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Though joking aside, I do need to see about making a Will.

Not only is there the house to leave someone now, but if I pop my clogs whilst still employed, my still twitching corpse would be worth a life changing amount of money. With the Death In Service itself being tax free.

Got no kids, got no significant other. Will soon have a Pupper. So need have a think on Beneficiary, and indeed who would benefit the most.

Just remember - if you leave the house and all your wealth to your dog - don't tell the Butler!

The chances of me ever having a Butler are vanishingly smol!

Probably gonna leave it all to my best mate. Let him pay off his mortgage, and have a spare house for his kids or summat.

I am very late to the party but can relate to this thread so hard I had to reply.

After renting for over 30 years and getting sick and tired of the "fear of moving" putting me off certain hobby projects and landlords being landlords and renting just being a minefield I also bit the bullet and bought my first house last year.

I managed to save a big chunk of money during the pandemic (a combination of not having to commute and not going out) and me and my best friend got a good deal on a house that needed some "minor cosmetic work".

Turns out even the most "simple" of DIY tasks when you own your home end up being a bit of time/money sink and nothing ever turns out to be as simple as you think it might be.

There's also the fact that I had to get life insurance to secure a mortgage which at my age ended up being pretty expensive and my mortgage was significantly higher than my rent (an extra £500 pcm) and now if anything breaks I have to pay for it to be fixed.

I'll also echo what others have said, the actual buying process was very stressful. My solicitor fell out with the agents, would only work at night so would send emails at 3am, the survey was pointless, I had to Google everything because I didn't understand what most of it meant and getting a mortgage when you are over 50 like me was a battle in its own right.

But you know what? Best decision I ever made in my life.

In under a year we have paid off almost £25K of the mortgage and that's my money, I'm not giving it to a landlord I have never met (OK, it's the bank's money but you know what I mean).

I have also learnt a ton of new skills (Youtube is amazing) and already added £65K to the value of the house by replacing and moving the boiler, sorting out the front and back garden and redecorating/upscaling and that's cost less than £10K.

I can style it how I want and come home and know it's mine and although I am at the mercy of interest rates my bank can't just decide to put my payments up once a year just because they feel like it.

And I can start those big hobby projects I have always wanted, have a dedicated games and painting area and not have to worry about moving house ever again unless I decide to do so. As a Warhammer addict with a 35 year pile of shame and sooooo many books moving house was probably the most stressful thing I can think of and this time round was no exception.

The only issue I have right now is that every minute of my spare time has been working on the house and as you do more work on it you realise you need to do more, because the new bits make the bits you haven't done yet look worse...

But I just wanted to say welcome to the mortgage club, and you will not regret it it. I wish I had done it 20 years ago but sadly the house buying game in UK is a racket and it is very hard to get out of renting once you start.

Congrats though, hope the move goes well and you'll be amazed at how many hobby skills transfer over to DIY.

Well, it’s a week until I get the keys, and it still doesn’t feel real.

I did get to thumb my nose at the landlord earlier this week.

My tenancy on the flat continues to late October. Doesn’t worry me too much, as I’ve no mortgage to pay off on the house, so it’s just a slight extension until all my wages are belong to me,

Landlord has done no repairs or maintenance for a couple of years. Most I got was a half arsed attempt to fix the lavvy around a year ago. It didn’t work, and I’ve heard nothing from him since, despite logging maintenance issues with the Letting Agent.

Lo and behold earlier this week, the Letting Agent phoned me. And they asked if I would mind if, once I’m moved out but still the legal tenant, if the Landlord came in to renovate and redecorate, so he can get it back on the market.

The phrase I used on that call can’t be used on Dakka. Let’s just say I didn’t politely refuse.

Apparently winter is a hard time to let out flats, on account it’s close to Christmas, and when working people come to view, it’s usually in the dark which never shows it off to full advantage.

But hey, that’s not at all a Me Problem. If he’d fulfilled his duties as a landlord, I may have been more forgiving and willing to compromise. But to ignore any and all maintenance issues whilst I’m living here, then want to suddenly sort it out when I’ll derive no benefit?

Absolutely not. He wants in? He lets me out first. No ifs. No buts.

Though it did prove my instincts right, and I’ll need to drop by a few times a week, just to make sure he’s not let himself in. Which even though I’m not living there? He’s not allowed to do so without prior agreement and consent.

Anyways. To cheer myself up, I’m treating myself to a fancy massage chair.

Yeah, landlords are great aren't they....

Good on you though, if you're still paying rent the place is still yours until you hand the keys back.

Being able to access the old place for a month or two whilst you move into the new place is the best plan though, we paid another month's rent just so we could start decorating the new place whilst it was empty and then the overlap gave us time to clean and repaint the old place so we could get our deposit back.

For us, picking up the keys on our house was the biggest let down. I thought there would be fanfares, champagne, a mariachi band... Nope, just an envelope and a mardy receptionist.....

