

Have they also not been decorated for twenty years because the houses have earned more than them since?

[niko_cee]

Mostly, and they all seem to think they're in 'move in condition' when in reality they need gutting and tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds spent. :cry:

[Ben]

Yeah these boomer cunts who bought these big houses 30 years ago are a nightmare for never decorating it since. We ended up paying £30k more for a house last year versus a very similar one up the road because it didn’t need the antique kitchen and bathroom punting into a skip immediately.

[Manc]

House hunting really is the pits.

[Lofty]

We moved in to ours 5 years ago with the plan of renovating the kitchen I reckon was installed in the 90s but here we are still going strong with it. The main issue being rather than just a nice overhaul the wife is on about knocking down a wall and putting a new roof with skylight on which significantly increases costs beyond a simple interest free deal.

[niko_cee]

£1.2m for what looks like a bunch of council houses taped together
(https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145174451#/?channel=RES_BUY)
And that's in a SHIT area.

[Boydy]

The boomer houses that need gutting and re-doing inside never seem to be that much cheaper either.

[Waffdon]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147166856#/?channel=RES_BUY
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147159002#/?channel=RES_BUY
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143151191#/?channel=RES_BUY
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147127172#/?channel=RES_BUY

Easy.

There’s a lot of horrible looking homes in West Sussex for a pretty penny

[Mike]

The last one there had one of the things that bugged me when house hunting. Listing a downstairs room as a bedroom on the floor plan and calling it a 4 bed. It’s a 3 bed, as there are three bedrooms upstairs.

[Waffdon]

It does have an en suite to be fair

[niko_cee]

Those places are all over budget and absolutely fucking miles away from here. Worthing must be about 30 miles away, my search radius is like 3, and not even that really, which is the main problem, admittedly. That said, even unlimited money wouldn't actually buy you a decent house within with Horsham ringroad. I'm just holding out for some mid-tier CA execs to get culled by SEGA or something as that's my only hope of not having to build my own house.

And that Worthing house isn't even in Worthing for fuck's sake.

[Luke Emia]

What’s the obsession with Horsham?

I have to go quite often for work and it really is soulless. TTH Meet though next time I’m there.

[niko_cee]

That's where I live. I'm not obsessed with it, it's just where I have to find a bastard house, and it seems to be some bizarre enclave of stupidly expensive crap houses, which I thought was a life I'd left behind. At least it made sense on a tiny island with a mad amount of rich people and a very finite amount of land.

Hit me up though. Bit harsh on the soulless front, it's medium soul, probably.

[Waffdon]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147106451#/?channel=RES_BUY

Majestic

[niko_cee]

Tiny garden, supposed to go and look at it on Saturday but am going to tell the agent it'd be a waste of my time, but yes, all hands on deck, if anyone has a relative they want to off in the region I'm all ears.

This (https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/136776887#/?channel=RES_BUY) was the house I wanted to buy but it went under offer before my house did. Hopefully it falls through.

[Shindig]

The last one there had one of the things that bugged me when house hunting. Listing a downstairs room as a bedroom on the floor plan and calling it a 4 bed. It’s a 3 bed, as there are three bedrooms upstairs.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146765558#/?channel=RES_BUY

On that note, this counts as a four bed. You can see which one doesn't quite line up.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Get across the border to Reigate. Sunlit fucking uplands.

[Ben]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147106451#/?channel=RES_BUY

Majestic

That’s not far off my house (from the outside) and mine was less than a third of the price. The mortgage will be sickening.

[niko_cee]

No, but I can't say that it isn't galling that prime stockbroker belt places seem to be more affordable.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's because the market's full of people who don't want to move out of Horsham. Classic scenario in the joker belt, i.e. the ring of the first towns outside London that are not culturally aligned to London. Would guess it's Horsham that side, unless you count Crawley as a place, which I don't.

[Waffdon]

That’s not far off my house (from the outside) and mine was less than a third of the price. The mortgage will be sickening.

Okay maybe Scotland isn’t that cheap. Omw to boro

[Luke Emia]

I always had in my head Jimmy was from Horsham. Not sure why?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Probably confused it with Hersham, which I'm also not from but it's in the name of my nearest non league football team.

[niko_cee]

Another small gripe, or maybe tip, on the house hunting front, dog owners, your houses stink, you should do something about that. You won't know as you'll be immune to it, but believe me, they do.

[Baz]

:huhu:

[Spikey M]

Your mums stink.