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Buying a home and don't know how anything works

I figure I could recoup a bit of money for those magnets. Got to be a scrap merchant interested in that much magnetic metal
I have no experience in diy AT ALL but that gaff looks OK. I mean, imagine it empty then imagine the destructive fun of collapsing the wardrobes/cupboards and taking them to the tip. That’s free, right? Unscrew the accessibility handles and tip ‘em too. The money is sorting out the kitchen and the heating, looks like. Then redecorating where you’d ripped out the cupboards. All looks doable, and less than £30k…right?

We had an eye on this, which I thought was equally doable Check out this 6 bedroom semi-detached house for sale on Rightmove but the location isn’t great as it’s slightly raised above the ring road ☹️
 
I have no experience in diy AT ALL but that gaff looks OK. I mean, imagine it empty then imagine the destructive fun of collapsing the wardrobes/cupboards and taking them to the tip. That’s free, right? Unscrew the accessibility handles and tip ‘em too. The money is sorting out the kitchen and the heating, looks like. Then redecorating where you’d ripped out the cupboards. All looks doable, and less than £30k…right?

We had an eye on this, which I thought was equally doable Check out this 6 bedroom semi-detached house for sale on Rightmove but the location isn’t great as it’s slightly raised above the ring road ☹️

There's a big old stair lift needs scrapping to.

Think the main obstacle is time and inexperience, it's a lot to contemplate when neither of us has done anything similar.
 
There's a big old stair lift needs scrapping to.

Think the main obstacle is time and inexperience, it's a lot to contemplate when neither of us has done anything similar.
Oh, I missed the stairlift! 😂 I agree on time and inexperience. I was willing to make it work for that one ^ It’s a lot of house for very little money and I was ready to roll my sleeves up. Thinking about how we could absolutely survive inside it while spending spring and summer making it nice. We have got something that is Absolutely Fine in train now, but it’s two less bedrooms and £45k more 😒
 
We had an eye on this, which I thought was equally doable Check out this 6 bedroom semi-detached house for sale on Rightmove but the location isn’t great as it’s slightly raised above the ring road ☹️
I love that, it could be gorgeous! The staircase! 😍
 
Sorry 5t3IIa I should have mentioned - from distant memory, level term assurance will probably cost a little more than mortgage protection/decreasing term assurance.
There is also whole of life but thats a total different kettle of fish.
It is much more worthwhile in the long term.
 
There's a big old stair lift needs scrapping to.

Think the main obstacle is time and inexperience, it's a lot to contemplate when neither of us has done anything similar.
If you buy it, can I have first dibs on the stairlift? My parents need one. Happy to come with my cordless screwdriver and sledgehammer to help with the other stuff in recompense.

(But yes there is a market for secondhand stairlifts and people will come and take them away.)
 
There's a big old stair lift needs scrapping to.

Think the main obstacle is time and inexperience, it's a lot to contemplate when neither of us has done anything similar.
I wouldn't worry about the stair lift. It's just a case of having an electrician disconnect it and then you unscrew it from the wall. The runner part that goes up the length of the stairs is not usually screwed on all the way up...we ended up with just a couple of screw holes at the top and bottom of the stair case.
The local scrap man gladly took it away for free.
 
I have no experience in diy AT ALL but that gaff looks OK. I mean, imagine it empty then imagine the destructive fun of collapsing the wardrobes/cupboards and taking them to the tip. That’s free, right? Unscrew the accessibility handles and tip ‘em too. The money is sorting out the kitchen and the heating, looks like. Then redecorating where you’d ripped out the cupboards. All looks doable, and less than £30k…right?

We had an eye on this, which I thought was equally doable Check out this 6 bedroom semi-detached house for sale on Rightmove but the location isn’t great as it’s slightly raised above the ring road ☹️
Fucking hell, I know it needs work but 180k!! Mental.
 
How much would it cost to get rid of all this lot? Remove all the assisted living stuff, the non-fitted fitted cupboards and get a new kitchen?


Guessing a good 20-30 grand at least. I've never owned a house so DIY is a mystery for the most part but it'd be nice to know what I'd have to do.

There's a couple of slightly weird things about the layout - like what I'd tend to call a coal shed except the house doesn't look old enough to have been built with a coal shed in mind for that storage cupboard with outdoor only access - bike storage perhaps?

