Category: House

Had a call today, for the first time, from our tenants in the house. There is a leak. Can I go over.?

So went over and had to laugh, even though my house was being ruined. The tenant lady was sitting in her car, whilst Niagara falls poured down the outside steps of the house.. I ran inside and turned the water off – no more leaking. It had been doing this for half an hour, the water was pissing out of the extractor fan in the small downstairs toilet and was coming out at mains pressure – if the water had been switched off immediately there would have been hardly any damage.

But it wasn’t and there was, the floor was knackered, the doors were wreaked, the water had even pooled in the ceiling. So big panic – I called Bovis Customer Care and they said someone would come out, the tenants said they wouldn’t be, i phoned them back and they said it was all okay. So I was piggy in the middle – really annoying.

Next day customer care were coming, tenant was shouting a lot at various people. I did absolutely everything I could for them, I got them a hotel, and sorted it all out, the only problem they had was that the carpet was gone from the lounge/hall and toilet – not brilliant, but hardly un-inhabitable.

Anyway – they have now said they don’t want to renew. I am cross.

By 10th June the carpet was fitted, but carpetright didn’t send all the carpet, so we still have to do the hall way.

So its been a right pain in the harris, and now will have to find new tenants, which will mean I will probably lose two months rent. Not HP.

..I hope.

So they now on the one hand take no liability, nor answer my questions and offer a £2000 settlement. On the other they suggest we should go to court. Really disappointing, after the last conversation with Neil Evans the MD I was thinking that perhaps they were all above board. Not now.

They are, of course in the right, I signed the ridiculous sole sellers contract and never shall I again, but they should have tried harder to get a good solution. To only leave a message with Bovis and not have the courtesy to call me back is inexcusable. But that’s business.

So West Wales Properties, you will never have any business from me or my family again, and I will ensure that everyone who asks will get an truthful account of your business practices. You are not a nice business, and people will be told…..

Ohh its getting all exciting – had our “house demo” today, where they show you somethings in the house. Took and hour and a half and they go through a lot of stuff, nothing really amazing, but a couple of interesting things which I have probably already forgotten  Both places look good, they are doing a final clean, but in the most part it looks okay, a couple of things noticed on first pass, which will get sorted, but only a couple of days and we’ll get the keys…

In other news the building cert came and sent to Solicitor, she also needed to get confirmation from Sian that she was happy for the money from the mortgage goes into my private special account and not the joint one ;o) Looks like there is nothing outstanding, and Bovis have confirmed they will pick up the West Wales Properties cost.

As far as West Wales goes, Neil replied today, although I left a message previously – so I just put all the facts down, again, and asked for the final charge. Hopefully that will be that.

Sian is back to Pembs to pick up the rest of the furniture on Friday, then we just need to drop the keys off and that’s that. Just waiting for the carpets now.

Carpet measurer came today – he likes his job. Very professional. Slightly odd. But he knows his carpets and his measurements, and how to make off cuts from no where and add them into the built in cupboards. We are in safe hands?

Had a look at the kitchens for the first time today, and the tiles in the bathrooms – looks really good. Flat is far better, the house is fine, but the bedroom is teeny-tiny. All really coming together.

Price of carpet has expanded by 3 hundred quids now the full measure has taken place, but we know what we want from there and its still 1200 cheaper than Bovis quoted – so can’t be bad?

Got the house insurance, £132 which seemed okay – rubbish guy on the phone. I phoned him back when his quote specifically stated “No accidental damage”, and he insisted that it did. No energy to argue so took it anyway.

Initial quote from Carpet Right was £2300 for both – seems okay? Bovis wanted £3700 so should be okay. Called into a carpet place in Caldicot and he finally rang back to say what a dope I was for measuring the houses!! After two days that was all he had to say, not an approx quote, just that I was stupid ;o) well…

Also finally arranged a joint account – aren’t I all grown up, never had one before. So joint houses and joint account – nearly all sorted.

Contract exchanged – sorted, all done yesterday, with a confirmed Completion for the 30th November. Finally.

I need to get the buildings insurance sorted now – first quote was £140 which seems pretty good to me.

Next is the carpets, Bovis charge £1700 per house – hope that Carpet Right is cheaper – need to agree whether we do full vinyl (with a wood effect) or do the normal carpet route.

