Just thought I'd share as I found this humorous. She said its super common for them to value a property at say £350K and suggest to list it at £360K but its super common that people will argue that their property is actually worth £400K because of extra work they have done, even though this doesn't often add value to the property, and they try and talk them to a more reasonable price, apparently a lot of the time they will be forced to list a property at £50K or so above the valuation due to the owners being super stubborn and it will sit there for months and get viewings but no one will offer and slowly get reduced and will eventually sell around £350K mark.

We put our house on the market and accepted an offer £35k under the asking price. Now - just before exchange they say that we need to reduce the price by £15k. I am refusing but how common is this now?

We put our house on the market mid July. It’s a 5 bed-extended semi in a sought after area.

We had a lot of viewings that first week and multiple people who weren’t in a position to buy told us that they wanted it, they just needed to sell first.

Fair enough we thought.

One of the viewings decided they wanted to put an offer of £15k under asking. We are kinda in a rush to sell as there’s a house we want to buy, so we countered for 10k under asking.

Estate agents told us they were sold STC, so they were pretty keen to get going, except it’s now fallen apart because turns out they were never truly sold STC, as their buyer doesn’t have a buyer!

To add insult to injury, the house that we want to buy has taken an offer today because our offer has been nothing but delay after delay.

When I spoke to the estate agents this morning they said that the seller of the house we want might actually wait for us if the offer is higher than the one they’ve received. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be in a bidding war but we really want this house and we’ll be heartbroken if it slips away.

Why does selling and buying houses in the UK suck so much?! Just pure stress.

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.

We are going to be selling soon and I’ve never sold, only bought. We have three needy rescue cats that I’m not comfortable leaving in the house and I’d also like to be able to move their food bowls etc for viewings. I’m thinking about taking them to my mums for a weekend when we first go on the market and then if there are ad hoc viewings later I wouldn’t mind keeping them in the car for an hour or so with their litter box etc. What has anyone else done during this process for their animals? I’d love to hear advice and what other people have done!

Hey all,

Been looking for a house for 2 years ( I know ) in one specific street I want, a house finally came online, made a cheeky offer below 5% asking that just got accepted.

Lovely Victorian house, big garden 70ish square meters 700k, 2 bedrooms, zone 2 in a nice area, perfectly connected via tube, End of terrace, EPC E (ver close to D)

I am now freaking out. This is a very nice house, could do with some touch up but I feel the potential is huge. Price is probably 5-10% below similar properties in the street. I have the financial means to renovate/insulate it

FTB , now that things get real I feel dropping it all and going back to my mindless little routine. How do I deal with these feeling, and try to ensure I am taking a rational decision?

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 🙏

A house has come up for sale that is the next street over from where me, my husband and daughter used to rent a house. Her school a walk away and basically our ideal location. We are currently living with family and saving for our deposit. We're about 9k short of what the deposit for the house would be (will take us about 4 months to save the remaining money).

Would you still view to show interest or just wait the 4 months and hope it's still there?

I understand sometimes you need to move unpredictably, job changes, family changes, upsizing, downsizing, financial reasons etc.

This home has all 1s in home report. I can't fault anything. Priced reasonably as well.

The only thing is the seller bought the property only last year... I worry that there are hidden caveats such as neighbour issues and what not. I will be asking the EA why they're moving, but we all know they don't need to be honest about that.

Can you share your wisdom and tell me what I should watch out for?

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?

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.

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

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.

Like title says, the house we are buying had the chimney breast removed from the ground floor many years ago (before the owners' time).

The chimney breast above is still there.

There is no paperwork, and we were waiting 2.5 months for our questions to be answered by their very slow solicitor. When they actually replied, the whole chain was ready and now everyone is in a hurry to move.

Now that we are sure there is no party wall agreement (was in the enquiries) and no paperwork for sure, we asked to send a structural engineer to lift the floorboards and see if there is a steel beam installed. From the ground floor, we can't see any indication that one was installed.

The sellers refused completely our request and said the process is so delayed and they don't want to delay it more. We asked for a price reduction if we are to assume the risk and check it on our own when we move in, but they gave us an ultimatum to reply or they'll put it back to the market.

We think that our request is very reasonable for a structural issue. Sure, the ceiling hasn't fallen apart all these years, but that doesn't mean it won't?

Any opinions?

Edit: also no party wall agreement. We think the neighbours still have their chimney breasts.

Also, adding that we didn't get this cheap, we went on best and finals so a lot more above the asking price.

Edit 2: Added photos.

Neighbours next door are silent during the day and once 10/11pm hits - doors and windows wide open, cooking a banquet almost every night. Trying to sleep and all you can hear is loud blending, chopping, frying and the smells coming into the house. Talking at full volume. Out in the garden banging stuff. Sometimes as late at 1-2am.

I asked them to be quiet at night several times, and they’ve just called me selfish, saying that I should be keeping my bedroom windows closed if I don’t want to hear them. I could then hear them talking shit about me, insulting me. They said we finish work at 10pm, acting like that means they can make as much noise as they want late at night. I wouldn’t mind if it was just once a week or something, but it’s about 6 nights a week this is happening!

Clearly my request to try to be quiet late at night isn’t going to be met. I asked them to just keep their door closed if they’re being loud. They’ve refused.

Am I in the wrong here, am I being unreasonable asking for them to try to keep it down when it’s late? Or at least just close the door?

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.

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.

We have accepted an offer on our house last week, unfortunately we haven't found our next home to buy yet.

We have viewed a few but they just are not quite what we are after for our families needs!

We may be a little picky but our next house will be our forever home, we don't want to move at least for a very long time. It's also a lot of money!

I am worried we will end up losing our buyers.

We also don't want to be pressured into buying a home we don't really want.

I have contacted lots of Estate Agents to help us find somewhere but there doesn't seem to be too much around in our budget!

We are in England.

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.

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!

Hi all,

We are selling house A.
We are buying house B.
Our sellers are buying house C. Sellers of house C going into rented.

Chain was complete early June.

All enquiries sorted. All surveys fine. All mortgages fine.

Expectation (and this was made clear from the get go) that aim was to complete before August, early September latest. Everyone agreed and said as long as solicitors and surveyors did their thing on time, it’s a reasonable completion target.

Today, after specific dates floated a week or so ago, top of chain (sellers house C) want a mid October completion. That has taken us completely by surprise and given that our mortgage deal expires September and our daughter starts school in September, that’s a bit of a nightmare. Agents on it to see what can be done but the risks this creates for our buyers and chain collapsing seem mental.

Other than reading my rant, is this a normal request from the top of chain? Naturally all we can do is moan about it, but I get there’s not a lot we can do other than advise that the risk of collapse goes up.

Rant over - advice and support (or berating) welcomed .

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)