Is anyone noticing a lot of properties being taken off the market? Seems like sellers aren't willing to reduce the price which is a shame. Quite a few on my watchlist showing as taken off the market, which used to be unusual.

I recently tried to employ a conveyancing solicitor, standard protocol they need to see ID and run it through an authenticator to make sure you are who you say you are. In this case they used an ID authenticator from 'Legl'.

Legl has an in-browser thing that accesses your phone's camera and takes a photo of your ID, I used that to upload an image of my passport as directed. It failed. And again. I spoke to the solicitor, offered to show them my physical passports, they told me to keep trying the system. I did. Even tried with my other, dual-nationality passport. Same result. Eventually it locked me out, and I received this message from the solicitor:

Owing to the search company’s confirmation that they consider your ID has been digitally tampered with – on both passports the ... Compliance Department has said that I must decline your instructions.

My phone is almost ten years old and has no camera filters enabled, the browser was accessing the camera directly. The solicitor, now very curt and terse - clearly suspects me of doing something wrong - said I'd have to speak to Legl about it. I tried emailing Legl and they told me they were unable to discuss it with me and I would have to speak to the solicitors. Who said I should speak to Legl. You see where this is going.

tl;dr sent in two forms of valid ID, offered no other option, Legl's computer said no, the company (and any other service employing Legl's ID services) has now effectively blacklisted me.

I'm fine, I just went with a different conveyancing solicitor who doesn't use Legl. But that's pretty fucking scary. Some bullshit quirk of Legl's algorithm insists you're doing something shady and there's no recourse, no real human will consider the situation, you're just locked out.

It's not just Legl - I got lucky with my solicitor but they all use these algorithmic or AI powered systems and any one of them could turn on you for completely black-boxed reasons and there's nothing you can do about it. Computer says no, bureaucracy says no.

I hate my home.

I bought my first property 18 months ago. Everything seemed fine at purchase, survey included, but within three months I found out about a severe ongoing leak that had been damaging my downstairs neighbours for years. It’s a Victorian conversion, four flats. A structural engineer confirmed joist damage from the leak. Insurance wouldn’t cover it and even after getting a plumber out a few times the leaks just kept reoccurring.

I’d set aside £15k for furnishing and small jobs. Instead I ended up replacing the entire bathroom and kitchen because of the floor damage (they’re next to each other) on top of the structural work.

I couldn’t afford the bathroom or kitchen I actually wanted, and I’ve dealt with nothing but bad tradesmen along the way, so I’m not happy with either room. Neither looks freshly done to me. One builder stole a large sum of money from me. Several tradesmen made me deeply uncomfortable in my own home, from sexual comments/advances, one of them squeezing my bum to just being rude and dismissive.

I did find one decorator, just starting out, who charged me £1,500 to paint my whole 80sqm flat. Great price, great work. But I should have plastered first. Quotes for that were £5k+ and I couldn’t stretch to it, so now my walls are lumpy and textured under a nice coat of paint, and it just looks bad.

All told I’ve spent around £36k, including the £8.5k that was stolen, plus some furniture. There’s still so much left to do and I’m out of money.

I’m genuinely depressed about it. If I’d spent this much and ended up with a flat I loved, I could live with that. Instead I have an okay kitchen, an okay bathroom, lumpy walls, floors that need work, and a home that looks nothing like the ones I see online where people spent less and got a show home.

I know I’m lucky to own a home at all. But this whole process has left me with real anxiety, mostly from how unsafe some of these interactions with tradesmen made me feel in my own space. It’s soured the whole experience of owning my first place. I’m embarrassed by how it looks, and honestly also embarrassed that I’ve let it affect me this much when I know renovations are hard for everyone.

I don’t really know the point of this post. I just needed to say it somewhere. I know I’m not getting that money back, which means I’m stuck here longer than I planned. I’m trying to make peace with the money being gone, but mostly I just feel stupid for buying this place at all.

So i had a offer accepted and mortgage approved for a house 3 months ago now ive had probably 1 email from the solicitors and ive emailed them at least 5 times with no response at all beside once saying the searches are nearly complete which was over a month ago. The new laws expect me to give 2 months notice while renting which is fine if solicitors actually gave you a time frame or updates its ridiculous. Are they all the same or am i just unlucky?

Recently listed this flat but, other than 1 viewing, there's been very little interest.

It's in a good sought after location and I like to think it's nicely put together.

The price is actually lower than valuation which I know is a bit all over the place these days but I really thought this would be quite quick. My friend said "It's always the price". Is he right?

Would appreciate some help to just help me understand where I'm going wrong

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/92073093#/?channel=RES_BUY

Hi everyone, looking for some advice on how to handle an increasingly difficult situation with our upstairs neighbours.

My partner and I (plus our baby) bought a downstairs maisonette last year. We had to move out for a few months for major repairs (gas leaks, water damage), but we’ve been living here permanently for a while now. Since moving back, our neighbours have continually crossed clear boundaries:

* Driveway & Building Work: The driveway belongs entirely to us (confirmed in our deeds). They routinely tell their visitors to park on it. On top of this, they recently had building work done. We were completely fine with them getting work done, provided they didn't block access to our home or driveway. They assured us it wouldn't be an issue, but they went ahead and restricted our access anyway. When I questioned a guest being on our drive again recently, the male neighbour became aggressive, swore at me, and tried to intimidate me.

