Help my house is falling down 28th July 2011

Last night’s episode of Help! My House Is Falling Down
Season 2 Episode 8 of 10

Gypsy Hill in London – Denis fell in love with the two level appartment at the bottom of a house. Slowly after a few years water appeared and caused damp and the electrics to fail. She’s lived in squalor that stinks as it’s probably sewage leaking into her basement flat.
There’s also japanese knotweed in the garden!

The woman has tried to solve the problem but said that all the different workmen gave different answers. Sarah’s structural engineer said the place needed tanking.

When they were investigating they discovered several load bearing walls had to be shored up too.

The tanking company agreed to do the work at a knockdown price, presumably because they were on TV. How annoyed will they have been to see she could afford to do up her kitchen and lounge! So much for skint!

Her budget was originally £20,000 but was upped after a family loan of £5000 when they structural issue was revealed.

I was suprised to not hear them say they were going to stop the leak of sewage. Or had I fallen asleep during the monotony of the program which now follows a set routine.
Whilst tanking will stop the ingress of water it won’t stop the water which surely will continue to soak through bricks and undermine the building if the pump fails.

The example demonstration was on the Spitbank fort which is being turned into a holiday destination. This consisted of them spraying some water at a plastic bobbly sheet.

It was horrific to see what this woman was living in – and surprising she wasn’t ill. She had however not let any friends in for several years.

Police Maps update

I looked at these when they first came out. I’ve gone back to look again and see what’s changed in the last few months. You can view the crime data for previous months!
You can also click on the types of crime and it highlights these.

Crime and ASB in this area

This means you can look back at an area over time and build up an idea of what problems there are. It will help you avoid areas. They are a bit vague where they put the numbers though as to protect the identity of particular people, but they are fairly close.

View the police maps here

Loft conversions not always useful

Many people dream of opening up their loft as extra space. Sometimes it just doesn’t work though.

Loft conversionThis house here has an office in the roof space. However it’s mostly suitable for limbo dancers.

Stunning loft conversionThis loft conversion is described as stunning. But when the TV sits on the floor is it really stunning?

strange loft conversionThis one still looks like it’s got a loft hatch!

Always check a loft conversion has been done properly with building regulations followed. As well as potentially making the entire property unstable you could find it’s not actually a very usable room unless it’s got the right insulation done, right stair access and enough room to stand up in!

Sell your house without an estate agent?

How easy is it to sell your house without an estate agent?


HouseWeb is one site that lets you sell your house without an estate agent. The biggest and first direct sales company! So what advantages are there? You will save massively on fees for starters! Even if you negotiate estate agent fees you could end up paying many thousands of pounds to the estate agent! With houseweb prices start at £47 so you can see the huge potential for saving there too.


So what does an estate agent do and can you do it instead?

You would want to provide the same information as an estate agent. That is room dimensions, information about the property and photos. The photos should be taken to make the property look good and clearly show the house. Decluttering is an essential first step before even thinking about getting a camera out! Something some estate agents don’t tell you – but when you’re in control you can re-take the photos if you decide you don’t like them, or declutter more! Sometimes it’s hard to be objective – we’d be happy to look at your photos or house listing and make suggestions on how you can improve the look!


There are three packagaes on houseweb. The cheapest allows only one photo, the next level up allows 6 and the most expensive allows up to 25.

You could decide which option to go for by making a list of all the rooms you think would be worth having a photo of.

Why exclude some rooms? If you can’t get a good photo of a room even though it looks fine, then it might be worth not including a photo of that room. Sometimes you need a wide angle lens on a camera to get a good photo of a smaller room. If the lighting is difficult then you can also find it easier to not include a photo!

For a house that needs a lot of work you might put some people off by showing every last room.


You can add extra photos, EPC (That’s an energy performance certificate), various other options, but the most important one we think is a for sale board! Whilst you could just stick a notice in your window or make your own, then the professional one you’d get from houseweb is worth the money.

You should take your time taking the photos and writing the listing. Get someone else to look it over first to give you a second opinion.
I’ve often seen photos selling a house that have been taken on a rainy day and it just makes me feel sad – 99% of houses and gardens look better when the sun is out! Wait another day to take a photo if it’s rained!

Houseweb is definitely worth a look if you want to avoid huge estate agent fees.

Restoration Home -Stanwick Hall

Stanwick Hall is part 4 of this series of Restoration Home. You can watch it on iplayer

Stanwick HallStanwick Hall is in appalling condition and faces an incredible battle for survival, which City high-flyers Gina and Simon have taken on. The Hall is on the buildings-at-risk register which means it is one of the most endangered structures in the country.

As the restoration throws up more and more serious problems, long forgotten evidence comes to light showing it was built on the biggest financial scandal of the early 18th century and was emblematic of the huge upheaval in the early 19th century that changed the landscape of Britain forever.

It starts by saying that George Downing built Downing Street. And he was a bit of a dodgy property developer. By the 1950s it needed restoring.
Stanwick Hall was also built on the cheap. It has been bought by the Russells in 2007.They paid about £1million for it and have half a million to do it up. They have had to get their plans approved by the heritage commission

Stanwick Hall is on the at risk register at English Heritage – I assume if the family restore it then it will be removed from this list.

STANWICK HALL, HIGHAM ROAD, STANWICK, RAUNDS, EAST NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

Listing text here Grade: II*

You can buy the book Restorarion Home.

Auction properties on Rightmove – how to find them

How to find the auction properties only on rightmove.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Cheshire/auction.html
This link goes to this page listing property in Cheshire for sale at auction

So it should just be a matter of changing the location on rightmove and finding other auction property.

You get a longer more complicated URL doing that – but you can manually edit the url in the address bar so it reads
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/Manchester/auction.html
and then that takes you to the Manchester auction properties.

We spotted this useful hint from Venger! Thank you!

Traditionally auction properties have been bought by cash buyers. If you have a mortgage appreoved then ask if they’d consider letting you buy an auction property – buy do searches and surveys in advance and get a solicitor who specialises in auctions in before you start spending any proper money as they can look through the legal pack and warn if there’s something obvious.
Don’t expect mortgage companies to be happy with any major issues on an auction property like subsidence. Leave well alone to people who can afford to lose their deposit!