Cost of living

I'm just looking to buy my first house and have worked out that if I buy a house for a certain price it will cost me £500 a month for my mortgage. I'm thinking that the general cost of living without food/going out is going to be about £300 on top of that a month. By this I mean to cover council tax, gas/electric etc.

Do you think this is a fair evaluation? A few people have said that they think it would cost less. I'm going into a better paid job soon so I won't need to hold back quite so much.

Fair evaluation but hold onto your money. Madness to buy now. Give it 12 months.

Nah - believe me it is a good deal! If I don't get the place I've put an offer in for I'll be doing just that.

Hmmmm, well. All in my costs of living are about £840 to cover mortgage (A 35 year repayment mortgage.) and ammenities, you must be buying a fairly cheap house or relying on the low interest rates which are currently in place.

mate.I live on my own and here is the break down of my house hold bills (on average) a month.

coucil tax - £60

water - £22

gas - £25

electric - £25

ground rent to the freeholder (which I own part of) - £30

Virgin media, TV, BB and phone - £60

Life insurance - £10

contents insurance - £13

British gas home care - £10

that is it...

add that to my mortagage which is £500 a month (30 year repayment)....looks like around £750..

The property is £96,500.

I've got a guarantor. I've spoken to a few people about it and they seem to think around £500 a month. £10,000 deposit.

Thanks Delldays - sounds good. I'll be holding right back too and I don't think I cost a great deal to run. I certainly won't be bothering with Sky!

The property is £96,500.

 

I've got a guarantor. I've spoken to a few people about it and they seem to think around £500 a month. £10,000 deposit.

 

Thanks Delldays - sounds good. I'll be holding right back too and I don't think I cost a great deal to run. I certainly won't be bothering with Sky!

one thing I did when looking at a monthly outlay..be honest with yourself on what you usually spend..

it is easy to look at it and say you can afford it as you will not spend out on this or that..or not go out as much..but other things always crop up..

one thing I did when looking at a monthly outlay..be honest with yourself on what you usually spend..

 

it is easy to look at it and say you can afford it as you will not spend out on this or that..or not go out as much..but other things always crop up..

Yeah I'm trying to be sensible with it. I'm getting quite a bit more money when I change job in about 4 months so hopefully I won't have to keep things tight for too long. I've got most of the furniture and stuff that I need for the place. Unfortunately I've been stupid and not saved up a great deal of money. Wish I had instead of spending it on a new car, air conditioning, tread mill and other pointless crap now!

Fair evaluation but hold onto your money. Madness to buy now. Give it 12 months.

when prices go up again? It's a buyers market, the ball is in the saintsfc's court.

don't forget to add in car running costs (if applicable) petrol/car tax/mot/insurance, it all adds up.....

( i try to pay off my insurances ,home and car,in one lump rather than spread them out over the year, you may be a bit skint for a month, but it frees up some cash for the rest of the year)

when prices go up again? It's a buyers market, the ball is in the saintsfc's court.

indeed...

so many "experts" say house prices will be on the up by this time next year....

indeed...

 

so many "experts" say house prices will be on the up by this time next year....

Indeed indeed.

Expert from RightMove on TV this morning saying that with fewer properties on the market and slightly more availability of mortgages at low interest rates, the market will start to pick up soon.

don't forget to add in car running costs (if applicable) petrol/car tax/mot/insurance, it all adds up.....

 

( i try to pay off my insurances ,home and car,in one lump rather than spread them out over the year, you may be a bit skint for a month, but it frees up some cash for the rest of the year)

Fortunately I've just paid all that lot off, so when I start my new job I'll need to start saving up for that lot again.

My car insurance is £1400

It's starting to sink in how f*cking ridiculous life is.

Fortunately I've just paid all that lot off, so when I start my new job I'll need to start saving up for that lot again.

 

My car insurance is £1400

 

It's starting to sink in how f*cking ridiculous life is.

Buy a different car.

indeed...

 

so many "experts" say house prices will be on the up by this time next year....

In the meantime they will fall another 20 - 30% though.

Unless one has to buy at the moment, i'd hold off for another few months.

Nah - believe me it is a good deal! If I don't get the place I've put an offer in for I'll be doing just that.

Buy a different car.

A woman's mentality

www.moneysavingexpert.com

Step by step you WILL save a fortune. I can demonstrate this to you right now if you want? Tell what you do for a living? (Seriously)

In the meantime they will fall another 20 - 30% though.

 

Unless one has to buy at the moment, i'd hold off for another few months.

I intend to if I don't get this place.

