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IGNORED

BTL selling up says independent


sarahbell

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Heart's Ease

Anecdotal. I had a new consumer unit and part rewire done in around 2010 by local Part P qualified electrician. Very happy with the work. Fast forward to 2015 and we are moving house. The Property Information Form from the solicitors (I assume buyers solicitors) asked me to provide either:

- a copy of a signed BS7671 electrical safety certificate,
- the installers Building Regulations Compliance Certificate,
- or the Building Control Completion Certificate.

for the electrical work which had been carried out.  I had no record of any of this, but I could at least still contact the electrician who had done the work, and ask him to check his records. The punchline is that he had never filled out the BS7671 form at the time and when he did turn up to fill it out on a retrospective basis *the consumer unit only just made the current code*.  Took a few more weeks to resolve to solicitors liking. Squeaky bum time for me and the electrician both.

I didn't even cut corners and I was potentially in deep sh*t. My question: is this an unusual one off or is it coming back to bite others?

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sancho panza
3 hours ago, Bobthebuilder said:

That is correct.

Wow.....So if they'll struggle to get anyone to sign off the installation what are their options? Is it a matter of time before they find a gas safe engineer to sign it off? Or do you think your syance will be more common. 

 

I'm pretty stunned that any LL would scrimp on one of the two or three things that could get them in court on criminal charges if something untoward happened

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Bobthebuilder
33 minutes ago, sancho panza said:

Wow.....So if they'll struggle to get anyone to sign off the installation what are their options? Is it a matter of time before they find a gas safe engineer to sign it off? Or do you think your syance will be more common. 

Gas safe have published guidelines for re-commissioning un notified works, but as you can imagine they are very strict and expensive. They want you to re run the gas pipe, remove the boiler from the wall, check all the flue seals, re install, test and commission. Plus any other upgrades to comply with current regs.

Its like opening a can of worms really, that's why most gas guys would not be interested.

I would suppose the buyers solicitor would push for a price reduction to pay for this.

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1 hour ago, Wight Flight said:

The pet thing is a bloody disaster for me.

It won't work though (I hope)

 

Same here. My strongest line of defence against my kids' demands for a dog has been that the landlord would not allow it.

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Wight Flight
1 hour ago, kibuc said:

Same here. My strongest line of defence against my kids' demands for a dog has been that the landlord would not allow it.

My reasoning is slightly different. Since so many here have dogs, not having one gives me an edge.

But worse is that I can't live in a house that has had a cat or dog in the last few years unless I replace the carpets.

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On 14/06/2022 at 13:51, MrXxxx said:

image.png.da68c5f7e06fbee9dc46a609e1a1cb0e.png

Sorry enough of this sillyness but I just couldn't resist having watched red for the last 12 months!

Lol I placed a sell mkt order on Monday but it seemed to have taken ages to execute. Cancelled it. Changed to limit, which it never reached on Monday. Lucky. Still got them.

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Don Coglione
18 minutes ago, Wight Flight said:

My reasoning is slightly different. Since so many here have dogs, not having one gives me an edge.

But worse is that I can't live in a house that has had a cat or dog in the last few years unless I replace the carpets.

Are you not a dog yourself?

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Wight Flight
4 minutes ago, Don Coglione said:

Are you not a dog yourself?

Yes. But I am not allergic to myself.

But to be serious, I am very allergic to every single furry or feathered animal eexcept greyhounds.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/06/2022 at 10:37, AWW said:

Two flats in my block of 18 are up for sale. Both have been reduced after a month on the market.

The last time any of the flats were sold was 2016. And only 10 have changed hands since 2000. So for two to be up at the same time, both rentals, is unusual.

A third has been added. Unfortunately, it's the one I'm currently renting. First two still haven't sold, and one has been reduced again.

Three different landlords now trying to sell 20% of the flats in the block. Feels a bit....desperate. This is in a nice bit of north London btw.

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Unlucky. However I guess the flat will be trickier to sell without vacant posession unless to another landlord - and calculating the rent (less service charges) on asking price can give a prospective yield - guessing it may be c.3% which is hardly gonna an investor interested these days. Other areas in the country seem a lot better.

I watch a lot of London/SE flats and this situation is pretty common. A lot of flats are very difficult to sell, but conversely very easy to rent. 

Some places have seen some pretty massive reductions, albeit the asking prices at the very top were delusional. An example of someone I know, bought 2016 at £440k, tried selling in 2018 at £525k, no takers for over a year then the pandemic hit. Came back on the market late 2020 at £495k, finally sold last year.

End price was £415k and even that I think it is bloody lucky as the lowest identical flat in their block is now £375k.

Don't think it is a stretch to say that average flat price (for normal people) now is slightly less than 5 years ago. Also convinced there must be some stories upcoming where buyers in those years, most new build owners will have lost bigly. 
Do the sums of someone putting in £100k to buy a £500k flat which then sells for £400k, where does that loss come from and in 5 years how much capital has been paid off?

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Absolutely. Just had some mates move from a crap London flat to a nice Bristol house. They lost £50k (10%) on the London flat over three years, plus the stamp duty and refurb costs. Also know a couple who lost a packet on a "luxury" flat, but parents bailed them out.

