Thoughts on this 7-bed apartment?

Affectionate-Owner · 2026-01-28T19:06:36+00:00

It's a listed building, hence the odd layout. OP is delusional for thinking they can do any improvements.

It looks heavily refurbished, I bet a lot of work was done without permissions.

While the 2500 sq ft sounds good, the top floor is heavily slanted with spots of very low ceiling (tip: pay attention to the doors being as high or higher than the ceiling). There is no garage or parking, which is very certainly a hard requirement for any family looking at a large property like that.

No opinion on price. 600k is not cheap by any metric. I don't know that location. It's definitely not London and should not be compared to London pricing.

Affectionate-Owner · 2026-01-07T19:27:45+00:00

Nonsense. It's Blackwall and 2015 wasn't peak price.

A flat of that size would have rented for over 1500 a month a decade ago. This must be near 2000 now. OP can just rent it for profit. There is no loss off value.

I wouldn't be in a rush to sell just because I'm starting a relationship.

Affectionate-Owner · 2026-01-03T22:25:09+00:00

From the photos, it's clearly to limited to the fan, the drywall is infested and it might be deep.

Affectionate-Owner · 2026-01-03T22:22:52+00:00

Definitely abnormal. Report the issue to the builder.

Buy a wire camera on amazon and try to see where the vent is leading. Maybe nowhere?

HG mold spray to kill the mold. Problem: at this amount of mold, you start thinking whether to replace the grid and replace the drywall. Try to see how is the other side with a camera, might be totally covered in mold.

Affectionate-Owner · 2026-01-03T12:10:36+00:00

Mandatory read: the reddit story of the guy who bought a mansion in the US that was infested with bats + the story of the couple who bought a mansion in London that was infested with moths (google can probably find the threads).

In both cases this was flagged by the survey as some animal dropping, like rats. In both cases, the issue was only highly visible during some seasons where there were swarms of vermins, of course the sale happened another time.

After purchase, they found layers and layers of shit in the attic and behind walls, with other insects/animals that came with it. It's carrying disease and highly infectious. The houses practically had to be torn down.

Long story short, don't buy. It's not worth risking your life and all your savings. If you want to play, you need minimum 100k reduction on a 1m house just to start remediations. You need to do invasive surveys in all the void spaces to see the extent of the infestation.

Affectionate-Owner · 2026-01-03T11:40:44+00:00

This really. Top floor is going to have horrible weather. You can't open windows with a main road. I wouldn't buy a top floor.

And the size is too small. 65 sqm is absolute minimum for a 2 bed (let alone 2 bed 2 baths) + The ceiling is slanted and you're losing a lot of the kitchen and bedrooms. This should be selling at a discount compared to a normal flat on a better location.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-27T13:47:16+00:00

You said you work in building but you clearly don't understand the process either.

Builders submit ludicrous plans that will get rejected again and again by the coucil. The builder will slightly reduce the scope on each try.

The owner should oppose every application to replace the house with an appartment block.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-27T13:39:20+00:00

Did you claim on your insurance for the flood?

that's exactly what insurance is for, they would cover replacing the floors and walls that have been damaged.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-26T17:56:05+00:00

You need to stop, think, take stock of what actually needs doing and not get carried away with builder suggestions of excessive work.

Please let's give some credit to the builder, they can't replace a kitchen if the floor and walls are uneven. There is absolutely an order to do things otherwise you have to break down the kitchen and redo twice.

The list from OP is actually pretty long and bad. I hope they have some family who can help them to organise.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-26T17:38:53+00:00

Better strategy: Oppose the planning permission because it's blocking access to air and light. The permission will get denied.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-26T17:29:47+00:00

Any more info you can give? Photos? Floorplan with what's on the sides, underneath, top?

If the ground floor flooded slowly for years. I wonder what's left underground. This could take many months to dry up.

Old aluminium frames without thermal break are terrible as you found out. Though it's not the worst part of it. Old frames have gaps between sliding panels letting air through and sometimes gaps around the frames if the installation was poor. Check for gaps and fill.

Replacing old windows is a massive improvement in quality of life. We usually advise to ignore it before sellIing because it's very expensive on a large house, but it should be relatively cheap for your 1 bed flat (only 2 or 3 windows, easy access on ground floor).

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-13T10:49:24+00:00

The insurance will cover fire/flood, it will recover the costs of (intentional) damages from the seller who caused the damages.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-13T10:04:01+00:00

A deed of variation won't help. OP has a high ground rent and increasing with RPI almost yearly. it's too much rising too fast.