Anyway, I'd be wondering whether it would be possible to knock through to make the kitchen a bit bigger, might depend on what is actually insulated though, might end up being more trouble than it's worth for the small amount of extra space. Probably could do with an additional loo somewhere, 1 is a bit tight for a 3 bed place.

It's quite nice though, garden looks decent too.
 
Oh also if you do end up getting somewhere with accessibility stuff that you don't need but isn't worth selling (handles and the like that can be fixed to a wall) offer it on Freecycle - our local one has fairly frequent requests for accessibility aids like that and I reckon someone would be grateful for them if offered free for collection.
 
Fucking hell, I know it needs work but 180k!! Mental.

Is there something majorly wrong with it, or is that price sort of average for that size place in that area?

So used to London/South East prices that one looks like it's from another planet tbh.
 
  • Got the survey report and the only red dots are to speak to legal advisor about conservatory and dormer permissions plus get the electricity checked before exchange… 😕
  • Life Insurance is not sorted yet due to checks required since some issues <10 years ago, but some insurers only care about <5 years ago.
  • My critical illness not sorted yet but I’m not sure that essential to move forward now. Anyone know if we can skip it at this moment and get it later?
  • We also need the ownership/will/deed of trust stuff sorting 🤦🏽‍♀️ Our situation isn’t terribly complicated (currently unmarried, he has children, I don’t) but needs to be done properly and we don’t understand the options really (like a monkey playing cymbals when given something to read again) so want to speak to a human to have it explained.

As for the vendors - last we heard they had an offer accepted. Our uneducated plan was to hold on until we got the survey so we were sure there wasn’t a £15k roof joist/subsidence issue (basically nothing that would need a renegotiation on the selling price) then start the massive push forward. I guess that has now come to pass?
Re the situation not being complicated. I think you're underestimating. Have you read the other thread about buying a house when there are stepchildren? Lots of food for thought there about conflicting interests, who gets what, and when, life insurance policies, life interests, buying the other person or their beneficiaries out.

Don't get me wrong, that guy in that thread seems like a proper wrong 'un who's trying to shaft the urbanite who started that thread; not saying your partner is guilty of any subterfuge or underhand dealings, but it did highlight how a couple's interests can be very different.

With the best will in the world, and absent any devious intentions and dodgy dealings, your priorities and needs will be very different, ie as in the other thread, your partner will want to provide for his children in the event he dies before you, he/his children might want you to sell up when he dies so that they can get their inheritance, whereas if you sell up you might not have enough to buy another property, so you might want your partner to make provision for you to carry on living in the property till you die, and then they get their inheritance.

So you potentially have conflicting wishes and needs. Basically, it's not not complicated, iyswim.

And, similarly, if you were to die first, what happens to your share of the property? Would your partner have to sell up so that the beneficiaries of your will can get their inheritance? Would that leave him and his children in a difficult predicament?

It is complicated.
 
How much would it cost to get rid of all this lot? Remove all the assisted living stuff, the non-fitted fitted cupboards and get a new kitchen?


Guessing a good 20-30 grand at least. I've never owned a house so DIY is a mystery for the most part but it'd be nice to know what I'd have to do.
Nah, not that much. In terms of removing all the assisted living stuff, all I could see was the stairlift, which others have mentioned there's a second-hand market, and a grab rail in the shower, which you can probably remove and fill the holes and cover with sealant. There's also a chair so someone can sit in the shower, but that's removable. There might or might not be a grab rail by the loo or commode chair type thing over the loo, but that would be removable.

Or did I miss something?

Kitchens are how long is a piece of string. It doesn't have that many cupboards, so replacing like for like, ie just replacing the run on that wall wouldn't cost that much.

The ceilings in the sitting room and kitchen are dreadful though, there are polystyrene tiles, which would have to go at some point, and the fluorescent strip light in the kitchen.

What's that room next to the kitchen accessible by an external door? Is it a bin shed or utility room? Is that something you'd want to keep? Maybe secure storage for bikes?

If I was in your shoes, and if I bought that place, I wouldn't rush into redoing the kitchen. You could probably install an Ikea kitchen for £5k-ish. But if you did have £20-30k to spend, maybe if not right now, but maybe in a couple of year's time, then it might be worthwhile considering getting a bit of building work done, maybe installing French windows/patio doors and making it a kitchen/diner that opens onto the back garden? Open up the space, make indoors/outdoors flow a bit better?