It's amazingly good value though. I've been looking at a lot of properties for the past 6 months and this is the only one I really like.

Its a 2 bedroom maisonette. One of the bedrooms is literally an entire floor (second floor) of the house which is huge and it has an en suite bathroom. On the first floor theres a really big lounge/dining room, another large double bedroom, a big landing, a pretty small kitchen and another bathroom. My Mum bought a house for near 200k not that long ago (with my dads money lol) and her house is at least half the size! She has a garden and I don't which is another ****ing massive bonus.

If I don't get it I won't lose sleep though as I personally think there will be a lot more available soon :(/:D

TS SFC - did you factor in your ground rent / service charge?

We lived in a flat and the service charge was horrendous.

I'm pretty sure your maisonette will be leasehold. If it's freehold you don't have to worry about service charges.

It is freehold fortunately/unfortunately.

It is freehold fortunately/unfortunately.

Oh OK - well that's a good thing, really.

Unusual though for a maisonette / flat to be freehold. Because you and the person underneath 'share' the same piece of land and also if you / he neglect your property it could have an effect on the other one.

But recently it's been possible to buy the freehold from the original landowner so maybe that's what's happened here.

TS SFC - did you factor in your ground rent / service charge?

 

We lived in a flat and the service charge was horrendous.

 

I'm pretty sure your maisonette will be leasehold. If it's freehold you don't have to worry about service charges.

The management company for my place are complete and utter pillocks.

Next door to my place is a B&B, who had already been granted planning permission to build an extension at the rear of the building before I'd bought the place (and I don't/didn't have a problem with it either). When it came round to them actually doing the construction, they realised they'd require the use of the car park for my flat (and the building next door) for access, as there wasn't enough space at the side of their building to get through. This would basically involve knocking down the wall between the two properties and driving a 20-ton HGV in and out for a few months.

The neighbours contacted the management company and basically lied, telling them that they'd checked with all the residents of the flats to ensure they didn't have a problem with them using the car park. They'd done no such thing, but the management company - instead of double-checking with us - just said "yeah, ok, fine, but it's only to be used 9-5 Monday to Friday, and you pay for any damage".

The first I knew of this permission being given was when I was woken up at 8am on a Sunday morning by the reversing beeps of an HGV coming into the car park, and then a big crash. Apparently, they had brought in a surveyor to check that the car park could carry the weight, and it had been given the all-clear. However, as soon as they brought the lorry into the car park, it sunk, leaving craters more than a foot deep.

I complained to the management company, sent them photos, and asked why I hadn't been told/consulted about them using the car park. They said "the neighbour told us they'd asked everyone". "What, and you just took that at face value?!" was my reply

I spoke to the owner of the property and he promised that they were going to completely relay the car park, meaning it would be in better condition than when they first went in there. When they eventually finished the building work 3-4 months later, I came home from work to find a ridiculous-looking patch of uber-cheap tarmac in a strange bubble shape, which basically did the bare minimum of covering up the holes. Most of that tarmac has since come loose due to the rain, but because of the weather they now can't fix it until March/April... :mad:

In the last service charge budget, they requested money to cover the cost of a gardener, which was fair enough as the grounds were a bit of a state. In May, I noticed that someone was turning up once every couple of weeks and doing a couple of hours of work on tidying everything up, but then he stopped coming, so I asked the management company about it, and they claimed to know nothing about it, and that they'd not actually appointed anyone to do it. So they've taken everyone's money without actually paying for the work to be done.

What made this worse was that I raised this again a few months later, when they sent a request for more money. I basically said that until they carried out the work they said they were going to do (which included fitting an intercom to my flat), they weren't getting the second half of the money from me. They then had the audacity to try to claim that they HAD employed a gardener, despite me having e-mail evidence from them which said that they hadn't!! Absolutely unbelievable.

I'm still in dispute with them, and I'm also trying to get in contact with the freeholder in an attempt to get them to get a different management company. Fun and games.

Steve

We went all through this dire management company bit and eventually we took over the management ourselves. It's fairly straightforward and there's quite a lot of website guidance on the matter.

Our basic problem was that the property (a Grade II listed building) was owned by an elderly lady who'd sold the lease to a couple of fly-by-night guys (I won't dignify them by calling them builders) who did a crap job on the conversion.

However, we had the last laugh because they didn't formally set up the sub-leases so couldn't claim service charges from us. However, this left the old lady (to whom they owed this money as they were the head lease holders) in the lurch and it was her pension.

As soon as the matter was resolved, we sacked the management company and set up our own. We then sold our flat and I'll never EVER buy a flat again.

