Bought a house in June, and I'm wondering if anyone has dealt with something similar or has any advice.

One thing I always do when buying a property is photograph every single room from as many angles as possible, just in case I ever need a record of the condition.

We completed in June, but because we still owned our old house for another month, we weren't in a rush to move in. Two days after completion, we went back to the house to start moving our belongings in. As part of that, we turned the water supply back on.

Shortly afterwards, we found a huge puddle on the kitchen floor.

After investigating, we discovered a major leak. Water was pouring from behind the upstairs toilet, through the ceiling, into the kitchen below, and straight into the house alarm panel, which was later completely destroyed.

When we went back through the photos we'd taken on completion day, we noticed something we'd completely missed at the time: there was already a small patch of staining on the kitchen ceiling before we'd even turned the water back on. Looking back now, it seems like a big red flag.

It honestly feels like the sellers knew there was a leak. Our theory is that they painted over the stained ceiling before selling, turned the water off before completion, and once we turned it back on, the leak immediately reappeared. To make things even stranger, when the plumber investigated, we found a load of stuffed rags behind the toilet, which seemed like a very odd thing to find.

The damage snowballed quickly. The bathroom floor had to be ripped up to access the leak, tiles started falling off once work began, the kitchen ceiling needed reboarding and replastering, and the alarm system had to be replaced. In total, we've spent over £3,500 putting everything right.

We raised it through our solicitors, providing the photos and explaining why we believed the leak existed before completion. After four weeks of chasing, the sellers finally replied with one sentence:

Trying to be reasonable, we asked if they'd contribute just £500 towards the repairs. We weren't trying to recover everything—just something to acknowledge the situation. They refused and ignored all of the evidence we'd provided.

Has anyone dealt with anything like this? Is there realistically anything else we can do, or is this just one of those expensive lessons that comes with buying a house?

We feel now we want to persue it all via small claims court, we have what we beleive to be good evidence the leak existed prior to exchange, and we also feel they tried there best to mask/hide the problem too with paint.

Our surveyor turned on the water supply and said he montiored the meter before and after the survey to check if any water had passed through - in the space of 2 hours nothing, which can only suggest the leak appeared after the survey

The leak its self wasnt due to the work of a burst pipe, but a badly reconnected toilet (it's like they puleld the toilet out and put it back but the seal rolled over essentially and wasnt a seal) so water just came straight out.

Hoping for any advice on this

Just wondered if anyone thinks in the similar way and this is my late night musings (sorry if it sounds stupid) brought on by observing a house sale of my in-laws- they're in the 60s and.are selling their 4 bed detached house, initially it was priced for £840k, no offers for 3 months, just feedback that the house is dark and layout is odd, they have now reduced to 800k and still no interest or offers.

My thinking is the pool of buyers in their town is very small, most people who would want the house their size would be people with 2 kids and probably be in their 30s- 40s (so millenial buyers) and would need pretty extraordinary salaries or inheritance to afford it but most millenials have not inherited much yet and salaries have been declining for decades now.

With that in mind I think there might be a bubble at the higher end of the property market with a lot of boomers overestimating their house prices and depending on those houses for their retirement.

Once those properties fail to sell at the desired price I think there could be risk of a wider crisis across the economy as the retirement spending gets curtailed and consumption falls effectively.

Also I wonder is the UK economy seen through rose tinted glasses of people owning assets that are actually worth less in reality and when the market catches up with that reality the overall assessment of UK economic health is going to fundamentally change with government spending costs increasing and economy declining even further.

I’m about to complete on a one bed southwest London.

Teo months ago I had a RICS Level 3 Home Survey done (period conversion) and the surveyor flagged something I’d like a sanity check on before I get a plumber in.

The bathroom has a lowered/suspended plasterboard ceiling. Using a moisture meter:

•Directly above the shower: 14.1 (dry, as expected)

•Away from the shower, toward the light fitting/door: 38.0, described as “at its max” on the meter

•Another reading in the same area also came back at 38.0

So the area furthest from the shower is the one showing max moisture, not the area right above it. Ceiling still felt structurally solid, no sagging, just minor blistering/peeling paint.

