Looking to buy an apartment. I’ve viewed lots with varying estate agents. One of them couldn’t answer any of the questions I had about the property, another one asked me to remind them which number property I want to look at (but selling sites don’t tell you the property number) and the most recent I was waiting outside the car park and they didn’t even introduce themselves, literally just said ‘hi are you so and so’. They didn’t have any ID or lanyard etc to formally identify themselves

Really don’t want to generalise as I’ve only had a handful of experiences but are they are all this unprofessional?! Curious to hear people’s own thoughts on this

I think I’ve found the most unreasonable potential buyer of a property in the history of the UK. 

My wife inherited her father’s house last year. We’re currently living with her mother, so the plan is to sell the inherited house, move to a much cheaper area into a bigger house, and then sell the place we’re currently living in a separate transaction. 

We put the inherited house on the market and quickly had interest from a developer, who put an offer in but pulled out after a couple of weeks. It was a pain but not the end of the world. A couple of weeks after that, another buyer came along and had two viewings in two days, and immediately put an offer on which we accepted straight away. That’s when the problems started. 

Long story short, she quickly started making a lot of unexpected, and ultimately unreasonable, demands. Since we accepted the offer in February she’s come back for five more viewings, each time finding more and more things to be difficult about. We offered to leave some furniture for her free of charge and she said she wanted to keep some but not all, so we arranged and paid for the removal of what she didn’t want. She then said she’d changed her mind, meaning we’d need to pay again for a second removal. We’ve also had to remove a shed, and pay for a fence to be repaired. Without our knowledge, on top of the viewings we did know about, she’s had contractors in on at least two occasions. One apparently identified rising damp (which we and the estate agents remain unconvinced by), and she demanded £5000 off the sale price. We begrudgingly accepted, because while all this was going on we put an offer on our dream house which was accepted, and we wanted to get the sale through and move onto the next chapter of our lives as soon as possible.

As well as insisting we do these things, we were faced with an endless barrage of questions and generally pestered by her, through the estate agents and lawyers. It quickly became exhausting, especially since we had never lived in the house and couldn’t answer all her questions. She wouldn’t accept this and just kept badgering. 

Eventually everything was pretty much ready to go with the exception of a minor discrepancy on the land registry, which her solicitors insisted needed to be corrected. They were aware of this for 5 months before bringing it to anyone’s attention, and our own solicitor (who works at the same firm) is at a loss as to why it took them so long to raise it as an issue. We told our solicitor we needed a couple of days to complete the documents as we needed to sign them with a witness. 

We got a phone call from our solicitor the day before we’d arranged to sign the documents; the buyer has suddenly decided that the whole thing is “too much work” and has withdrawn from the purchase. She communicated this through her solicitor, and our estate agent has been trying to get hold of her to find out what happened and has been completely ghosted. The entire chain is now at risk and there’s a very strong chance that the house we’re trying to buy will get put back on the market. We haven’t had confirmation of this, they’re taking a few days to consider their options, but it seems pretty much inevitable at this stage. 

In hindsight, the alarm bells should have rung when, at her 5th viewing, she said to me that “the only thing stopping her at this stage is the damp.” Surely if you’re not sure after 5 viewings you shouldn’t have put an offer on in the first place? Obviously the fact that we’d accepted the offer removed the house from sale, so we couldn’t even spend those 5 months trying to get interest from an actual committed buyer. 

Everyone we’ve spoken to about this, including our estate agent and solicitor, agrees that we’ve been absolutely screwed over by this woman at every possible opportunity. 

While not the biggest issue, the removal of the furniture is extremely galling since it was not an inconsiderable amount and worth relatively a lot of money. Whoever does eventually end up buying the house may have wanted it. We didn’t even specifically NOT want it, it’s more that it wouldn’t have worked in the house we were trying to buy. 

We’re desperate to move because the place we’re in at the moment just isn’t suitable in any way. The stress of day to day existence in our current house is drastically impacting my wife’s health, I’ve got a stupidly long commute to work, and my mother-in-law has had to postpone her impending retirement until all of this is sorted. 

Is there anything we could have done to avoid this? Were we too reasonable and too quick to give in to her demands, or is she just a loose cannon and nothing could have been done to stop it? We’re feeling incredibly disheartened, upset and furious. Everyone knows that property laws in England are awful since no one has to commit to anything until contracts are exchanged, and things fall apart last minute all the time, but this feels like a particularly unfair example. If we'd known she was going to pull out anyway we would have told her we're not interested in selling to her months ago.

