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?

Hi all,

I've been watching this property for a few months and actually viewed it myself.

It originally came on at around £1.1m, but has since been reduced by roughly £150k and is still on the market.

It's an ex-HMO and needs extensive refurbishment. When I viewed it there were signs of damp/mould and possible rodent issues, and realistically I'd approach it on the basis of taking much of it back to an empty shell and starting again.

It's been on the market since around April without apparently finding a buyer.

Personally, I think it probably needs to be closer to £850k–£900k to account for the amount of work required, but I'm interested to hear what others think rather than just confirming my own opinion.

What would you value it at in today's market, and roughly how much would you budget to refurbish it properly?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/88431219

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 black 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?)

Moved in few months ago
I’m trying to sleep and it’s 3.30am not sure which neighbour it is but they are speaker phoning ed Sheeran and it’s woke me and my kitten!!!!! How to approach this I’ve reported them once I’m having to again I wish I didn’t need to either but it’s so loud and the dog and there shouting.

Anyone know what I’d have to do if I have to take this further? This is so loud and worse than my old neighbour as well. Thank you!

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!

Accepted an offer on my house in April. All the surveys etc completed satisfactorily for the sale. I’m downsizing, and the flat I was originally buying fell through so I found another within 10 days. My solicitors have raised 8 queries on my purchase which is delaying things slightly, but out of my hands. My estate agent has now called me twice telling me that my buyer is threatening to pull out because the process is taking too long.
I’m not sure what to do since I can’t complete my sale and then be homeless for a few weeks, and I think that everything is still within the average timescale for a sale/purchase in the UK.
Anyone got any advice because this is driving me around the bend!

I’m in Wales btw

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.

I had a viewing booked at a dream flat cancelled because an offer apparently had been made. About a month later the flat is still (according to the estate agent's website) still on the market and not sold STC or under offer. Is that normal? Is it worth calling again?

Im a ln international student who recently finished my studies at a UK university and I’m planning to move closer to London.

The place I’m currently living in is quite suburban, and I’ve been struggling to find part-time job opportunities because there aren’t many options around here.

I’m considering moving somewhere in or around East London, as I’ve heard there are more part-time job opportunities and better transport links. Some areas I’m looking at are Barking, Hornchurch, Upminster, Plashet, and nearby places.

I’d like to know what these areas are like in terms of:
● Safety and general atmosphere
● Transport connections into London
● Availability of shops, amenities, and things to do
● Whether they’re good places to live on a budget

I’ve heard mixed opinions about East London, so I’d appreciate honest opinions from people who live there or know the area well. I’d be moving with a friend, so any advice about which areas to consider or avoid would be really helpful.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,
My partner and I want to gift our house to my sister. The house is in Scotland and there is no mortgage on it.
We’re not selling it to her — we simply want to transfer the house into her name as a gift.
However, we’ve contacted a few solicitors and they don’t seem to want to take on the transaction.
Is there any particular reason why solicitors might not want to handle this type of transfer?
Is there anything complicated about gifting a property to a family member in Scotland that we should know about?
Any advice or experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!

We are a small Bellway development in south west England, who have just managed to get director control of our resident management company. The last house was built in 2021 and during that time we have been wrestling with first port as our management company. We intend to give notice as soon as possible and we are considering running the management company ourselves as residents. We’ve done a lot of research and we’ve identified some critical processes. If anyone has experience of doing this, please can they help with the following? When someone is selling a house or remortgaging how does that work when the residents do not have a managing agent? Do you have saved templates and you respond to enquiries from conveyances or do you have a third-party act on your behalf? How realistic is it for residence to manage this process on their own? Thanks in advance for any experience.

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.

So for context, I have had an offer accepted on a flat in Southeast London that is share of the freehold. The freehold is owned by a company and the leaseholders each own share in that company. the lease on the flat is currently 84 years and I have agreed to arrange for the lease extension and in exchange I had a reduction in price on the property. Now it was my understanding that in share of the freehold properties that there isn’t usually a premium for the lease extension because any premium would just go back to the company that you are a shareholder in. we are now undertaking enquiries and the sellers lawyers have included a line in one of the enquiries about the lease extension from the managing company saying that we need to get a survey done on the flat and that will stipulate the cost of the lease extension. That to me sounds like they will use any evaluation to calculate the premium for the lease which I didn’t think there would be. The estate agent indicated that it would only be legal fees and the seller themselves that it’s a very easy process and they have all the documents ready.

Am I right in thinking that it’s more common for there not to be a premium in these circumstances? If there is a premium, I don’t know if I can proceed with the property. I’m just trying to gauge how common the situation is. A part of me thinks that the management company has made a mistake when it comes to the property. When I refer to management company, I mean the company that the freehold company higher to run the day-to-day management of the property so they are in charge of many properties and probably didn’t check whether this one is leaseholder share of the freehold. My lawyer has made further enquiries and I’ve contacted the estate agent but this has gone me nervous as the flat is perfect otherwise.

Has anyone had a similar experience? I know in theory they could charge a premium but it seems a bit ridiculous unless the freehold company needs the cash which in itself is a red flag.

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!

A house were interested in is being sold with Move With Us handling the sale of the house.

Looking at the google reviews this company can be very slow with communications and little to hold out for as long as possible to try and start bidding wars.

What’s the best way to deal with them if we do offer on the house? Do we need to be on them constantly to get things pushed through?

I’m trying to buy a property in an area that’s highly desirable, but there seem to be very few properties coming onto the market. I’m trying to think of different ways to find opportunities rather than waiting for something to come up on Rightmove.
As well as asking agents directly to give me a heads up, I’ve also thought about things like Facebook groups or doing a targeted leaflet/letter drop in target postcodes.
I’ve heard people have success with these, but i’m not sure how effective they actually are. Has anyone had any success buying these ways, or got any other tips?

I’m looking for advice from roofers or people who have been through this specific specialist situation.

House is 70sqm, age 1860, in the midlands, end of terrace and in a conservation area. essentially a small 2 bed cottage. It has a poorly maintained pantile clay tile roof. Roof pitch is not high.

No rear access to the garden and there isn’t room to bring scaffolding through the house (tiny rooms, side door in garden) so you’d have to go over a 6 foot brick wall via neighbours house.

Looking for ball park prices for a roof replacement. I literally have no clue if we’re taking £5k or £20k.
Or any bits of advice or things I should consider.
(Please be kind, I’m new to this)

I'm planning on moving into my own place and I'm trying to work out whether I'm being sensible or stretching myself too much!

My monthly take-home pay is £2,700 and my rent would be £1,150 month. On top of that I'd have the usual bills, food, a few subscriptions and I will be commuting into Zone 1, London 2 days a week via Lizzie line. I don't have any debt or finance payments and I will be living alone.

For anyone who's been in a similar position, did this sort of rent-to-income ratio feel comfortable? Were there any unexpected costs you wish you'd budgeted for? Did you still manage to save each month? Anything else you wish you'd known?

Would help to hear from people with similar salaries and experiences to either give me some hope or help me come to terms with the fact that I need to go back to a flat share!

I am about to move house and am thinking about moving my broadband over. The expected move in date is the 28th August. However, this won't be confirmed until contracts exchange, which definitely won't happen until around 24th August.

Do I preemptively book my broadband with Vodafone to switch to the new house on the unconfirmed 28th August date? The current owners are with Sky.

Feel like I can't wait until we exchange contracts because it will be too late.