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PMd re 2

We told you not to touch that fireplace...
Now the poltergeist is out!

TLDR: Always get more than one quote...

So the electrical survey which kinda precipitated our house sale falling through wasn’t entirely accurate.
It said the lights upstairs were not earthed and therefore a full rewire was necessary.
Cost was estimated at £2.5k including installing a new RCD and didn’t include redecorating the resulting mess.
The buyers balked at this (think the phrase “dangerous” was used) and insisted we pay half towards costs. We refused, then relented under pressure, and then thought no, we’ve had enough.
We got a more local sparky round to quote for the work. He queried the survey and said it would still be compliant even if wasn’t earthed as long as there were class 2 lights installed where required. (Original sparky didn’t mention this)
He did the work this week and discovered the lights WERE earthed and didn’t even need a rewire.
He (perhaps diplomatically) said he couldn’t see how the previous sparky couldn’t find the earth...
Work was £1k including new RCD, EICR certificate and new light install.
I like to think the best of people but it feels like I was being played - again.
Worst thing is my Brother in Law is a sparky but won’t help at all!

We’ve been using Independent James as recommended by someone on here.
He’s great and very patient

Can't comment on value but looks like the whole place needs renovating.
If you know a builder take them with you on a viewing.
I would definitely get a decent surveyor round to do a full check once you've made an offer. They should flag up any issues.
Surveyors should give an idea of cost but not all are up to date with prices.
Good idea to look at how similar places have been done up and what they're worth now.
Once you know rough cost of achieving something similar you'll know what to offer.

I preferred the rice cooker chat

Ha! Great ideas :-) the kids would love the string/thread as they’re forever making things with wool yarn as it is.
And yes it’s pretty dull - or “neutral” - as one Estate Agent diplomatically put it.
My wife likes the walls white and plain pretty much everywhere so after more than 10 years it’s hard to imagine how to jazz it up.

Like the Dan Flavin idea

It would keep the square look and could use it to display stuff

Hanging plant and taller plant is a good shout thanks
And the eldest loves crafting

It’s probably difficult to see scale from pix but it’s a bit small for shelving
We like the shape but we’re struggling to see how to make it fun

Can anyone help with what we can do with this odd little space?
It used to be a small window on the exterior kitchen wall and is now in between the kitchen and extension (we didn’t put in a steel beam so there is a supporting wall).
The small cactus doesn’t really work! There are some nice lines the other side. Was toying with idea of some kind of coloured glass but have bit of a mind blank.

Re costs:
We had a couple of surveys during our search for a house £500 for first house and then slightly discounted £400 for a second.
These were full Building Surveys and are essential IMO.
There was a mortgage survey which cost £200 I think.
Haven't got the solicitor's bill yet but we're happy with what they did so no quibbles.
We didn't quite get to the searches stage on the second property which fell through so we have £400 in credit.
But I'm guessing it'll be £2k-£3k in total.
We've had to have a roof fixed and electrics and gas certificates sorted but they would have needed doing at some stage anyway.
Some agents charge for photos and marketing costs. Ours have not invoked this to date but even if they did it was a quite reasonable £200-£300.
Beware some contracts with EAs will mean you could still be liable to pay their commission on the sale if you pull out/withdraw from a sale after an accepted offer.

I think the would-be buyers though have lost more, which makes their inflexibility even more surprising to us.

Sadly the rest of the chain (single middle aged woman and youngish couple & no kids) didn't feel that way...
Our house sale fell through at the weekend too, but we're kind of relieved.
Buyers weren't flexible so we pulled out.
Always felt we were selling our place too cheap and yet they kept pushing the price down.
I think if we'd found somewhere decent to rent then we'd have sold but the places we looked at were way too small for lockdown.
Now planning on buying a second property and renting our house out for a couple of years.

Yeah let's back to rice:
What's your favourite brand?
We rate Yumenishki

+1 to proper rice cookers
We’ve tried other ways over the years but a decent Japanese rice cooker is a must - we get through about 10kg of the Japanese sushi style rice every 2-3 months.
Currently have a small Panasonic one which is fine but not as good as the zojirushi one we had before I blew it up by connecting the wrong plug in the transformer...
That was a fun day

Thanks - yes it's a FCSC scheme which I hadn't heard about
https://www.fscs.org.uk/how-we-work/claims-process/temporary-high-balances/

We may be selling our place after all - with a small price reduction - and moving into rental for a bit.
We will have a rather large sum of money (for us) as a result of the sale - where is it best to keep it safe until we need it for a house purchase?

`Thanks - our house is a 1960 ex LA-built place so it sounds similar.

Thanks, that’s a good idea.
It’s not just this single issue - they have been picky about stuff and we’re concerned that they’ll keep complaining.

If it was just that I’d feel different but we’ve spent £4K putting on a new roof on the extension as they were baulking at a leak which we’d flagged up to them.

Yeah we’re pulling the plug tomorrow.

Yep there’s always a list of stuff that needs doing

Well our house purchase has pretty much fallen through as the seller won't break the chain so we've no chance of completing in time.
And our own sale may be about to collapse too.
We had electrical tests carried out at the buyers' request - and at our cost - as they wanted it done.
It flagged up the main lighting circuits need earthing. It's a historical issue as we've had no work on it done for the 10+ years we've been here and was not aware of it.
Buyers say house is "dangerous" and want £2k off - we've said no.
They are standing firm.
I'm fed up with them TBH (and the whole selling/buying process) and am prepared to take house off market and put it back in a few weeks.
We feel they've already got a very keen price.
And because they've signed a rental agreement on their current place it's effectively scuppered our chances of completing our own purchase in time.
That will cost us £ for survey and solicitors' fees.
Our Agent says it also means if they don't buy our place they still have to move out of their own.

Having said all that I'm wondering if I'm cutting my nose off to spite my face and we should just knock off some £??
We have found a place we could rent.

Yeah didn't want to keep playing the "two young kids" card but it makes everything so much tougher.
When we sold our first house we had to sort out a 3 week short term flat share - even as a couple it was hard enough. Never again.