The property lawyers I'm using for our sale were by far the highest rated in our area and have many glowing reviews. Obviously it was a bit of a shock to hear from the estate agent that they are useless, while he was pressing his own recommended solicitors on us. He's emailed this morning to advise there are potentially two other offers on the property, while asking again if we want a quote for his recommended solicitors, which I found a bit strange.

Does this sound like typical estate agent bullshit to you? If it helps me secure this house Im not really bothered about using this guy's solicitor, but would it be weird to use different solicitors for our sale and purchase?

I own a top-floor leasehold flat in London (worth about £420k, 115 years left on the lease, ground rent about £50, low shared costs) in a Victorian terraced house. There are two flats below, owned by a small company that is now selling the building's freehold (but still letting the two leasehold flats). I guess they're trying to free up some capital for another project.

They're asking £25k for the freehold, plus solicitor fees. They've also informally agreed to look into extending my lease to a 999-year lease for '£750 surveyor + £1250 solicitor + lease extension itself'. I'll probably be letting the flat quite soon as I might be working abroad, so the practical arrangement of building management would definitely not be ideal.

However, aside from this, my main question is – would the purchase of the building's entire freehold be worth it in terms of significant increased value if I ever decide to sell my flat (not for at least another 5-10 years)? Or would a 999-year leasehold be almost as good?

Looking for some general advice on what to do as I'm a (honestly quite clueless!) first time buyer, and getting a lot of conflicting advice.

I'm 32F, live alone, and have been renting my whole life. I've had a lot of constant family pressure to buy a house but despite having a lot of savings and living frugally, house prices seem to keep rising out of reach. I have a 100k deposit (including LISA bonus) and could get a mortgage of 160k, but even though I'm in a comparitively cheap city in England, 2-bed houses in the area I'd want to be aren't going for that unless they need some decent renovations which I wouldn't be able to afford.

However, there's plenty of 2-bed flats around the area in the 200k range. My issue is that I'm getting told from all angles that buying a flat is a huge no-no currently - that I'll lose equity, the service charge (average seems to seem like £150pm currently) will go up and is a waste of money, it'll be hard to sell etc.

I'm currently renting a tiny flat for £850 a month and couldn't afford more, so I don't want to stay in the flat for long but also don't want to end up with no savings and a huge mortgage just so I can get a house somewhere. In my heart I'm not really worried about the investment and equity of it all, I just want somewhere to call mine. I don't want kids, don't have a car, don't have a long-term partner, and am not a homebody so I value a great location over loads of space and definitely don't want to move out to the far suburbs just so I can have a house.

It seems my options are currently:

- Keep renting until I can buy with a partner or house prices plummet (a huge longshot).

- Buy a small flat, but be at the mercy of the service charge and equity-loss issues.

- Go for an unideal location and get a small house possibly.

I guess I'd love some insight on what the best course of action is, as it's so hard to tell what's genuine advice and what's just fearmongering if I'm honest. Can provide any more info needed, thank you so much in advance!

We are in the process of extending a lease of four flats that has been granted with no premium (£0) and a peppercorn rent

My solicitor has been told the application fee is based upon the maximum amount the leasehold property could be sold for on the open market, and I have been told that this value will be entered on the register for the leasehold title.

I was not aware that a property could have a maximum it could be sold for and to my knowledge we don’t currently have a maximum.

I’m confused about how the maximum is calculated (I assume this is different to the valuation we provided you which was not the maximum) and why there needs to be a maximum.

Surely this would affect resale value of our property if a maximum was attached?

England, UK.

We've recently had a Level 3 Survey done and found issues with the roof (damages slates, loose lead work letting in water ingres) and some structural issues with the attic (damp roof timbers, split rafter).

The seller is a property developer who bought the house from a couple in a part exchange. We want to negotiate work to be done as there are a few other issues such as a boiler etc that we would cover the cost.

My concern is that when we give our solicitors our negotiations, it will affect the mortgage offer as they act for the lender too.