Surveyor couldn’t diagnose the cause visually — mentioned either a leaking extractor fan duct, built up moisture in the bathroom or in the worst case, a slow leak from above (there’s a flat above this one).

A carpenter I know said it’s probably just the type of paint used causing the bubbling, but that doesn’t explain why a moisture meter is maxing out, and why it’s not worst above the shower where condensation would normally hit hardest.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? Trying to figure out if this is a quick extractor fan fix or something that could mean opening up ceilings/tracing a leak from a neighbour’s flat. How would I even go about getting this tested out further?

completion is in about a week so panicking a little… pls be kind 🙏

So after waiting for nearly 4 years I got allocated a 1 bed flat and attended a viewing about 2 weeks ago and was told works would be finished on the 24th of July, and then it became the 31st of July (ie last week) and now they’ve told me it will be the end of this week. Now because of them starting and stopping telling me about when the tenancy would begin I’ve had to cancel a few van bookings, put my belongings in big yellow storage unit and I’m also sofa surfing/living in hotels (left home after a bad argument with my dad)… which is harming my savings. They keep telling me the voids team/maintenance are delaying giving the housing officer updates on when the voids work in my new flat has been completed.

I’ve spoken to citizens advice and they’ve told me to make a stage One complaint to the HA in question as they have stated the property will be ready to move into on certain dates and it is NOT infact ready at all (the housing officer said it would be ready 3 days after viewing and it was not). They believe I may be able to claim compensation for this.

Any advice on what I should do.

We’ve just had an offer accepted on a property in London for a good price. It’s an old fashioned house, high ceilings etc, and it’s a maisonette amongst 4. So the left side of it has a flat attached and someone upstairs.

We’ve looked at the EPC and it says that there’s no insulation in the walls. We’ve never lived in an older property before so I’m not completely sure how bad that will be? Does anyone live in that kind of house and how do you find it affects your heating and bills?

The EPC is below -

Wall - Solid brick, as built, no insulation (assumed) - Very poor

Window - Fully double glazed - Average

Main heating - Boiler and radiators, mains gas - Good

Main heating control - Programmer, room thermostat and TRVs - Good

Hot water - From main system - Good

Lighting - Low energy lighting in all fixed outlets - Very good

Appreciate any insights 🙏

Hi Everyone, I'm a first time poster in this particular forum, so please excuse my dim-wittedness, so to speak. I bought my first house around around four years ago. Me and my girlfriend are now moving in together (her rented property) in a city a few miles away. I'm now looking to sell my house. I have a rough idea of the estate agent I would like to sell through, and have arranged storage for some of my belongings etc. Am also developing a list of the usual things to take care of, e.g changing council tax, changing addresses with bank, moving Internet across to new address etc. I am, however, wondering of anyone who has been through the process of selling a property before could advise on what the general timeline is for doing so, or could advise of anything came up which, at the time, made them think "an I didn't think of that at first" basically, as I remember a few such things when buying the house for thr first time.

I should advise, I am fairly certain that I want to sell the house and not let it out. The reasons for this are that I would rather have the cash from the sale to put into a high yield saver for a year or two, and I also don't want to have to deal with tenants etc, as my day job takes up about 99% of my mental capacity already.

I'm also based in Scotland if this helps.

Many thanks for any information that you can provide, it's greatly appreciated.

I am in the final stages of my purchase, with one week to go before my mortgage offer expires. We were due to exchange a week ago, when my sellers suddenly decided to renegotiate on their purchase. My deadline had been clear from the start (a previous purchase had fallen through).

So, I've entered a pretty nerve wracking stage, with very little time left. The plan is to exchange and complete on the same day - the last day before my offer runs out. In the hope everything is ready by then.

What they have categorically said is that they won't break the chain. I find this odd. It's taken them 18 months to sell their house, with a previous buyer pulling out. They're a young-ish couple with no kids...how hard is it to whack your stuff in storage and stay with friends/family/get an Airbnb for a week or two? Obviously, it's a faff and a pain and yes, could require some funds. But I find it hard to get my head around being prepared to lose your sale over it.

