Buying a house (and renting)

I have long been of the opinion that leaseholds should be illegal.

Yeah the leasehold setup is just so gooseberry fool. It's so easy for it to be the worst of both worlds for the owner.

I can see why you would want to avoid court Moggy, but hopefully they will want to as well so there could be some leverage in leaning in to the threat of taking it that way.

I've only ever really had to deal with one real dispute like this in my time but we managed to get the other party to significantly back down after applying some pressure via contact from our "representative" (in this case it was actually just a friend who works in the legal profession doing us a favour rather than someone we had contracted as our lawyer - but the other party didn't know that! )

Moggy wrote:I am not convinced anything can be solved outside of going to court, but the hope is that the solicitor can at least tell me if I am right or wrong and can suggest how we can move things forward.

I really want to avoid an expensive court case though, so hopefully just a threatening letter from my solicitor will be enough. I imagine the property management company know that leaseholders don't want to go to court and so rely on badgering people until they give in.

The whole leasehold sector is a strawberry floating mess. I would never consider buying another leasehold, it's just not worth it.

I would imagine that them sort of holding you to ransom over this, illegally, would leave them open to being counter sued. I mean if they prevented you from selling your property at the market rate - it would be their fault you couldn't. There must be a well trodden legal path your solicitor could go down to force the issue?

pjbetman wrote:

Moggy wrote:I am not convinced anything can be solved outside of going to court, but the hope is that the solicitor can at least tell me if I am right or wrong and can suggest how we can move things forward.

I really want to avoid an expensive court case though, so hopefully just a threatening letter from my solicitor will be enough. I imagine the property management company know that leaseholders don't want to go to court and so rely on badgering people until they give in.

The whole leasehold sector is a strawberry floating mess. I would never consider buying another leasehold, it's just not worth it.

I would imagine that them sort of holding you to ransom over this, illegally, would leave them open to being counter sued. I mean if they prevented you from selling your property at the market rate - it would be their fault you couldn't. There must be a well trodden legal path your solicitor could go down to force the issue?

I hope so. It is one the questions I plan to ask my solicitor when I meet him.

Trouble is that court cases cost a huge amount of money. And even if I have a good case there is no guarantee I would win it. Is it worth risking £10k+ on a court case I think I would win? Because if I didn't win, then I am in serious financial trouble.

Hopefully things will be clearer on Thursday and the property management company backs the strawberry float down when they get a solicitors letter.

Has anybody had any experience with asbestos in textured wall coverings? I'm looking at buying a house but it's got asbestos in textured wall coverings. Apparently I could leave it but would want it removed as it would effect the resale value. It's a three bed house any idea how much that kind of work would cost?

You'd need a specialist mob to come in since it's a big no no in disturbing asbestos these days in commercial circumstances. I dread to think what would happen to a company just casually doing it in residential building.

I'd expect it to be costly to remove. Might be worth changing the choice of house.

Lex-Man wrote:Has anybody had any experience with asbestos in textured wall coverings? I'm looking at buying a house but it's got asbestos in textured wall coverings. Apparently I could leave it but would want it removed as it would effect the resale value. It's a three bed house any idea how much that kind of work would cost?

How do you know its asbestos?

Dual wrote:

Lex-Man wrote:Has anybody had any experience with asbestos in textured wall coverings? I'm looking at buying a house but it's got asbestos in textured wall coverings. Apparently I could leave it but would want it removed as it would effect the resale value. It's a three bed house any idea how much that kind of work would cost?

How do you know its asbestos?

There was a previous buyer who got a survey done. The survey said that there's probably asbestos in the wall coverings. It's not a guarantee but pretty certain.


This is whats probably there.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/essentials/coatings.htm

My solicitor agreed with me that I did everything correctly, the property management company are completely wrong and that I have a pretty watertight case.

But a letter from the solicitor would be expensive.

He’s suggested a formal complaint (they’ve always basically ignored them!) and of that doesn’t work then complaining to the Property Ombudsman. He warned me that could take months though.

After that if it isn’t solved then the only option is the expensive legal route. Which will also take ages.

So I’m strawberry floating stuck here unless the property management company sees sense. Which in my experience is unlikely.

Still at least I know I was right and I’m relieved I didn’t make any mistakes with my settlement letters. The solicitor actually called them “stupid” several times.

I’m so sick of this though. It’s like there’s no end to the bullshit.

Moggy wrote:My solicitor agreed with me that I did everything correctly, the property management company are completely wrong and that I have a pretty watertight case.

But a letter from the solicitor would be expensive.

He’s suggested a formal complaint (they’ve always basically ignored them!) and of that doesn’t work then complaining to the Property Ombudsman. He warned me that could take months though.

After that if it isn’t solved then the only option is the expensive legal route. Which will also take ages.

So I’m strawberry floating stuck here unless the property management company sees sense. Which in my experience is unlikely.

Still at least I know I was right and I’m relieved I didn’t make any mistakes with my settlement letters. The solicitor actually called them “stupid” several times.

I’m so sick of this though. It’s like there’s no end to the bullshit.

That's positive then. I'd be prepared to wait a few months or a year or so to get it sorted though.

Yeah it’s positive but also infuriating that it’ll all take so long when all I want is to get out of here.

I’m not giving in though. I’m not being ripped off by cowboy banana splits.

go to the local paper!

They’ve replied to my complaint by rejecting all of my points and rewriting history. Their letter is full of lies.

Off to the ombudsman I go then.

I've put an offer in for a house. Can't believe I might be a home owner soon.

Just had the annual mortgage statement through from our building society. In summary:

12 months ago you owed us: "a gooseberry fool load of money"
Over the last 12 months we have taken from you: "a gooseberry fool load of money"
Today you owe us: "essentially the same amount of money as 12 months ago!"

Ah the joys of house ownership!

Jenuall wrote:Just had the annual mortgage statement through from our building society. In summary:

12 months ago you owed us: "a gooseberry fool load of money"
Over the last 12 months we have taken from you: "a gooseberry fool load of money"
Today you owe us: "essentially the same amount of money as 12 months ago!"

Ah the joys of house ownership!

It's the amount of interest you end up paying. Mine is over 50% of the property cost of the property.

Yeah the interest is just depressing when you look at it.

Looking at it on a small level can be depressing but when I look back at how much we've paid of over the number of years since first taking out a mortgage you can see progress which is nice!

It's not as depressing as looking at how much you've spent on rent over the years to be fair


We're hopefully moving into the new place in the next few weeks. Been delayed for various non-related reason and have had a load of work done on the place. Going to be a bit of a change of pace going from a flat in the centre of a big city to a small village 25 mins outside but I'm looking forward to it.

Lex-Man wrote:I've put an offer in for a house. Can't believe I might be a home owner soon.

Was your offer accepted?

Our 5-year fixed rate ends in a couple of months and managed to shave £100 off our monthly payments on the new deal from our existing lender. That'll do nicely