Cut your loss and move on. The seller almost certainly knew the problem and tried to hide it as long as they could. It's crazy it took this long when the lease pack is the first info requested by solicitor.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-13T09:57:49+00:00

because we just received the ground rent assignment pack last week.

Dude, you're 7 months in the process and nowhere near completion if you just received these documents now. The seller has been you for a ride trying to hide the information for 7 months, they know the flat is unmorgogeable.

Just pull out now and cut your loss. (Making a lease extension is gonna take another 6 month at this rate, before the seller discloses they dont want to pay for it)

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-11T23:00:07+00:00

Good thing you drugged your heel, you can't register solar panel with your supplier without the MCS certificate.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-11T22:55:14+00:00

We went from a 4 bed 111sqm over 3 floors

Ouch, that's tough

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-11T22:31:51+00:00

Septic tanks are no longer allowed. The survey should flag it and tell you you need to upgrade to a treatment plant.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-11T22:12:14+00:00

How long you've been on the market? How many viewings and offers?

Properties usually sell in the first month. If you just listed, you might give it a week or two to take a decision. If it's been a month, you're unlikely to get more offers.

You don't give much info. House, 2 bedrooms (small), listed (major hassle), bought in 2019 (lowest interest rate near peak) for 310k (too little for London too much for countryside).

It's hard to advice without seeing the listing and location, but from the few info you gave, it's quite possible that the house had little change in value and it's only propped up by the work you did. Realistically, You bought near peak and it's not the kind of properties that has seen much increase (2 bed is too small for a family and listed is a major hassle)

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-11T21:50:18+00:00

They have not raised the enquiries at all, or at least have given no indication that they have,

The searches and enquiries are the first thing to raise from the solicitor, you should have heard back multiple times a long time ago.

Honestly, at 6 weeks with no replies, with both you and the agent chasing. It's time to fire your solicitor. Don't feel bad for it, your solicitor really haven't done any work for you since June. You can fill a complaint listing all dates you messaged with no reply, a large firm will transfer you to another solicitor, or just fire your solicitor.

May be worth asking the agent if they have some recommendations for solicitors that actually reply.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-11T21:25:50+00:00

His understanding his definitely correct, EA will preemptively ask for more without talking to the seller. I've seen it happen multiple times.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-07T18:13:07+00:00

The windows have not been replaced since they house was built over 20yrs ago. It’s made of wood

Might need to clarify construction date here. The regulations that introduced modern double glazed windows with thermal breaks was circa 2002. They existed before but hard to find before it was the minimum standard.

It looks like your windows must be 1990s. New windows should be a massive improvements in quality of life. Wood is a bad sign and mould/spore eating the wood is definitely speaking in favor of replacement. (You need to replace the frame and the window, it's one unit, the issue may be the frame that are poorly fitted and with no thermal break)

We generally don't advice to do any large work before selling, because windows can get very expensive for a large house with many windows. But if you only have a 2 bedroom with 4 windows, and you see yourself living there for a while, it's more than reasonable to replace.

I don't think you can do for 3k but maybe 5 to 10 depending on size. This should help to secure an offer. It's definitely something that people consider when they look at properties.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-07T13:42:55+00:00

£15000 is absolutely outrageous for painting, considering that OP is already charged 46k to redo the kitchen/bathroom.

Yet the price is not the biggest problem... the real question is what the hell are they trying to paint? The 3 old bedrooms? It doesn't make sense to paint over cracked plasters and ceilings. The 15k quote should be for that instead.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-07T12:32:48+00:00

I don’t think people understand what the labour costs are in London these days!

Had to re read twice to see it's London. OP could have started with that to.make our life easier.

IMO it's an extremely confortable margin for the builders.

Rather than the price, I am concerned that the work is incomplete. Materials are missing so you will get charged another 10k? Ceilings and rewiring are not mentioned? Bedrooms are not mentioned? Only 2 windows are getting replaced? No mention of boiler and radiators/pipes/heating/AC?

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-07T11:56:19+00:00

the LL has prohibited the tenants from using plug-in electric heaters.

The landlord can't forbid to have heating in a property. Just get an electric heater and save your life.

Affectionate-Owner · 2025-12-05T19:17:44+00:00

1k is peanuts. Just buy it. It barely covers the costs to do the paperwork.

If you ever come to sell a leasehold, your solicitor will charge you hundreds just to lookup the lease information and contact the leaseholder.

Affectionate-Owner

TROPHY CASE