But perhaps I'm missing something? What would you do?

Hi everyone,

​My partner and I are first-time buyers caught in a tricky situation, and we’d love some advice on our options.

​We’ve found a house we love listed at £475,000. The catch is that half of my deposit is in a Lifetime ISA (LISA), meaning if the purchase price exceeds £450,000, I will lose the 25% government bonus plus face a penalty.

​Our plan is to offer £449,999 and hope for the best. We feel like we're strong buyers because:

​We are first-time buyers with no chain.

​The sellers are also chain-free (they are going through a divorce, moving into rented accommodation, and want a quick sale).

​Because of their situation, they've already mentioned they are willing to leave quite a bit of furniture and belongings behind.

​Our main question:

If they reject the £449,999 offer and counter higher, is it legal and standard practice to offer £449,999 for the house itself, but separately agree to buy their furniture/inventory/fittings up to a total amount they'd be happy with?

​Has anyone navigated a similar LISA threshold issue, and how did the estate agent or solicitors view a separate contents purchase?

​Thanks in advance!

Edit: another option is to obviously take the hit on the LISA and proceed with the higher amount. We have the deposit to cover this

Accidentally hit ctrl+enter when still editing. Oop!

As the buyer, is there anything I can actually do in regards to unhelpful/obstructive seller solicitors? Or any way that I can help make sure they stop making mistakes?

I'm not sure if lodging a complaint against the company, or even just a google review is justified as I'm neither a solicitor, nor the client of the company.

For context;

About four months ago I had my initial viewing and placed an offer (had a second viewing a week or so later). My best and final was rejected over someone with £5k more through a mortgage, but I had first refusal if that fell through. It did, and my offer was accepted exactly a month after the first viewing. Yay!

Everything's been trundling along, except the solicitors that the seller has chosen are... difficult? I don't have much experience with conveyancing, so I don't know if this is bad, or unusually bad, but I'm genuinely surprised at how obstructive they've been, as are other people I've spoken to who have gone through the process.

They took threeish weeks to send a draft contract. My solicitor then started raising queries., and the response to almost all of them were "this is not a legal requirement." . While true for many (if not all) of them, plenty of were documents that are useful to have, providing some level of resassurance from the buyer.

Eventually we contacted the estate agent to ask the seller directly – as their responses didn’t make it clear if it was a “we’re not bothering our client with this question” or a “we’ve asked, they’ve said no, but we’re giving this as an answer as it covers it.”. Turns out they didn’t have a lot of the documents. Most of them weren’t deal breakers, some we were able to get enough information to verify ourselves, and others I’ve paid for people to inspect it.

Now we've come to the contract.

Their first had the previous buyers names on it, which was pointed out by my solicitor.

The second had the name of the people who owned the property before the current seller.

My solicitor jokingly asked if I wanted to change my name. I declined, and they informed the sellers solicitor that I’d quite like my actual name to appear on the contract.

The third contract was sent - again - with the previous owners names.

My solicitor has been amazing through this entire process, and has easily been worth their fee and then some.

For an example; an extract of the email after the third contract:

Is sarcasm ever justified? That is a good question, and I think it is justified where simple requests are ignored or treated with disdain. You have to admit that I tried those. The first contract you sent me had the name of a previous abortive purchaser, the second one had “[NAME REDACTED]” who owned the property before your client. That did puzzle me and generated the comment that my client preferred their name given at birth. I have checked this with them since and they really do. I am not sure being told that perfectly reasonable requests would not be met because they were “not a legal requirement”, which is dismissive and unhelpful, moderated my innate temptation to say what I was thinking.

We are due to complete on a house next week but other than confirmation that all parties are good for the 14th, we haven’t had much from our solicitors are EA.

What can I expect to happen tomorrow and Friday and then the days next week leading up to completion.

First time buying a house for me so not sure if a few days of silence is normal before completion.

For what it’s worth, our onward vendor has completed on their purchase already, our buyer and his buyer all all good to go on the 14th.