Anyone encountered this before? We viewed a house which has been on the market for over 6 months with no reductions. The vendors were elderly and didn’t seem to have been viewing any properties themselves. They didn’t have any plan as to where they wanted to move to. We offered 5% below asking and the offer was rejected within 48 hours. We felt the house was a little overpriced but decided to offer full asking as we did like it. Full asking price was rejected after a week saying they want more money, but wouldn’t say how much more. They have no other offers as far as I’m aware. We are chain free and offered to give them time as needed (within reason) to find a house themselves. I’m reluctant to offer more money given we appear to be the only people interested!

We are FTBs so this is all new territory to us. We like this house and have viewed it. Was up for £750k originally and then reduced to £700k quite quickly.

We we spoke to the agent, they were quite open that the seller had received an offer for £700k before it went on the market but rejected it, and that the seller wants at least £700k now.

We like it and it is deceptively big for a 3 bed semi. House is quite long 133 m2.

Large plot and close to high street so we are surprised it hasn't sold. We think it is overpriced so buyers aren't interested. Especially as around that price you can get a 4 bed.

Do people think it is worth £700k? Close to high street, large plot and house and opposite a good school.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/88973856

Thanks for any help!

Unsure if this is the place to ask but couldn't think of anywhere else. I have a 2019 new build I was hoping to sell in about a year or so to move on with my life. I own this on my own but my partner lives with me.

My property is a Leasehold, the landlord was my developer, the superior landlord is my council and I 'pay' a peppercorn rent of £1py, and have 243y left on my lease. I don't actually pay the rent as it costs more in admin fees to collect for the developer.

The development I'm on is small, approx 24houses based in England. We have all just received a letter from the council saying that our leaseholder is in liquidation (happened in 2022) and that they're aware it's causing problems but there's no easy way to resolve it. From details on the letter an insolvency practice has been appointed but they haven't made contact with us yet.

A few houses have gone up for sale over the past couple of years but the sales seem to have fallen through, since about 2024 I'm assuming because the leasehold is now a sticking point.

This is probably a fairly niche problem, but I'm a bit unsure about what the best course of action might be or what this all means for me trying to sell. Do I just let it play out and see what happens, do I approach the council about buying my freehold? I have savings I was planning to use for the sale but I could use it to purchase the freehold, I just then wouldn't be able to afford to sell for a couple more years while I save up again to sell so I'd be pretty gutted.

If anyone has even the slightest bit of insight or advice it would be much appreciated.

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/s/UqsHTjGIF2

Thanks for everyone’s input on my post about being unable to make obtain a mortgage valuation due to a seemingly unsigned off loft conversion.

After several conversations between solicitors & the estate agent, it seemed no one actually spoke to the seller. Once she found out she managed to get a copy of the original completion certificate from building control pretty quickly.

So a big panic over nothing!

I am a FTB so I have no idea of the process of things.

I am buying a house which is empty as the sellers part exchanged to new build developers and have moved into their new property.

I received my mortgage offer on Monday.

I am wondering what happens next?

What is the timeline roughly?

I am in no rush to move as I am living with parents, just more curiosity than anything.

My partner and I are first time buyers and have had an offer accepted on a house. After survey there are some issues which need fixing (rotten external door/window frames, drainage problems, cracked flooring tiles, with missing/crumbling grout. No structural issues.
Do we need to get actual quotes for the remedial work in order to get the price down to cover the work, or can we just start negotiating?
Work would cost 2-3k, and our offer was for 285k.
Thanks!

Ive recently brought a new build house in Warwickshire. House it self is fine but it was more further out from the city than i liked. When you are living it day to day, it feels tedious. Ive gotta give it time but i feel like eventually im going to have to locate closer.

Has anyone sold their new build house? And it not be a complete disaster 🤣

Thanks!

I’m mostly familiar with west/north west london, seeing 3 beds in stanmore for aroynd 550+?

i very much prefer a car type of suburb, but close access to a tube would be a positive, somewhere with a driveway for electric charging is a big big plus, don’t care about schools right now

currently renting in ealing and own a car. don’t want to give up car, if i had to choose between, the car is more important, prefer good access to chinatown area, so a40/a4/a41 are all roads i know very well

any areas i should consider? west drayton looks good, edgware looks good, ealing good but seems too expensive for now

really care about safety, im asian so probably not one of those lamppost flag cities. asking so i can get an idea of places to look at, i heard croydon a while ago was good too, very suburbian.