A woman's mentality

yeh, buy a red one.......they're MUCH cheaper on the insurance!!! :smt044

the block i live in is an coverted building with 4 flats...I own a quater of the freehold so no issues really

yeh, buy a red one.......they're MUCH cheaper on the insurance!!! :smt044

She's not wrong. I saved £200 this year by buying a red car.

FACT

She's not wrong. I saved £200 this year by buying a red car.

 

FACT

LMFAO!!!!!!!!! :smt043

I didn't get it. Someone offered 5k more.

Apparently as it is a repossessed home they have to take the highest offer and I have 28 days to put forward a higher offer, if not they get it.

Decisions decisions.

I've already got someone who wants to move in and rent a room for £300 a month from me, so I'm kinda tempted to go ahead and put forward a higher offer. But if I'm sensible I think I need to let this one go, continue viewing properties and see how things go. I do believe houses are going to get cheaper.

the block i live in is an coverted building with 4 flats...I own a quater of the freehold so no issues really

If the four flats each own a quarter of the freehold, who are you paying the ground rent to? And what for?

I was in a similar position, and the four flat owners just agreed to abolish the ground rent when we bought the freehold.

If the four flats each own a quarter of the freehold, who are you paying the ground rent to? And what for?

 

I was in a similar position, and the four flat owners just agreed to abolish the ground rent when we bought the freehold.

That's right - there is no ground rent if there is a freehold.

However, each of the owners should be paying into a fund to deal with things like buildings insurance, external repairs, redecorating 'common' areas etc. This is why the four freeholders should set up a 'management company' of their own, and have it legally documented.

This is to protect all of you should one of you decide not to pay their share.

That's right - there is no ground rent if there is a freehold.

 

However, each of the owners should be paying into a fund to deal with things like buildings insurance, external repairs, redecorating 'common' areas etc. This is why the four freeholders should set up a 'management company' of their own, and have it legally documented.

 

This is to protect all of you should one of you decide not to pay their share.

Yeah we formed a management company. We just sorted out costs between us as and when they occurred to be honest, we didn't have a fund.

If the four flats each own a quarter of the freehold, who are you paying the ground rent to? And what for?

 

I was in a similar position, and the four flat owners just agreed to abolish the ground rent when we bought the freehold.

myself and the next door neighbour (both 1 beds) pay £30 a month iand the the other two flats (both 2 beds) pay £40 into a "kitty" if you get me...

so no ground rent as such but we put money into a pot which has built up quite a bit over the years...for anything that needs doing it comes out of the pot......which is fair enough

we had to get the roof sorted a couple of months ago..and the insurance covered most of it and the money saved up covered the rest...

as BTF said...there is a "management" company which runs the freehold and all flat owners get a say...but there has not been any issue really...

my mate and his missus live in a (one bed) modern flat in a purpose built block just two mins around the corner and their ground rent is £70 a month....!!!!

When we lived in our flat, the ground rent was minimal (about £100 p.a. IIRC) but the management company tried to levy a service charge (to pay for repairs etc) of about £2K a year!

I am so tempted to put in another offer.

For what I want to do this place is perfect. I really don't know what to do.

Yes I want it, so on that basis should I put more money forward?

I am so tempted to put in another offer.

 

For what I want to do this place is perfect. I really don't know what to do.

 

Yes I want it, so on that basis should I put more money forward?

If it's still a good deal at £5k+ more, then go for it. Presumably the other party will then get informed of your higher offer and get given a chance to go higher again though? Don't get carried away, decide what you feel the flat is worth and stick to it.

Fair evaluation but hold onto your money. Madness to buy now. Give it 12 months.

Nah - believe me it is a good deal! If I don't get the place I've put an offer in for I'll be doing just that.

I think the £300 per month is a fair evaluation. Maybe £350 at the most. As for the best time to buy, surely the best time to buy is when it is best for you. Fewer people are buying, which makes it all the better for you. Yes, you could wait 12 months, you could wait until 2014 or so, and get a better price. But would the circumstances be better for you..? All this talk of waiting might get you a saving of a few grand, and buying now might mean negative equity for a while. But so what..? You'll make money in the end, and you'll have your own roof over your head now.

EDIT: Just read through the thread. Sorry you didn't get what you wanted.

Yes.

If it's still a good deal at £5k+ more, then go for it. Presumably the other party will then get informed of your higher offer and get given a chance to go higher again though? Don't get carried away, decide what you feel the flat is worth and stick to it.

I think I'd offer the asking price of £105k and go no higher.