So I wouldn't spend any money straight away on any big jobs, because it can be better to live in a place first. You could install a new kitchen now, just a like for like, and then in 18 months, you might wish you'd knocked through to that other little room. Or you might decide to install a new kitchen now and knock through while you're at it, but then in a couple of years from now, you're annoyed at bikes in the hallway, and wishing you hadn't knocked through. It's best to live in a place for a while and see what works and what doesn't.

I think the main thing is that it's livable in straight away. Yes, it could do with modernising and redecorating, but there's nothing there, that I can see, which screams no one can live there till xyz is done. Although, really, those ceilings have to go sooner, rather than later! (Having said that, I still have bloody woodchip wallpaper on some of my ceilings from the previous person. Grrr.)

The wallpaper borders is quite dated too. Ideally you'd want to strip and redecorate, but you could just leave as is, or paint over, just for now, you could do that quite cheaply. The decor is very dated, but it's not offensive. It's not like they've done up a suburban terrace with a Sistine chapel style ceiling mural, or they haven't installed fake beams and gone full cottagecore.

From the look of it, I don't think it's the kind of property where you'd have to spend £20-30k to make it liveable prior to moving in or as soon as you move in. Yeah, remove the stairlift. Maybe live with the shower grab rail for a while, it's not imperative to remove it, although you could. Other than that, the bathroom doesn't look too bad, in fact those kind of neutral big tiles are still in vogue for bathroom renovations, so it doesn't look as dated as the kitchen, you could keep the bathroom probably for a good few years yet, with the right accessories and dressing, to make it modern.

The kitchen, yeah, needs doing, but like I say, don't rush into it. So long as you can get a cooker, fridge/freezer and washing machine in there, as long as it's a functional kitchen, there's no hurry. Think of it as a longer term project, maybe knock through to that little room (unless you need it for bike storage/something else), think about getting a big door that opens up onto the back garden.

In the meantime, if you think you can't or don't want to live with the kitchen as is for a year or two, lots of people do budget transformations of kitchens for a couple of hundred quid, a lick of paint on the walls, painting doors, painting tiles or covering them with vinyl stickers, changing a worktop (or covering with vinyl), you could probably get an end of roll/offcut piece of cheap vinyl for the floor to modernise it a bit. Search Apartment Therapy for ideas for budget kitchen makeovers.

It looks like a lot of work, because every room needs decorating and it does need modernising, but it's got good bones and potential. It looks like it could be lived in straight away, and mostly could be brightened up with a relatively cheap lick of paint to start off with.

It's probably better to buy something like this and modernise, rather than buying one that someone else has modernised (maybe not to your exact taste), and they make the profit on that, you're paying for someone else to have done all that work, but you'd probably want to redecorate a modernised house anyway, and you might prefer a slightly different kitchen layout, etc.

So long as it's in the right location, that's the main thing. Location, location, location. Other stuff is changeable, fixer-upper-able, you can decorate, install a new kitchen, extend into loft or out the back, whatever, to suit your needs and tastes, but you can't change the location.
 
Nah, not that much. In terms of removing all the assisted living stuff, all I could see was the stairlift, which others have mentioned there's a second-hand market, and a grab rail in the shower, which you can probably remove and fill the holes and cover with sealant. There's also a chair so someone can sit in the shower, but that's removable. There might or might not be a grab rail by the loo or commode chair type thing over the loo, but that would be removable.

Or did I miss something?

Kitchens are how long is a piece of string. It doesn't have that many cupboards, so replacing like for like, ie just replacing the run on that wall wouldn't cost that much.

The ceilings in the sitting room and kitchen are dreadful though, there are polystyrene tiles, which would have to go at some point, and the fluorescent strip light in the kitchen.

What's that room next to the kitchen accessible by an external door? Is it a bin shed or utility room? Is that something you'd want to keep? Maybe secure storage for bikes?

If I was in your shoes, and if I bought that place, I wouldn't rush into redoing the kitchen. You could probably install an Ikea kitchen for £5k-ish. But if you did have £20-30k to spend, maybe if not right now, but maybe in a couple of year's time, then it might be worthwhile considering getting a bit of building work done, maybe installing French windows/patio doors and making it a kitchen/diner that opens onto the back garden? Open up the space, make indoors/outdoors flow a bit better?