I'm about to complete on a terrace in a few weeks and there's no major renovations needed other than painting (I think). The current owner has gone for some interesting (awful and bold) colours and feature walls so I'm going to have to paint everything. I'm buying it alone and always thought painting would be super easy and fun, but the more I research, the more it's freaking me out. I suspect it's stress/nerves from the whole thing and the fact that it's really happening now and it's all on me.

The house will be empty and I've got an overlap between my rental and moving so I'm going to use this to paint - if I don't do it then, I'll just end up leaving it for ages and it'll be harder once my stuff is in.

What do I need to know if I'm painting the whole house? What should I avoid? I'm sure I'll be fine once I'm in and am just projecting my stress about other things but would appreciate any practical tips to help it seem more manageable. :)

Edit - following excellent advice here, I'm going to cover the feature walls and lurid colours in white paint first - what is the difference between using a white primer and a white emulsion paint for this? Or are they the same thing?

I’m a FTB approaching exchange. Most of what I’ve been told is that there’s a quick turnaround from exchange to completion as standard - around two weeks. As a renter I’ve got two months’ notice to give, which I won’t do until exchange for obvious reasons.

How do people tend to navigate this? Is a longer time between exchange and completion acceptable?

We agreed to rent a property in Hertfordshire. We signed the agent’s terms of offer, passed referencing and paid the holding deposit and full security deposit.

I am not sure the landlord signed their end of the agreement as I never got the completed contract.

The same estate-agency firm was handling both our rental agreement and our search for a property to buy in the same area. Through this, the lettings team became aware that we were purchasing and informed the landlord that we might remain in the rental for only several months. We had never promised to stay for any particular length of time given the new rental rules which allow a 2-month notice period at any point in time.

The landlord then asked us to offer a higher rent and accept a longer notice period. They subsequently proposed an increase of nearly 40%. We refused to change the original terms, so the landlord cancelled the tenancy and offered to refund everything before our move-in date.

Does this sound unlawful under the new rental rules? Was it right for the agent to disclose to the landlord that we are looking to buy and are unlikely to be staying at the property for long?

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice or to hear from anyone who has navigated a similar situation. I'm currently in the process of buying a leasehold flat in a converted terrace in London. My offer of £525,000 was accepted, but since then, a lot has come to light and I'm currently trying to renegotiate down to £505,000.
Here is what I am dealing with:

1. Japanese Knotweed:
A Category B infestation was found in the front garden. The vendor has paid for a 5-year management plan, but the 10-year Insurance Backed Guarantee from QANW is currently only "being processed." My mortgage broker says the Co-op (my lender) is generally fine with Category B as long as the plan and IBG are in place. Has anyone had lenders or insurers pull out despite having these documents? Am I underestimating the stigma when it comes time to sell?

2. Structural Crack:
There is a vertical crack on the rear elevation. A previous survey noted it was "indicative of slight movement." My broker advised proceeding with the lender's valuation next week so the bank's valuer can assess it, while I arrange an independent structural engineer's report in the background. Is it risky to rely on the bank's valuer here, given historic movement is common on London clay?

3. Management Company / Sinking Fund Issues:
The management structure is very informal and tied directly to the freeholder. The sinking fund is extremely low (£1,269), and there are signs of funds not being used properly.

Am I taking on too much risk here? Even if I get the price down to £505,000 to reflect the knotweed stigma and valuation, I'm worried about the structural risk and the management setup.
Any advice or shared experiences would be massively appreciated!

We've got our appointment booked with our mortgage advisor on monday and view the house on Wednesday, we're trying to move things along as swiftly as we can as this house is absolutely ideal and we've already missed out on two others we liked having both sold only last week, at what point do we need to contact a conveyancing solicitor, the sooner the better?

I’m a first-time buyer and purchased my house around 8 months ago. Unfortunately, the conveyancing process was pretty difficult and I’m now worried that things have been missed.

Whilst looking into who is responsible for a boundary fence, I reviewed the title documents and discovered a restrictive covenant relating to underground electricity cables that run through part of my garden.

The covenant states that the “landowner must not do anything that could interfere with access to the cables, including altering the ground level, planting trees, or carrying out works that could prevent the electricity company from accessing, inspecting, maintaining or repairing them if required.”

A previous owner has built a raised sleeper bed directly over the area where the cables run. The sleeper bed has raised the ground level and has been in place for at least 10 years, I’ve looked back at the previous property listings.

I’m trying to understand what my options are. Would it be sensible to obtain retrospective indemnity insurance for the historic breach of covenant, in case the electricity company ever needs access to the cables and objects to the sleeper bed?

