Buying a house (and renting)

Hime wrote:Has he ever approached you about buying it before?

It's not a he, it's a company. The freeholder company owns the property management company (and the debt collection agency they once threatened me with!) and did once threaten forfeiture so maybe that was a half arsed way if trying to get it.

I know the freeholder company owns property but have zero idea if they'd have any interest in this place.

It's just an idea that might be mutually beneficial to everyone involved.

Had a tweet go (accidentally!) viral a few weeks ago about landlords, which put my own situation into perspective a bit:

twitter.com/skdougherty/status/1281187345077764097

To be honest, seeing it all laid out like that and the costs and the extreme restrictions I've become accustomed to made the penny drop that this is completely insane. I hate the furniture and the decoration of this place; I hate the noisy couple upstairs who have a baby which screams from dawn to dusk; I hate the fact all this money is going to someone else leaving me with nothing to show for it.

So with that in mind I decided I should probably start looking at places to buy. On my salary with deposit (down entirely to inheritance/luck, cos what are savings lmao) and working in Southampton with a mandatory office requirement, my choices are still a bit more limited than I'd like (I'm from the North, where houses are way cheaper for obvious reasons). After many hours of trawling through Rightmove I happened upon an excellent 2 bed flat, with new bathroom/kitchen and enormous rooms, which I viewed on Monday, then almost immediately put an offer in for which was accepted yesterday.

What I didn't quite realise was how much work goes into the whole buying thing. Between solicitors, mortgage appointments, and surveyors I've had to get up to speed with what it actually means suuuuuuper fast. But it's all very exciting!

Wrathy wrote:Had a tweet go (accidentally!) viral a few weeks ago about landlords, which put my own situation into perspective a bit:

twitter.com/skdougherty/status/1281187345077764097

To be honest, seeing it all laid out like that and the costs and the extreme restrictions I've become accustomed to made the penny drop that this is completely insane. I hate the furniture and the decoration of this place; I hate the noisy couple upstairs who have a baby which screams from dawn to dusk; I hate the fact all this money is going to someone else leaving me with nothing to show for it.

So with that in mind I decided I should probably start looking at places to buy. On my salary with deposit (down entirely to inheritance/luck, cos what are savings lmao) and working in Southampton with a mandatory office requirement, my choices are still a bit more limited than I'd like (I'm from the North, where houses are way cheaper for obvious reasons). After many hours of trawling through Rightmove I happened upon an excellent 2 bed flat, with new bathroom/kitchen and enormous rooms, which I viewed on Monday, then almost immediately put an offer in for which was accepted yesterday.

What I didn't quite realise was how much work goes into the whole buying thing. Between solicitors, mortgage appointments, and surveyors I've had to get up to speed with what it actually means suuuuuuper fast. But it's all very exciting!

Congrats on getting an offer accepted!

I completely agree about (for profit) landlords. It's immoral bullshit.

I don't want to put a dampener on your new flat, but try and do some research into the freeholder of the building. I'm currently stuck with landlords who are the worst banana splits I've ever dealt with in my life. If the freeholder of the building you're buying a flat in sound dodgy, run a strawberry floating mile.

Moggy wrote:Congrats on getting an offer accepted!

I completely agree about (for profit) landlords. It's immoral bullshit.

I don't want to put a dampener on your new flat, but try and do some research into the freeholder of the building. I'm currently stuck with landlords who are the worst banana splits I've ever dealt with in my life. If the freeholder of the building you're buying a flat in sound dodgy, run a strawberry floating mile.

Thanks! Yeah, I've been watching your situation as a cautionary tale! The previous owner of the flat lived there for 12 years (selling cos he wants a house) and there's no management company involved, so while it is a leasehold it doesn't come with service charges or anything. I'll definitely ask about this (probably from the solicitors? I don't even know really!) - who are they, what are the regular fees etc - cos atm all I know is that there's 99 years on the lease, which just isn't enough information about who actually owns it.

This is where we find out it's actually Moggy's flat.

Nice one Wrathy. Couldn't agree more with your tweet, Landlordism is terrible.

Cuttooth wrote:This is where we find out it's actually Moggy's flat.

I'm completely clueless on this subject, what happens at the end of those 99 years?

We are hopefully exchanging tomorrow and completing next week.

A few months ago I overheard Cuntman complaining about the number of young kids around because of the noise (oh the hypocrisy, strawberry floating manchild). So he's obviously looking forward to us moving.

So imagine the smile on my face this morning when I learnt that our buyers are currently 8 months pregnant.

Cuttooth wrote:This is where we find out it's actually Moggy's flat.

