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Replacing prepayment meter in a BTL flat

January 13, 2016, 2:09 am
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Hi,

Currently in the process of buying a BTL flat. Just discovered the electricity meter is a prepayment one.

Does anyone know if we can easily replace this in advance of a tenant renting it? I don't want to put prospective tenants off, and also, having rented myself for many years I suspect pre payment meters are not a great experience.

Thanks!
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Land Registry Title - What does this mean?

January 13, 2016, 3:05 am
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I've just bought the Current title plan for a property from the Land Registry.

The property itself is marked out in red, which shows the boundary of the property.

There is an area within the red which is marked out in green, which shows an area excluded from the title plan.

But, within the red (but outside the green) is an area that has a big blue number '1'. The place where the '1' is printed is on 1 of two parking spaces associated with the property.

I can't find an reference to what this actually means anywhere on the gov.uk website, or anywhere else online - unless I'm searching incorrectly?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!
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Sell and new tennents in block of flats

January 13, 2016, 4:10 am
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Hello,


We've had a buyer on hook for 4 months waiting for us to buy somewhere. 2 weeks ago some tenants moved into our block of flats. I haven't bumped into anyone yet but have seen some dodgy types coming and going through my spy hole.


Anyway I understand my neighbours underneath them have had problems with noise and parties to the extent they moved out after 3 days, called the police and council. I know this because an email came round from the landlord saying sorry he didn't do the checks and is serving them notice.


Now my question is having received this email I'm aware of whats going on but have nothing to complain about, do I have to declare this on the SPIF form??


Btw my buyer dropped out as she was sick of waiting today... Do I wait 2-6 months till the cretins are evicted before re-marketing or just hope the situation goes away and not declare ??
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Walker Group are refusing to look at my water logged garden because it's raining!!

January 13, 2016, 4:19 am
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Long story short: I moved into the property in October, it's a new build with Walker Group.

We contacted Walker Group to say that the water in the garden wasn't draining away as expected. They told us they would come out 12th December.

Received a repsonse from them today saying the weather isn't suitable to determine if there is a water logging issue, and that i need to wait until APRIL for them to do anything about it.

WHAT. THE. HELL?! So my garden is pretty much inaccessible until April!! This is a picture of it in November, it is a LOT worse now. It's pretty much a swimming pool. I'm not happy.

It's going to rain EVERY winter, this isn't a one off event. And the water is right up to the back wall of my house! Help please? :(




My post from December:

Hi all

We moved into our new build in October. We couldn't afford to get turf laid at the time of buying the house, so nothing was done to the garden.

When we moved in, there was a lot of rubble in the garden, bits of fence, white tubes, etc, which we cleared up and rotovated the ground so that we could lay turf ourselves. After we rotovated it, the storm happened and we couldn't lay the turf. (This was end of October'ish).

This is what my garden looks like now. I'm really worried that this could be affecting our foundations. It's been like this a while now and it's not draining away.

I emailed Walker Group. Their response was disappointing.

Garden drainage beyond 3m from the building is not considered by the NHBC, nor ourselves, to be a 'defect' under the warranty given by your new home.

Thoughts please?
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Buying in 2016 - stamp duty rise impact?

January 13, 2016, 6:06 am
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I am starting the process of buying a house with my girlfriend this year in London. We are looking for a 2 bed property but not 100% sure on location yet. I was wondering what people’s views are on the property market with the impending rise in stamp duty for 2nd home/buy to let properties. Should we be waiting until April for these buyers to exit the market and reduce competition?
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When is best to find new rental accommodation?

January 13, 2016, 6:50 am
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My partner and I have until April to find somewhere else to live. This is will be our third time moving. We have worked out that with fees, first month rent and deposit we're looking at around £1400 just to move into a new rental :eek:

It's scary, stressful and exhausting.

We want to find the perfect rental so we won't have to move again for atleast 5 years. There's nothing about at the min however and we're wondering when the best time would be to move? We live in Norwich and need to stay in the area so we can walk to work.

Another thing that makes it difficult is we have a small cat and most places do not accept pets. We don't want to pay more than £600 per month either, just can't afford to :( I have been checking Zoopla and rightmove every few hours since October but either everything's too expensive, doesn't accept pets or dissapears seconds after going up on the websites.
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Overpaid and realise late

January 13, 2016, 7:33 am
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So our contract says our rent can only go up 5% a year. Our contract is renewed on a 6 month basis, and we always pay 6 month in advance.

The contract also said the landlord can raise rent once a year in Oct and max 5%.

We moved in 2013 Oct and made our very first payment, then the following Apr they increased it a bit, and every 6 month they increased it 5%, until 2015's Apr and Oct they raise 8%.

They've increased it more than once a year and recently more than 5% a year.

Can we claim it back from them? Will they try to evict us if we do so in Apr?

Many thanks.

Jon
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IHT on family home in central London – price jumps help!

January 13, 2016, 8:17 am
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Hi all,

Thanks for listening to this!

This might sound slightly like a privileged plea, but bear with me..

