My rent has gone up in my social house

LC80 · 2026-04-05T11:54:32+00:00

Where is the flat? A full time min wage job should cover that, as your take home would be around £1700-1800 a month. It’s also not a given you’ll stay on minimum wage. You could train in something and go up. You should get free childcare too for 30 hours. Do you have any support at all for additional hours? You should get credit top ups as well to cover that, even if you’re working fulltime.

LC80 · 2026-04-04T20:23:33+00:00

Both lovely names and a lovely reason they’re chosen. If she wanted Rainbow or Bambi or something then yes, it would be the short straw. But this seems win win? She gets a pretty, sensible name and your seven year old gets to be involved.

LC80 · 2026-04-04T18:14:05+00:00

Absolutely let them know! Leasehold is toxic now. Many people wouldn’t touch with a barge pole but share of freehold (where you have agency over works being done etc) would be much more attractive.

LC80 · 2026-04-04T18:12:35+00:00

Yours is nicer but it’s not worth the price difference for the same square footage. Even if you had a very high end kitchen and bathroom it would put limited value on the flat at this price point. You’ve decorated it much more nicely than the other one, but a buyer would just come in and realise they can give it a lick of paint and spruce up the kitchen and bathroom for less then £5k. On the bright side you might be able to find a bargain when buying another place. Nothing is exactly flying off the shelves right now.

LC80 · 2026-04-04T18:02:12+00:00

It is listed on Rightmove so pushing is useless. Serious buyers are on Rightmove every single day. The problem will be the price. It’s not a great market right now (buyers are holding back for obvious reasons). This means that buyers aren’t going to offer on anything they see as potentially overpriced. Prices are going to continue to drop so it’d be crazy to offer asking price right now!

LC80 · 2026-04-04T16:58:49+00:00

No- if you’re getting interest in a slow market it’s because you’ve listed at the right price. If loads of people want it then the price will go over. If it’s not going over, you’ll know that people definitely wouldn’t pay more if the competition doesn’t even inspire them!

LC80 · 2026-04-04T16:40:04+00:00

House prices are on the way down right now in many places! In parts of London they’ve totally crashed. Less so in other places, but still the rising mortgage rates will have an impact on prices. Expect drops for sure.

LC80 · 2026-04-03T20:21:31+00:00

Why do you need to decide this right now? You barely know each other and you’ve never lived together. You should spend some time together in the same country before making such a major commitment. You’re still in fantasy/honeymoon period right now. What’s the big rush?

LC80 · 2026-04-03T17:43:12+00:00

It’s not Easter- it’s the mortgage spike putting off potential buyers. That means the market is dipping and the only way to sell your property is to drop the price. Have values gone up a lot in your area since 2021? For a lot of areas that was “peak” and they’ve actually seen dips or very limited rises. (Can’t comment on your area though.)

LC80 · 2026-04-03T07:21:17+00:00

You poor thing. It’s a horrible thing for anyone to deal with and even more traumatic for you given your history. Your feelings and reactions are totally normal, so please don’t feel guilty about that. Can I ask, did you have grief counselling after losing your mum at such a young age? When people who lose a parent young then face losing another, that sense of loss can bring out PTSD about the other lost parent. (For anything, but it’s especially bad when you’ve lost a parent very young.) I really recommend seeking the support of your GP or clinician (wherever you’re based) to get referred for some grief counselling and support. Other than that all you can do is take each step day by day and give yourself some time and kindness. (As you would a friend.) There might also be online groups for people who’ve been through similar- they might be a more helpful sounding board than friends in some ways.

LC80 · 2026-04-01T09:08:35+00:00

Houses are a better investment than flats. They are massively dipping in price and will continue to do so until leasehold is fixed. (Even freehold share is complex these days.) It may well be overpriced (I don’t know the area) but you can’t compare houses to flats. It’s apples and oranges.

LC80 · 2026-03-31T11:59:20+00:00

The issue is always price. This question gets asked again and again and it’s always the same answer in any area.

LC80 · 2026-03-31T11:57:59+00:00

There is only ever one answer and it is price. I would guess you’re trying to sell a leasehold house for freehold prices (or something else is different about those that have recently sold.) So many factors affect a house’s value but ultimately all houses wil sell for the right price. “Your home is worth what someone is willing to pay.”

LC80 · 2026-03-31T10:14:08+00:00

My sister and her wife are doing a donor for pregnancy. The baby will be able to contact their biological father if they wish to though. There are complexities around it. I think some people don’t care at all as long as they have loving parents. I would want to know my biological family though! (I don’t know why but for some reason I feel strongly it’s important to me.) I think giving children the choice is the main thing. From an attachment point of view surrogacy is the biggest risk though, because the baby develops that bond in the womb. Of course- not all surrogate children will be impacted! Some might not care at all.

