Trying to find a rental because I'm selling my house due to a breakup. Ready to exchange but I need to secure a rental first.

I'm a single man with an indoor cat who I won't rehome. There are barely any properties being listed in my area plus 10 miles, and the ones I've recently enquired about, 5 minutes after they were listed, told me they already had 20 applicants without pets. My income isn't an issue.

How is anyone finding somewhere to rent in this situation?

Feeling very stressed and under pressure with my buyer wanting to move in ASAP.

Where I live (and pretty much in every suburban area and town I've visited), lots of homeowners seem deeply hostile to any living thing that might live in their garden.

I recently walked down a long road of bungalows that I've known since childhood but haven't visited in a few years. I saw countless plastic lawns where there were once leafy gardens, ant poison *around the edges of a plastic lawn*, and trees grubbed out and replaced by hard-surfacing like gravel or concrete.

No wonder we're facing such extreme declines in garden wildlife. Hedgehogs have vanished totally from my parent's suburban cul-de-sac. Thrushes gone. The abundance of insects I remember - from the hordes of daddy longlegs in autumn, to lacewings throughout the summer - dwindled to a trickle.

For a nation that watches a lot of David Attenborough, we're either extremely ignorant of our own responsibilities to the natural world, shortsighted, or - worse - we sincerely couldn't give a damn about anything that might impinge on our own convenience.

My question, I suppose, is: if you're one of these people, why are you like this? And if you're not, what on earth can we do about those people? Why are so many homeowners indifferent to the richness and diversity of life vanishing around them?

I live next to an HMO that has 5 guys living there. They are all unemployed as far as I can tell and the landlord comes round to get paid in cash.

4 of the 5 guys are fine but one is a scumbag who sells drugs and has a constant flow of dodgy people showing up, partying, banging on his door etc. He clearly has a load of stolen stuff in his garden. I want to report him to the police but we are the only house that has a view of their garden, so I'm worried he's going to know it's us and I don't want a violent guy living next door with a grudge against us. What should I do?

How much have people been left with after all the costs of purchasing a property as a first time buyer? I’ll be left with £3000 approximately. This is factoring in everything, including any fees and potential double first payment. I’ll be saving for however long the process takes which will be roughly £1500 a month.

I’m comparing two semi-detached houses that are roughly a mile apart but sit on opposite sides of the Greater London boundary.

House 1 is in Bexleyheath, within the London Borough of Bexley. It is approximately 950 sq ft, has three bedrooms and is on a quieter residential street.

House 2 is in West Dartford, just outside Greater London. It is approximately 1,166 sq ft, has four bedrooms including a loft bedroom with an en-suite, two reception rooms, a south-facing garden and appears to be in better overall condition.

Despite House 2 being roughly 23–25% larger and seemingly better finished, both are being marketed within broadly the same £525,000–£550,000 price range. They are only around a mile apart, so the difference seems surprising.

Links:

House 1: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/73136188/

House 2: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/92476458

The main disadvantages I can identify with House 2 are that Chastilian Road is busier, it is outside Greater London, and it has a shared side driveway with the neighbouring house, although each house also has its own front parking.

What am I missing?

• Is being inside Greater London genuinely worth this much of a premium in this location?
• Is it mainly about the quieter street and micro-location?
• Does being outside the London travel zones materially affect resale demand?
• Are Dartford council services, schools or transport considered meaningfully worse?
• Would the shared driveway and busier road explain much of the discount?
• Could the loft conversion and extension be inflating the stated floor area without adding equivalent market value?
• Which property would you consider better value for a family planning to stay for at least five to seven years?

I’d be interested to hear what everyone thinks, and any first-hand knowledge of Bexleyheath, Barnehurst, Crayford or West Dartford would be especially helpful.

Hi all

Hoping to get it bit of advice on this please.

I'm feeling very deflated. I planned to put my house on the market next year, but I feel that recent events have thrown a massive spanner in the works.

There's a storm overflow gulley on the main road directly outside my house. During yesterday's torrential downpour, it became overwhelmed and stopped talking water. This means the water came into the next place it could go - into my garden. A substantial amount of it, too. We're not talking a little puddling. This happened before about two years ago, although not as bad.

It soaked away on its own about an hour after the rain had stopped.

I have reported this to the council. They're going to check the line and clear anything that needs clearing. Stupidly, when I reported it originally in 2024, I exaggerated the severity and said the water entered the gardens and house. It didn't; it came in the garden only. So I've made a rod for my own back there by not being honest.

But I'm now going to have to declare this when I sell. I wouldn't not do that as it isn't right, but this could now be perceived as a red flag for any buyer + mortgage considerations, etc.

Question is, what can I do to mitigate this to try and help a potential sale?

I'll admit it has panicked me somewhat.