Any advice is welcome on how to tackle these negotiations

I have my house (detached bungalow) for sale currently & am moving in with my partner 3hrs away so spend very little time at my house these days, it's just staged for selling, & I'm only back here when I (rarely) have to go into the office for work as it's near my current/old house so for e.g. I have just got here for first time in 3 weeks.
Coming into winter the house gets cold (I'll be trickling heat once it gets below 12deg as per insurance policies) but I can see on my smart-heating that the humidity tends to rise.

Would it be considered off-putting to viewers if I had a dehumidifier running on a timer on/off every 4hrs or so (with a hose into the bath) or is it reasonable to ask my agent to explain why? They already know I've mostly moved out.

Thanks!

Edit: I do put on the heating when there are viewings (as well as all the lights - I have a lot of smart-tech) but the heating isn't on *all* the time & I don't want to risk any mould growth - I got it when I first moved in & found issues if the house wasn't well-ventilated due to poorly insulated external walls though it hasn't been a problem for a few years now, with the house occupied.

For reference, when empty & no heating, the house has been averaging around 73% humidity (averaged across all rooms)

For context i moved into a new flat about 2 months ago which has two one-bed flats below it, both rentals i believe. About 3 weeks ago I stopped hearing anything from one of the residents and after having a quick glance through their front window, the flat appears to have been vacated. I can see from the rear garden that 2 windows have been left open. I've heard nobody coming or going over the last 3 weeks to indicate that anyone has visted the property and I'm conscious that we're moving towards winter and we've already had a few days of bad rain and cold temperatures reaching around 0°c recently.

I'm a little concerned about the possibility of damp or mold getting in, especially as its quite an old building. I appreciate 3 weeks is still a pretty short time frame but ive no idea how long the property could remain vacant for; am I overreacting or right to be concerned? I've checked the landlord register which confirms the details of the letting agency that manages the property so I thought it might be worth contacting them just to make them aware that the windows are open?

My partner and I are 1st time buyers, buying our first house. We have had a mortgage surveyor go out and visit / inspect the house, it has came back that this house is at extremely high risk of flooding.

When checking on gov.uk and the area, it shows its very low risk of flooding, and hasn't had any previous flooding.

Could the current owners have made a claim against their insurance that the house has flooded and it actually hadn't? Making it "high risk"

Is there anything we can do in regards to the house if we do proceed, our current lender may not offer the mortgage to us, if it comes back as too much of a risk, equally it would mean we could offer significantly less on the price of the house.

Hi everyone, my mortgage offer expired before we could exchange. My original rate was 5.35%, but extending it would mean moving to a new product at 6.15%, paying £111.36 for a reinspection, providing a new payslip and having another credit search. Since my lender is reassessing everything anyway, my broker is checking other lenders. Has anyone switched at this stage? How much delay or additional work and fees did it cause with your solicitor? Would you shop around or stay with the same lender for simplicity? Thank you!

We're in a chain of four. My partner is selling his flat and we're buying a house. Our offer was accepted in June, and by the end of August we'd done everything on our side. We were told we'd move in September. It's now mid-October with no date. Since then, planning permission for a children's home next door has been approved, which we're not bothered by, but the sellers need this sale because of it.

The seller keeps giving different stories. We suggested the 23rd October and he said they weren't ready, then he offered the 30th, but we suggested the 6th November to which he agreed. He told us he'd break the chain and complete on the 6th, blaming whoever he's buying from.

His estate agent then phoned 4 days later saying the seller is waiting on written warranty and building regs confirmation for his new build, which the builder will only give verbally, and that his solicitor is advising him not to go ahead with the 6th. Their solicitor hasn't said a word to ours despite him chasing. Meanwhile the agent keeps asking us what the rush is.

The rush is that our mortgage offer expires on 10th November and can't be extended, and I start jury service on 23rd November. It could last two weeks or six months, so I can't promise any date after that. If we miss the 6th we're renting, in storage and moving twice, which is a cost we shouldn't carry for their delays. We can’t delay our buyer any longer.

We've given them until lunchtime Wednesday to agree to complete on the 6th, or we're pulling out. Our solicitor stated that none of the information we’ve heard from the seller or estate agent has been passed on to him by their solicitor, and that they should have communicated better. He agrees that even if the seller just agrees verbally, getting to exchange could take longer. Our lender also needs buildings insurance proof before releasing funds, which he doesn't want us to buy until the seller is definitely ready to exchange. So even a yes leaves several steps before exchange.

