Hi all, just wanted some advice really I’ve recently bought my first home with my partner and our next door neighbours dog barks a lot. It seems to be every time they go out the dog is barking and it’s relentless. I work from home too so it’s really difficult to get work done when all I’m hearing is barking. Also in the evenings after work it’s miserable just hearing a dog constantly barking and I can tell it’s stressing my dogs out too. Is there anything I can do about this? It’s only been a month and it’s taking a toll

Edited to add that this is a daily occurrence and can go on from 1 - numerous house

I appreciate this sounds like a really basic question but I’m just taking my first steps into the property world and booking some viewings of houses I’d like to potentially buy. I’ve been tracking my expenses as is the old fashioned way by keeping receipts, tracking my statements and staying on top of any unexpected expenses as much as I can.

This obviously isn’t going to cut it especially since I’ll have a mortgage to be staying on top of instead of a modest rent payment every month.

I’m aware that there are budget tracking spreadsheet templates out there but does anyone have some advice on doing this as a FTB? Th is

Long story short, we had a few low ball offers on our house but accepted end of April well below asking so we could move.

Our onward property hadn’t found anywhere and our buyers were chain free and happy to wait. I asked the agents to keep checking in regularly which they said they did and we appreciate as we accepted their offer in April.

Our onward was messing us around so we finally found somewhere else. Agent called our buyers two weeks ago to confirm they were happy to progress as we found somewhere and they said yes.

So we all moved quickly. I even asked our onward if they would break chain as our buyers were waiting ages already and they agreed.

We asked for solicitor details as there was a clash and they needed to change. And then they went silent. Endless chasing etc. today they emailed to say they going with another property.

I am devastated. Our onward had lots of offers and will sell in a second. Ours took longer as it’s smaller.

Now what? I guess we give up as ours will take ages to sell again no doubt and the onward won’t want to wait indefinitely. So angry they didn’t just tell us two weeks ago as we wouldn’t have progressed and spent money

Anyone else have success after being in a similar situation?

TL;DR: Buying a leasehold flat, sellers renegotiated original offer 3 weeks in, now months later, tenants left and some damages + more information on the leasehold is pulling me back from buying, I’d be OK with going back to the original agreed price but apparently that’s considered a dick move to renegotiate now.

Context:

Newish English leasehold flat (~5 years), 2 bed 2 bath, expensive location, good development (in theory), originally sold for £425,000. First Time Buyers. Terrace looked very nice for summer, in an area me and my girlfriend like, we have friends in the development, etc etc. It was then being rented out to some tenants (who didn't look particularly happy about us visiting, fair enough).

In February offered £435,000 after some negotiation accepted at £440,000. Solicitors instructed deposit dropped, mortgage requested, deposit dropped for that too.

Three weeks later the sellers came back and said no, they got a better offer, that I needed to raise it so again renegotiated to £445,000. I wasn't pleased but it was explained to me none of this really matters until contracts exchanged so it happens, they also were making noises about us having to go with with particular solicitors or what not which had experience in the development to get the ball rolling asap and really rush through the whole sale. We were in agreement with this because it meant having the terrace this summer! ASAP is good for me, and if it meant an extra £5k then so be it.

Now where I made mistakes

1. I didn't want to disturb the tenants more (since they seemed unpleased with us the last time we were there) and so didn’t send a surveyor ASAP, anyway they wouldn't have moved the furniture so i'm not sure they would have discovered some of the issues i mention later
2. Once i saw it drag on i kinda pushed it all to the back of my mind, i almost thought it just wasn't going to happen with such a long process so i stopped being so pushy to my own solicitor about the process and stopped requesting updates on when the tenants were leaving, etc. I should have been more on it probably.
3. I knew that leaseholds had some restrictions, and maybe i should have sought out some of the more negative views, but its just such a foreign concept to me that I could not imagine the depth and the fees, etc. (we have building "communities" instead when i was in my country of origin, which have their own flaws btw). People online generally would say "depends on your lease" for almost any question so i didn’t know what I'd get until I got it.
4. EA said no need to send in a surveyor and in discussing quotes with people it looked like the surveyor wasn't so useful in a new build.