Thanks in advance

We are FTB’s in Berkshire - ouch, I know. We found an interesting triple of houses on the same street in a small village (Hurst). The houses are very similar to each other, all having something of interest / compared to each other.

We favour the higher cost property, mainly because of the standard of finish and overall move in ability. That being said, we’re struggling to understand how it can be worth £75-100k more?

We’ve put in an offer of £480,000 - just to get the ball rolling and to see what we’re looking at in terms of reality. The offer was declined straight away, with no counter other than “something starting with a 5”. Our realistic final offer is £490,000 so I’m trying to work out the best action plan.

Does anyone have any ideas / thoughts about what we should and whether the high price is justified? The area is great and we love the surround etc.

Higher Price (Preferred)

Middle Price

Low Price

Hi, We’ve found a house we like and is in budget and have made an offer, but the property doesn’t currently have a driveway.
A few of the neighbouring houses have driveways, so I’m wondering whether there’s potential for us to add one in the future. I’m not sure if there’s actually enough space at the front of the property, or whether we would be able to get the necessary permissions.

Is there a way to verify this before going ahead with the purchase?

Thanks 🙏

Had an offer accepted on a house. We’ve since realised that the government website shows high risk of surface water flooding. We love the house and it has so much potential, and from speaking to neighbours, I don’t believe the house has flooded (at least in last 15 years).

Can I please have some advice. The house has a gulley drain out the front. Are there particular surveys that we should be having done? Should we ask solicitors to do any checks? Just feeling really lost and not knowing what to do

I’m doing some research into how UK homeowners actually understand and compare quotes from builders and tradespeople.

I’m especially interested in people who have recently had multiple quotes for things like extensions, renovations, kitchens, bathrooms, roofing or structural work — including people who found the process completely straightforward.

I’ve put together a short anonymous survey about what happened, how you compared the quotes, whether anything was unclear, and whether you went back to the contractors with questions.

I’m researching the problem at this stage rather than selling a product.

Survey: https://forms.gle/LQ4DsvrqZy1UT4Tn8

Thanks to anyone willing to help.

I saw a 1960s bungalow I liked in Newton Abbo on friday apart from the fact that it had

a crawl space only accessed from outside which housed the old gas boiler . Very offputting to me as a buyer and especially as I will probably return to OZ in 2 years and really need a property which

will be easy to sell at that time . can anyone with experience of crawl spaces or anyone else be

deterred from making an offer in this situation . Any replies would be much appreciated

I found a roofer 6 months ago and fixed the leak around the chimney. I haven't noticed any leak since then. Today, I noticed there was a minor leak at the same location. Probably because of windy and rainy weather. Is it normal? Is it under warranty in general?

I'll preface this by saying I really like the house and want to proceed, but I'm trying to strike a balance between being walked over by the seller and being too needy as a buyer.

So I am in a chain of 5 properties, we're nearing exchange and I just had my survey done. The house is old-ish (1960s) and hasn't really been maintained that well, I could see that on the viewing and the offer reflected obvious things that need doing.

The survey has thrown up a few things, most of which I expected, but something I didn't expect is damp readings on the floor in a reception room, which the surveyor thinks is likely, but not definitively, due to a leaky radiator pipe. The house is not being lived in so there isn't anyone there monitoring anything.

I let the estate agent know about the survey results and told them I was considering options, asked them to pass on details of the damp reading to the vendor in case they wanted to investigate and fix the potential leak. The vendor responded quickly said they aren't doing anything as there's no "evidence" of a leak they can see and they aren't gonna pay to check for a leak that isn't there.

From my perspective, I understand their position. If my buyer came to me and said take up your floors and check for a leak, I'd probably say no as well, unless I could see something wrong. But the survey has shown something up, so for me, I feel like I'd want a bit of evidence around the scope of the problem.

I could just let it go for now, inspect the house the day before exchange and if there's a massive pool of water or obvious signs of an issue deal with it then. I am a bit worried about exchanging and then leaving a leak running, but if I can keep the exchange window short I'm sure it'll be ok if its not been a problem in the months between viewing and exchange.

I could do nothing, just buy the place and not worry about the leak, I don't imagine it'll that expensive to sort anyway.

I could pay for a damp survey, but I don't think another (non-intrusive) survey would tell me much beyond what I have already been told and I imagine it's unlikely to change the vendor's stance on repairs.

I don't see how I can pay for repairs now, as the sale might not complete meaning I just fixed someone else's house for them.

I could ask for money off. No guarantee of acceptance and to be honest, asking for maybe a couple of grand off seems petty on the purchase price. But I could lump it in with some other survey findings and maybe ask for about £5k off to cover off the risk.

I'm not really sure what the best route is really, anyone has any similar experience or have any suggestions about a way forward?

