Buying a house (and renting)

Dual wrote:Would be easier to have it repointed and reflashed than full removal which is a structural job that will also involve you taking out a party wall agreement with your neighbour.

Victor Mildew wrote:That looks like it actually fits the room though, you're supposed to just buy it without checking and the thing fills most of the space and blocks a door.

ignition wrote:Just received our mortgage approval today, subject to valuation, after starting the process in November

Unfortunately the valuation cannot happen for another 2-3 weeks, but we're hopeful that things could move swiftly after that as we are only in a chain of two - us (renting) and the sellers (who are buying a new-build). If things go smoothly I suspect we could be in a position to exchange by mid-Feb and complete by the end of Feb. Great for avoiding stamp duty before the end of March.

However, we're currently on a statutory periodic tenancy and our lease states that we need to give two months' notice. To minimise risk of things falling through we ideally wouldn't give our notice until exchange, but of course this would either mean a significant delay to the move or that we pay rent and mortgage simultaneously if we move earlier (which would be a lot on top of the mortgage as we rent in London).

Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation where you've been able to negotiate a shorter notice period? If so, what approach did you take? I imagine the rental market is not so hot right now for finding new tenants so their motivation to reduce the term would likely be minimal at best. We'd be dealing with an agency as the landlord/owner is a foreign investor with no active role. We've lived here for almost 5 years and have been no burden on the agency or landlord at all.

Moggy wrote:Hmm I am not sure what to do now.

The dickheads offered £1.6k to settle out of court. I told them no but said I'd take £4.5k. Mostly because I want this gooseberry fool over.

They've just come back to offer £3.25k, but have said that's their final offer.

£3.25k is about half of the amount I'm going for at the tribunal.

But I am scared of losing and desperately want this gooseberry fool over with.

We have a preliminary telephone hearing with the tribunal on Friday, so I'll need to decide before then.

If I accept the offer (and I'm 50/50 at the moment on if I will) they'll need to get it in my bank account before I do anything!

But I also think they are obviously running scared. To increase their out of court offer to £3.5k shows they are scared of losing.

Roonmastor wrote:

ignition wrote:Just received our mortgage approval today, subject to valuation, after starting the process in November

Unfortunately the valuation cannot happen for another 2-3 weeks, but we're hopeful that things could move swiftly after that as we are only in a chain of two - us (renting) and the sellers (who are buying a new-build). If things go smoothly I suspect we could be in a position to exchange by mid-Feb and complete by the end of Feb. Great for avoiding stamp duty before the end of March.

However, we're currently on a statutory periodic tenancy and our lease states that we need to give two months' notice. To minimise risk of things falling through we ideally wouldn't give our notice until exchange, but of course this would either mean a significant delay to the move or that we pay rent and mortgage simultaneously if we move earlier (which would be a lot on top of the mortgage as we rent in London).

Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation where you've been able to negotiate a shorter notice period? If so, what approach did you take? I imagine the rental market is not so hot right now for finding new tenants so their motivation to reduce the term would likely be minimal at best. We'd be dealing with an agency as the landlord/owner is a foreign investor with no active role. We've lived here for almost 5 years and have been no burden on the agency or landlord at all.

Just a quick note for your calculations. I assume you pay your rent up front, and your mortgage is most likely paid in arrears.

When we moved, we did so on the last day of our tenancy. So we paid no rent out (as paid up front), and paid no mortgage in until Month 2 (they didn't take anything in the first month). I remember thinking I should have accounted for that as I could have taken a slightly smaller mortgage, as the rent deposit also came back in Month 2 and now were talking 1% of the mortgage in positive cashflow.

Anyone with a bit of overlap able to confirm similar to the above. I think ignition will only have 1month of double paying as is.

Dual wrote:What are you going to do when all of this is settled Moggy? Are you selling up straight away? If the tribunal rules in your favour are you then free from any future claims by this company? Or any future shenanigans from them? What mechanisms are in place with the leasehold when you sell?

Tomous wrote:

Moggy wrote:Hmm I am not sure what to do now.

The dickheads offered £1.6k to settle out of court. I told them no but said I'd take £4.5k. Mostly because I want this gooseberry fool over.

They've just come back to offer £3.25k, but have said that's their final offer.

£3.25k is about half of the amount I'm going for at the tribunal.

But I am scared of losing and desperately want this gooseberry fool over with.

We have a preliminary telephone hearing with the tribunal on Friday, so I'll need to decide before then.

If I accept the offer (and I'm 50/50 at the moment on if I will) they'll need to get it in my bank account before I do anything!

But I also think they are obviously running scared. To increase their out of court offer to £3.5k shows they are scared of losing.

You said no and they doubled their offer?

Yeh they're scared.

Moggy wrote:I'd love to sell straight away but the pandemic is going to hurt my chances there.