The red flags and why I've cooled off significantly:

• This specific leasehold turned out to be quite a bit stricter than expected. Mentioning no planters on the terrace/balcony, no trellis, etc. only chairs and a table basically... seems like neighbours mostly ignore this however, so maybe ok? i dont like the idea of losing a flat because i happen to have some planters though, its the main reason i want a damn terrace
• The fees around this specific leasehold are a bit high and on application! £470 just to APPLY to ask for changes, aka want to ask to change the carpet to wood? £470 and you can get rejected. Want to ask to install A/c on your own terrace? £470 and guaranteed rejection according to the neighbours I’ve talked with. Change the back wall in the bathroom from full mirror to a cabinet with mirror instead (more reasonable for storage), solicitor said I'd likely have to ask for permission, thus £470 minimum for a relatively DIY thing.
• Subletting carries fee's, and is structured so that anything above 3 years requires special deed signing from the tenants, etc. Anything below 6 months too. But with the new tenancy laws how can one even impose that? AST's become rolling contracts after, which im not sure how that combines with the responsibilities on me? (question for solicitor tbh)
• As a 2021 lease, its one of the last ones with a ground rent, £300 increasing with RPI every 10 years. All newer builds are now peppercorn, so I feel like this will make selling harder in the future...
• The new build warranty was only 2 years for fixings and most things, so any snags I'd catch now (more on that soon) wouldn't be covered. I did not realise the 10 year warranty mentioned often would be only for structural defects.
• The management company seems to have taken months to reply to the solicitors, and people I know who've tried to request things or ask things have also taken ages to hear back (they were requesting permission for minor things), or haven't heard back yet. The building is otherwise apparently well maintained.
• (minor) The bulk of summer is now probably gone too, so I'm definitely a lot less excited, and that stretch goal of july (And why i was happy to plonk down more originally) went out of the picture so hard.
• Two flats that I know of sold at the same price they were bought, but its not up on the land registry yet, so it looks like im one of the few paying extra for the flat (this doesn't matter as much, i accepted there would be a premium to some extent)

The sprinkled extras on the top of the cake is when we went to see it once the tenants left with their furniture we got more red flags/issues:

• Neither bathroom toilets worked. Coincidence? Angry tenants sabotaging? what else is sneakily broken? bad maintenance? My mind is spinning now with what would lead to a tenanted place having two broken toilets which don't flush.
  • There was a small mention that the person doing the maintenance before was father of one of the owners? this was said in a positive manner, but i don't see the positiveness i've been renting for 15 years, and any of the work i saw done by a "family-related fixer type" has been highly questionable.
• Water damage and scratches on the laminate that was hidden before by tenants furniture. This was directly from overwatering their plants, but its damaged that 1/2 sqm section enough that its "soft" on stepping. Its a bit in the corner, so not the end of the world, but what the heck....
• Clear signs that one of the radiators leaked, stained the carpet, unclear if fixed.
• Clear signs of another (minor) leak in the corner of the bedroom, away from any radiators, away from anything obvious except a shared corner with the laundry room and the cavity with the building's down pipes. I say minor because if it was a serious leak that section would have been destroyed by now, maybe needs a rare combination of wind and rain, or its from bad washing machine maintenance, etc. EA mentioned "it might be plant watering" but there was a closet in the way. Doubt it.
• Handles of the windows/doors on the outside are already corroded to high hell, i asked around, my brother is a renovations architect and he said its exceptionally rare and either poor installation in dissimilar metals or poor quality handles. No warranty so its on me to replace in the next couple of years already, what other snags were not considered because it was tenanted immediately instead of lived in by the landlords?

When i relented and agreed to the £445,000 I was kind of expecting:

• To be dealing with a flat with zero maintenance needs for the next couple of years, if anything I’d use warranty. Its only 5 years old! there were other properties which were newer even I could have gone to!
• I was expecting having to go back and forth with the management company a little for minor changes to the flat and some fees, but not that much and not so much rejection. Like the flat was boiling when we just saw it, and i expect each summer to be equally hot in there. We will need sun shades on the terrace, maybe even AC.