Despite such stories being quite common, plenty still think the only way is up.

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Wight Flight
4 hours ago, AWW said:

A third has been added. Unfortunately, it's the one I'm currently renting. First two still haven't sold, and one has been reduced again.

Three different landlords now trying to sell 20% of the flats in the block. Feels a bit....desperate. This is in a nice bit of north London btw.

Bad news. Sorry to hear that.

Will it be very hard to find a new place?

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16 minutes ago, Wight Flight said:

Bad news. Sorry to hear that.

Will it be very hard to find a new place?

Thanks. Not much on the market to rent at the moment. If we haven't found somewhere in 2 months, we'll stay put and let LL decide whether to start the eviction process or not. I'm not going to make my family homeless.

Eldest starts school in Sept so couldn't be worse timing!

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Underwhelmed
11 minutes ago, AWW said:

Thanks. Not much on the market to rent at the moment. If we haven't found somewhere in 2 months, we'll stay put and let LL decide whether to start the eviction process or not. I'm not going to make my family homeless.

Eldest starts school in Sept so couldn't be worse timing!

you not interested in putting in a cheeky offer?

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39 minutes ago, Underwhelmed said:

you not interested in putting in a cheeky offer?

No. The current yield is 3%, so I  wouldn't pay more than half the asking price. It's also cheaper to rent than pay an IO mortgage at current rates and rents - as long as you can find somewhere to rent, obviously. I don't know what's going on, to be honest. Lots for sale, prices falling, nothing selling. Hardly anything to rent, rents not really going anywhere. Perhaps this is the point where both the sales and letting markets are just broken.

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Who would have known that so many mums would be BTLers? Wonder how many posts the thread will get but it seems overwhemlingly negative.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/4577781-if-you-are-a-landlord-are-you-thinking-of-selling-up?page=1

I do laugh at the thinking that landlords can simply pass through the interest rate hikes in higher rents. Did rents fall when mortgage rates went down? No, because the market simply tries to price at the maximum of what people can afford. With most people and more pertinently those around median wage having a real terms wage cut, good luck with that.

Where I am actual rents have stayed the same for many years - at least the last 5. Rent-to-buy properties actually put a lid on what smaller blocks can achieve as those properties usually come with better facilities and more peace of mind for the tenant. Certainly if the price went up by 10% they would struggle to get takers because of the other properties.

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1 hour ago, Boon said:

Who would have known that so many mums would be BTLers? Wonder how many posts the thread will get but it seems overwhemlingly negative.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/4577781-if-you-are-a-landlord-are-you-thinking-of-selling-up?page=1

I do laugh at the thinking that landlords can simply pass through the interest rate hikes in higher rents. Did rents fall when mortgage rates went down? No, because the market simply tries to price at the maximum of what people can afford. With most people and more pertinently those around median wage having a real terms wage cut, good luck with that.

Where I am actual rents have stayed the same for many years - at least the last 5. Rent-to-buy properties actually put a lid on what smaller blocks can achieve as those properties usually come with better facilities and more peace of mind for the tenant. Certainly if the price went up by 10% they would struggle to get takers because of the other properties.

LHA set rentals.

LHA were reduced by Gidiot a few years back.

I doubt theyll be increased.

 

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2 minutes ago, spygirl said:

LHA set rentals.

LHA were reduced by Gidiot a few years back.

I doubt theyll be increased.

 

It depends if you're in an affluent area or not.

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Wight Flight
1 hour ago, spygirl said:

LHA set rentals.

LHA were reduced by Gidiot a few years back.

I doubt theyll be increased.

 

It's going to be an interesting fight.

If they do raise them it shows how little they care for the working people.

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3 hours ago, TMM said:

It depends if you're in an affluent area or not.

No it really doesn't.

And theres always the big red button of a UK wide rent cap.

 

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3 hours ago, spygirl said:

LHA set rentals.

LHA were reduced by Gidiot a few years back.

I doubt theyll be increased.

 

I don't think they've been reduced

The calculation is flawed 

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2 minutes ago, sarahbell said:

I don't think they've been reduced

The calculation is flawed 

https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/dec/07/rent-gap-local-housing-allowance

What is LHA?

LHA was introduced in 2008 by the last Labour government to bring the amount being spent on housing benefit for those renting privately in line with the benefit for those renting social housing. Labour capped the LHA at half local market rents. If tenants’ rent was more than that, they would not be reimbursed for the rent over that 50%.

In the coalition’s 2010 emergency budget, the terms were tightened:

  • LHA was calculated using the lowest third of local market rents rather than the lowest half, or median rent, so less housing benefit was paid for the same accommodation.
  • LHA calculations were capped at four bedrooms, rather than five, particularly affecting larger families.
  • The age under which claimants are only entitled to the shared accommodation rate (for a room in a shared house rather than a one bed flat) was raised from 25 to 35 years.

From 2011, tenants under 35 living alone were either only entitled to housing benefit for the cheaper shared room rate or had to move into shared accommodation, with their own bedroom, but shared kitchens and bathrooms. Larger families that previously qualified for the five bedroom rate were now entitled to less housing benefit, both in terms of the lower calculation, and the demise of the five bedroom rate.

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