cartimandua51

I bought my first house, a new-build 2-bed maisonette in Leicester, in 1972 for £3,250. Monthly mortgage payments were cheaper than renting the flea-ridden (literally - we had to have the council pest exterminators in) one bed flat we were then in. 95% mortgage IIRC.

As an ex- BTL landlord for 10 years, was always advised 2% of capital value pa. If you have several houses you know that you're in for a new boiler every other year because the damn twitchy new hyper-efficient boilers only last 7 years; a couple of new radiators a year because of beds being pushed up against them and, er, used enthusiastically the tiling's going to fall off the bathroom because the tenants have been drilling holes in it to put up additional shelves (which usually collapse, chipping the bath / washbasin en route down), the kitchen unit doors are going to come off & you won't be able to replace them because they're no longer in production ..etc etc. and of, course the odd new roof / double glazing replacement Admittedly this was student lets; you might get away with less with family tenancies; but then they want a higher standard. Students at least understand that if they don't make a fuss about blu-tack marks on the walls they won't be billed if there are a few more at the end. (Wish the same could be said of their Mummies and Daddies!)

No - Rightmove is the biggest, but there are several others - zoopla & primelocation spring to mind, but there are more.

It can do - if the local authority feels it's short on cheap small units it can refuse - happened in Chelsea some time ago when someone wanted to change a 6-unit HMO back into a family home and got turned down. Rules might have changed in the last couple of years, in which case apologies.

Should be worth a view. Back to the "Cathy Come Home" type of documentary?

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill-paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. - Bertrand Russell Plus ca change.....

I rather thought that the original expansion was as a result of the Robbins report in 1963 which resulted in the "New" universities of Sussex, Keele, Warwick, York etc

as far as I can see from their website, Shelter seems to think it's the Landlord's responsibility. I also found this on doing a quick Google: The following question was recently submitted to our property experts by an individual looking for advice on how to deal with their property let. If you have got a question regarding your tenancy/property, contact us now via the link to the right. Submit your own questions Q: I think my property has got a bug infestation - whose job/responsibility is it to handle this, mine or my landlords? I think my property has got a bug infestation - whose job/responsibility is it to handle this, mine or my landlords? From Johnathan Green | Toton | 30/09/2010 | Tenants A: This depends on whether the bug infestation was in the property before you moved in or has developed as a result of you living in the property. If the property already had a bug infestation at the beginning of your tenancy agreement, then as a general rule it will be your landlords responsibility to deal with it. However, if this bug infestation has started during your tenancy it will be your responsibility to correct it, that is unless this infestation has occurred as a result of your landlord not performing essential repairs (which has led to cockcroaches getting into the property). http://www.propertymentor.co.uk/property-bug-problem-question.php You might also have a look at the Landlordzone website to get the view from the other side - they have a few property lawyers who post quite regularly. And again, Environmental Health officer at the local council. IANAL,DYOR etc but I would get some photos pretty sharpish of the state the place is in so as to have evidence & ammunition for later problems. There's also the route (assuming the moonlighting bloke's efforts are unsuccessful) of giving the LL notice that unless he gets it sorted pronto you will get in Rentokill yourself and bill him That said, bedbugs are the very devil to get rid of of - I gather some very posh New York hotels have practically had to tear the walls down to eradicate them....

Have just had a look at the vendor company's website. Bargepole, disinfected... http://www.swiftresidential.co.uk/index.html

Large families are not infrequently the result of two single parents / divorce(e)s getting together. A couple with 7 children can probably manage better than a single Dad with 3 & a divorcee with 4 separately..... Be interesting to know what the statistics are.

Actually, it probably wouldn't make much difference. In my time as a Uni lecturer i committed my fair share of exam-setting bloopers, including once setting a multiple-choice question which was intended to be closed-book (as it was pretty elementary fact-based stuff) but then left "Open book" on the front of the exam paper. So open book it was. Pretty much exactly the students I would have expected to do do well, either because they were bright or hardworking (even occasionally both!) did so; the rest spent so much time looking things up they didn't finish in time. When I set papers where I permitted the students to bring in two sides of hand-written A4 notes (objective - to make them read carefully and select and copy out the crucial points) the good students brought in two sheets of tiny, tidy notes and hardly ever looked at them. The weaker ones hadn't selected well (or in some cases at all) and spent time just looking vacantly at their sheets. I reckon that permitting internet access would just replicate this.

What the hell is this in the description? Auctioneers Comments This property is for sale by the modern auction method of sale also known as an “conditional auction”. This process is similar to a normal property purchase but on acceptance of an offer the purchaser will pay a non refundable reservation fee to secure the property. The buyer then has 28 days to exchange contracts and a further 28 days to complete the purchase I can see that is a desperate attempt to tie the buyer in, but I've not come across it before. Has anyone else?