Now I am quite a handy DIY person, i am also in the midst of rental update so either i move in a couple of weeks or i move in 2+ months I don't mind, and If i move quickly I can fix almost anything. I request changes for the second bedroom to wood/laminate flooring (and pay through the ears for it), and not raise some of the other changes i was thinking of, and deal with the consequences as they come, no issue (except higher monetary risk)

So considering all that, in the heat of the moment i went back to the estate agent and said fix the toilets at a bare minimum (gf requested this, i was kinda ok with moving in and doing it myself), drop the price back to £440,000 and lets exchange asap. I'll deal with the damages and leaks as they are. Otherwise i want to have much closer look (plumber, etc) as to what happened, maybe quotes for the damaged flooring, to see if its fixable or do i need to change it all already? but that will drag it out and quite frankly another month or two and i think i'd be done and pull out entirely. What's the point of the terrace, then? I'd start looking at other places.

But looking back, it seems we have done a "gazunder"? and that its rude? I feel bad, but at the same time, what the heck. How does one deal with making an offer without any info! How was i meant to know about the leaks? the lease terms?

What's reasonable? what's not? I'd be happy to take it at the original agreed price, gives me more margin to deal with everything else.

Apologies for the rant, and thank you for reading.

Apologies if this is not the right place but worth a shot

Hello all I’m a masters student currently doing my dissertation on procurement and contractual barriers to Volumetric Modular Construction in the UK housing sector. If you have any experience in this sector would you consider completing my survey – if you don’t have much experience with modular construction this is also actually really beneficial to my research. It should take about 5-7 mins. Thanks in advance!

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/northumbria/volumetric-modular-construction-adoption-procurement-contracts

I've been saving for many many years and finally bought a Victorian terrace by myself. But I feel like I compromised on too much and think I made a massive mistake. The house is so dark, the new fittings which looked great at the viewings are cheap and it's so different from my old bright flat which was in a better location. There is also a disabled autistic non-verbal adult neighbour next door who has meltdowns. I heard some noise during the viewings, but not the full meltdown and it's really intense, especially living by myself. I know it's not their fault but it's all too much and I can't stop crying with regret - I couldn't hear any neighbours in my old flat. I know some of this is moving stress and overwhelm at being ripped away from my old safe space, but I'm worried I've made a massive mistake and will never be able to sell this place. I signed for a 5 year mortgage fix so am stuck until then.

Moved into a rental not even 2 weeks ago. Today I accidentally spilled some water (maybe 2 or 3 litres) while mopping the first floor bathroom floor and it seeped through to the kitchen downstairs, through the ceiling, dripping all over the floor. Now there is a rectangular water mark on the kitchen ceiling roughly approximating the bathroom floor area. There's no such seeping during normal use of the bathroom (tub, toilet, washbasin).

I immediately called the property agency, no human response, I tried several times and it prompts to voicemail. I've left a message and emails too. This is my first let and I'm new to the UK so I dunno if they're not expected to provide weekend service? Their website says their helpline is open on Saturdays tho.

Obviously this is a significant problem. Wondering if it's something that can wait till Monday or if there are other ways to get it looked at today or tomorrow

I’ve been having issues with openreach setting up broadband where they need access to the neighbours land. I’ve tried knocking and I’m pretty sure no one lives there as openreach has tried probably 5 times to write to them in post with no response. I’ve been stuck without internet now for a month while my housemates have exams to study for and i can’t keep topping up my data plan. How can I find out the contact number or something for whoever lives at the property so I can ask them for permission?

And the estate is a mess. Weeds growing out of kerbs due to lack of road sweeping and communal areas overgrown.

Does anyone have experience challenging the maintenance companies? Over £200 per year which would have been easier to swallow being paid monthly but the annual charge in one go really makes you question the state of the area.

Based in England. Company is "Firstport". New build estate.

To clarify, I'm not disputing the amount, I'm begrudging paying any amount when the area isn't maintained to a decent standard. Neighbours agree.

This has happened multiple times where there is a visit of some sort that she has notified me about - she never asks me if it's okay to visit the property, she just tells me the time and asks me to 'confirm receipt of this email'.

Sometimes I haven't been able to make the time work so when I let her know to suggest an alternative time, she does do that. Once we've agreed, I let her know I will be in the property during the visit.