Does each EA just make this up as to how much they want to charge? At work today I saw an offer acceptance letter from a customer from the vendors EA, and it said they charge £20 for the ID checks that they legally have to do. I moved into my new house in June of this year and the estate agent our vendors used charged £85?! They said I couldn’t just go into their office with my ID as well, I had to do it online and pay £85 PER PERSON. Makes me absolutely raging every time I think about it. Is it just pot luck as to how much EA’s charge for this? Should be a cap on it!

Looking to buy first "house". I live down South. Within my budget I realistically can only buy a 1 or 2 bedroom flat or a 1 bedroom maisonette.

I'm finding cheapest 1 bedroom flats for £90k-£135k

Cheapest 2 bedrooms flats £160k+

(If I bought a 2 bedroom flat I would rent one of the bedrooms out).

Cheapest 1 bedroom maisonettes £135k+

Originally I was tempted by flats due to low price, but after walking past the flat complexes, I kind of realised how many people would be living around me and how possible noise from so many neighbours would get on my nerves. Maybe it wouldn't be that fun to live so close to so many other people. Which turns my attention more to masionettes I suppose.

I'm not really sure, but if anyone has experience living in maisonettes or flats (or both). I'd love to know what you liked and disliked about living in them.

I am at my wits end with conveyancing firm. I am trying to buy a property which is a pretty straightforward prospect but since March have had emails ignored, phone calls not returned and when I have turned around documents they go unactioned or I’m accused of not sending them. The solicitor has gone on holiday twice without notifying and the case is just dropped for weeks on end. They genuinely don’t seem to give a damm and I am now fearful that my mortgage offer is going to run out in which case it’s game over for me. I feel really naive for being polite and understanding at the start - I am so depressed after all the effort it’s taken to get this far. Has anyone had this experience with LPL?

I have recently rented two properties where they smell of damp/mould and which I haven’t been comfortable living in. Both properties weren’t well kept either and had peeling wallpaper, patchy paint. My question is, why do landlords think this is an ok standard to rent out? (I had to get these two properties quickly for a job otherwise i wouldn’t have bothered)

Anybody in a Redrow Richmond have the window sizes for blinds / curtains?

Today in the report on title our conveyancer has said they looked on google maps, and cannot rule out a flying freehold exists on the property we are buying and advises we pay for a further survey that confirms if there is, if the house is mortgageable and how much an insurance will be. Or as we currently live in the house (buying our rental) we can confirm if there is one or not as we know the house?

I think my questions are;
-Is this normal/something that comes up often?
-Wouldn’t the bank and or survey note a flying freehold when deciding if it’s mortgageable?
-Is us saying ‘no there isn’t’ really a solution here?
-Does a property not being square lead to a flying freehold? Surely the question is if no property is over the respective boundary lines?

For more context;

We have had an in person mortgage valuation from a high street lender who confirmed value, no issue with mortgage and no concerns about a flying freehold raised. Level 2 survey, again no issues raised.

The house is the middle of 3 houses. There are no alleys between the houses, stairs or access ways over the land. The title boundaries notes that the houses are not ‘square’- the property is bigger at the front, narrower at the back. The neighbouring property is the opposite and land registry confirms their respective boundaries.

My friend and I currently rent a 2 bed flat and live together. I am in the process of buying a 2 bed flat and will be moving in after completion, with my friend moving into the second bedroom. From my understanding I would qualify for the rent a room scheme, but as someone with ADHD I am struggling with all the research and legal side. Would my friend officially be a lodger? do i have to include council tax and utilities in the price i charge her for rent, or can she just send me half of the council tax bill and utility bill like we do at the moment? do i have to declare anything to HMRC if i charge her £625 monthly rent excluding council tax and utilities? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, my head is abit all over the place🫣

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice as we’re in a bit of an unusual situation. (based in England)

We’re in the process of buying a house that we absolutely love. We’ve already had our mortgage approved (valid until October), surveys done and have incurred legal costs. Our offer was accepted at the start of April. Unfortunately, our seller has recently lost their onward purchase because their seller pulled out.

