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Our original buyer fell through and our second in line buyer just stepped into the breach. Looks like I'm moving into a Warner Flat!

Speedy Friday!

Tell him to put his gaff on the market and try and sell with a 60 year lease and SOF, see how he gets on.

He might think it's pointless, buyers' solicitors and mortgage providers will alway think otherwise about anything that looks stupid / weird

^^^bang on imo. Leasehold is complex enough without an expired lease

The third leaseholder is saying it's completely pointless and a waste of (fairly hefty) solicitor fees as future mortgage lenders won't care about a short lease length if the freehold is also included. Thoughts?

I think this depends how the freehold is distributed among the other flats. I'd have thought that if the freehold is owned a third each then two freeholders could potentially outvote teh other one and decide to charge a premium for lease extension. If the freehold is held in trust this view may be more understandable as a trust is unlikely to be a dick for no reason, but I don't think it's reasonable to say that mortgage companies won't care about a short/expired lease. Is it worth having a chat to Lease about it? It feels complex enough that that would be justified.

Why not use someone who doesn't suck?

Lol I thought this comment was a reply to the Labour/Starmer thread when I read it, took me a moment to work it out. Any recommendations? I'm using Premier Property Lawyers atm.

Same. Raphael Behr is always great but I think he's been best on summarising the issues with Starmer, which it's hard to disagree with even if you're of the opinion that he should be given a fair crack of the whip (I am and I suspect he is too). The trouble is that in a battle between a cartoon character and someone paralysed by caution, the cartoon character will always win. We should have a proper strategy for dealing with that by this point.

Yes - assuming the solicitor is one you've chosen independently (ie not recommended by a new build company etc).

Definitely - I've had experience with them before - they suck but at least they have a web portal so I can do things remotely. And excellent shout @stevo_com - I literally earlier on this afternoon noticed 9 outstanding tasks on my sale which I'd not noticed because I'd been looking at the buy page. Thanks @aggi.

I did end up picking up a Warner Flat for £360k, only £10k over budget. Funny how things work out. Needs a lot of work but the structural survey says it's OK so I better put my back into it!

We just accepted an offer on our flat. £300k - we bought it for £190k four years ago - how can anyone keep up with that? It's insane.

I'm planning to use the same firm of solicitors to sell our place as buy the new one - that seem sensible to everyone?

I'm waiting for the unlawful discrimination season, that one's going to be a doozy

That's what I thought.

To answer your question, I'm a Labour Party Member and delegate and I'm tired of hearing so-called Labour supporters who'd rather see Labour lose than win. They're not Labour. They're something else, and the SWP is waiting.

It isn’t

Which other Labour leaders in recent memory have you supported?

This is almost as wild as Bercow For Leader. This thread never stops giving.

If the only version of Labour you support is one with Corbyn in charge, then you are not a Labour supporter, you're a Corbyn supporter. You're probably absolutely fine with that, and so am I, but that means your criticism of Starmer will be taken as the criticism from outside the party it so obviously is. It's therefore no different to criticism of Labour from the Tories or the Greens or the SWP - it's not an internal row. Corbyn isn't even a Labour MP anymore. The SCG of MPs have fewer than 30 members. They are not representative of the party you want Labour to be.

I know this thread has become a bit of a 'bash Starmer, fuck the facts' thread - which is why I've stopped bothering - but Starmers ten pledges did not in fact include a promise of free social care. You can still read what his pledges are on his website and he's not rowed back from any of them from what I can tell.

https://keirstarmer.com/plans/10-pledges/

EDIT: and btw, antisocial behaviour is a key test for whether Labour are ready to be the party of government. And I'll explain why because I think a lot of people who don't have to deal with it don't quite get it.

I live on an ex-council estate in Leyton and a few years back we had a problem with heroin users using our block as a base of operations. They stole, they intimidated, they set fires, they shot up in front of children, they left their works in the stairwells, they broke into cars and slept in them. It sucked.

Logically I know that the best way to tackle such problems is through treating drug use as a health issue. Stay away from shaming users, give them other opportunities, allow them to heal whatever’s broken in them and help them to become productive members of society. I know a labour government will do all those things. It’s what they do.

But emotionally I’m also really fucking angry at those guys. They threatened me in front of my wife. They followed me into our alley. I started carrying. For months after I couldn’t relax in my ground floor flat. I couldn’t sleep, every noise at 4am had me up at the window. My work suffered, which means my ability to pay the mortgage suffered.