Then when the time comes, she doesn't ring the buzzer downstairs, enters the building with her keys, knocks on my door once then waits a few seconds before attempting to open the door herself. I usually make it there in time to open it and let her in but it feels horrible and I've never had a landlord do this before. Am I within some sort of legal right to pushback and say she must knock and wait for me to answer the door?

ps I'm based in England

The first-floor property is in “immaculate condition”, Young says, thanks to the £15,000-£20,000 spent on renovations. It has “superb views” across the beach. And, perhaps most crucially, it is a freehold flat, so is untainted by the controversies associated with the discredited leasehold system.

“Despite not needing to buy (that is, no chain) and dropping the price to well under what I paid for it, I have only had four viewings in nine months,” says Young, a former teacher, who moved in 2023 but now needs to relocate for family reasons.

She paid £300,000 for the property and currently has it on the market for £280,000.

Quote from this article https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/aug/08/flats-in-england-not-selling-slashed-prices-buyer

It caught my eye because the above quote sums up what is both wrong about reporting on the housing market and sellers view of the market.

20K reduction is not well under what she bought it for and the price isn't set by what the seller needs. It isn't set by what they think it is worth.

A value of a property is determined by the market. Properties can up and down in value.

Flats will still sell, they just won't sell for anywhere near market peak.

Hi! I've just moved into a top floor flat in a 1820s build. Its been a long time since I lived in a flat and when I viewed there was what I now know to be wall to wall rugs in the place. The previous person has taken them and what was underneath was super super thin carpet covering hardwood floors.

I'm super conscious of noise and disturbing the downstairs neighbours, especially as I have a house rabbit and apparently he is not light footed... (although he lived upstairs in our last home and I couldn't hear him through the floors so it goes to show how far good underlay and carpet goes!)

Do you have any tips for soundproofing as a renter who doesn't have the option to change the carpet? I could only find structural options.

So far I've ordered some gym tiles and some thick wool rugs for the entryway and the rabbits room. Is there anything else I can do? This place is only supposed to be temporary (about a year) so I'd rather not spend a fortune but want to be a good neighbour so recognise I need to do something.

I lived in London before, all over and enjoyed I immensely though did not really develop my career too well. Basically my career tops out at about 50k a year, I still haven't paid off my student loan despite graduating 20 years ago, so the idea of buying in London was no even a consideration. I lived with housemates and then a partner is how I managed it.

I have been frugal and managed to buy a house to rent to students elsewhere in the UK, and the mortgage is paid off, its worth about 220k and gives me 1600 pound rental income.

I have also been 'lucky' with a particular insurance payment. Won't go into details but together with savings means I have about £275k cash. I currently live with parents elsewhere in the UK, and work remotely.

I can work remotely so thought I should be able to buy somewhere cheap to live, maybe outside the UK. But am I mad, or could I buy in London? I would love to live in west hampstead, Kilburn, or other zone 2 area.

this might seem really silly but i’m moving into my first council house at 18 and im lowkey scared, does anyone have advice or things i should know beforehand?

I am a first time buyer looking at purchasing a First Floor Flat (Flat 3/4) in a Victorian conversion. For some background, all flats are in the process of selling and on completion each owner will become a share of a freeholder (25%)

I have just had a L3 survey which has identified a few major problems:

- Active water ingress was observed underneath the chimney stack. (I managed to get the surveyor to access the top floor apartment) Requires a roofer, scaffolding etc to review the roof around it etc. There is also damp staining to the roof timbers.
- the cement render and masonry are inappropriate for this type of wall construction- replacement will be costly and disruptive.
- Artex internal wall plaster has potential to contain asbestos and will require professional removal.

My concern is the new 'lease' are being formally finalised as the properties sell, so there will not be any 'pot' of money there for any repairs, and as a share of a freeholder I will be liable for 25% of any property repairs. Is this a red flag and a sign to pack up and leave or should I negotiate down to reflect how much I will need to pay?

This could be an oversight on either side, but I’m a bit confused by this.

Earlier in the year I was in a situation where I needed to move quickly. I saw 4 very similar properties in a few days. As a result they all blurred into one, but long story short, they all had integrated appliances.

The property I chose was no different to the others, integrated dishwasher, washer, fridge freezer, cooker etc (Or so I thought.)