My last rented flat had a leaking roof. I told my landlord, who said it was too hard to fix. The day after I said I was moving out, he was in just repainting the water staining on the ceiling for the next poor sucker. Very glad to be out of that game.

It’s pretty upsetting to see how few rights a tenant has.

Sure, the landlord has legal obligations, as does the tenant (such as paying the agreed rent in full on time). If I stop paying rent, the landlord has routes to evict me, and completely fair enough. But? If my landlord refuses to fulfil his or her legal obligations, like making repairs? There’s nothing I can really do about it.

I can’t withhold rent. I can’t even pay the rent to a third party who will hold it until the landlord has met their obligations. You just have to keep paying.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On the Conveyancing?

I used A V Rillo, who whilst London based do most things online.

From my offer being accepted in Late May to Exchange of Contract 24 July, it’s been a fast and smooth process.

I would strongly recommend them, albeit based on limited experience. Could’ve been even swifter, but I had to wait a fortnight for the roofing quote, and confirmation my lowered offer to be accepted.

Does of course help I didn’t need to arrange a mortgage of course.

God-Emperor you prices for estates is insane. 250-300k for 4 bedroom house is insane. Well at least for me. We buy 5 acres and build new 4 bedroom house for around 70k including new pickup.

That’s Britain for you. Especially in South East England.

But in my case at least? It’s not something it’ll pay to worry about. I’ve bought outright, so no mortgage to worry about. Negative equity can’t happen to me.

I would be interested in comparative salaries though. For instance, homes in Eastern European countries are far lower than in the UK. But wages don’t directly compare. It’s often only when you compare house price as a multiple of a salary that a clearer comparison can be made.

Median Salary in the UK is currently £37,430.00, for instance. Median house price is £282,776.00. So the median house is 7.5 times the median wage. Which is a lot.

We have insane gap for houses and even more insane gap in salary so people who played median virtually can't buy house. Cause our median salary is £4500. There is definitely houses like 35 square meters for £10000 in some regions but salary there at least half of median, but for any reasonable house you gonna pay £50k++. Near large cities 20 miles away it ramps up to £100k for 3-4 bedroom house with small yard. But salary for some jobs are $40++ at least in IT for senior+ grade. And we have insane mortgage at 18%. So more I think about it, more I understand you have nice prices compared to your salary.

I think it’s starting to feel real now.

Next job is to start packing my painted models into carry cases. I just hope I’ve got enough!

Models packed. Next step is Kitchen Ruthlessness.

Due to persistent damp issues landlord refuses to address? Some of the pots and pans have got mould growing on them. So I think I’m just gonna ditch the affected ones, as I don’t fancy any remaining spores a good clean doesn’t get rid of getting setup in my new home.

Also new place has an induction hob, so will need to check compatibility.

Good luck. When we moving in we dump almost half of our belongings since somehow it's kind of damaged, old an useless or needless things we some how transport from place to place for years. Oh and question, do ya call for kill team to whipe all insects, fungi and mould from your new house? I have issues with that stuff even in build anew house cause humidity and construction materials issues.

New home is damp free, thankfully. And the roof is being replaced next week.

In terms of Other Presents From The Stuff Goblins? It’s not all that long since I first moved to this town (around three, three and a half years ago), and I had a good clear out then.

The UK isn't hot/humid enough for long enough periods to really warrant fumigation for bug infestations. We get some bugs and stuff, but unless your house is basically in super bad condition its not really something you bother with.


I've recently started packing and dumping stuff, though I've got less "household" stuff to actually move with, if anything I'm buying up that stuff at auctions to have for when I move. I've dumped a few boxes of stuff and I suspect I'll end up dumping a box or two more once I move in and can sort things with more actual space and get rid of things like old/damaged/duplicate books that right now just went in a box because I was putting all the books into boxes and only doing a light sort.

Think I also wants shiny new crockery. Existing stuff is now a hodgepodge thanks to clumsy and manky previous flatmates breaking them, or leaving them to fester with old food for weeks at a time.

Yes, this is why I live alone now.

You could get one of those fancy floral crockery sets that our parents all had given to them at weddings. They go for a tiny amount at auctions!

Our solution for housewares was, and continues to be, Ikea. Decent quality, not super expensive, and if you go for the plain stuff, easy to get replacements that look pretty similar if stuff gets broken.

I’m hoping to source some suitable gothic patterned stuff. Go with the rest of my decor.

Weren't you doing printed mugs at one point? Could that transfer to you making your own gothic crockery set starting with plain whites?

I can indeed print me own mugs. But my setup isn’t suited to plates and that.

It could be, but that’s something to be investigated once I’m in and my crafting room is properly setup.

Right now that’s a painting desk, my Cricut, three printers, one tee-shirt press, one mug press, one portable heat press and a hopefully new PC which doesn’t suck to run the necessary software.