We'd rather rent and find another house than keep waiting on people we don't trust. Are we being unreasonable, or is this normal and we should sit tight? Any advice appreciated.

I moved out from a joint tenancy flat a month ago. There's a month left of the joint tenancy and my ex is still in the flat. I lost my job and won't be able to pay my half of the rent so asked if my ex could pay my half especially as I haven't been living there. They've refused and said they're paying their half directly to agents and leaving off my half. But won't that affect both of us anyway? I genuinely have no way of paying for my half of the rent so I don't know where I stand. Please help.

I recently bought as a solo FTB and know it's better to be on the ladder than not (in some cases), but the costs of work and repairs is awful! Everything feels so new and I feel so out of my depth especially trying to figure out what's wrong when something goes wrong. Part of me wishes I could just sell up and go back to renting; I wasn't prepared for the responsibility of owning and know it will take some time to adjust but just wondered if anyone else felt the same?

Hello all.

I’m currently trying to move from a leasehold flat to a freehold house (both in England). I started this process back in November 2025 so I’m pretty exhausted. I lost my first buyer back in March due to “a change in their circumstances” (but thankfully found another one quickly). I lost the house I was buying back in July as the sellers withdrew it and put it back on the market at a higher price.

On the house, we are ready to exchange contracts.

On the flat though, I am having issues. The leasehold monies are sorted out through a management company, but the Director of the company moved out and therefore stepped down. None of my neighbours have come forward to replace them. There is therefore currently no Director in place and therefore the third party we pay to manage all the admin hasn’t been able to approve costs associated with the actions from a recent fire risk assessment. The buyer’s solicitor has raised (I think fair) concerns about this as they don’t want their client to face any unexpected charges. I agreed a £500 retention but they haven’t yet agreed to this because they don’t know if it’s enough.

I really don’t know what to do. I offered to take on the role of Director to try and get things moving, but the third party company seem to be trying to stop me doing this because I’ll just resign as soon as I move out. I understand this leaves them in the same situation as they are now but if nobody else will do it, I don’t know what else to suggest. Because of the time this is taking to resolve, I’m worried the people I’m buying the house from will pull out.

I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for what I could do. Thank you in advance.

Hi, due to the rate hikes recently more people are going for tracker mortgages. Personally it looks like these just bring a lot of uncertainty. I just wanted to see those who have opted for them in say 2023 when the rates had shot up like present or at any other time are finding it. Is this something you would recommend?

Had an offer accepted on a house 24 September. We got cracking straight away - booked survey and applied for mortgage. Both are now all sorted.

There was an elderly lady living in the house who has moved into a care home, and her son's are selling the house. So I know it's probably a bit more tricky for them.

Anyway, chased last week for an update and estate agent explained they are not very tech savvy so still hadn't even sent their documents back to their solicitor. Last Thursday - 15th - she said they had been speaking to their solicitor that morning to get paperwork started. Started?! After 3 weeks??

We're in a fortunate position of being in no chain, and as we are renting we can be flexible with the move. In an ideal world we would complete before Christmas because we have 2 weeks off, but it's not the end of the world if we don't.

So... We don't need to rush them. We're just very eager to move. It took 2 years to sell our old flat and we've been living in limbo for so long.

But yeah... 4 weeks is creeping up and we've not even had the contract pack yet. At what stage can we reasonably start to get pushy??

Hello all, looking tor some help here!

My partner and I are in the final stages of purchasing our home. The transaction is currently stalled because the seller's conveyancers have had to submit a First Registration adverse possession application. Essentially, a small section of the homeowner's garden and the front of the house is unregistered. She has used and maintained this area for 50+ years without any disputes or problems. 

Our conveyancers have explicitly confirmed they will not permit completion until HM Land Registry fully finalises this adverse possession application. Because we must transfer both the registered title and the unregistered land simultaneously, the transaction is at a complete standstill until Land Registry acts.

We have submitted a formal expedite request through the GOV.UK portal, along with supporting evidence.

My partner had given notice to move out of her flat by November, as at the time we were unaware of this problem, so we are not in a very precarious position.