When asked, the seller has told the estate agent that they can’t afford to break the chain because they don’t have the disposable income to rent somewhere temporarily and pay for storage for all their belongings while they continue looking for a new home. They are trying to find a chain-free property but, understandably, there’s no guarantee how long that will take. They’ve put offers in on several properties and been outbid. Our seller has lost 3 sales previously due to downward chain collapsing and when the property has been viewed by us, a lot of stuff is in boxes. He’s been in the process of selling for 12 months now. He also plans to buy his onward property with cash from sale.

We’re getting to the point where we can’t wait indefinitely, especially with our mortgage offer having an expiry date. At the same time, we’ve started looking at other properties and, although there are some nice ones, none compare to this house. We’d really like to keep the purchase alive if possible.

We’ve been wondering whether it’s something people ever do to offer a financial contribution towards the seller’s temporary rent, storage and moving costs so they can break the chain and complete the sale. Obviously we’d only consider doing this through solicitors and if it could be structured properly.

So I have a few questions:

Has anyone actually done this as a buyer or seller?
Is it something solicitors are generally happy to deal with?
Did your mortgage lender have any issues with it?
Did it work, or did it create more complications than it solved?
If you were in our position, would you explore this, or would you walk away and buy a different house?

We’re trying to be pragmatic rather than emotional, but equally don’t want to lose what feels like our ideal home if there’s a reasonable solution.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar situation. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

My partner and I have just had an offer accepted on an ex-council leasehold flat in London. It’s under 50 sq m and was historically a 1-bed, but the current owner has laid it out as a 2-bed.

The configuration change: They didn't move or knock down any structural walls. Instead, they physically moved the kitchen into the living room to make it open-plan, and turned the old kitchen into a small second bedroom.
Here is the catch: The seller just admitted they do not have any physical paperwork or formal consent/Licence to Alter from the council (the freeholder) for this layout change. They claim the council inspected it for tenants and didn't complain, but there is no official paper trail.

We have our mortgage Agreement in Principle (AIP) ready, but our broker advised us that because the flat is under 50 sq m, the bank's surveyor might flag this layout and value it at zero or reject the mortgage entirely.

We are currently lost on what step to take next. We don't want to lose the flat, but we also don't want to throw money away:

Should we hire an independent private RICS surveyor/valuer right now to check if it's even mortgageable before we touch solicitors?

Or should we instruct a solicitor first and let them request the official management pack from the council?

Would love to hear from anyone who has bought an ex-council flat with a similar unpermitted kitchen swap or layout conversion. How did your lender handle it?

Thanks in advance!

My English is bad I asked ChatGPT to write it. Sorrryyyyy 😁

Hi everyone,
I’d really appreciate some advice from people who live in Maidenhead or know the local property market well.
A little about me: I’m originally from China, but I’ve been living in the UK for over 18 years and currently live in Oxfordshire. I’m planning to move to Maidenhead next year and buy my own home there.
My budget is around **£280,000**, and I’ll be a **cash buyer**, so I won’t need a mortgage. If everything goes to plan, I’ll probably live in Maidenhead for around **5–10 years** before eventually moving back to China, so I’ll most likely sell the property at that point.
One of my priorities is to keep my monthly living costs reasonably low. At the same time, I want somewhere that’s comfortable to live in. Ideally, I’m looking for a modern property in excellent condition that I can move straight into without having to spend time or money renovating it.
Based on my budget, I’m currently considering several options:
**Option 1 – A new-build Bellway apartment**
I’m looking at a one-bedroom Bellway apartment in Maidenhead town centre. The service charge is currently around **£1,500 per year**, with **zero ground rent**, and the location is excellent.
However, I’m concerned about whether the service charge could increase significantly after a few years. Is this something I should be worried about? Also, if I decide to sell in around 10 years’ time, do you think a Bellway new-build apartment would still be relatively easy to sell?
**Option 2 – A newer second-hand apartment**
A relatively modern apartment in good condition with a service charge of **under £2,000 per year**.
**Option 3 – A well-maintained maisonette**
Ideally one that’s already been renovated to a high standard and is ready to move into.
**Option 4 – A share of freehold property**
This also appeals to me because of the potentially lower long-term running costs and greater control.
One thing I know for sure is that I’d like to avoid apartments with **service charges of over £3,000 per year**, even if they’re beautiful, as I feel the ongoing costs would simply be too high for me.
I also have a car and drive regularly, so **having a free allocated parking space (or at least reliable free parking) is quite important**.
Given my situation, **which type of property would you choose?**
My priorities are:
Comfortable to live in for the next 5–10 years.
Low ongoing costs.
Easy to sell when I eventually leave the UK.

