"whiskeyomega" @invalid
wibbled on Monday 21 December 2009 09:38

Finally my husband has said that we have to move house.

Currently we have a two bedroom bungalow in a very rural area . Septic
tank,
no mains gas and an extension ( one room) which has a flat roof and a
large
garden - an acre or so, all electric which he also hates.

I can sympathise with the all-electric. I have no CH so am watching my meter
spin like the little girl's head in The Exorcist! Coal fire helps though.

There is little or nothing going wrong with these things right now. We
have had problems with the septic tank in the past ( well a blocked drain
but that was sorted - surely you can have blocked drains on mains drainage
too?)

Of course. I have a bungalow in a semi rural area. Have mains everything
(gas came about 15 years back) but i do have a shared private sewer running
down my garden - if that ever breaks I'll be crying.

Flat roofs are fundamentally less good than pitched roofs, but if they are
well felted by someone competant (or if smaller, leaded) they should see
good service before needing redoing.

He says another place would be cheaper and we cant afford this one. He
maintains loads of things are wrong with this house but I don't see any of
them when I look around. We have rising damp apparently but its
condensation.

Rising damp is one of those ill understood things used to sell random cures.

Is any wood actually going rotten? Any black staining on the walls?
Is there a simpler cure, eg removing earth banked up over teh DPC in the
wall outside, or just adding some ventilation?


I don't know how much our house is worth but not a lot given its state of
repair - old bathroom, ( avocado suite if you remember those) and old
kitchen and mostly old storage heaters and rather damp right now as a
result
of no heating. The guttering leaks at all joints and the double glazing
is so old it probably needs re doing too.

You'd be surprised. A major fraction of the worth is in the land alone. If
the building shell is solid, then the worst price knock down would be to
refit internal things, eg add CH, electrics, plumbing or whatever you think
might need doing. Most honest estate agents say don't bother. You'll be
lucky to make a profit on such works - better to sell to someone who can do
it their way to their tastes.

Sure - a nicely presented house with everything in tip top condition will
sell quicker and for more, but it's still fine to sell a "fixer upper"

Given teh state of the market, presumably you can afford to wait for a
sensible offer? Selling in a rush right now isn't such a good idea, but
people are buying - just more slowly.

We don't have a mortgage and no real money worries to be honest.

He wants to move into town into an old peoples unit ( one bed and no
garden) which would cost about £80,000. It would be leasehold and
maintenance fees are about £500 at the moment.

Assuming such places are generally available, or you can reserve one, take
your time...

We would also have to have a water meter and we would still have storage
heaters as they have no mains gas allowed there either - I think that was
for safety reasons for the elderly.

They could have central heating if they wanted?...

He is 59 and retired early recently.

I am 50 and still working.

I don't want to move. I would rather try and sort our house out. I don't
have the skills for this though. I do know my neighbour who is on a water
meter pays £254 a quarter for water and there is no reason to suppose we
would use less than her. I currently pay £250 a year in rates for water (
our septic tank means we get reduced rates - we wouldn't get that with a
water meter in SW water) .

If your are going to sell, forget the water meter. Leave it to the next
occupant to decide. If you aren't, perhaps try to estimate your usage and
see if it works for you.

Is it bad news to have a house with septic tank and storage heaters and no
mains gas and a flat roof on an extension? Or is he being bloody silly?

He has a point - but lots of people have some/all of those. When was the
flat roof last re-covered? How long does the septic tank last between
emptyings? Is it practical to replace it with some sort of digester?

You could look at oil or propane gas (big white cylinder in the garden,
filled by truck in much the same way as oil). Don;t know what the relative
economics are at the moment vs Economy 7 - liquid fuels go all over the
place pricing wise.

--
Tim Watts

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