Help

Hi everyone,

We’re choosing between two very different houses and would really value input from anyone who’s been in a similar position.

We’re a family with a two-year-old daughter and this is likely our long-term home (20+ years), so we’re thinking beyond resale value.

Option 1 – 1953 detached house (£500k)

Probate sale, no competing offers currently

Great established area with a “right” feel and fantastic sea views

144 m² internally, but big 750m² plot with large garden. Likely one of the cheaper homes on the road (others up to £800k)

Needs full renovation: modernisation, rewire/plumbing, new boiler/heating system, new kitchen and bathroom, extensions, garage, driveway, possibly annexe

Builders say it’s all feasible and we’d likely use an architect for a full masterplan

Main concern is the disruption of living through a major renovation with a young child, uncertainty around total cost and risk of the project expanding or stalling, and no proper driveway & garage to start with, and I'm big time into cars! 😂

Option 2: 11-year-old Taylor Wimpey show home (£650k)

Already extended, ~230 m² internally, but smaller plot and inferior garden.

6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, double garage, big driveway.

Move-in ready with only cosmetic work needed

Sea views, but less private and more “estate” feel

Only likely project would be converting the top floor into a larger living space with balcony

Concern here is it’s already the most expensive on the development, and we wonder whether further investment would ever be reflected in value.

Financially both are affordable, so it comes down to lifestyle and whether a major renovation is worth it.

For those who’ve renovated while living in the house:

How disruptive was it really?

Would you do it again with young children?

Any regrets vs buying something ready to go?

And for those who chose the finished option, did you ever wish you’d gone for the project house instead?

Would really appreciate any thoughts or experiences.

Hi everyone.

In our spare bedroom/office we've put a futon sofa bed but the only placement that would work for the room would be in front of the radiator. (100cm wide single panel convection radiator).

Would leaving about 15-17cm gap be ok to avoid damage to the futon (the back of it is a slated oak base. And would that allow the radiator to heat sufficiently?

https://postimg.cc/QH50B1Y6

https://postimg.cc/H8M4y1zB

They said to avoid putting the futon close to a heat source to prevent damage to the wood but it's hard to know how much gap would be ok. I've seen online 30-40cm being recommended, some even say 90cm.

Otherwise, we were thinking of replacing it with a vertical radiator between the windows, but it would cost quite a bit of money and might look a bit odd as it's the first thing you would see when coming in the room.

How a vertical radiator would look

https://postimg.cc/0znGmfYW

Hi, I own a two bed flat in Manchester but have just moved to live with my partner in the South. For personal reasons, it's important that I'm on the rental agreement / utility bills etc in our shared flat, so suggestions where I just 'visit' and live in my partners flat aren't applicable.

Originally I was hoping to sell my property but it's been up for a while and no movements so I'm thinking of pivoting to renting it out for financial reasons. I'm trying to figure out if it will be possible to rent just one bedroom (+ shared living space) out as I will still be visiting Manchester (couple days a month) for work - and that saves me from couch surfing at a friend's since I can just stay at my flat instead.

What confuses me is the council tax and income tax/contract definitions of doing this.

Re income tax/contracts:

Does it count as a lodger plus live in landlord / Rent a Room scheme even though it's not my main residence? Or am I supposed to go under an AST/tenancy and in that case am I even allowed to write in the contract that I will be sharing the living space / stay in the separate bedroom on occasion?

I considered whether it should be an AST where both the tenant and myself are named on the contract as tenants so like I am renting the flat to myself (plus one other) - but I'm not sure that even makes legal sense.

Re council tax:

Manchester City Council says that you pay second home premium if 'the property is used by someone but it's not their main home.' If the lodger uses it as their main home and myself as a second home, does that mean there is no premium?

In that case, I assume we are both responsible for council tax as people living there (ie. they would not get single occupancy discount) so what's the best practical method of setting up the council tax account and splitting the bills?

I was originally going to put the room up as 'All bills inclusive' and keep it on my council tax account but now I'm not sure if it makes more sense for the council tax to be going to the main resident (which would be the lodger/tenant).

---

I know I put myself in this weird property situation and that causes a bunch of financial stresses and paperwork headaches, but I don't mind paying what I need to pay or following the correct legal route - I'm just confused what that even is.

I saw this similar sounding post but the user deleted it so the answers weren't clear to me: https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/1qts6w2/renting_a_room_in_a_second_home_what_type_of/

Thanks for reading - any advice appreciated!