Need to hire a van for Becs so that we can pick up some beds and the table from H/West, running out of weeks now, so might have to do this next week.

Need to speak with the rental dudes to make sure the house is marketed as soon as possible – ideally to get someone in for Jan 1st – which is looking difficult at the moment…

In other news, insured the car for the boys – £988 this time, and Tom will have his test in a couple of weeks. Nearly Christmas ;o)

Went over to see the flat and the house to measure up today. Flat looks great, had a look at a different one with the kitchen already in – looks pretty good. We also went to see the house for the first time – its tiny!!!

Although it is not finished, it doesn’t look very big, but I suppose with just two of you cwtching down in there it would be fine. Bedrooms are not large, but the bathroom is bigger than the last Hilton bathroom we had.

Also spoke to the Solicitor, Bovis are ready to exchange, but only if the electrics are signed off. Whch they are not yet. So looks like they will push back the exchange due to this – they don’t seem too bothered about the actual building cert – just the electrical sign off. Can’t get in touch with Jase at the moment unfortunately y.

So we have the measurements ready to look at the carpets, and we may well be able to get the keys on the 30th November! Coolio.

Bovis cannot categorically state that they tried to negotiate with WWP!.

This was quite fundamental, so I have to wait until Friday now to see if they want to provide some evidence as to what was said. If they don’t then I can just drop it and forget about it.

Still waiting for word from Jase – solicitor is on my back now because the certificate is not in – hopefully it gets resolved soon. This may well impact the exchange times now.

So, got a call from Neil at West Wales today. Which was great. But, he is adamant that his staff did not refuse Bovis the opportunity to continue to sell the house. That is a shock, because the whole case of mine was initiated by the fact that WWP told Bovis where to go, it appears that WWP definitely did not say this – so someone is lying here.

Anyway – if what Neil says is true then that’s that. I just cannot believe Bovis made it up though. Also I made it very plain in my mails to Alison at WWP and it was not mentioned once, just that Bovis might pay it. I cannot believe this is just a mis-understanding.

In other news I have found that I don’t have a Final Certificate, so Jase has to come back and sign it off, then I need to take that back to the Building Control people. This is a blocker now on the exchange – so hope it will go well.

So had another eight things to sign this week, also had to get a witness, which Paul kindly did for us.

They also wanted another copy of the planning consent and the final sign off, something I have never received  so I phoned Pembs Council and will wait and see what they do next. Also found the tiles we wanted were not available any more, so we changed then to a fatter tile.

All looking good for a late November, early Dec hand over… Good Stuff.

So the “Managing Director” replied to my complain about West Wales Properties. Nothing much doing, as expected. Although there were a couple of interesting points.

He seems to have suggested we are still under contract until 20th November – and did not specify what the current situation is.

Decides that the contract is not ambiguious and unfair – as expected I guess

States that “I am not sure who you spoke to but as far as the company is concerned” – so although this was supposed to be an investigation into my issues the company does not actually know who spoke to me – what a pathetic cop out.

He also states that they tried to contact Bovis implying that Bovis did not speak with them, and specifically Alison Richards, which may be a blatant lie (maybe, we’ll wait and see if Bovis have any evidence)- she basically told Bovis where to shove their proposal.

He also implied that he would be happy to go to court on this – I would love to, but its just not worth the effort, and I would hate to think I am in any way lining the pockets of any parasitic layer.

He does say that we might be able to come to an arrangement re costs – I phoned he “had stepped out” and he has yet to reply.

Got the second offer through the post finally today. So that is pretty much it. We have agreed on the tiles and the kitchen bits and bobs. Bovis quote around 1500 per house to carpet – we’ll have to get a quote soon.

Noticed that our house appears to be off the West Wales Property site now, and Rightmove. Although it is with Rightmove under FBM! and at £189,950. Second letter to Neil Evans this time has been sent, although our Pembrokeshire connection gave some advice it was too late… I think RK Lucas are supposed to take pictures today. Not sure what state all the rooms are in.

I don’t think there is much more to do now, other than to wait for the exchange date. Kind of exciting now the (hopefully) hard work is completed.