My mother-in-law is lucky enough to have bought a house in central London, zone 1, in 1984 for £310k.

Fast forward to 2016 and her property is probably worth £10million. Insane, right?

All very lottery-like, but she will never move house because it’s her neighbourhood. It’s been their family home since the 1970s.

My son is now growing up there, with his mum who also grew up there. When her mum dies, there’s no way she can stay in the house.

Or is there?

It’s a 3 storey house, with a potentially self-contained basement flat (currently technically part of the main house). I know, I told you this was a privileged plea.

They want to stay in the house, basically. It’s a family home, it’s used well (two rooms are office rooms on the ground floor) and being forced to sell it would benefit the exchequer slightly, granted, but otherwise just install a new family in it.

I firmly believe in inheritance tax but a family home seems appropriate to be exempt. I am happy to be wrong about that, but hopefully here’s not the place to debate that…

Just wondering if there’s anything smart – and legal – that can be considered.

Many thanks all!

Cameron
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Roof works cost- What should we do??

January 13, 2016, 8:47 am
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Hi all,

First time buyers, we are hopefully getting close exchange on leasehold flat and waiting for the property documents to arrive from our solicitor. Yesterday I emailed my solicitor to ask if they were aware of any major issues that had cropped up we should anticipate and she replied that there is one major issue regarding service charge for roof repairs that exceed £4,000 and she was currently finding out if this has already been billed or not.

I have a few questions (sorry if they're stupid :()

1. What difference does it make if the works have already been billed? Does this imply if the works have been billed already the seller he will have to pay these up before we complete? If they are yet to bill for the work I assume obviously that we will pay the charge once we move in. What if the seller has been billed but hasn't paid, will the payment just transfer to us?

2. I have no idea how leasehold service charge bills work, will we be charged and expected to pay all £4,000 in one go? Is there a rule to how long you can stretch out payment or does it differ from each management company?

3. Lastly, if this was something that our solicitor has known about for some time, would you expect them to have let us know about this when they first discovered it? We were literally supposed to be sent all the documents through to sign tomorrow and have only found out about this now because we specifically asked, does this seem normal? I think I sort of expected that our solicitors would make us aware of any problems as they cropped up without us reaching the end stages if there was a major issues, but maybe I'm wrong?

Any help greatly appreciated,
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Letting agents taken over

January 13, 2016, 9:56 am
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Hoping someone can help?

I started renting a property in July 2014 with a lettings agent, they were terrible and ended up selling the company to another agents nearby. The new agents told me I owe them £560, this was the first time I had heard about this and turns out there was a shortfall on the rent that wasn't covered by my housing benefit. When I took up the tenancy agreement nothing was said about this shortfall, no arrangements to pay it and was told my housing benefit covered my rent.
So now I'm moving out and buying my own house, I move out on 9th Feb and they have told me I need to pay this £560 before I go. I don't have that money what with moving costs, can I get out of it? I would never of took the property on knowing I had to pay £85 extra per month. Also today they just changed my energy supplier without telling me, can they do that? My tenancy agreement is with the old company and not with them, shouldn't I be given a new tenancy agreement from that company? Thank you :D
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Help to buy ISA worthless as all houses in this area are more than 250000

January 13, 2016, 10:00 am
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Anyone else noticed this? I am married with 2 children, yet in the area we live in we would have to buy a 2 bed house to qualify for the bonus! Seems very unfair, we don't live in London yet are essentially paying London prices when it comes to housing!
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No smoke alarms in my rented house....

January 13, 2016, 11:20 am
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I moved into a rented property on 12th December 2015 ; to date, in spite of several conversations with the letting agents and the person assigned to do maintenance at the property, I still have NO SMOKE ALARMS!! I was under the impression it's illegal to let a property without these?..
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Offered the asking price to avoid bidding war

January 13, 2016, 11:54 am
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I went to see a property at the weekend and made an offer first thing on Monday morning. I offered the asking price as I think the house is worth it and I wanted it off the market asap (it'd been on for less than a week).
The estate agent phoned me at the end of the day to say that they'd put the offer to the vendor but they want to honour other viewings which were booked in. I then told the agent I had other viewings too but need to know by Wednesday morning.

Surprise, surprise I've now had a call from the agent to tell me that they've received another offer at the asking price and that I need to give my best and final offer by 2pm tomorrow.

I doubt that this other offer exists and although the house is the best I've seen and a fair price I'm thinking that my best offer is just going to be the asking price again.

What do everyone think?
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CGT tax query

January 13, 2016, 12:48 pm
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I am selling my second home which I 50% own (2 names on deeds since 2013). The sale will be to my brother in law, at current market rates (with official valuations) so he can own 100% of it

There is no mortgage on it and was originally my home in my sole name since purchase back in May 1996, with half equity being sold to my brother in law at the market value just prior to moving out in August 2013 to me help fund the deposit on current home. I have all documentation to confirm this if HMRC requested it.

I moved into my current home, my primary residence, in September 2013 and have rented out the former house since then, paying tax on this through SA. I pay tax on 50% of income after allowable expenses (50% of these) as the property is 50/50 split

My CGT queries.

