Based on the desperate emails I get from my mortgage broker almost every day trying to sell me various insurance add-ons, I presume things are a little slow in that department.
Based on the desperate emails I get from my mortgage broker almost every day trying to sell me various insurance add-ons, I presume things are a little slow in that department.
Depends if you have been doing it for a while then you will have remortgage stuff that needs sorting.
Like everything else though until the lockdown ends then nothing major is going to happen.
Any recommendations on who to contact? Would also like to consider going in on somethig together with my bro but not sure if that's an option.
Mine was virtually abusing me for not taking him up on his filthy mortgage insurance at purchase.
Insurance is where the money is kids. There is fuck all in the doing the Mortgage’s unless you are in London.
Steer clear of L&C they don’t really advise from my dealings with them. It’s more like a farm and a lot of the brokers are new so mistakes happen. If you had a broker previously it’s worth speaking to them. But if anyone is trying to charge you more than a couple of hundred quid as a fee they are taking the piss.
The biggest issue is that people will try and take the piss out of you and charge the earth. If you know anyone who has used a broker and thought they did a good job that’s probably the route to go down to be fair. Personal recommendation is better than anything else.
Also I’d imagine your brother being involved would be ok dependent on his credit profile.
I have a broker who did my current one (and remortgaged). Will he be expecting me to pay for an assessment of my options?
I had a proper smoothie-chops call from him at one stage trying to flog me all the stuff. I walked round the supermarket just repeatedly saying 'No'. Fruit and veg I think he was explaining to me what would happen if I lost my job or my company went bust; in the meat & dairy aisle, he'd moved on to losing limbs in car accidents, and by the time I got over to the drinks area he was going through the eventualities involving different forms of debilitating disease, how quickly they might develop and the crippling financial ruin I might suffer as a result. I finally got rid of him with a promise to book in another call in a few months, but by that point there was a bottle of Scotch in my basket so in a way he had accomplished his goal.
It’s about knowing your audience. Someone like you no kids, partner or anything do you need life insurance? Not really if you die it goes to your parents and they sell where you live.
Should you think about if you are seriously ill. You probably should? But, if you aren’t interested there’s no point in the broker trying to change your mind. It’s not going to happen.
I am hoping we will still able to move house this year at some point.
I've read quite a lot about the housing market over the last few weeks and think it should be possible.
One of the estate agents has booked us in for a half hour visit on the 23rd May, no idea if that's just wishful thinking or if they know about loosening of the restrictions. Supposedly the estate agent will just wait in the garden rather than follow us around.
Sounds a dream scenario which hopefully never reverts.
My wife handles utility bills. She was checking the account the other day because she thought it was odd they hadnt asked us for a reading since January, having renewed a fixed price tariff with them in November and they asked for readings only to confirm we now owe them £400 and need to increase our direct debit by £40 a month to cover the deficit. This already pissed me off but the wife's monthly credit report just landed and it has sank from 510 to 360 due to this 'bad debt', however am I not right in thinking they should've flagged this increase to us immediately instead of smashing the bill up and taking the insufficient direct debit without saying anything?
We got a decision in principle from our mortgage advisor yesterday, it's a little bit less than we where told they would lend us at the start of the year but nothing drastic. We can still afford the two houses we had been looking at before the lockdown.
We were worried as there have been so many articles about 90% LTV mortgages being removed.
Last edited by Andy; 21-05-2020 at 05:46 AM.
That's good news, I think they may go the other way personally on mortgages as there may be less demand if there's major job losses.
It's tricky, because it's both a brilliant and shit time to buy. The interest rate being at rock bottom is obviously great. Fix your term for as long as you possibly can. BUT could Coronavirus finally be the needle that bursts the housing bubble? It has wrecked the economy (but so did 2008) but also equally, it's made every step of the buying process more difficult as it has a number of face to face aspects to it. From viewings to surveys.
It is a strange position right now, my main worry now we have the mortgage in place is selling our current house and having people in and out.
