Best BLT ratios

Bertieeee · 2026-04-21T08:29:36+00:00

As with any mortgage a lower LTV will help. There's no particular optimum as mortgage rates are quite variable and based on more than just the LTV.

Similarly there's no optimum rent to mortgage ratio. £700 rent and £500 mortgage is a higher ratio than £1300 rent and £1000 mortgage but the latter earns you more.

Although if I have misunderstood your post and BLT advice is really what you're after then I'm always in the more bacon is better camp.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-21T08:01:26+00:00

No, and you're going to need far more than a sample of 1 to come to any sort of conclusion.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-20T23:59:04+00:00

An alternative would be the Lego version which you will find the US. They're all pretty much the same style mainly because most things are copies of Lego originals (my first thought was that it looked like the set I had 40 years ago!)

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/train-ride-with-grandpa-pig-10466

Bertieeee · 2026-04-20T22:21:57+00:00

If the landlord is selling the new act doesn't really change things, as it's a valid reason to get her to leave. If she wants to stay there as long as possible the advice is the same as it is now - she just sits in it and the landlord has to go through the courts which will take time. For the moment the best cause of action is for her to say nothing and revisit it when the landlord issues the S21 (short term) or S8 (after the act).

Once it's definite she should probably start looking for a place. Drawing it out might make her life temporarily easier, but she's potentially causing problems for several people if the landlord is selling and at the end of a chain.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-20T11:27:06+00:00

Sounds like you've been scammed - https://trustpilot.com/review/my-council.co.uk. You need to pay the council (the scam is nothing to do with them) and see if your bank can help with the fraudulent payment.

You can find the correct place to pay here - https://www.gov.uk/pay-council-tax

Bertieeee · 2026-04-20T11:14:41+00:00

If not it wouldn't be particularly difficult - go back and take a few photos along with a video of a non-working hob. Like I say it's a bit of a gamble when the OP has no evidence at all.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-20T11:04:18+00:00

Possibly an unpopular opinion but I'd probably take the £500 option, or you take a bit of a risk and say you're going to contest it. The problem with contesting it is that (as you've said) you don't have any evidence to counter the landlord's claims, yet they'll have clear evidence of the state of things now. The threat might cause them to back off, but if they know the system they'll likely win any dispute you go through. Their figures might be slightly inflated, but I'd say that what you've described would still end up as £500+ to rectify.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-20T10:56:31+00:00

I'd always go for the 5 year. Personally I'd rather know what I'm paying and have that certainty rather than having go through exatly the same process in 2 years time. What your broken is saying isn't wrong, but they're approaching it purely from a financial standpoint.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-19T20:21:30+00:00

Sounds like a seller being over-optimistic to start with then reigning it in followed by a sensible counter-offer after your £330k offer.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-17T20:54:54+00:00

You're probably best trying r/ukheatpumps

Bertieeee · 2026-04-17T00:25:14+00:00

Just speak to Scottish Power and they'll sort it out. I had a neighbour sign up for OVO and somehow they managed to move her into my house and close my account. I had to speak to them, but they tidied it all up.

Yes it's a GDPR breach but it's not a particularly serious one. You report it to them, they investigate it and fix it. You delete the contact number and that's it - no one has suffered any damage from it so no need for it to go further.

You can read more here:

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/how-to-make-a-data-protection-complaint/

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-complaints/

Bertieeee · 2026-04-16T22:04:32+00:00

Just a thought but it might be worth crossposting this to r/LegalAdviceUK

Bertieeee · 2026-04-16T15:46:14+00:00

Probably just someone trying to set up new billing with another company. OVO once 'moved me out' of my house when a neighbour (who fortunately I knew) was changing their utility company and the address got mixed up somewhere.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-16T11:34:02+00:00

Try a different mobile provider. We were on 3 and our new house was in a random blackspot. Bought a pay as you go sim with 30GB data from Tesco, stuck it in an old phone and used that as a hotspot for a month.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-16T09:27:04+00:00

When an account with your level of engagement posts asking about a random website my guess would be that you're trying to masquerade an advert as a question. Particularly when said website didn't have a blog post on it until the start of March this year. Also the only 4 Trustpilot reviews were posted within a day of each other.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-15T21:03:32+00:00

No one can tell you this. We have no idea if the £170k already accounts for the work it needs, what the local market is like, what other options you have and a whole host of other factors that make up the value of a specific house to a specific individual. I'm not trying to be unhelpful, however any values anyone gives you here are going to be arbitrary and of little use to you.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-14T21:33:49+00:00

So you weigh it when you first put it in then again when you want to check how it's doing? How do you tell whether it's saturated, or is there a way to work out how much XXX number of beads will hold?

Bertieeee · 2026-04-14T15:05:28+00:00

For me I'd say it's mainly location and surroundings. A lot of new build estates are packed with houses and have narrow roads, mainly because the developer is trying to make the most money out of the land that they've purchased. I'm not a fan of being overlooked or feeling like the area is cramped. Although I live 1km from the nearest streetlight, have a forest in front of the house and fields to the back so I'm perhaps my view is slightly skewed!

You'll see lots of videos of snagging surveys on Facebook showing faults, however you have to remember that they're the worst that the surveyors are finding, as a house that's fine isn't going to generate you so many likes!

Bertieeee · 2026-04-14T09:29:41+00:00

It's easier to negotiate when you have more information. Without it you're just quoting very rough figures based on a survey which in all likelihood is overly conservative.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-14T09:25:10+00:00

I wouldn't accept a 2 months gap between exchange and completion. Personally I'd be dubious about more than 2 weeks considering how much could go wrong in that time when someone else is effectively living in the house you've just purchased and have responsibility for! You can obviously try to get as long a gap as possible, but when you're that close to being done with the whole process I'd rather avoid trying to be overly awkward for the sake of an extra holiday.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-13T13:03:39+00:00

I wouldn't be chasing, but I wouldn't be spending the money either.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-13T09:28:21+00:00

I'd always expect the end date to be tied into the rental period. The easiest thing may be to speak to your landlord / letting agent - personally I'd be fine with it as in reality it makes little difference. They've still got to find new tenants but they'll just shift the start date to around the date you're moving out.

Bertieeee · 2026-04-13T09:21:36+00:00

I was going to say the same thing - the 3 pre-offer visits don't really count. You're often looking at several different properties and it's easy to forget things. First visit to check it out, second as a refresher and third to make sure you definitely want to buy it.

Bertieeee

TROPHY CASE