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That was presumably the entire house?

All this really depends on how much the flat is, how much it would rent out for if the shit hit the fan and you couldn't sell, how much your mortgage interest will be Vs renting blah blah blah blah blah

Yeah it has a high service charge - vast majority of flats in z1/z2/z3 do. And it will never go down and only ever go up.

I used to always do the opposite actually - normally 2 year deals with no or very low fees. I rode the market each time I remortgaged getting better valuations than the last until I had a 60pc deposit to get the best deals available.

I had a much smaller mortgage than I do now however and it used to make sense to go for the free free deal if your mortgage was less than 150k or so.

I thank whatever divine force that intervened to make me choose the 5 year deal I did in October 2021. It cost me 400 quid to redeem the old mortgage and take out the new one when we moved but if I was remortgaging now the repayments would be 600 quid a month more than I am currently paying.

It would only have cost you o.2pc to have fixed it for another three years!

I think a lot of mortgage brokers are going to be at the business end of a lot of complaints about poor advice over the next few months.

I had a turboflush in my last houses ensuite. It was there for 5 years, I even Airbnb'd the loft out a good few times when we were away - it never missed a beat and never gave me any issues

It is annoying when it goes off though. Just make sure you clean and descale it regularly with the right solution.

His COVID story won't make any difference to the consideration of the planning application.

Whether someone is Ill and will be pissed off about a proposed development isn't a factor relevant for consideration under the national planning policy framework.

But their argument - they'd have to find rental accommodation for this person in the meantime

.....

they're an organisation which owns 400+ properties, including some they let out

Please do not allow yourself to be bullied by these people. They have 400 properties - their incoming tenant will be ok I suspect.

They want to buy your house and don't want to start from scratch with another. That stands to reason.

I'd say you need a week or so to try and see what arrangements can be made and then say oh sorry it's not possible but we will keep vigorously trying to either complete on our purchase or find a rental in the meantime. The longer it takes the more committed they are and the more likely you are to get their way.

I'm intrigued who they are tbh.

I'd sell. You're on Odessa road aren't you? Stow brothers have agreed a sale this week on Chichester rd fully done and extended but no side return and I'm told it's very close to the 750 sticker price. Seems nuts to me. I sold mine for 702 18 months ago when the market was red hot.

Will they walk away for the sake of a few short weeks? What is their plan B if they threaten to do so?

I get how you're thinking because I was in your position 18 months ago. You worry that they are doing you a favour by buying your place for the money agreed but you need to remember: you have what they want. If they'd shown indifference throughout I'd agree there is an outside chance they'll walk but keen buyers are keen buyers. They're just trying to get their way because everyone is running their own race.

I'd make your buyer wait

I bent over backwards to try and help the bloke who purchased my house and all be did was try and fuck me over time and time again.

Price per sq ft is absolutely ridiculous

It would value my old flat just the other side of the park in a very cool old warehouse at nearly 900k. In reality the people I sold it to in 2014 can't even get the price I sold it to them for as they have been trying to sell it for nearly a year now. They're probably going to end up being 30k down on the deal overall. E3 and E9 peaked a while ago - I'd have thought the shed would have been on for 350k at the absolute most and sell for slightly less than that.

An offset mortgage is likely to be significantly more expensive than a conventional mortgage. They are on average about 1pc higher than a normal mortgage. He'll be winning for the short period he is offset but he'll be significantly losing when he draws it down and the debt increases as the interest will be loaded up.

Most come with early repayment charges too, even if they are trackers, so it's not like he can redeem it and refinance to a normal mortgage without paying a minimum of 1pc erc.

Given the sums involved here (I am guessing but he hasn't said as he doesn't want to go to the golf club) a normal mortgage at the lowest rate of interest is likely the way to go. He can split the surplus between him and his wife for the few months it's not needed. Depending on their marginal tax rate they can benefit from either 1k or 2k of tax free interest generated on the money whilst it's on deposit. or any winnings from premium bonds are tax free.

Repped

I thought you were getting shafted by the meter maids for parking outside your place - did you manage to sort that all out?

Yes that's exactly what they'll do. They might ask if you are using any of the advance for a specific purpose and you'd just say home improvements. They then send the lot to your solicitor so you can buy the place and the 95pc you didn't need to buy the house on day one gets either sent to you as a cheque or you pay 40 quid and it's sent as a chaps transfer.

That still doesn't change anything from the lenders perspective in terms of the rules around back to back refinancing- you'll still have a mortgage on it even if it's small so you'll still need to have owned it for 6 months to satisfy most mainstream lenders (some of the more obscure ones do allow back to back refinancing but you won't get the best rates from them and their fees will probably be higher than Halifax et al)

Assuming you will pass all affordability checks then you can either

1) just remortgage for the whole amount needed when you buy the house and they send you a cheque for your building works - stick it in premium bonds for 6 months or a high interest account

2) borrow what you need to buy the house then apply for a further advance from the lender when you need the money. This will save you interest but you'll then have two mortgage products on the go to refinance which might mean two lots of fees to pay when you remortgage unless you can somehow pay the smaller mortgage off first and be left with the further advance

Option one is what I did by the way but I borrowed at 0.99pc so it made sense to borrow heavily. I earnt about a grands worth of interest on the dead money between buying the house and it all being depleted by the building work which was nice.

I think the problem you might have with that plan is that 95pc mortgages aren't really designed to do what you want them to do. They are usually a minimum of a 2 year fix with early repayment charges attached. You'll obviously be paying a significantly higher rate than you otherwise would at a better LTV. You will need an absolutely spotless credit history too to get a 95pc mortgage which I have no doubt you have together with passing all the relevant affordability checks (not necessarily all that easy to do if you have a mortgage and 2 lots of nursery bills to pay).

Most mainstream lenders will want you to have owned the property for 6 months before refinancing it but some other lenders are not so fussy.

Repped

yeh but then you have to take them to the park and that is a faff in and of itself.

having a nice sized garden was non negotiable when I was house hunting 18 months ago. garages are great if you can get one - next to noone parks their car in one now tho so they are just for storage.

I have a 12ft x 6ft shed in my garden which nicely houses all my bikes and the lawnmower. no need for a garage, although I did also want off street parking. I spent too many years watching in bewilderment as neighbours used to put wheely bins out to reserve car parking. it used to get very tedious watching it all and life is too short to fall out with your neighbours over such things.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/133778738#/?channel=RES_BUY

This house is a classic case in point. It's almost been extended every which way apart from to the side yet the garden is absolutely laughable for a 5 bed 3 bath house.

Problem with buying an over extended (original 2 bed) terraced house common to E11 or E17 is that whilst you might get a decent sized house at the end of it, you cannot change the size of the garden (which normally is fairly small at between 15-30 feet on average).

I had to move to wanstead/aldersbrook to get what I wanted as a decent sized family garden (80ft+). I'd have happily have stayed in my last house at 1250sq ft but the garden simply wasn't a sustainable size at 20ft.

Complete cunts boom boom. I'd bet £5 they will be calling you back in 3 months asking if you are still interested in buying their house from them at the previously agreed price.

I'm also intrigued what happened here

Boom boom can you expand on what happened?

As pleased as I am with the end result of my project house, it has been very very stressful and my wife was going ape shit about the mess on a daily basis. Had I known how stressful it would have been I would have thought very carefully about undertaking such a project whilst living there.

Ask them in a very aggressive tone of voice "would you have this in your fucking house?" And point at whatever you want fixing.