So, unsurprisingly West Wales did not agree with my thoughts in the formal complaint.

They just sent back a pretty standard letter stating that I had signed the terms and conditions so tough. So now I have to scribe another letter to Neil, the “Managing Director” to see what happens then. Nothing I expect. Then I will have to do exactly the same thing to the Ombudsman.

You see, honesty is not the best policy. If I had just not mentioned Bovis when cancelling the contract none of this ball-ache would have happened, makes you wonder.

So RK Lucas phoned this time. Told them the current situation and the woman “had only been there 2 weeks” so didn’t know what to do. The Surveyor called the next day to discuss and just left a slightly shirty message. I tried him and he was supposed to call back – he didn’t.

Still waiting for confirmation we are out of contract with WWP, received another “update” today, so emailed to ask the explicit question around whether I am in contract or not. No reply as yet.

Also waiting for the second mortgage confirmation, agent says its with a different underwriter and should be here soon.

Not holding my breath.

So all been quiet for a while, then yesterday FBM phone up about wanting to come round and get details for the H/West house so that they can stick it up for sale for Bovis. Obviously this is in breach of Sole Seller contract I would assume, but they knew nothing about it. They are going to back down, with my contract supposedly lapsing on the 4th October, 28 days after I sent confirmation I wanted to stop the contract (6th Sept).

In other news, we had to fill in a load of questions about the H/West house for the solicitor, and send a number of documents away. Then I phoned them this morning to pay for the searches, and I find out 4 hrs later that Cahoot had stopped the payment, and my bloody card because it “looked suspicious”. They security guy phoned me, and asked for all my security details – well that’s a bit silly I told him. And so I had to phone back… Stupid system.

In better news, the mortgage approval should be through in the next couple of days – which is one thing less to worry about.

Also, Radek said he forget he was coming and will be here on Friday now.

Ant’s 19th today – so we have a huge Chinese – fab.

Not heard much for a while, so latest update was that Bovis has told us the houses will be available on the 30th November now, which is a surprise – if we can get a proper confirmation we could get people in before Christmas. But we’ll see. The other bits appear to be going okay – the contracts are supposed to be with the solicitor, and should be at the previous prices – but we’ll see.

The Principality are doing their valuations on this Friday, so we’ll see what they come up with – if I hear or not?

Finally those cheeky monkeys at West Wales phoned up tonight to ask if we are okay with a viewing from someone very interested on Saturday. So I brought her up to speed with the formal complaint and she said she would go and talk to some people!!!.. What a company.

Complaint was signed for on Sat 15th, so as of today they have had the proposed three days to respond – we’ll see if I get a letter today.

Today was the train trip, the trip to Blackpool to pick up the car and then onward to Sheffield for work. Left bright and early, at around 6:40, caught the train from severn tunnel then onward to Birmingham. Change trains to Preston where I spent an ideal half hour discussing politics and the state of UK education with a chap on his way to Wolves.

Swap train at Preston for the final leg to Blackpool, horrible journey with a freaky dude sat behind me talking to himself – the further North on this trip the weirder the people got. So found my self at the end of the line at Blackpool South, and a car park, and no station, and no Mr BMW with my car. A few phone calls later and I was safely in the Blackpool dealership with a drink and my book.

Shortly later “Dave” came with my car, quick show and tell on the control and one swipe of the card and I was an owner of a 530i. Lovely. Now for a 100 mile trip over to Sheffield, taking in some motorway and the Snake Pass.

House update, Bovis now want to change the “cost price” of the houses, so no change to the overall cost to change, just for what they state they want the houses to appear to cost. Just a paper exercise you might think, but no, if they put the one up from 121000, to 129000 then that means we are liable for Stamp Duty – £1300. So I was not happy, and made them aware of that.

Also found that my bank statements didn’t have my name on, so might be rejected, and we forgot to send off one of the declarations.

In other news we checked the leak and the wet wall – it appears the overflow from the toilet is not coming out of the overflow pipe, but somewhere else – we don’t know where, but it might explain the wet wall problem we have. Also my computer power fan sounded like it was shot this morning – so ordered a new one, now the fan sounds fine…

So today had to get onto the secure webmail that L&C wanted to use, which is a right faff. Then had to attempt to print out 3 months of pay slips and three months of bank statements.