And to the emotional part of me, all that strategic stuff about helping these people feels like rainbows and unicorns and frogs in little pointy hats. I wanted to FEEL safe, and that's not unreasonable. And I only feel safe if there’s enough cops on the beat, and they’re tasked with dealing with ASB, and they’re not spending their time visiting people for stuff they said on Twitter.

This is the bit Labour aren’t so good at, and that's precisely what this 'Blairite chat' aims to repair. That’s why it focusses on the penal rather than the rehabilitative. People already know we’ll do the rehabilitation. They don’t think we’ll do the law and order. That’s the point.

It is Blairite in the sense that 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime'. I think that's the best slogan Labour ever came up with. If people who call themselves Labour supporters still can't get behind it, they should find a new party.

Bid first. View after?

This is exactly what's happening. We had an offer of £25k over asking, unseen, if we'd cancel the remaining viewings on our place. It's insane out there.

Entertaining is the last thing to look for. Competence and compassion are thing desperately needed right now. Bercow's brilliance is his verbosity in the house. Yet that is an outdated throwback as much as Rees Mogg's whole act. We should really build a modern parliament that doesn't look or act like a boy's club museum curio.

Of course I agree with you on all these points. In an ideal world the electorate would be engaged and informed on the issues and vote according to policy. But many voters vote on personality. It's a big enough contingent to have changed politics completely within the last ten years. We ignore that at our peril.

Pushing aside a pool of diverse and working class talent

I can't see in any way how you can be serious when you make this statement. Labour has no talent right now. That's the point. Starmer was the obvious man for the job and he increasingly doesn't seem to be good enough. Who would do the job better? Burgon? Lewis? Sultana? If that's the best we've got, we're fucked either way.

Does he have the mass appeal though?

I think he could embody the chameleonic nature of modern politics quite well. Johnson frames himself as a moderate, one nation tory but gets into power by becoming a totem for almost far right xenophobia and populism. And a lot of people disliked Johnson before he became mayor, but they tended to be politics wonks - for the average voter, the profile and the star quality was what they responded to. I don't expect it to happen but if it does I want to be on the record as having called it out as a possiblity early.

This is a joke right?

It's not likely - he'd have to become an MP, then be elected, etc - but I think you'd be unwise to say it was impossible.

Early days but I think there's a decent chance of Bercow as leader after Starmer. He's got the same star quality that Johnson has, and while there are a LOT of hurdles to jump, I think he'd be able to build an alliance between one nation tories abandoned by the conservatives and left of centre middle class remainers, and the kind of working class stock I'm from who just want to see someone entertaining in the PM's seat.

Came here to post that. I think it’s a really positive sign - not a formal progressive alliance but certainly some green shoots and a possible thawing of tensions.

I really hope so. There's a real feeling within Labour that it'd be beneath our dignity to do anything to help out a progressive alliance (Corbyn insisting on leading any GNU, Starmer refusing to stand MPs down in seats we know we can't win, etc etc). Which I wouldn't mind if we had a decent crack at being the party of govt but we've not been there for 15 years. We need to be more flexible; even if we only do it quietly, that'd be enough for me.

No, Labour don't stand aside for other parties. We didn't under Corbyn and we're not doing it under Starmer. In one way I understand it - as the largest party across the UK we have the most to lose - but I also wish we'd be a bit more flexible sometimes. I'm no LDs fan but I'd much rather see them win than the Tories.

Love it! local too. I'll shout them up

Just out of interest, what is the rationale going from a very nice 2 bed flat, to another 2 bed flat round the corner??

Thank you! Very kind. It's not a space issue for us - we've got enough space here - it's that there's a history to this place. Not to bore you with the details but when we first moved in we had people sleeping rough in our hallway, regular heroin users in the stairwell, a £240 pcm service charge, and a freeholder who clamped residents for parking in our own car park. We've fixed all those problems - it's genuinely lovely round here now - but most of my memories of this place are of legal battles, stress, going grey, having eviction proceedings served against me. I want a fresh start and less legal admin. My own front door and garden sounds pretty great too.

Congrats! I did exactly that with the house we're buying - it's worked out fine, I figured if you know exactly what you want it's not that risky.

Good to know, I was wondering if I was being a total pilchard by doing it. My wife's seen it and loves it so it's not entirely unseen.

Speaking of, my flat is up for sale now - if anyone's interested in picking up a sub-£300k flat on the borders of Walthamstow and Leyton and Clapton. It's a good little spot. https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/58919292