I gather that CGT calculation is based upon original purchase price the a calculation is made to determine the % occupied as the primary home. This is going to be 17 years and 4 months as primary home against 2 years and 6 months (to March 2016) as my second home.

  • Does the CGT calculation get adjusted against the 50% ownership therefore potentially halve my liability as it was my home at the point of transfer or do I pay CGT on 100% of the total gain against the original purchase price (minus the adjustments for time as primary home) ?
  • How is the 18 month to see rule applied ? It's more than 18 months since I moved out.
  • the £11,000 CGT allowance per year. How is this applied ?


I didn't find the answer on the Gov.uk website and may pay an accountant to calculate this and advise. Looking for advice initially.



Many thanks
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Snagging new builds -Glasgow area

January 13, 2016, 12:55 pm
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I am moving into a new build property in the next few months and considering getting a professional in to snag the property. I can't find any reviews for any of the companies that service Glasgow. Does anyone have any recommendations or experience?

Thanks
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Neighbour's house - Multiple tenants living there, HMO soon? Can I object?

January 13, 2016, 1:40 pm
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Hi

Next door to me there is a normal 3 bedroom 2 storey house. This has now had a loft conversion added to it and is also having a 6m rear extension added as we speak.

At the moment there are at least 10/15 people living there in 4 bedrooms, and the situation is already bad. The front is messy and rubbish is left out which the foxes tear up. I'm worried once the extension has been added, the landlord will rent out the extension to another 3/4 people.

Now I understand the landlord will be applying for a HMO, as his house is now 3 stories high. Can I object to this HMO? As in all honesty, we live in a quiet suburban street, and i'm not too keen on having 10/15 unrelated people living next door to me who go in and out at all times of the day and night.

The neighbours are also not happy due to the mess, and the fact that this quiet family street has now essentially got a bed and breakfast.

Thanks
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advice please

January 13, 2016, 4:53 pm
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Hi all,

This year my partner and myself are looking to buy our first property, my partners dad is looking to sell his house, he currently owns a 70% share of it and the other 30% his mum and dad own.

I am interested in buying that 70% share, the property has a rough value of about 300,000 so a 70% share is about 210,000, we are going to arrange meetings with banks/brokers etc but before we do that i would just like to get some options and/or advice on if this would be possible (i want to be as informed as possible).

I know we would get that level of mortgage on a property we were buying if we were buying 100% of it would we still get this if we didn't own it all? if not do we have any other options i.e would gifting the 30% to us enable us to get the mortgage with a way of us gifting the 30% back (or some other legal doc to give back the 30%).

Thanks for the advice in advance :)
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new Tenant complaints

January 14, 2016, 12:29 am
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Hi all,

Just started renting my house out. Had the inventory done, shown tenant round and they have now moved in (through an agency).

He has come back with a list of complaints (been in about 2 days) - he's basically just gone through the inventory and anything negative they have mentioned he has listed and said he wants replacing or repairing.

- some rust on door knocker
- sink plug is a loose one and doesn't have a chain.
- kitchen light switch has a small stain - request replacement
- flower bed needs cutting back a bit
- Keys dont work - I went round and he was using wrong key in wrong door (they do look the same) but he's complained about it again...

do i really have to sort small things like this out? if I do I don't mind doing them but most are really minor things that were present on the inventory and when showing him round. Although they are small I dont have time to go round so will have to pay a handy man
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First time buyer- what expected to pay out?

January 14, 2016, 1:48 am
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Hi Guys


We are currently saving money for our first ever house, we have been saving for the last year and both just took out the help to buy isa's, we are shortly looking at going for a house but wanted to know what we actually need to have ideally before going for our first house/Mortgage? We were aiming to have about £8-10,000 and looking at a house from £80,000-£100,00(depending on what mortgage we can get but expecting we should manage a decent mortgage from bank).


The question is do we also need more money on top of that amount for other stuff and if so what other fee's,costs are we expected to have pay for?


Also if we fancied a house and we needed a kitchen etc do we need money for that too, washer, cooker etc? or can we just use say 5% of that money we have in the isa/savings and then use the other part for them items?


thanks
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Online estate agents - thoughts?

January 14, 2016, 3:29 am
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I'm about to sell my first house, and having looked into the costs of selling the place, am considering using one of the fixed-price online-only estate agents (looked at purplebricks, tepilo, easyproperty so far).

The savings appear self-evident, but I'm wondering if there's a catch.

For starters, aside from one package from Tepilo, the others seem to charge the same regardless of whether they're successful in selling the house or not, so I do wonder if the lack of incentive would mean they put less effort into making the sale.

I've also struggled to work out what I'd be missing out on if I were to skip the traditional (local) estate agents. While looking for a house, I've exclusively looked online - I'm not sure if that's just me, or if it's pretty much everyone, so the local office may be irrelevant.

So I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this. I'd be particularly interested to hear from people who have used online estate agents recently to sell a house.
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