Houses

[danny.]

1 hour ago, CornwallFox said:

I said less landlords creates less demand at the bottom end of the housing market allowing would-be buyers to actually own instead of rent.

Landlords aren't doing a public service by housing tenants. They're the cause of many of those tenants not being able to buy. 

It might bring down house prices to buy but will increase rental costs, and many people choose to or have to rent which puts up costs for them. 

[FoyleFox]

9 hours ago, Kopic said:

Anyone have any experience with getting a conservatory roof insulated or even replaced with a "proper" roof? Any recommended companies? Want to get ours done cos its completely unusable as it is. Trying to find places local to Hinckley to get a quote, cheers.

We had ours replaced with a 'proper roof' last year. We opted for a modern panel Ultrafram LivinRoof system rather than tiles. It's made a significant difference. It also cost a fairly significant amount, though. 

We used a company in Ilkeston.

https://www.lifestylewindows.co.uk/conservatories/replacement-roofs

 

Whatever you decide, do not insulate on the inside. And those cosy replacement panels cost about the same as having a full replacement roof. 

[topguest321]

16 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

As per, it's those who are bad landlords/tenants etc who then impact everyone else. It's a shame as he is a good landlord, rent is below market value and he's quick to fix issues. 

 

Rental market is looking bleak currently, with so many landlords selling up. Not currently in the circumstances to buy as well unfortunately 

What are you looking for and where? I’ll have a large 1 bed flat coming up for rent in a couple of months when I’ve finished renovating it Narborough area

[topguest321]

13 hours ago, Kopic said:

Anyone have any experience with getting a conservatory roof insulated or even replaced with a "proper" roof? Any recommended companies? Want to get ours done cos its completely unusable as it is. Trying to find places local to Hinckley to get a quote, cheers.

Check this bloke out https://m.facebook.com/larchjoinery1/

 

He’s got a few examples of what you want on his Facebook page. I’ve worked with him in the past and he’s very good

[dsr-burnley]

On 16/03/2026 at 21:09, HighPeakFox said:

Thank you. No idea of the efficacy of that study but no reason to disbelieve it.

Going back to the wood burning survey, there is no reason to disbelieve it but there is every reason to look closely at the figures. They were taken over an 11 year period.

 

In the first place, this survey refers strictly to people who live inside a house with wood burner(s). It does not apply to neighbours.

 

Secondly, the headline 43% increase in risk can be looked at in the source numbers.  Of 25,083 women who lived in houses where no wood was burnt, 163 had lung cancer (0.650%) but in houses where wood was burnt more than 30 days a year, it was 98 out of 10,257 (0.955%). So the chances were increased by one chance in 300. (86 out of 14,458 used wood between 1-29 days per year, 0.595%.)

 

Of the 347 women who developed lung cancer over the 18 years, 58 were smokers and 274 non-smokers. (The other 15 presumably don't fit either category.) Non-smokers who lived in wood burning homes, though the numbers aren't spelt out, have an estimated chance of getting lung cancer compared with non-smokers in non-wood burning homes between the ranges of no more likely at all to three times as likely. 

 

The survey doesn't say (not that I can find) how many of the participants were smokers.

 

 

 

 

[UniFox21]

On 18/03/2026 at 02:37, topguest321 said:

What are you looking for and where? I’ll have a large 1 bed flat coming up for rent in a couple of months when I’ve finished renovating it Narborough area

Appreciate the thought mate, we're after a couple bed house over in the west mids currently 

[FoyleFox]

Could anyone recommend a Solicitor, NW Leics preferably?Although, most will just work online now. I need one to file TR1 transfer of land documents with Land Registry. 

[grobyfox1990]

8 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

Could anyone recommend a Solicitor, NW Leics preferably?Although, most will just work online now. I need one to file TR1 transfer of land documents with Land Registry. 

TR1 or straightforward to do on your own if you fancied it. The guidance docs on gov website are useful. 

[FoyleFox]

1 hour ago, grobyfox1990 said:

TR1 or straightforward to do on your own if you fancied it. The guidance docs on gov website are useful. 