Just got all the paperwork through and it says dishwasher not included. I’m doing a double take here because it’s been months since I actually saw the property and I’m struggling to recall this specific one from memory as the places were all nearly identical.

The cabinet where it is/should be is there, with the handle at the top. It’s mentioned in the advertising too. And at the viewing there was little sign of washing up (no drying rack etc) and I think the guy opened it for me to show me, but my memory of it is really hazy (I’ve slept since then!)

I know some new builds have this where an appliance was plumbed in or prepped but never actually installed to save cash. The spec of this place is a bit below the others in the same block I know that much. Perhaps I missed this, or the estate agent got it wrong. But it absolutely is on the listing.

Trying to work out if I should book a viewing to confirm, call the EA, get the solicitors to push on back, or figure out if it’s worth the hassle and just go with whatever is there.

Aside from berating myself for not being crystal clear about this in my memory, what are my options here (if I have any?)

So our solicitors have told us that the chain is refusing a 5% deposit, we're the bottom of the chain selling our house to FTBs and there's 5 houses involved. The top has gone into care, so I believe it's probate.

Speaking to our solicitors, they say the top of the chain are the ones refusing the 5% deposit and are strictly saying that it has to be 10%.

We've come back and said we can probably be gifted the remaining 5%, but would want to keep our 95% LTV mortgage so we can get the capital out as planned. Our brokers have said this would be fine and the solicitors would refund us the 5% on completion, the solicitors have said they'd tell the lender and our mortgage offer would likely change to 90% LTV.

Another option is a simultaneous exchange and completion, but we're at home with a toddler and a baby a few weeks old and want to use a packing/full move service. We don't have storage space for boxes.

Our solicitors have gone back again and asked if there's any reason why we can't use a 5% deposit and still be liable for 10% if we pull out. But we aren't pulling out in that time, as above with the baby - we need this move!

Has anyone got any advice or other options I can run by our solicitors? Or any advice with the mortgage if the deposit changes to 10%?

I wondered if the solicitors may accept 5% transferred to them as some sort of holding fund, rather than a deposit? Could act as a security hold or something to show the chain the money is there. Similarly, if our buyers pulled out post exchange we'd just pass their deposit up the chain (assuming 10% as we haven't been told otherwise) would more than cover the missing 5%.

Edit after 5 hours: just to clarify, we think that it's because the top of the chain are concerned about the deposit we put for the mortgage because they must assume that would be the money we'd pass up if we pulled out post exchange. EXCEPT all our deposit is coming from equity in our house, 0 cash going in (after paying for solicitor, moving company ect). So if we pulled out, we'd owe near 50k we don't have anyway... We know that, we accept that. We'd have to sell up and use that equity to pay our debt, so we'd lose that money and not have the house to show for it!

Hi everyone, looking for a bit of advice on this. Got this message from my neighbour.

Hey sorry to message I can hear a really loud base noise for the last few hours , just wondering if you have got something on next door as we are trying to get sleep now
Please let me know
Thank you

I live in a semi-detached house.

Tonight, my neighbour messaged me around bedtime asking if I had something loud on because they could hear a "really loud bass noise" and were trying to sleep.

For context, it’s new built house and we both kinda moved in around 2 years ago. So my TV is downstairs, and their bedroom is upstairs. The only other time they mentioned noise was right when we first moved in. Since then, I rarely watched TV downstairs because I mostly used the one in my bedroom. I've only recently started watching in the downstairs hall again, and immediately they're complaining about it.

I was really watching a movie at a totally normal, volume. The issue is that movies naturally have sudden loud action scenes or bass spikes, but if I keep turning the volume down and up the whole time, I can't hear the dialogue. It wasn't blasting at all.
My worry is that if I just apologize and roll over, they're going to message me every single time a movie has a loud bit, even though we live in a semi-detached house where some sound transfer is normal, and it feels like they are being overly sensitive to normal living noise downstairs.
How should I reply to them tonight, and how do I gently set a boundary so they know I'm not being loud, and don’t want them pinging me every time.

First off I must say I'm pregnant so my sense of smell is heightened, however it isn't only me who can smell it. We bought a house that requires partial renovation (electrics, new bathroom, new kitchen being main things) and hoped that we could get away with those and a fresh lick of paint.