So I wouldn't spend any money straight away on any big jobs, because it can be better to live in a place first. You could install a new kitchen now, just a like for like, and then in 18 months, you might wish you'd knocked through to that other little room. Or you might decide to install a new kitchen now and knock through while you're at it, but then in a couple of years from now, you're annoyed at bikes in the hallway, and wishing you hadn't knocked through. It's best to live in a place for a while and see what works and what doesn't.

I think the main thing is that it's livable in straight away. Yes, it could do with modernising and redecorating, but there's nothing there, that I can see, which screams no one can live there till xyz is done. Although, really, those ceilings have to go sooner, rather than later! (Having said that, I still have bloody woodchip wallpaper on some of my ceilings from the previous person. Grrr.)

The wallpaper borders is quite dated too. Ideally you'd want to strip and redecorate, but you could just leave as is, or paint over, just for now, you could do that quite cheaply. The decor is very dated, but it's not offensive. It's not like they've done up a suburban terrace with a Sistine chapel style ceiling mural, or they haven't installed fake beams and gone full cottagecore.

From the look of it, I don't think it's the kind of property where you'd have to spend £20-30k to make it liveable prior to moving in or as soon as you move in. Yeah, remove the stairlift. Maybe live with the shower grab rail for a while, it's not imperative to remove it, although you could. Other than that, the bathroom doesn't look too bad, in fact those kind of neutral big tiles are still in vogue for bathroom renovations, so it doesn't look as dated as the kitchen, you could keep the bathroom probably for a good few years yet, with the right accessories and dressing, to make it modern.

The kitchen, yeah, needs doing, but like I say, don't rush into it. So long as you can get a cooker, fridge/freezer and washing machine in there, as long as it's a functional kitchen, there's no hurry. Think of it as a longer term project, maybe knock through to that little room (unless you need it for bike storage/something else), think about getting a big door that opens up onto the back garden.

In the meantime, if you think you can't or don't want to live with the kitchen as is for a year or two, lots of people do budget transformations of kitchens for a couple of hundred quid, a lick of paint on the walls, painting doors, painting tiles or covering them with vinyl stickers, changing a worktop (or covering with vinyl), you could probably get an end of roll/offcut piece of cheap vinyl for the floor to modernise it a bit. Search Apartment Therapy for ideas for budget kitchen makeovers.

It looks like a lot of work, because every room needs decorating and it does need modernising, but it's got good bones and potential. It looks like it could be lived in straight away, and mostly could be brightened up with a relatively cheap lick of paint to start off with.

It's probably better to buy something like this and modernise, rather than buying one that someone else has modernised (maybe not to your exact taste), and they make the profit on that, you're paying for someone else to have done all that work, but you'd probably want to redecorate a modernised house anyway, and you might prefer a slightly different kitchen layout, etc.

So long as it's in the right location, that's the main thing. Location, location, location. Other stuff is changeable, fixer-upper-able, you can decorate, install a new kitchen, extend into loft or out the back, whatever, to suit your needs and tastes, but you can't change the location.

Thanks, thats really useful, not just for this place but for other potential places we've seen.
 
My opinion is not to ignore the electrics. Ask for more info on why needing checked as you don’t want to end up with a hefty bill you could have knocked off the purchase or got them to do. Find out for sure then make decision.

Re indemnity policy my vendors in my current house also had to get one as they couldn’t prove right of way out the back where parking is & this issue went back & forth for a few weeks & without it I prob could have completed & exchanged in 10 weeks not 14. Their solicitor said it was implied & mine said prove it.

So if it does come to that ask how to get it resolved quickly. The policy I bought was £35 & was quoted it might be £100.

I'm only glancing this thread these days, but no house unless it was built in the past 24 months will pass Electric regs. They change that often. Why homebuyers survey and probably even a full one will say 'get electrician to check' which will then always come back with 'doesn't meet current regs'

If you're concerned about electrics go round with a few hairdryers and whack em all on and see if the anything trips. If it don't, it's probably fine. The standard on the distribution board will probably give you a good idea of the age and when it was last rewired.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. When I sold mine the electrics could probably do with a rewire. I knew this, the buyer knew this, but everything worked! It still sold for asking price.
 