Does anyone know how quickly HM land reg can complete this?

Is there anything else we can do that may speed this up?

Our hope was we would be in by December at the latest but this seems to be unlikely now.

Hello,

Together with my husband we have made an offer on the house which we really liked and ticked lots of our boxes. Unfortunately, the survey came back with some serious roof issues.

There are two mold patches in the upper middle roof, just below the solar panels. Another main issue is that rafters accessible from the loft are mouldy.

We tried hiring a roofing contractor but they stood us up and didn't show up. Do you think it's reasonable to negotiate the price?

I am worried it will cost us lots of money to repair the roof and dismantle solar panels which are very old anyways as they were built in 2012 and don't generate that much power.

I am filling out a reference form with Keysafe Tenant Vetting. I am disabled and do not work. I receive benefits only. I do have a guarontor who will be filling the form out too.

I am at the part where it says "Income". The list of options are:

Employed

Unemployed

Self-employed

Student

Sponsored/PHD Student

Pension

Savings

Ofcourse I select unemployed but when I click on continue the next page doesnt ask about the benefits I receive. It just goes straight to checking the bank what I receive.

Q. What should I do? Just go as unemployed, without entering any benefit amounts I get as there is no option and let them check the bank?

Title: Goodlord referencing and Property Foundations Group – has anyone been through this recently?

Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone has recently gone through the referencing process with Goodlord for a property managed by Property Foundations Group.

I paid my holding fee last Thursday, and my application has been showing as Stage 2 of 4 – In Review. I’m still waiting to hear anything from the letting agent, and I’ve had very little communication since paying the fee.

My current housing officer has been asked to provide a landlord reference, and I’m also worried about my credit file, as I have some old defaults. However, my rent has always been paid on time.

I’m really anxious because we desperately need this move, and I don’t know whether the delay is normal or whether the defaults could cause a problem.

Has anyone rented through Property Foundations Group and used Goodlord referencing recently?

- How long did your referencing take?

- Did you hear anything while it was being processed?

- Did Goodlord accept applicants with old defaults but a good rental history?

- How long did you wait after paying the holding fee to get a final decision?

Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

We’ve exchanged. There’s no backing out - we’re moving in 8 days time.

I don’t even WANT to back out. I’m scared of the new larger mortgage but I know we need a bigger house for our family and that our current home is not a forever home.

The kitchen is far too small, the garden overlooked, not enough wfh space for my husband and I once we have a child (imminently, I’m 7.5 months pregnant), there’s only parking for one car on the driveway and street parking is challenging, the neighbours dogs are annoying.

Lots of reasons why we wanted to move and why moving will ultimately become necessary. I’m also a keen host and want the space to be able to have family christmases etc at our house.

I spearheaded the move although in the last 6 months my husband has possibly been more gung-ho than me which is ironic because he wasn’t keen at first.

I don’t want to stay. But I can’t stop balling my eyes out because I also don’t want to go! This is the most at home I’ve felt anywhere ever, we’ve been here more than 5 years, got engaged, got married, got pregnant. Been through all sorts here and it is HOME.

How did you feel when you moved?

Hey looking for some guidance.

I’ve currently got one outstanding enquiry left which requires a bespoke Indeminity policy. As the council was contacted regarding a different situation 2.5-3 months ago.

The bespoke Indeminity policy was requested early last week and still have not received anything from the sellers solicitor.

My mortgage expires in exactly 3 weeks. I’m not sure if I need to apply for an extension. I really don’t want to extend and complete as soon as possible.

Is it normal for a bespoke Indeminity policy to take this long to get? And is it possible to complete within my current expiry date if the policy arrives this week ( I’m unsure if we will get it this week but hoping we do).

My mum inherited a retirement flat from a woman she was looking after. It’s a fairly decent sized 2 bed flat in an over 50s area. Unfortunately the building itself in is fairly dated in the communal area and the woman was in her 80s so you can imagine it could do with some new paint and some minor updates for a younger audience.

It was valued at 135k. It’s been up for 8 months and there has been almost no interest. A couple of viewings here and there but that’s it. Unfortunately there are a few others in the area all up since it was first listed. I think the main put off is the factor fees. We have reduced it to 115,000, still got nothing and just recently reduced to 100k. Not even has a nibble at 100k and it’s the cheapest in the area now. I generally think it’s a a decently nice place.