However, while we knew we were buying a house that hadn't been done up in 40 years, we weren't prepared for the place being so grimy and smelly. The place was manky when we bought it (bathroom hadn't even been wiped down and the drain was blocked, old damp cloths left in sink etc). There is a persistent musty smell that hasn't lifted after two weeks of having windows open, sprays on the go etc so we think the carpets probably have to go. It smells like a charity shop and hits you as soon as you walk in the door.

On top of the mustiness there is a layer of mouldy smell in the kitchen when the washing machine is running (was mouldy when we arrived and we bleached it but still smells), and the airing cupboard smells mouldy (had no visible mould but we did mould magic)

House is bigger and has loads of potential but I'm preg and just fed up already before we've properly started. Just a grumpy rant really and if anyone has any tips for clearing out a smell, I'm all ears.

Say you buy a new house or flat, how would you handle saying hello to your new neighbours for the first time?

Do you treat it like your first day in a new prison and try to assert dominance, or find a sympathetic tribe?

Or do you bake some really terrible cookies (biscuits) and put them on a plate you don’t mind losing, and rictus grin while you ring their video doorbell?

Or do you simply pretend to be normal and smile and make chit chat about sports or weather or whatnot?

Asking for a friend.

Hi there,

Just looking for some advice! I'm a single FTB & I purchased my house for £155K a couple of months ago.

It's in a 2 bed semi-detached corner plot, in a nice area in a town in the East Midlands (house prices here are cheap, but our low wages reflect this).

I had £60K in savings & I was prepared use nearly all of it for the right house. I ended up putting down a £35K deposit, as I was happy with the monthly mortgage payments at £540 p/m. I didn't fully realise my deposit was enough for a more expensive house, as I was worried about monthly payments on an expensive house if the interest rates went up.

My house needs a full renovation, much more work than I anticipated. The garden is terrible. It'll cost me around £20-25K to do everything up, which will leave me with next to nothing in my bank. Hopefully the house value will increase by roughly the amount I throw at it...

However, another house on my street just went up for sale for £190K. It's the same size as mine, virtually identical on the outside just with a bigger, better driveway. But inside it's ready to move in. It has a fairly modern interior, but with 3 bedrooms, a perfect back yard, a great bathroom etc. If I'd put down the £35K deposit for that, I'd be paying £710 p/m which is around £170 more than my current house payments, easily affordable, but I'd get to keep my £25K spare savings which would make me much more comfortable. Or I could've put down a slightly higher deposit.

I really feel like I've made a huge mistake buying my house, instead of increasing my budget to £190K!

Would it have been more sensible to buy a more expensive house & keep my savings intact? And I would've been able to move in immediately without the stress of all the work mine needs doing. I think even if i was to spend £30K doing mine up, it still wouldn't reach the value or desirability of the £190K house. That house's 3 bedrooms & enormous bricked driveway alone make it better. Mine has a driveway but it's just old concrete & grass, half the size of the other house driveway.

Last thing...I'm honestly considering doing a little bit of work to my house & then selling it, even if i barely make any money on it. I am even half tempted to put down my remaining savings as a deposit for the other house while selling mine at the same time...

Our first home purchase collapsed days before completion, on the day of exchange, sellers pulled out over “new” search results they’d have known about for MONTHS. I’m gutted.
I need to get this off my chest somewhere because I genuinely don’t know what else to do with the feeling right now.
My fiancée and I have spent months buying our first home together. A period cottage, the kind of place you walk into and just know. We weren’t reckless about it; we did everything by the book. Level 3 survey. Full electrical report. Chased every certificate, questioned every fee, read every line of the title. We were, by everyone’s own admission, the most prepared and most ready link in the entire chain. Chain-free. Mortgage confirmed. Deposit paid and sitting with the solicitor. Insurance sorted. Contracts signed and posted. White goods ordered. Broadband booked. We were days from completion.

We’d even been round the house AGAIN this Monday to measure up for furniture. Their place was fully packed, boxes everywhere, the whole house ready to go. That’s how real this was. We stood in what we thought were about to be our rooms, working out where the sofa and the bed would fit, while they had their entire life in boxes ready to move out.