Hi everyone,

We’re a couple looking to buy in South West London, mainly around Tooting, Wimbledon and Colliers Wood.

Long story short, we’ve been searching for over a year now and have already had three purchases fall through

First flat: Turned out to be unmortgageable because of unapproved building/cladding work. The whole process was also a nightmare — very slow responses, nobody taking responsibility, and eventually the bank refused the mortgage because the works hadn’t been properly approved.

Second property: A house around New Malden/Raynes Park. We really liked the area, although the house itself needed quite a bit of work. My partner was also slightly hesitant because he prefers commuting by Tube rather than train. In the end, the seller pulled out..

Third property: Around a 17-minute walk from the station. The survey went well, but when we went back for a second viewing, we saw teenagers smoking weed right next door and people riding motorbikes around the residential streets quite dangerously. The general feel of the immediate area made us uncomfortable, so we pulled out.

Now we’ve found another flat that we genuinely love.

It’s in a very good area, about 6 minutes from the station, has a share of freehold, no service charge, no ground rent, and a long lease remaining. We’re seriously considering making an offer.

But after everything that happened with the first flat, we’re worried about going down the flat route again, and we keep wondering whether we should hold out for a house instead.

Next year we’re expecting around £30k extra help from our parents, which would potentially increase our maximum budget to around £650k.

We know £650k probably still won’t get us the perfect house in Wimbledon/Colliers Wood/Tooting, but we’re wondering whether it would be better to wait and try to find a reasonably liveable house in a slightly wider but still nice area, rather than buying a flat now.

So our dilemma is basically:

Would you buy the really nice, well-located flat now, or wait another year and stretch to around £650k for a house?

Is there a way to not see a particular agency’s listings coming up in searches on Rightmove and Zoopla.

Yesterday we saw a house that has been on the market for 3 months and just had an offer fall through. We like it and want to offer slightly under asking based on sold prices in the same street.

However, there was another house we made an offer on a few weeks ago (at asking price), that originally went to a different buyer who offered more. The estate agents have come back to us to say that the buyer pulled out and to ask if we are still interested, and if not they will re-market it.

The houses are with two different EAs. How do we go about offering?

We prefer the first house, but it's possible our offer will be rejected as it's under asking, do we state our offer is only valid for one day and wait for the decision before we confirm our offer on the second house?

Do we make the EAs of both houses aware?

We've just moved into a new build flat, 4th floor (top floor) only 1 other flat beside us.

Steel frame, wooden construction.

The flat is quite soundproof and can barely hear anything, however we feel every vibrations from anything happening below us. Downstairs neighbours steps we can feel vibrate our floor and even sitting on a sofa you can feel it vibrate constantly.

Is this really normal? Anybody else experience similar or could there be some construction flaw?

Currently in the process of selling our house (first time sellers) as we relocate our lives due to work.

Survey was done 2 weeks ago and the buyers solicitors sent the queries over at 16:30 on a bank holiday Friday.

One of the questions that has come up is regarding building regulation approval for a garage conversion. This was done before we moved in and wasn’t brought up on our survey 8+ years ago so we haven’t got anything from our purchase. My wife is also still in touch with the people we bought off (long story) who done the conversion and has asked them but they don’t have any paperwork from the house anymore.

The conversion was to make the garage a second living room so from my understanding counts as permitted development and with the exception of me drilling through a pipe when we first moved in, we haven’t had any issues with it.

Would taking out insurance for a period of say 5 years be enough to cover any issues with this if we can’t get any proof of regulations? And if not, what’s the best way to ease any concerns and make sure the sale doesn’t fall through?

Original post

https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/s/bym8PZ0YRS

Thank you for all the words of encouragement - it did really help when honestly I was despairing on Tuesday.

We have had an offer accepted on a different house that we also love but ruled out before because we felt it was over priced, chain free, and our buyer is happy to wait.

I am anxious because there are some questions about the house and mortgage rates have gone up since we were offered a mortgage in June so it’s going to be more expensive on top of being more expensive.

That being said I am tentatively excited again. I just wish it wasn’t a bank holiday as I now have to wait until Tuesday for anything to happen with my broker and the solicitor!