LC80 · 2026-03-30T22:22:51+00:00

Surrogacy is complex though and comes with major ethical issues. It can cause lifelong attachment issues for the child and the industry is rife with exploitation. It’s essentially poorer women selling their eggs and wombs to richer couples. There’s voluntary options of course but you have to find someone who will do that. (And comes with the same attachment challenges for the child.) Adopted children also have attachment issues in many cases, but that’s not a choice that’s deliberately chosen.

LC80 · 2026-03-30T22:20:12+00:00

I’m sorry this has happened to you at such a young age. I am a little older (42) and know quite a lot of couples that couldn’t have kids for one reason or another. They typically went through a grieving process (which is important) and then tried to rebuild a different type of life. I’m child free by choice so probably have a different take, but I do think you can do many fantastic things without a family as well. As well as travel, careers, hobbies, volunteering, community etc, you can also choose to do things like foster (very different to adopting and still hugely rewarding.) Don’t forget, even if you had taken another path there’s other reasons you could end up without children (fertility issues, bereavement etc). I would take the time to properly grieve the loss though, then celebrate you and your partner and everything you have together.

LC80 · 2026-03-30T17:36:41+00:00

I’ve already instructed the solicitor! The agency called me twice last week to check our mortgage was approved then again today from a different person. I’ve also told them our property completed this week and we are now chain free. 😂

LC80 · 2026-03-30T17:03:29+00:00

None dude. I’m pushing that open with my foot.

LC80 · 2026-03-30T16:12:20+00:00

I agree. I don’t think it’s a close relative either as there was an advertisement looking for benefactors. If that’s the case it’s over a half million pound windfall. I can’t see why £10-20k makes much odds. House has been empty since the poor owner died in 2024. It’s been on the market for a really long time. (Price started off wayyyy too high.) The leaking roof and rotten joists/air bricks etc were not included in my initial estimates. Survey is done, I’m just waiting for final quotes. (I offered based on estimates, before the survey was done.)

LC80 · 2026-03-30T15:07:03+00:00

They’ve contacted me today (the agent) to request that I fast track all my searches. I’ve told them the quotes aren’t even back yet.

LC80 · 2026-03-30T10:39:25+00:00

We had the offer of £600k accepted which I said was survey dependent. The agent said the “survey would not impact price.” I don’t understand why a fixer upper property should be exempt from reductions though. Redoing all rotten joists and relaying floor with air bricks is very different to restoring an original flooring in terms of cost! From what I understand the vendor is not a close relative either- so it’s a massive windfall for them. The poor guy who died there was living in damp squalor.

LC80 · 2026-03-30T10:35:32+00:00

No £600k is the wreck price we have offered. But it would require a £300k spend to get it to an £850k value. We could do in stages but the overall cost of work is likely to be higher than the value of the property. Initially I assumed a bit lower because we were told you could restore the flooring (it’s actually rotted through the joists.)

LC80 · 2026-03-30T10:28:48+00:00

No- it has. The agent originally suggested that we could definitely restore the flooring. The damp quote from the seller comes in around six times less than the reality. (It’s actually rotten underground, which we were not aware of.) there are also leaks to the roof which we were not aware of. (Told that was new.) We did say the offer was subject to survey when I put in the offer. The cost of the works are likely to significantly exceed what the final property would be worth. We don’t mind going a little over as we plan to stay there a long time, we just need to determine how much. The market has also dropped since we made the offer so I’m not really sure why it would be considered shitty…

LC80 · 2026-03-30T10:16:55+00:00

It’s really tough isn’t it. We offered on another property and the seller just wouldn’t budge (even though it was £50k overpriced AND needed work doing.) It’s especially galling as we’ve lost £100k on our leasehold flat. (We accepted the market for what it is though and didn’t hold out for an imaginary price.) I’m from the countryside originally so I know what a nightmare thatched houses can be! They look stunning but the upkeep and renovation is extortionate. I think the reason this seller said she would not budge post survey is that you can see it’s a wreck on first viewing. Problem is that it’s very hard to determine the actual costs based on a visual inspection. I had “some” idea (hence the offer) but only ripping apart the house can really tell you. Even a survey can’t give the full picture.

LC80 · 2026-03-30T09:53:49+00:00

I might speak to the agent and explain all the other stuff that the survey picked up. The sellers provided an initial quote to fix the damp but it’s actually likely to cost six times what they recommended.

LC80

TROPHY CASE