Pytyr

Coincidence or The Graund taking a subtle dig? https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/19/carter-usm-the-unstoppable-sex-machine-how-we-made-sheriff-fatman I see one of them is a landlord now. It's a disease!

Fixed that for you!

Corrected for you.

Happyguy = sad & desperate troll. Feed if you find it amusing.

National Landlords Alliance? Splitters!

Bit rockist, mate.

I imagine Auntie V came along and tidied that comment away as it spoils the narrative of LL as angelic providers of superior properties to the most vulnerable at below market rents. Also worth noting, it appears the OP in that post didn't read the story as it's a council flat.

Or... Go talk to his local housing office, Shelter or CA to find out his options. Report the LL to the authorities, stop paying rent, pocket the rent refund (it's 6 months back rent I think) and go buy his house with a boosted deposit. Any LL that rents unsuitable homes to families deserve everything coming their way. I would also assume he's avoiding tax so a polite word with HMRC may not go amiss.

He's not using a a deposit protection service? Do you have an AST? I'd investigate what happens if he isn't using a protection service, if I were you. I seem to remember it involves lots of refunded rent, no eviction and no rent to pay until it gets sorted. Check out the rental forum for more help but I think you could have your solution right there.

Deleted

Well played, chickens.

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They paid £435k for it in 2011. They want to raise a million. I leave to make your own judgements about it. http://winacountryhouse.com/index.html http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=30473863&sale=50996031&country=england Looking at the RM pics and the ones on their website, I can't see that they spend any significant money on the place, despite claiming to have "lovingly renovated" it. Still, guess they're worth it.

Dave Lewis already played his one trick. Time to just make it up as he goes. Nothing about this makes sense.

Card declined?

Don't take it up with the cashiers at Tesco, take it to customer service and remind them of the "double the difference" price promise posted on the wall behind them. They refund double the difference if you are charged more than the shelf label,

Feel free to be cynical, there's nothing I can do about that. I asked for advice, got none so moved on. How did I do it? Rent, build up a good deposit, do lots of research (including asking people that did actually answer), do lots more research and finally demand no-chain houses only - with keen sellers. We were in a position to move and used that without any mercy. I told the agents I didn't want any time wasters. We saw a few houses that ticked the box, made our offer and moved on if the seller wouldn't play ball. The house we are buying was found in the morning, viewed in the afternoon. offer in and accepted by next morning, lawyers instructed with an expectation to move at the end of this month. The place needs no work doing and is in excellent condition. I agree, there are many houses with stupid asking prices with people who don't understand why there precious "dream homes" aren't selling but there are also a few places that are not. I didn't waste my time talking to dreamers, only people atctually wanted to sell. As for the rent, We're moving from somewhere very expensive, which is why the rent is so high. From what I can see, rents for the type of place we're buying are around £1200- 1300 a month, so we will be buying for less than that. I'm not going to disclose personal details on the internet, you can believe me or not. Doesn't change the facts. Anyway, I'll soon be a Northampton resident. I like that the town is actively encouraging development and growth. Bodes very well for the future. From the research I've done I can see it doing well over the next 10-20 years. Why are you both so down on the place?

No, not a trick question. I was asking for advice on area, not opinions on prices. We have bought now, you might like to know it's for about 20% less than was paid in 2007 and at 3 x single income over 20 years. A good sized family house in a good area. It's the right time for us to buy, the house ticks all our boxes and we can easily afford it. The mortgage will be about £600 less a month than we are paying in rent at the moment and while the commute will cost a bit more, it will actually be quicker than now. I don't like MK, lots of badly designed estates with no humanity to them.

Hoping for some advice on Northampton areas as we are looking to move there in the New Year. We need a 4 bed, with good access to the train station. From research, we are looking on the South/West side of the town and have been looking in Duston, Hunsbury, Wooton, Hardingstone and Upton. Are there any other areas we should be looking at? Anything we should know about the places we are looking at already? Any help would be appreciated. There seems to be lots of building going on, which is great as it should bring people and growth to the town. What's Northampton like, where are the no-go areas?

Fair enough, FT. My bad for being suspicious of Telegraph staff and house price maths! I suspect the number would be considerably less if you didn't include the 2003 onwards ramp up, the median shows that.

That long term average looks a bit fishy to me. I know the data set is different but the nationwide FTB earning/HP ratio average is 3.4 going back to 1983. However, before 2003 (and we know what happened during 2003) it was never over 4 (peak was 3.9 in 1989) and the average from 1983 to 2003 was 2.8. Peak post 2003 was 5.4 up to Q3 2007 (that legendary quarter!) http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/house-price-index/download-data#xtab:affordability-benchmarks FTB HP Earning ratio I think your info is from the telegraph story and is suspect their maths is a bit off, makes things look not so bad if we're still only that much above the average, if the avereage is more like 3 then it's possibly a more realistic figure. Any idea where they got their figures from? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/10897516/How-new-mortgage-limits-could-work-and-the-impact-on-house-prices.html

Asda started last month: http://www.retail-week.com/people/asda-puts-4100-jobs-in-consultation-as-multichannel-shift-prompts-radical-restructure/5060287.article?blocktitle=More-news-and-insight&contentID=8586

I can back this up. We moved into a rental where the previous tenant had done a runner. We sent back all mail addressed to this person marked "return to sender, not at this address" for a year then stopped. I started opening the letters then and throwing them in the bin. They started off very threatening and important sounding but the debt was passed from company to company and each new company asked for less to settle. I assume the debt was sold on at a lower and lower price each time. This went on for another year. Scary demands for thousands of pounds of debt turn into very polite requests for a few hundred. At no time did a court order turn up. Eventually they stopped coming. By my reckoning this person walked away from around £50k debt. Was a real eye opener.

Update: got a reply from his PA saying my mail had been forwarded to the DCLG for a response. Not really expecting anything from them, just wanted Boles to know he had at least one person behind him and not just listen to the howls of outrage from all sides... I wiki'd him and he set up Policy Exchange, which is where the Cities for Growth report is from (we discussed it a few months back) so no surprises there. I am surprised he was allowed to go on Newsnight and say what he did. The press is tearing a strip off him and the comments sections are going mental - I don't think Savile had the same level of vitriol aimed at him!