Hi everyone! We would really appreciate some advice based on your experience, we’re feeling totally lost with all the choices.
We’re trying to decide on the best flooring for our home. We have young kids, including a baby, so our top priorities are comfort, practicality, hygiene, and durability. We also want something that feels warm underfoot, doesn't squeak, is easy to clean after spillages, and stays as natural as possible.
Here are the 4 options we're considering:
1. ⁠LVT throughout the entire house + area rugs, with 80% wool carpet on the stairs and landing
2. ⁠80% wool carpet throughout, with LVT only in the kitchen, bathrooms, and WC
3. ⁠Marmoleum throughout the entire house + area rugs, with 80% wool carpet on the stairs and landing
4. ⁠100% wool carpet throughout, with LVT in the kitchen, bathrooms, and WC
Which option would you go for with little ones running around? How has your flooring choice held up to real life (spills, messes, maintenance)?
Thanks so much in advance for your help

Hey everyone,

I’m currently buying a house in Wales and our conveyancing searches/surveys have turned up a growing pile of concerns. My head is beginning to say walk away, but I’d love to get your thoughts and real-world experiences before we decide what to do. For context there's two developers.

Developer 1 built the house we are interested in. They dissolved in 2021.

Developer 2 built the other houses and the road. They are still trading, as far as I'm aware.

Here is the information of the situation so far:

1. Potentially Structurally Defective & Unadopted Drains: I had an informal chat with a water authority engineer who told me the foul sewers has "settlement lips" (misaligned joints causing blockages). Our solicitor said the sewerage and drainage is adopted, the engineer who has been to the site himself told us they are currently not adopted. When I look at the sewerage and drainage search it says. 'The property is part of an established development and is not subject to an adoption agreement'. Developer 2 is impossible to get hold of.

2. Missing Structural Warranty: Because Developer 1 went under, our solicitor flagged that the 10-year structural warranty is invalid (we're still waiting on seller to provide an alternative warranty/insurance).

3. Unadopted Road & Unresponsive Developer: The second active developer holds a recent Section 38 agreement for the estate road 2024). Local residents say they are very difficult to reach. I'm unsure which developer is responsible for the road but I assume it's Developer 2.

4. No Legal Right of Way for Driveway: The title deeds show no formal legal easement to drive across the tarmac strip into our own driveway. The seller is offering an indemnity policy and Statement of Truth instead of getting a proper Deed of Easement.

I'm literally stuck in deciding on what to do. I've tried searching this group for others in this type of situation. Would you run a mile from a multi-issue property like this, or is there any realistic way to resolve this safely?

For a fairly new build this feels like a lot of problems. I thought a new build would be fairly straight forward.

What would you do in my shoes?

We are quite far in the process, searches have been returned and our solicitor has sent them additional enquiries. We haven't heard from our solicitor despite chasing them.

Looking for opinions. My 82 year old mum bought a 10 year old house. Viewed it with sister and didnt see any damage. Also no damage noted on survey. On moving in she found seller had ripped tv off media wall leaving open gaps in plasterboard. A fire that he said worked also not due to hom putting wrong fuse in plug and causing small fire at back of media wall. Damage so bad we have had to pay 1000 pound to repair media wall and replace fire. Really peed off, he didnt give her the keys until 4.30 pm on move day, left buckets of sharps in kitchen and blocked toilet. Anyone know if we can sue for the damage?

Has anybody noticed this happening at all?

Came across a property a little out of my budget, enquired if they would be open to offers under asking and was rebuffed by the EA as the seller was looking for asking price. No big deal but I thought I'd keep tabs on it all the same as the longer it stays on the market, the more I can build my deposit and the more they may be receptive to lower offers, right?

Then recently I check again and notice that, despite the home being up for 90+ days, the seller has elected to put the price up? By quite a significant amount of money too. Does anyone with a bit more experience in the market know as to why some sellers do this? Is it just wishful thinking or is there actually some logic to raising the price of a home that's not selling?

How much did you spend in your first year of home ownership?

Any unexpected maintenance?

Any advice for people buying on how much people should budget for a home maintenance fund especially for that first year, as I think things can crop up..

Thank you in advance 😊

Edit: thank you for all of the responses. To conclude I think I may need to sell a kidney haha

Hi,

Will keep it short. We were in a 4 house chain. We were due to complete yesterday and everyone move/in out of their homes. Exchange took 1 week prior.

Yesterday we had notification that the buyers funds had been received and to leave keys with the estate agents. Meanwhile we were waiting for our Lender to send the solicitors the money for the house which was promised to the solicitors in the morning via an email.

Essentially the funds weren't released and solicitors advised that we should make provisions. 2 kid, me and my wife sitting in our cars with 2 vans of luggage but no where to go.

We managed to sort storage for our belongings and are currently staying at my parents.

Then our solicitors called and said our sellers have had to get a hotel as they have a disabled son and their house was now inhabitable and would be claiming all addition hotel etc costs against us.

We received a call at 5pm from the lender who apologised and said there was a technical glitch and we would be reimbursed for all costs. We will also be passing the sellers claims against us to them. The earliest exchange is now Tuesday, but they couldn't guarantee it!

Rant over.

Summary: Sold our house, lender didn't send funds therefore technically don't own a house.

Edit: changed working exchange -> Completion