Igor wrote:I'm completely clueless on this subject, what happens at the end of those 99 years?

It's effectively a (very) long term landlord arrangement - so at the end of the 99 you'd be evicted and have no right to be there anymore. In practical terms, the lease should always be extended once it hits 80 years or so, because the fees and costs typically go up if it is lower than that, but obviously this doesn't always happen.

Cuttooth wrote:This is where we find out it's actually Moggy's flat.

Igor wrote:I'm completely clueless on this subject, what happens at the end of those 99 years?

It reverts to the owner if not extended.

Honestly don’t understand why it became a thing as it seems ridiculous that you can buy and sell a flat that is actually effectively loaned out and that.

Home owning is mental at times

Wrathy wrote:

Moggy wrote:Congrats on getting an offer accepted!

I completely agree about (for profit) landlords. It's immoral bullshit.

I don't want to put a dampener on your new flat, but try and do some research into the freeholder of the building. I'm currently stuck with landlords who are the worst banana splits I've ever dealt with in my life. If the freeholder of the building you're buying a flat in sound dodgy, run a strawberry floating mile.

Thanks! Yeah, I've been watching your situation as a cautionary tale! The previous owner of the flat lived there for 12 years (selling cos he wants a house) and there's no management company involved, so while it is a leasehold it doesn't come with service charges or anything. I'll definitely ask about this (probably from the solicitors? I don't even know really!) - who are they, what are the regular fees etc - cos atm all I know is that there's 99 years on the lease, which just isn't enough information about who actually owns it.

Sounds unlikely that there would be no service charges. They are normally paid for the buildings insurance, cleaning common areas etc.

The lease will tell you what you're liable for. Service charges, ground rent etc.

Hopefully you'll have decent landlords. I used to but then they sold up to the cowboy bastards I have to deal with now.

Moggy wrote:
Sounds unlikely that there would be no service charges. They are normally paid for the buildings insurance, cleaning common areas etc.

The lease will tell you what you're liable for. Service charges, ground rent etc.

Hopefully you'll have decent landlords. I used to but then they sold up to the cowboy bastards I have to deal with now.

Yeah it sounded too good to be true but it's a very small block (4 flats) so apparently what happens instead is each flat of the 4 covers 25% of work up to £500 each, at which point I assume insurance or something covers the rest. This works out cheaper than regular service charges, apparently (in Southampton I've seen these as high as £150 a month for new build complexes, so I believe that). I think it is a benefit of the place being so small and not having lifts, with only one small common area which is a shared entrance for the 2 upstairs flats, so it seems fairly realistic. I've asked the solicitors to advise all the regular charges to confirm this though.

Wrathy have you looked at H2B? It might help you get a house and avoid the landlord nonsense.

Had a viewing today that has potential, but it's on the market as "offers in excess of" and I have no idea how that should inform the amount we would put in as an offer. Any general advice?

Hime wrote:Wrathy have you looked at H2B? It might help you get a house and avoid the landlord nonsense.

I considered shared ownership but once mortgage + rent payments come together it was too high into my take home salary (well over 50%). Not to mention most of the properties were a further commute (new builds are mostly outside Southampton, and the prices were utterly insane) or in less desirable areas (like right beside the airport!). For these reasons it just wasn't really an option, it didn't come up when I was searching for properties.

OrangeRKN wrote:Had a viewing today that has potential, but it's on the market as "offers in excess of" and I have no idea how that should inform the amount we would put in as an offer. Any general advice?

The place I offered on Monday was OIEO 160k. I offered 160k, had to go up to 162.5k as the owner wanted 165k and was convinced to meet me halfway. This secured the property, cancelled other people's viewings, and took it off the market so no bidding war - which seemed fair enough to me. Your estate agent will be able to advise the individual circumstances, but I knew my place had been on the market for a while and as a serious first time buyer with no chain I felt I'd be able to try the lower amount fairly safely.

A slightly smaller property (the one across the hall from me) sold at 165k in January so I knew I wouldn't be able to get much below that.

Thanks, I think I'd want to do the similar (really we can't afford to do much more anyway)

Looking at past sale prices is so depressing. In less than 10 years prices have gone up by 50%, in 20 they've more than tripled. It's so blatantly unsustainable.

A quick search on RightMove in a 5 mile radius around my area it seems £160k will get you a 3 bedroom Semi-Detached house.
I paid £145k for my Semi-Detached 3 bed about 6 years ago so I guess yay

It's at least 300k for a 3 bed (terrace) around here. Long term the plan is probably to move somewhere cheaper but for the moment this is where both jobs and friends are located.