Initially, when I spoke to the Solicitors acting for the other party they suggested that I could do this but now recommends a Solicitor. I had a look at the gov website and I'm not fancying DIY, it doesn't make it sound as straightforward as I'd hoped. Unless I wasn't looking at the right information. 

Edited 25 March by FoyleFox

[FoyleFox]

On 25/03/2026 at 07:21, grobyfox1990 said:

TR1 or straightforward to do on your own if you fancied it. The guidance docs on gov website are useful. 

I might be reviewing the decision not to do it myself. The first solicitor i called has quoted £1100! The person transferring the land to me is 'only' paying £850.

I'll see what the next quotes are but that seems very steep to file a form. 

[grobyfox1990]

13 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

I might be reviewing the decision not to do it myself. The first solicitor i called has quoted £1100! The person transferring the land to me is 'only' paying £850.

I'll see what the next quotes are but that seems very steep to file a form. 

Lol yeh that’s mental for the work involved. You don’t need a local solicitor for work like this, if you deal with a broker or mtg provider often you could ask them to suggest a solicitor from their panel 

[FoyleFox]

38 minutes ago, grobyfox1990 said:

Lol yeh that’s mental for the work involved. You don’t need a local solicitor for work like this, if you deal with a broker or mtg provider often you could ask them to suggest a solicitor from their panel 

I don't have any dealings with a broker or mortgage provider but, I did think of asking the Solicitor acting for the other party, if they could recommend anyone, they dealt with our house purchase and I arranged for them to act for the other party.

[grobyfox1990]

1 hour ago, FoyleFox said:

I don't have any dealings with a broker or mortgage provider but, I did think of asking the Solicitor acting for the other party, if they could recommend anyone, they dealt with our house purchase and I arranged for them to act for the other party.

I have previously used Integrar - Contact us - Integrar - for smaller resi issues before and they appear reasonably priced but man I really hate/distrust high st solicitors. Often it's more effort overall because you have to chase them and provide all your records anyway. Would understand if you can't be arsed to do it yourself but defo worth considering if you keep getting silly quotes

[Mickyblueeyes]

2 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

I don't have any dealings with a broker or mortgage provider but, I did think of asking the Solicitor acting for the other party, if they could recommend anyone, they dealt with our house purchase and I arranged for them to act for the other party.

Use a solicitor simply to verify your ID. The one problem with acting for yourself is the Land Registry require you to verify your identity via a ID1 form (which is long and detailed!). And a solicitor does that for £500-750 anyway! Might as well pay a little extra so they handle the admin. 

 

Its also quite handy to have a solicitor (or Accountant but they charge a lot more) to do the SDLT form. 

 

In North West Leicestershire - not sure of any firms apart from High Street firms and to be honest for something as simple as this, you dont want to use one of those factories - the fees would be quite low. 

 

£850 and £1100 seems quite steep! You should be looking at around £750 - I just used a firm in Leicester to sell to resi buy to let's I owned - Parity Legal - decent firm but I dont think they are NW Leics. 

[Stadt]

6 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

Use a solicitor simply to verify your ID. The one problem with acting for yourself is the Land Registry require you to verify your identity via a ID1 form (which is long and detailed!). And a solicitor does that for £500-750 anyway! Might as well pay a little extra so they handle the admin. 

 

Its also quite handy to have a solicitor (or Accountant but they charge a lot more) to do the SDLT form. 

 

In North West Leicestershire - not sure of any firms apart from High Street firms and to be honest for something as simple as this, you dont want to use one of those factories - the fees would be quite low. 

 

£850 and £1100 seems quite steep! You should be looking at around £750 - I just used a firm in Leicester to sell to resi buy to let's I owned - Parity Legal - decent firm but I dont think they are NW Leics. 

I know one of the co-owners of Parity, good guy - I can vouch for them too.

 

 

Happy to pass his details on via DM @FoyleFox if you'd like, he'd have a quick no obligation chat over the phone

Edited 8 April by Stadt

[FoyleFox]

Thanks. A friend has just mentioned Parity, he also deals with them a lot professionally and offered to contact them for me. If he doesn't get back to me, that would be great. 