I’ve been in a rabbit hole looking at all other options, I see there’s the quick cash buy things that seem to completely slash as much as they can off the price, and then auctions seem to pop up too as the next best.

Looking for really any advice on what to do? I’ll chuck a link below in case anyone has any recommendations on what to do with the flat. It’s costing my mum a fortune just sitting there. I have been suggesting re listing with some fresh paint but given the reduction I’m not sure that would do much more.

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/72613126/?search_identifier=c9aa81a15e3c670338d4d54053a84daf76c0aae2a070d8b789f0383e0fc2cc8c

Thanks in advance!

Edit - the AI is dreadful, this is a new addition I have told my mum it needs to be removed. Extremely misleading and just should not be on a listing.

The fees are £230 a month. It is on the home report but not the main listing.

Edit 2 - thank you all for the comments. Much appreciated. Spoken with my mum we are going to redecorate for the moment and offer 2 years factor fees with a higher offer.

On the side we will try the auction route, from one I’ve spoke to there’s only a fee if it sells and it’s a flat fee. Will check more into it as don’t want any sneaky business there.

Looking for a reality check from anyone who's been in a similar spot.

**Us**

- First-time buyers, renting in SW London for 3 years

- Looking at a 1–2 bed flat, £300–325k (max £350k)

- ~10% deposit (£36–38k) saved from salaries

- Joint income £113k (me £58k on a fixed-term contract to Jan 2028, partner £55k permanent)

- Want to apply Feb/March and keep payments under £2k/month

**Partner's credit:** clean

**My credit:** family legal costs in 2021–23 caused a rough patch:

- 3 defaults from 2021–22 (about £2k total), all paid off

- Some short-term loans between 2023 and mid-2025 (show as unsecured loans)

- 2 arrangement-to-pay markers (2023 and early 2025)

- No missed payments since Dec 2022, only 1 hard search in the last year

**Since then:** cleared my overdraft and most of my cards this month, the rest cleared by December, one small loan finishes April 2027. No new credit from here.

**Questions**

1. Realistic at 90% LTV by March, or are we looking at specialist lenders only?

2. Anyone with a similar file – who accepted you and at what rate?

3. Better for my partner to apply alone and add me later?

4. Worth waiting until 2027/2028 when it's all older?

TL;DR: FTB couple, £113k joint, 10% deposit, London flat. Clean partner, my file has old paid defaults and short-term loans up to mid-2025, nothing missed since 2022. Go for it in March or wait?

This is a rant more than anything, but would appreciate any advice if there is some.

We're mid chain, selling to first-time buyers. Four months ago we had two offers, one for asking who had a chain, one for slightly under FTBs. We went with FTBs because we were told they had their deposit ready to go etc. Agent told us proof of funds checks were completed.

We came to agree a completion date - we agreed with our vendors (buying empty probate house). Our buyers then said they couldn't do the date due to work commitments.

After a bit of back and forth, turns out they're dependent on a relative's sale for their deposit which "isn't going too well". Apparently the current buyer has just fallen through and it's back on the market. First we heard of this was yesterday.

Really frustrated at the situation. The completion date proposed was in a couple of weeks, we're mid packing, and I'm just dismayed that we weren't told this four months ago. I'm annoyed that someone has lied (either by incompetence or malice).

It was all going so well until now, feeling annoyed it's now probably after Christmas.

I live in a private rented house in a row of 6 terraces that are all owned by the same landlord. Quite often we seem to get rats living in the loft spaces. It's in the contract that we're not allowed in the loft so we can't check ourselves but we can hear them. It's happened several times previously and pest control come out, put poison down and then leave it. The rats disappear for a while but then always come back again eventually.

Is there anything the estate agent / landlord should be doing legally other than this? I want to request a proper thorough inspection to see where they are getting in and out and any potential entrances need properly blocking off. Obviously across 6 houses that will be a fairly big job and I don't know if I'm being reasonable asking for this? We all have vent bricks in to the loft, would they potentially be getting through those?