You'd assume the majority of people would avoid touching things and only come to view if they're free from any of the symptoms but you just never know.
I'll be working in peoples houses and flats again from Tueaday so it's not all that different.
There are a few lenders lending at 90% but it is restricted. A lot of banks have however updated their calculations in regards to what they are willing to lend people as well as the fact that the majority of lenders who will stretch incomes well are not lending at 99% LTV now that some more have opened it up though I would imagine the majority will be by the end of the month and then at that point it will be fairly back to normal.
I got an email this morning from my advisor stating the valuation has been instructed...
Wasn't one of the main consequences of 2008 and all the QE (and other shit that happened) a massive increase in asset (namely house) prices? Flats in (that) London seemed to double in about 3 years. The response this time seems to be largely the same. Rock bottom interest rates also means there is so much less 'distress selling' as most sellers can afford to sit it out if they have to. In short, there's probably a small window of opportunity to buy right in the teeth of the crisis where prices may be down, but any longer term that that and you're looking at the good old inexorable northward journey.
House prices in London and elsewhere took a decent beating (about twenty per cent I seem to remember) through the actual pit of the recession, but that was presumably down to banking falling to bits which we won't have (or be allowed to have) this time round. I had got it into my head that it would be a good time to buy coming out of this, but now I think it won't make any difference to me. There might be a wobble in the more vulnerable parts, like the shitholes in London that depend on endless demand to justify their costs, but everywhere else won't notice.
I was thinking demand for London is gonna take a beating. MK is the new hub, the yoghurt business establishing roots here is going to make me into the next Bezos.
I cant see there being much of a dip in the south, maybe 5-10% which will rise back up again.
People just wont sell houses if things dip too much.
Hopefully now is a good time to buy and I'll get a good price before house prices start steadily going up, if they dont it's not a huge issue I plan for my next house to be for the long term.
We currently don’t have a secure garden (the dilapidated shed was attached to the garden gate so when the shed finally bit the dust that was it)
Got a quote for sorting it - putting up a single fence panel, a gate and a few posts and then patio-ing a small area (roughly 6x4ft). They made us wait on the quote and then came back with £1.5k I mean ok so they needed to include a skip in that cost but that seems batshit, from what I can gather. Brother in law priced it up at about £350 if I help him do it, and as it’s half term next week that’s what we’ll be doing.
From a complete noob's perspective, that sounds like something you can do with a visit to B&Q and a youtube vid with duration of under 5 mins (first 4 minutes being an introduction to the host's hobbies and extended family ofc). That is with binning off the patio in mind though. Plant a fucking tree instead, you heathen.
Sounds like 3 or 4 days work depending on how many posts need replacing so that's the best part of £800 labour before you've factored in materials, rubbish removal and day to day costs.
Depending on where in the country you are it may be on the high side but it would be in the ballpark I'd be expecting here.
Edit: scrap that. It was £345 for the decking and £840 for 7 fence panels, cement posts, base plates and a gate.
Last edited by Spikey M; 21-05-2020 at 02:31 PM.
Ok well I've learned a lesson this week. Firstly, the £1500 quote was a good deal (although still not something we could afford). Got my handyman brother in law in to do the bits we wanted and it's a fucking shambles.
On Monday night, spoke to the neighbours we share a fence with. They said no problem to attach our fence panel to their concrete post. Great. By Wednesday when that part of the job was being done (he'd literally just attached our post to theirs) and the bloke comes out says that's his land, he won't be able to get his wheelbarrow out and that we can't attach to his post in any way, shape or form. Cunt. So had to move the post onto a bit of raised pathway. The fence panel is now on an angle, and there is a two inch gap between our post and theirs
But before that, BiL attempted to lay the patio. Once we 'flattened out' the soil (it was literally just walking over it with small steps), we put down ballast and flattened that out as well. Worth pointing out here that after all the ballast went down, he raked that back and put some of the soil back down as it wasn't high enough. Then as the adhesive there is a mixture - some concrete, some slablayer. Essentially, there was no plan, he was hoofing it, and I was naive enough to trust him. It's 2/3rds done and wonky as fuck. Decided against letting him have another crack at it and instead will look to level it all out and then using paving bricks the same as what's already down. Looks easier at least.