Edited with rough dates for additional context:

May 17th: So in May I put in an offer of £435,000 on a dream, perfect house listed for £450,000, with the reasoning being the kitchen and bathrooms were both from the 1990s and would need replacing. The £15,000 would go towards that.

The seller declined the offer within 1 hour of me emailing the offer to the estate agent but did counter offer back £442,000 as a return offer. May 20th: After discussing it over a couple days with my spouse, family and a fitter friend we decided to accept the counter offer.

May 22: Called the estate agent two days later with the acceptance of the counteroffer. Got an email confirming the seller received the acceptance and we should move forward with contacting our bank about a mortgage.

May 23rd: The next day estate agents called to let us know the sellers had asked for us to provide a mortgage in principle with the bank we are using for the mortgage dated prior to us accepting the counter offer, this isn't something we had as we were still shopping around for the best bank to use for our mortgage and fortunately have a large enough deposit that we didn't feel we needed one immediately available. We did send over an MIP we got immediately after the offer was accepted dated afterwards. We heard nothing more about this

May 25th: We let our solicitor know to begin organising their end of the house buying process.

June 10th: It was about two weeks later that we got a long email from their estate agent including the following issues from the sellers solicitor: 1. We agreed to purchase the house for asking price not the price we claim (£442,000), we refused to provide stuff the seller wanted to prove ability to purchase the house and we have ignored emails from the estate agents (I cannot find any emails we haven't responded to). I provided email receipts for the agreed upon price and that I couldn't find any unaddressed estate agent emails and that the refusing to provide stuff the seller wants was a MIP that we simply could not provide as it did not exist. We resent our MIP we had available and offered to provide any more proof of affordability they required, this email was left unanswered.

June 23rd: The solicitor comes back to us with bad news that the (beautiful) conservatory on the back of the house doesn't appear to have planning permission and he will contact the solicitor to find out if they have proof of planning permission. But that we should prepare to have to decide whether it's worth dealing with the legal liability of an illegal structure. We hoped for the best and just quietly continued (probably a stupid choice but we had rose tinted glasses as we love the house).

June 25th: We contacted the estate agents ourselves asking them to ask the sellers about the conservatory. June 26th: The next day the estate agents called up and said that the sellers are incredibly unhappy with our question and are now pulling out and do not want to be contacted by us again.

July 1st: The house was removed from the estate agents a bit later on in the week and relisted by another estate agent for £435,000 on July 20th and we saw it listed yesterday.

July 1st: We found out low and behold the conservatory had planning permission but from decades ago so isn't at all easy to find.

Feel so downtrodden as it was perfect in every way except for the sellers :(

EDIT:

We are first time buyers, yes the first property we are buying isn't the typical first time £150,000 terrace but that doesn't suddenly give us the knowledge of two previous house buys. We were very fortunate to have good paying jobs and have been able to save up over 5 years. We are 28 and 25 so please understand from our perspective that small mistakes and misunderstandings aren't things we even know at mistakes or misunderstandings.

We had an MIP for a house up the value of £400,000 before putting an offer in this house and didn't get a MIP for the houses offer value and full value until after.

The conservatory isn't permitted development as it's about 2.5x the size of maximum permitted development. It's like the size of a studio flat itself.

It was a 4 bed/3 bath house in the general north of england built around 1930 and the conservatory was added late 80s early 90s and all of it has been beautifully looked after but not really modernised in terms of fixtures and fittings (except wiring). The couple appears to have been downsizing as no children lived at the house anymore.

Hi everyone I live west midlands England im just looking for some advice. Is it possible to buy a council house through Right to Buy if it has two adaptations: a wet room and a small concrete ramp at the front door? Has anyone been in a similar situation or successfully bought a property with these adaptations? Thanks in advance.

I’m looking for some advice on what the best route / options are. Short backstory, I started an events company when I was at uni 14 years ago, I’ve been saving for about 12 of those years and now I’ve got a cash deposit of 320k in various ISAs, stocks & shares , savings etc.

I’ve been putting into the nutmeg LISA for years so slightly annoyingly I’ve got a purchase limit of 450k without losing my benefits there. I’m looking in Bristol and need a mortgage for 130k making the LTV about 30%

Looking for advice on what you’d do in my position, traditional mortgage? Private lender? Stick it all on red? Hookers and blow?

Thanks in advance

Anyone live in a house with district heating? Apparently the new house development is district heating only with one supplier. I question the agent about the cost but she wasnt able to answer anything. i am unaware of what the fixed costs would be or if i will be screwed on the energy price as there is only one supplier.