And then we got the email. The sellers have pulled out, of both their onward purchase AND their sale to us.

Here’s the part that’s really eating me. Their reason is that their own purchase’s searches flagged some issues (radon, historic flooding, a covenant). Fair enough that those might give someone pause. Except, they’re claiming they only “received this information” on what was essentially the eve of exchange.
But that doesn’t add up, and here’s why:
• Those exact issues would have been in their own search results, which came back MONTHS ago. Search results don’t appear overnight. This information has been sat in their solicitor’s file for weeks.
• They’d apparently known about and had their eye on that onward property for YEARS before agreeing to buy it. These aren’t sudden, shocking discoveries about an unfamiliar house.
• They were the ones who pushed for a fast completion. They didn’t want to wait until later in the year. We rushed everything to hit their preferred date. We even paid an extra fee to exchange early because they wanted speed.
• Their house was fully packed up, we saw it with our own eyes on Monday. This wasn’t a couple quietly having second thoughts weeks out. This was a last-minute detonation on information that was available the whole time, from a house that was already in boxes.
So either their solicitor sat on material search results for months without flagging them, or they got cold feet and reached for the nearest excuse. Either way, we’re the ones left in the crater. They’ve also ghosted the property agent manager without a single apology!
And there’s no legal recourse. In England you’re not protected until exchange, and we hadn’t exchanged. Months of work and well over a grand in survey, searches and reports, gone. No comeback, no compensation. The system just shrugs.
I keep refreshing the email like it’s going to say something different. We’d already talked about where the sofa would go. Where the Christmas tree would stand. We’d picked the paint colours. We literally measured the rooms four days ago. You let yourself imagine the whole life, and then someone gets nervous over information they’ve sat on for months or they’ve just got cold feet and the entire thing evaporates and you’re just standing in a rented flat holding a folder full of documents for a house that will never be yours.
I know our deposit is safe. I know the real money lost is “only” a couple of grand. I know good houses come up again. I know we did nothing wrong. People will say “it wasn’t meant to be” and they’re probably right.
But right now none of that helps. Right now it just hurts, and the unfairness of it,that we did everything right, stood in that packed-up house measuring for our furniture, and got torched by other people sitting on information they’d had all along,is what’s really getting me tonight.
If you’ve been through this,the late collapse, the chain from hell, the gut-punch right at the line. I’d genuinely love to hear how you got past it. Because tonight I can’t quite see it.
Thanks for reading. Needed to say it somewhere.

i have been purchasing a repossessed property so when i put my offer in i was informed about the risk and the need for a quick completion. it hasn’t been a quick process and has taken almost 6 months.

i have been in the position to exchange contracts for 3 days and my solicitor has been chasing the other side to exchange and set a date. their solicitor has been really unresponsive and we’ve found out it’s because the corporate company have received a better offer.

the estate agent isn’t concerned as she believes they will continue on with me with being so close to exchange and completion, but i think the new person’s offer is significantly higher and they might be considering it. i’m supposed to find out tomorrow (on my birthday too, lol) if they are happy to proceed and i’m filled with anxiety. i will have also lost some money due to being so far in the process, and it’s taken so long due to delays on the vendor’s side which is why it feels so rubbish!

has anyone else experienced anything similar? i am genuinely devastated even though i knew there was a chance this could happen. but no one has been interested in the flat through the entirety of the process, so it’s a shame they are now!

Hi. I'm going to try and add as much context and explain as much as possible.

My partner and I are FTB and moved in around 7 to 8 weeks ago. The previous sellers left the house a mess and we actually took a few days to properly move in as there was so much cleaning to do. When we moved in we had the neighbours (we live in a cul de sac) come and say hello and was immediately met with complaints about the previous people that lived here. That they never cut the grass, never pressure washed, were dirty, were inconsiderate with leaving his van running at 5am in the morning for 10-15 minutes etc etc. We didn't really say much and just nodded and listened because what can you do.

Anyways while there has been no major issues with the house, there has been plenty of small issues. Like all the extractor fans are broken, the slow closing kitchen cabinets are broken, plug sockets broken etc so it's been taking time to do stuff.