Phoned solicitor to pay the £250 she said she didn’t actually want it yet.

Printed off all the gubbins from Principality to sign and send back.

Spoke to some bloke about buildings insurance – 189 quid, seems quite reasonable.

And finally tried to phone BMW about the free 7 day insurance on the car I’ll pick up on Monday and they were too busy for me…

Bovis got in touch today to say that they will sort out the estate agent for us. Hope that goes through fine and dandy, does mean one less thing to think about. Need to provide a load of other info to them also today.

Bovis just got back – instead of negotiating, the swines at West Wales Properties have told them to stick it, and they will take me to court over the fees. Nice. So I have had to ask them for their formal complaints procedure.

In other news I tried to give the solicitors £250 quid and they told me i had to call back tomorrow when the woman dealing with me was in.. Oh well.

Also Mr BMW phones to say the car is just getting to Cockermouth tonight, so he will give me an ETA as to when i can pick it up – hopefully Monday so I can collect it on the way to Sheffield.

So – lesson for today. Be very careful with the estate agent bas$%^ds.

We arranged the part ex completely separatly from West Wales Properties. Now comes to the time where (on Bovis advice) we tell West Wales Properties that we no longer need them – the swines say we have to pay four grand commission anyway. Even though they did nothing to obtain the sale. I was cross. But in the contract they have a sole selling clause which states that they get the commission if anything heppens whilst they are marketing it. Bovis were (hopefully not any more) going to sell through these agents also – so that would mean that West Wales Properties would get double the commission for effectively selling the house once!!! What a world we live in.

End of the day its my expensive mistake, and I should not have listened to the Bovis woman, and just taken the property off the market.

So remember, if its Sole Selling Rights you are signing, even you cannot then sell the property. If you want to negotiate with a part ex – take the property off the market first.

Still cross mind.

We agreed on the cheap but expensive up front fees mortgage, and started the process today. Answered the 140 questions (twice as it is in joint names) and it looks like everything will sail on through now. Took another £99 “booking fee”, one for each house as well. Money money money.

Final job for today is to respond to the solicitor. £1800 notes, passports and two utilities bills plus a couple more sign your lives away and thats them sorted….

Tired.

Have a couple of quotes now. Should we go for, fixed rate 2 year, fixed rate 5 year, discount rate, tracker rate, 2 or 4, big set up costs low interest rate, low set up costs higher interest rate. What will happen in two years, 2% interest, still .5?

Man – how are you supposed to know ;o) On top of this is the complexity around the tax advantages and disadvantages of claiming for various set up things and onward interest payments.

For me, at the moment, Woolwich 3.29% fixed for two years – then 3.39 above base. Low set up. Looks tidy!!!.

Few things to sort today.

Mortgage broker – check, one with London and Country the other with some bloke Bovis advised.

Solicitor – Bovis advised one, double the cost because we want two houses – she agreed we could negotiate!

West Wales Properties – sorry, we do not wish to place our house in your window anymore, we will not be paying you the £3.5K you would have exhorted from us for doing a teeny tiny piece of work.

Day after and massive hangover. What did we do?

Went over to the development, had a look at what we just put a deposit down on. Snuck a free barley water in, and signed our lives away for 2 plots. The house and the flat. Sorted. With the wangling we got a good price for ours and a little sweetener on the new ones – £1000 deposit and away we go.

So, the valuers did some stuff, and Bovis came back already. First numbers were rubbish, but a couple of hours later, whilst I was enjoying a Stella in the pub, they came back with a real good deal. Part ex ours and get two of theirs – fabulous. So, 1 hour to decide.

Couple more beers and a quick visit to an estate agent in town and we put down a deposit on the two properties. Doesn’t take long this buying business..

So, after all the renovation work on the Haverfordwest house, the time has come to chop it in a newer model.

We have been umming and arring about what to do next, so on Bank Holiday Monday we took a stroll over to the Bovis development around the corner and had a look at some buildings. Couple of the new builds look good, and we made a comment about the possibility of having an “appartment” (flat) and a small 2 bed house. The lady was keen and suggested we get a valuation and see what they could do.

We had the gumpf and came home