Author: Diane

I’m not a fan of shared equity at all – and here’s a great example of why not
This couple were used in advertising when they bought their home – they now are struck there unable to afford to move. Shared Equity is bad!


Samantha Hyde and Craig Smith bought a one-bedroom flat in Cardiff Bay’s Prospect Place in 2004, they were used in advertising features for property developers Bellway, selling its shared equity Open Door Scheme as a perfect opportunity to get on the property ladder.

A spokesman for Bellway said the couple had agreed when they bought the flat that they would pay back the outstanding 25% when they sold.

So make sure you fully understand the consequences of the legal documents you sign.

Ever thought you didn’t have enough space?
This flat is tiny – 90 sq foot of space.

A charity called Save Britain’s Heritage publishes a list of buildings at risk. Some would be suitable for doing up and turning into family homes.

The new edition of Buildings at Risk 2010-2011 is available now, priced at £15

This site is written by a conveyancing expert called Richard Webster. It’s a useful site with lots of questions explained about buying and selling houses.

There’s a dispute on the Isle of Man with Jeremy Clarkson being accused of diverting a footpath on his land belonging to his holiday cottage. The dispute is in court at the moment, but overnight vandals have wrecked fencing and a gate on his property.

He would, or should have, been alerted to the presence of a footpath on his land during the buying process. It might be of little interest to those only buying small properties but it’s interesting none the less to see where public rights of way are and how they might affect your home. If you’re buying a large estate with many acres you might well want to be fully aware of where footpaths go and you might expect to see dozens of ramblers a week going right past your house!
There are great information resources out there called Geographical Information System (GIS) and most councils allow public access to this system. It shows footpath routes, some show details of gates and other information.
They’re very interesting to look at too if you like walking!

How to find footpaths and rights of way in your area
Search for one for the county you’re in by typing into a search engine Geographical Information System and the county name. If you can’t find one then have a look on your local council’s site or ring them up and ask.
They are invaluable for giving you information about footpaths before you arrange viewings of a property!

Always check with a solicitor during the conveyancing about footpaths and your legal obligations to keep them open!

A very interesting bit of their website that you might not have looked at.
Click here to get to the Market Trends section
Type in the first part of your postcode – eg: M40
You can filter the graph – by default its set at 2 years and all property, but you can tweak these if you want more specific data.
It shows me that – the data so far for February – that the average price is £68,333 over the three properties that have sold. By using the filters I can determine that these were all terraces.
Don’t forget you have a detailed breakdown by street available on rightmove – although I find houseprices.co.uk most useful for looking at details of which properties have sold.
It is fascinating stuff to see how many (or how few!) properties are selling and what their prices are doing!

Coloured bathroom suites were huge in the 60s and 70s. Since then people’s tastes have changed and the white bathroom suite is now king!
Some of the most popular ones were the avocado colour, a burgundy and even a very dark brown black colour, in vogue too where flowery swirly pattern tiles too.

So if you have one of these bathrooms should you change it when you want to sell your house? If the rest of your house is done nice and modern then you probably should.
How much should you spend though? If you’re on a tight budget you might be better off not touching it. Do you have a contingency budget if you uncover something not so nice underneath, or discover you need lots of new plumbing work too?
If your house is pricey then you should spend more on your bathroom than if it’s worth £60,000! This might affect your decision to change the bathroom.
A cheap suite can be fitted for a couple of hundred pounds, and with skill you can take the old one out and drop a new one in without damaging any tiles. This can cut down on costs. But if you do break tiles then will you replace them all?

If you are happy to spend money and do the job properly then do it – if you’re only going to scrimp them you may as well leave it.