[Tommy G]

Has anyone done a self build before? How do you go about acquiring the land - through some kind of agent? Or just tap up “in the know” local builders? 

looking for land online is a pain and there isn’t much out there 

[Grebfromgrebland]

11 hours ago, Tommy G said:

Has anyone done a self build before? How do you go about acquiring the land - through some kind of agent? Or just tap up “in the know” local builders? 

looking for land online is a pain and there isn’t much out there 

It's quite often easier to buy the plot you want with a house already on it and knock the old house down and start again.

 

That's what everyone I know has done. Can sometimes work out cheaper too with the price of some land being ridiculous right now but it all depends on where you want to do it.

[FoxesDeb]

15 hours ago, Tommy G said:

Has anyone done a self build before? How do you go about acquiring the land - through some kind of agent? Or just tap up “in the know” local builders? 

looking for land online is a pain and there isn’t much out there 

Some friends of ours did what Greb mentions, they were finding it hard to find a plot so in the end they bought an old bungalow, knocked it down and did a self build

 

Edited to add: I also know people who bought a bungalow and built another storey on it, so while not exactly a self build they got a sizeable plot and used the existing footprint of the bungalow to make a much bigger property 

Edited 27 April by FoxesDeb

[CornwallFox]

On 17/03/2026 at 21:14, danny. said:

It might bring down house prices to buy but will increase rental costs, and many people choose to or have to rent which puts up costs for them. 

Landlords have flooded the market over the last 20 years and all rent has done is increase more and more and more. 

[kenny]

6 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Landlords have flooded the market over the last 20 years and all rent has done is increase more and more and more. 

It will be worse now Blackrock have entered the market in a serious way.

[kenny]

21 minutes ago, FoxesDeb said:

Some friends of ours did what Greb mentions, they were finding it hard to find a plot so in the end they bought an old bungalow, knocked it down and did a self build

 

Edited to add: I also know people who bought a bungalow and built another storey on it, so while not exactly a self build they got a sizeable plot and used the existing footprint of the bungalow to make a much bigger property 

@Tommy G all good advice. Also bear in mind the time to get planning will be 12 months or so. Also the cost of gaining planning will be £10-20k by the time you have your reports in place.

 

Extending an existing property is easier, albeit you are still at the mercy of the planners.

 

Probably worth noting that construction costs at present as well as the cost of finance is often prohibitive for many projects. Especially in Leics where the property prices aren't particularly high.

[danny.]

2 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Landlords have flooded the market over the last 20 years and all rent has done is increase more and more and more. 

Yes, because costs have gone up, mortgage interest rates, far higher maintenance costs (esp. post-COVID), and higher taxes plus legislation that makes it more expensive to rent out. And of course supply/demand adds to it too.

I'm sure they will all come back down once Zach has put the private landlords in jail though. Just have to be patient. And Blackrock definitely won't want to make as much money as they possibly can.

[grobyfox1990]

9 minutes ago, danny. said:

Yes, because costs have gone up, mortgage interest rates, far higher maintenance costs (esp. post-COVID), and higher taxes plus legislation that makes it more expensive to rent out. And of course supply/demand adds to it too.

I'm sure they will all come back down once Zach has put the private landlords in jail though. Just have to be patient. And Blackrock definitely won't want to make as much money as they possibly can.

Property investment has seen consistent yield and capital appreciation, outstripping wage growth, across prob all UK regions over the medium-long term. There's high demand and a limited supply, simple economics. If you've been vaguely organised/competent since 2011 you would have made very good gains.

If incompetent and anxiety-ridden happy clappers think the Greens and RRA will kill private letting, that's a very good thing, they will panic and sell at distressed prices and present good opportunity in the market. 

[danny.]

1 hour ago, grobyfox1990 said:

Property investment has seen consistent yield and capital appreciation, outstripping wage growth, across prob all UK regions over the medium-long term. There's high demand and a limited supply, simple economics. If you've been vaguely organised/competent since 2011 you would have made very good gains.

If incompetent and anxiety-ridden happy clappers think the Greens and RRA will kill private letting, that's a very good thing, they will panic and sell at distressed prices and present good opportunity in the market. 

Good stuff, look forwards to everything being affordable again and there being plenty of rental properties available at cheaper prices for the people who need to/want to rent. No idea what happy clappers means, people are happy Zach has fixed everything and are clapping the move? Good to know it's all in hand.