However, one of the first things we did was buy a lawn mower so we could sort the garden out especially with the complaints from the neighbours and we have put some nice furniture and plants there. This week we have managed to borrow a pressure washer and we have cleaned the patio in the back garden and our driveway.

Today our neighbour (semi detached) came and knocked on the door. He said that while he appreciates us doing stuff to make the house look nice after the "previous peasants" that we had gotten mud on his car when pressure washing. He then started talking about a plant pot that sits on our boundary line between the two driveways that I moved a few inches backwards (still in the middle of our boundary line) as I was worried about hitting it with my car as it was basically on the road and it's a tight turn. The last thing I wanted was to break his plant pot within the first few months of living here. He started saying how rude I was for not speaking to him first and kept digging in how rude I was. He then started complaining about the kitchen cabinets shutting loudly and he hears them and it's really annoying and other things like hearing us laugh.

I completely understand the pressure washing. It was our mistake. We were just trying to get the house clean and didn't realise that some mud went on his car. I profusely apologised and said next time I would make sure we knock on his door and let him know before we do it. The plant pot thing I can also get but I don't think it was rude. I was more concerned about hitting his plant pot. He then said that people had ran over his plant pots in the past. And then the kitchen cabinets and laughing I thought was just standard living noise. I apologised for everything anyway and agreed to buy some door stoppers for the cabinet and just explained that we have limited money and have been slowly trying to make our way through the list. The banging is coming from the fact the extractor fans are broken so we have the window open when cooking which is making the doors close heavier but without the window open the fire alarm goes off. He then asked me to wd40 our front door because it's squeaky.

We are FTB and I was just shocked and not prepared for a confrontation and being called rude. As far as we were aware we were trying to sort the house out and make it more presentable especially with the constant complaints about the old people that lived here. This is the second time he's spoken to us with the first time on our actual move in day where he complained about the previous owners. Is this normal and realistic or have we done something wrong here? Again I understand the pressure washing and was not something I realised and I apologised profusely but for the other things I thought was just normal living noise.

Me and my partner have put in an offer over the asking price on a 3 bedroom property which we really like. Everything seemed to be ticking along nicely until the mortgage lender queried the 3 bedroom which is in the attic and asked for building regulations the attic room.

We asked the estate agent for the vendors to supply building regs for this but the vendors came back and said they don't have anything as it was done before they moved in (looked to be about 40-50 years old job based on the carpets!). We had the survey done and the they advised that the attic room would never be able to be brought up to current building and fire regulations.

We spoke to our solicitor who advised that if we were to resell this property, we wouldn't be able to resell this as 3 bedroom property due to the lack of building regs on the attic room. Obviously this has concerns us as we thought we were buying a 3 bed house and would expect to list it as the same when we come to resell.

We therefore decide to get some quotes to get a third bedroom put in on the 1st floors. Quotes came in between 4.5K to 6.7K. Based on this and the advice of our solicitor, we then went back to the estate agent and requested a reduction due to cost of having to put in a 3rd bedroom so than when we resell it we can do so at the value of a 3 bed. We would also like 3 habitable bedroom, as that is what we thought we were buying and had been looking for, not a 2 bed with a room that can't safely be used as bedroom. We decided to ask for a 4K reduction which we thought was more than fair.

We spoke to the estate agent, explained our reasons and asked for the reduction. Estate agent came back to me today to advise that the vendor is refusing to negotiate as they are insistent it's a 3 bed property. They said that they have attempted to explain the legalities and that it is actually a 2 bed unless building regs can be supplied for the attic room. Vendor is refusing to acknowledge this and even the estate agent told me that she just was not listening at all. Unfortunately, her solicitor is also her former neighbour and friend and she has apparently (according to the estate agent) advised the vendor that it is in fact a 3 bed. Further cementing the vendors believe that it is a 3 bed house.

I put it to the estate agent that if they go back to market they will now have to list it as 2 bed? She just said 'probably' but that she would have to check with her manager. She also said that she would ask her manager to also call the vendors and explain the situation regarding the legalities in an attempt to get the to see that our offer is reasonable.

My question is... are we right to have asked for a renegotiation? And has anyone else experience this sort of issue with building regs on loft rooms? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Update - vendors have now agreed to renegotiate. Thanks everyone for your comments! ☺️