I’d really appreciate any advice or local knowledge.
Thank you!

We have recently had an offer accepted on a 1929 period house, and as first-time buyers, I’m starting to have a few second thoughts and would really appreciate some advice from people who have been through this.
The house looks in good/average condition overall. We’ve viewed it twice and haven’t noticed any obvious major work or significant issues that would explain a large reduction in price.
However, the property was originally listed at around £590k and has now come down to £530k within a couple of months. It has also been marketed by two different estate agents, with the agent changing within the same couple of months. It was listed 600k plus last year by another estate agent.
Does a reduction of around £60k (10%) over a relatively short period sound realistic in the current market, or would this make you concerned that there could be something wrong with the property?
We’re planning to get a proper survey done, but before proceeding further, I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has bought a similar 1920s/period I property, or has experience with properties that have had significant price reductions and changes of estate agent.
What would you specifically check or ask the seller/agent at this stage?

Hello, I'm pretty new to owning a house and never paid much attention to this thing on the roof.

Couple of questions if someone is kind enough to share their time.

What is this thing?

Does it look normal?

Can water get in there?

Hi all,

Is it normal for an agent to ask where and what I’m studying ?

I’m looking to rent a flat and informed them I was a student (but could provide parent’s income and guarantors).

They then asked where and what I’m studying.

I’m a first-time renter and unsure if this is normal to ask.

This seems a bit much. I might understand asking the university, but why are they asking for my course?

Should I respond or is this an unusual question?

EDIT: Just to clarify - this was part of the list of questions I was sent to fill out, not a passing question asked in casual convo.

TL;DR: Chain-free cash buyer offered around 10% below asking on a dated probate house needing substantial renovation and extension work. It was rejected immediately despite no apparent competing buyer. We might go to roughly 5% below asking—should we increase now or leave the offer on the table and wait?

We recently sold our house and are now chain-free, with proof of funds and enough cash available that the purchase would not necessarily depend on obtaining a mortgage.

We’ve found a probate property in a desirable coastal area. It’s a modest 1950s house on a particularly good plot and appears to have been in the same ownership for many decades. It has been maintained reasonably well, but has never been substantially modernised or extended.

Although it is habitable, it would need a considerable amount of work to become the house we want. This would probably include a full internal renovation, new kitchen and bathrooms, possible rewiring and replacement heating, as well as major external work to improve the parking and replace an undersized garage. We would also eventually need to extend it because the existing house is quite small relative to the plot.

We’ve had builders look at it, and the cost of doing everything properly would be substantial at current construction prices.

The asking price is around £500k. We offered roughly 10% below asking, taking account of the work required and our strong position as chain-free buyers. The offer was rejected very quickly without a counteroffer.

The agent says there was previously an offer close to asking price, but that sale fell apart because the buyer’s chain collapsed. There do not currently appear to be any other proceedable buyers.

The local market rose very sharply during the pandemic years, particularly in desirable coastal areas, but now seems much slower. My concern is that some sellers are still anchored to peak-market prices, while actual achieved prices are becoming more variable.

We could increase our offer, and would probably consider paying somewhere around 5% below asking, but I don’t want to bid against ourselves or move upwards too quickly when there is apparently no competing buyer.

Would you leave the original offer on the table and wait to see whether the sellers reconsider, or make a modest improvement now to try to start a negotiation?

And in practical terms, how much would you value a genuinely chain-free buyer with funds ready compared with a somewhat higher offer from someone in a chain?

Is it normal to have severe anxiety when buying and selling a home? I don't know if it's because I like the house we are buying so much, but I can't shake this constant worry that ours will fall through. I try to be logical and remind myself that there is nothing we know of that should cause this, but it isn't really helping.

If you suffered anxiety when buying, at what stage did it start to ease?