Or getting to the shops (nearest small shop in my case a 40 minute walk away including two steep hills), or getting to the doctor / dentist ( two buses a day) or taking kids to two different schools in opposite directions....I'm not saying that in a village these problems CAN'T be overcome by co-operative efforts betwen villagers, Tesco deliveries, use of taxis etc, but th convenience factor of running a car in a rural area is massive compared with living in London, where carless living is a genuine alternative.

Don't quite see what the difference is - the BTL aunt could presumably get an equivalent amount from someone else. There are rules to deal with "contrived tenancies" : I live in a property owned by a family member - can I claim housing benefit? If you live in a property owned by a family member and pay them rent, you may be entitled to housing benefit. However, this will not be the case if you (or your partner) are responsible for a child and are renting from the other parent of that child. The council will also want to check: that you're paying rent on a commercial basis. In other words, that it's a proper tenancy, not just an informal arrangement between family. that the arrangement has not been set up in order to take advantage of the housing benefit system - this is called a 'contrived tenancy'. For example, if your landlord only asks you to pay rent when you are not working (and so are eligible for housing benefit), but not when you are working (and earning too much to claim housing benefit), this would be a contrived tenancy. Source: Shelter

My understanding is that until about 1840 tithes HAD to be paid in kind, not cash, so rather the reverse of what you are suggesting. References / links to your sources?

I think the difference was that back then ( I remember that summer well!) it tended to be a temporary thing. The guy was educated and single and had chosen to "turn on, tune in and drop out" as was fashionable. I would suspect that 5 years later he might well have been a City Analyst! (Do you happen to know?) That's a bit different from the 3-generation workless that we have now. Also, the pernicious effects of Housing benefit didn't exist untill the late 70s/80s; until then, IIRC, you got National Assistance which was a set amount which had to cover everything - so you chose whether to live in the cheapest rat-infested hovel you could find so as to have more money for other things, or to be better housed but poorer.

What gets me is the attitude of "I'm entitled to a GOOD job, with GOOD prospects that I ENJOY". This has only been a possibility for 95% of the population in the last 50 years or so; and not just because of evil BTL / Banksters / Government /NWO or whatever. if you owned a 3- 5 acre smallholding in victorian times you (and all your family) would would be working all hours of the day to keep body and soul together. People didn't flock to town slums and factories in the Industrial Revolution because they were forced to (generally; there are obvious exceptions like the Highland Clearances) it was because subsistence farming is so damned hard. Not just in England; consider all the deserted villages in rural France (until bought up by rosy-spectacled Brits -personally, I can think of nothing more bleak than winter in Northern France or the Auvergne).

You don't say where in the country you are, but it's presumably a University town. It may have short-term rentals (i.e. basically the holiday cottage market) to tide you over. A lot of student rentals change over on July 1st (my daughter in Sheffield got caught up in this) so you may find that some more trickle onto the market over the next few weeks. May be a better option than being stuck in a location you don't want for 6 months minimum, even though the weekly rates are much higher....

Asking, perhaps - not getting, if you check nethouseprices. Mostly about £150 -160 in 2007 and going gently downhill ever since. Social housing in the making if I ever saw it.

All that development on Richmond park Road was a car crash from the get-go. They've taken forever to sell or even let - and given the cramped situation slap on a very busy road I'm not surprised. One corner house - standard Bournemouth 4-bed detached - managed to end up as 6 flats by building on every scrap of land.

Where does it say it's pets? There's nothing illegal about burying Grandma in the garden, as long as the death has been correctly reported & there's no problem with waterway pollution etc! Though the websites which talk about this do always say, "For heaven's sake consider what you'll do if you want to move!" If it is pets, they'll have stopped visiting after a couple of years & you can probably get the covenant rescinded eventually.

Well, I must confess to once having attempted a cool Art Deco Chocolate and Cream bedroom. Ended up looking like British Rail waiting room circa 1950. Tricky combination to get exactly right!

Actually, I can see more validity in this than many Equality & Diversity posts. I wouldn't necessarily know how to deal safely with discarded syringes, or what consituted an acceptable level of cleaning-up after vomit, dog-shit etc especially if there are youg children or frail elderly about. Also, some of the cleaning products on the market are pretty lethal - caustic soda, or Spirits of Salts (32% Hydrochloric acid) for example; and some of them should definitely not be used in combination or after each other.

I think what may be at issue is 1. No, you can't sign away your statutory rights whether in tenancy or eg food safety 2. What about the situation where the LL says "You've just given notice. I would like to show prospective tenants round. I will offer you £200 (or whatever) to permit a maximum of 8 (insert preferred figure) viewings during your notice period." 3.You say "Yes" and take the money. I would have thought that was a perfectly good contract outside the normal tenancy terms. You certaibnly couldn't say Yes, then refuse access AND hang on to the cash (I don't think!) Any views?

That's what I mean. Back-up insurance choice, or clearing.