I've spent just over half of the above quote on materials and paying him for his time, and got a wonky fence and gate out of it.
Nightmare, if you need any advice with anything let me know.
We put our house on the market on Friday and had some bloke walk into our garden and start looking through windows. When I confronted him he asked if we would sell any furniture with the house.
That's not normal is it?
First part no, second part can be. My mate bought a house 'as seen' as the owners were moving abroad and couldn't be fucked to clear it.
Nope. Not unless you're downsizing.
Normal regarding furniture, unusual peering inside.
When I bought my flat I had to match the winning bid (they didn’t want to sell to this arrogant lady who just wanted to rent it out) but if I did they’d leave everything except the (pretty shit) tv.
Happens more than you’d think.
Trying to get a new boiler because mine is ancient and unlikely to manage another winter. I want a new one in where the old one was, had a video call with an EON engineer today and he is saying because the existing flue is under the carport the boiler has to be relocated. Apparently they cant just extend the new flue up and through the carport roof despite them doing that through my actual roof depending where they move it to.
Is it definitely a no no to extend a boiler flue through a carport roof or is that an EON thing more than hard and fast regs? Considering chasing up local firms on monday but no point if it isn't allowed, cant find anything definitive online though.
Last edited by Lofty; 07-06-2020 at 10:12 AM.
Depends on the make/model of the boiler. Get a second opinion.
I thought it was the relationship thread for a second there.
EON and a local firm say no, Boxt say yes so looks like Boxt win.
Had a bloke round today looking in the loft, cos we’ve got a bit of damp in the corner of a bedroom ceiling. He was a bit of salesman, and in the end really tried to pressure us into signing up for the buy now pay later but we politely declined and sent him on his way.
Basically he quoted us £4500 to fill between the beams in my loft with something called Icynene, which is expanding foam spray. He said it contained no chemicals and didn’t have “that fishy smell that people associate with foam insulation.” I had no preconceptions so just nodded.
I live in a three bed semi detached house and at present there is fibreglass applied to between the upstairs ceiling and what is essentially the loft floor, after my dad boarded over some fibreglass we got installed for free about eight years ago.
Now this man wants us to spray foam between the beams on the loft ceiling. There is already some felt covering what I presume is the bare tiles. I should really provide a pic but I’m not home at the moment and wanted to post cos I already have 3 missed calls off the bloke who came.
My dads a very handy man and says we don’t need this foam stuff. “It’ll just make your loft warm.”
Has anyone had it done? Heard anything good/bad about it? Hopefully specifically about Icynene, but even the foam in general.
Heres a video he showed us:
I'm a twit
I don't know about the method itself but there's a few choice trust pilot reviews for the company that made that video.
Let him get conned, you twats.
My parents had it done, it's excellent.
It is an external wall. Annoyingly it’s the bit that connects to the other house, and my neighbour is a bit of a busy body so I don’t really want to ask him if they’ve noticed anything on their side. Saying that, the outside of his house is much better kept so if anyone’s guttering is causing it, it’s probably my problem to sort.
Why do you advise against the foam?
Are you fibbing though?
Last edited by Baz; 31-07-2020 at 05:01 PM.
I'm a twit
Baz would let him do it regardless of price if the guy was able to shape the foam so it spelled "BAZ" in his loft.
If it's not under the kitchen sink what can I do to find my water stop cock?
https://www.watersafe.org.uk/advice/...rnal-stop-tap/
Try these places?
Cheers Boyd. Looked at that and no joy either.
Gonna have to contact the previous owners I think.
If you have a water meter you can do it in the road easy enough.