If I can rent out the room as I want to I think I could easily make £500 a month. I was thinking £300 a month, but people I've spoken to are charging tenants more than that and they don't have an en suite bathroom, or a room as big as the one I would be offering. On that basis then this place is absolutely perfect for me and it's worth every penny. If I cannot get a tenant then no it is not. It is quite near gatwick airport, very close to shops and the train station so I don't think it would be a problem. It just feels a bit like I'm taking too much on for my first purchase. If I get £500 a month it will pay my mortgage.

I'm just looking to buy my first house and have worked out that if I buy a house for a certain price it will cost me £500 a month for my mortgage. I'm thinking that the general cost of living without food/going out is going to be about £300 on top of that a month. By this I mean to cover council tax, gas/electric etc.

 

Do you think this is a fair evaluation? A few people have said that they think it would cost less. I'm going into a better paid job soon so I won't need to hold back quite so much.

I thought you were only about 17.

Clearly, your relatives are funding you and finances are not an issue.

Go ask a financial advisor.

I think I'd offer the asking price of £105k and go no higher.

 

If I can rent out the room as I want to I think I could easily make £500 a month. I was thinking £300 a month, but people I've spoken to are charging tenants more than that and they don't have an en suite bathroom, or a room as big as the one I would be offering. On that basis then this place is absolutely perfect for me and it's worth every penny. If I cannot get a tenant then no it is not. It is quite near gatwick airport, very close to shops and the train station so I don't think it would be a problem. It just feels a bit like I'm taking too much on for my first purchase. If I get £500 a month it will pay my mortgage.

You might be able to rent out the room, but surely after they've had to live with you for, say, 1 week, they will run away cancel the direct debit?

You might be able to rent out the room, but surely after they've had to live with you for, say, 1 week, they will run away cancel the direct debit?

I'd give it about a day before they run for it.

That is, if he ever leaves his room to enter the real world.

What do you do for a job, thesaint sfc? You must be on a fair whack to be able to buy a house as a single young person....

I think I'd offer the asking price of £105k and go no higher.

 

If I can rent out the room as I want to I think I could easily make £500 a month. I was thinking £300 a month, but people I've spoken to are charging tenants more than that and they don't have an en suite bathroom, or a room as big as the one I would be offering. On that basis then this place is absolutely perfect for me and it's worth every penny. If I cannot get a tenant then no it is not. It is quite near gatwick airport, very close to shops and the train station so I don't think it would be a problem. It just feels a bit like I'm taking too much on for my first purchase. If I get £500 a month it will pay my mortgage.

Where's quite near Gatwick? Crawley? Three Bridges? You're having a laugh if you think you're going to get £500 a month for renting a room out there. £300's more realistic.

You'd have to pay me £500 a month to live in Crawley.

Crawley.

I've got someone who will rent at £450 p/m

Amazing how you can come up with that assumption without seeing the flat or the area?

I'm going to put in a higher offer tomorrow.

I'm just looking to buy my first house and have worked out that if I buy a house for a certain price it will cost me £500 a month for my mortgage. I'm thinking that the general cost of living without food/going out is going to be about £300 on top of that a month. By this I mean to cover council tax, gas/electric etc.

 

Do you think this is a fair evaluation? A few people have said that they think it would cost less. I'm going into a better paid job soon so I won't need to hold back quite so much.

That is the line that I am looking at, in this current climate. What is the long term prospect of the job and company you are going too, or is it an internal move.

I lost my job in 1992 when the carry on regarding jobs we are having now swept through the country. Interest rates spiralled to the point where I was paying over £600 per month on a £64,000 mortgage, plus the endowment, and a payment protection insurance with General Accident that was not worth the paper it was issued on. It was only the Diamonds that I was sh!tting that kept the roof over our heads

All I would say is proceed with caution, plan for the worst, and if it comes you will be prepared for it.

Fortunately it is a job where I stand no risk of being made redundant. I am able to pay for the place based on my current wages and with a tennant quite comfortably. I think now is the best time to buy for me, with property prices still falling or not.

Just a bit of a scary thing to get into.

I suspect that you will have to pay Tax on the rent income so don't think the whole of the rent

will be profit.

I suspect that you will have to pay Tax on the rent income so don't think the whole of the rent

will be profit.

I think you're allowed to rent out a room for £60 a week without paying tax but whether the first £60 is tax free and then you pay tax on the rest or whether, if the rent is more than £60 a week, you have to pay tax on the whole lot I'm not sure.

Here you go

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/TaxOnPropertyAndRentalIncome/DG_4017804

lol

who is going to pay tax on renting a room out...I certainly would not