I'm only glancing this thread these days, but no house unless it was built in the past 24 months will pass Electric regs. They change that often. Why homebuyers survey and probably even a full one will say 'get electrician to check' which will then always come back with 'doesn't meet current regs'

If you're concerned about electrics go round with a few hairdryers and whack em all on and see if the anything trips. If it don't, it's probably fine. The standard on the distribution board will probably give you a good idea of the age and when it was last rewired.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. When I sold mine the electrics could probably do with a rewire. I knew this, the buyer knew this, but everything worked! It still sold for asking price.
I still have an old fuse box. I've contemplated changing it, but it feels a bit dishonest.

My friend who has been living here a lot recently and who is an electronic engineer is of the opinion that the whole house needs redoing, however nothing has ever tripped in the 7 years I have been here.
 
I still have an old fuse box. I've contemplated changing it, but it feels a bit dishonest.

My friend who has been living here a lot recently and who is an electronic engineer is of the opinion that the whole house needs redoing, however nothing has ever tripped in the 7 years I have been here.
I upgraded the CU in the last house I was in, to use RCBOs instead of circuit breakers. At which point all kinds of strange trips and failures started happening. Because the wiring was - while not dangerous - a bit of a basket case.

Just because stuff isn't tripping out doesn't mean it's absolutely fine. And the trouble with mains wiring is that, if it goes wrong, the consequences can be severe. People tend to worry about electrocution, but the biggest and worst consequence of iffy wiring, especially if it's not well-protected, is fire.

ETA: IANAE.
 
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I have no experience in diy AT ALL but that gaff looks OK. I mean, imagine it empty then imagine the destructive fun of collapsing the wardrobes/cupboards and taking them to the tip. That’s free, right? Unscrew the accessibility handles and tip ‘em too. The money is sorting out the kitchen and the heating, looks like. Then redecorating where you’d ripped out the cupboards. All looks doable, and less than £30k…right?

We had an eye on this, which I thought was equally doable Check out this 6 bedroom semi-detached house for sale on Rightmove but the location isn’t great as it’s slightly raised above the ring road ☹️
Oh that could be great. Similar sorts of houses in Sheffield and I just love them.
 
Apparently the house we’re buying is unregistered and our solicitor wants to charge us an extra £500 plus vat for dealing with an unregistered property plus extra Land Registry fees??
Pass those fees onto the seller if you can (by reduction of price negotiation) of course this also opens up a whole bunch of other things that may have not been done by the book (water/electric/gas etc)

Does the address show up in those, enter your posscode things and the house numbers come up!!

Have you had a survey done?

Of course solicitor could also be chatting shit, speak to agent if you're not in direct contact with the seller.
 
Pass those fees onto the seller if you can (by reduction of price negotiation) of course this also opens up a whole bunch of other things that may have not been done by the book (water/electric/gas etc)

Does the address show up in those, enter your posscode things and the house numbers come up!!

Have you had a survey done?

Of course solicitor could also be chatting shit, speak to agent if you're not in direct contact with the seller.
A property not being registered doesn't necessarily indicate that things like water/electrics/gas might not have been done by the book.

It's only been a legal requirement for property sales to be registered with the Land Registry since... around 1975, iirc, and it wasn't retrospective.

That means that if the last time the property changed hands was before 1975 then it won't be registered. There are lots and lots and lots of properties that aren't yet registered because they still have the same owner.

It's only when the property is sold post-1975 (or whenever it was) that there's a legal requirement to register the property/new ownership.

The same principle applies, though, caveat emptor, with respect to any works done or not done on the property, if there's an extension or loft conversion or electrical works have been done. Hopefully they would have been done to whatever code was applicable at the time, but that's totally unrelated to registration with the Land Registry, which is no indication whatsoever as to whether a householder was meticulous or slapdash when it came to DIY or repairs/maintenance.
 
Apparently the house we’re buying is unregistered and our solicitor wants to charge us an extra £500 plus vat for dealing with an unregistered property plus extra Land Registry fees??

You can register a property yourself after you move in, no need for a solicitor to do it.
 
Would a lender accept an unregistered property?
The vendor or their solicitor, or their lender if there's still a mortgage on it, should have the title deeds for the property.

If there's anything missing or if there are any weird or wonderful covenants in the deeds, they might want you to take out an indemnity policy, basically take out some insurance to mitigate against the risk.
 
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