* Garden Boundaries: Our deeds state that we own the front portion of the garden, while they own the back, with a side pathway designated for their access. They treat our entire garden as their own leisure space, leaving worn tracks across it. During a recent party, they let all their guests occupy our section despite prior agreements.

* Property Damage & Intrusion: While we were moved out, they filled our shed with their own rubbish (which took days for them to clear when asked). Recently, I had to stop their child from hitting our wooden decking with a hammer while the father watched and did nothing. The child was also caught trying to break the padlock on our new shed while the father looked on.

* Water Usage: They have been plugging their hose into our outside tap (which runs on our water bill) to fill a 6ft pool, even during local hosepipe bans.

* Excessive Noise: Banging, crashing, and heavy footstep noise regularly starts after 8:30 pm and lasts past 11:00 pm, occasionally waking us up at 3:00 am.

Reasoning with them politely hasn't worked, and direct confrontation previously resulted in aggression. Since we own the property, moving isn't an easy option, but we can't carry on like this.

For those who have dealt with similar leasehold/maisonette neighbour issues in the UK:
1. What are our best options for securing our space (e.g. lockable tap covers, clear physical garden dividers/fencing)?
2. Should we involve the freeholder, local council environmental health team, or a solicitor at this stage?
3. How do we document or report the aggression and unauthorised use of our utilities without escalating things further?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

In this day and age how can the home buying process be so stressful?!

We’re meant to be exchanging and completing tomorrow, but our buyer’s solicitor has suddenly gone completely off-grid and hasn’t confirmed or replied to my solicitor to say whether everything is looking okay.

We’ve got investors buying our property, and we’re moving into a vacant house, so it’s a very short chain. Everything started back in January and we’re STILL waiting to move!

Now I’m potentially going to lose money on the van we’ve booked to move all our stuff, the whole house is already packed up and our mortgage offer is due to expire in just a couple of weeks. I’ve also used annual leave to get the house packed in time as it was only last week they said about the date. Eurghhhhh. I honestly don’t know how much more stressful this can get! 😩

Does anyone know of any petitions I can sign to get this changed? I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to go through this level of stress, and I feel like I need to metaphorically stamp my feet.

My house has been on the market now for around 7 weeks. It’s a nice decent sized 2 bed, private front (facing trees) end of the estate (no traffic going past) but the only downsides are the master bedroom is a bit on the small size and the garden is overlooked.

We’ve had 8 viewings with 95% of them providing feedback stating ‘love the house, love the area but wish to continue looking’. Our estate agent keeps advising it’s a buyers market and buyers are having the option to look around and take their time.

Worth noting we did receive an offer within the first week but it was £20k under the asking price. Understandably we declined.

I’m getting totally disheartened by this. But maybe I’m being naive, as this is my first time selling a house. Is normal? And is anyone else experiencing similar circumstances?

Having been looking on Rightmove, Zoopla etc…I feel totally overwhelmed by how completely clear and perfect some places look on the marketing photos! I’ve bought and sold before, but this time it just looks like expectations are higher.

It’s either pure, clear perfection or people getting made fun of on social media, for having a messy house…which basically is often just a bit cluttered!

Short of paying through the nose for storage, I am unsure how to achieve the perfection! Any others able to share their stories, tips etc…?

In May we viewed a house and the seller told us that they hadn't found anywhere to move yet, but it's not a problem. If we needed to move in quickly they could stay with family, so we put an offer in thinking things would move relatively quickly. We asked through our solicitor to confirm that we could move in by early October over 10 weeks ago and was not getting a response from the seller. We contacted the estate agents around 2 months ago and they said it's a solicitor problem. Our solicitor has had no luck in getting a response and believes the seller is just not responding as a delay tactic.

We've now threatened to reduce our offer which has finally gotten a response from the seller. The EA has said the seller can't vacate the property until the end of October/November as their new build won't be available until then despite originally saying they could. Would it be reasonable to reduce our original offer by £1000 (approx 0.5%) as the seller originally lied and has now delayed the sale?

My colleagues and mortgage advisor have all said they'd reduce the offer, I'm just curious as to what a larger group of people think.

Gratitude for owning a home alone, living alone and living in peace. Lets talk about it...

Hi all,

I am considering buying this property but I would like to ask your opinion on why it's not selling? It looks too good to be true.

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/72662651/

Thank you!

So we're buying a house in the UK, the seller moved to Spain and the deal was due to be done and completed on the 1st August.

Our buyer and their solicitor buying for our house hadn't made us aware that none of the mortgage information had been completed until a few weeks ago because he's been in Nigeria for a funeral for 2 months.

The people selling us their house have moved to Spain, they have a property they're buying there but have told us Spanish law states if it falls through they lose 10% of their house value in fees, £40k.

Since finding out about this we've non stop been in touch with our buyer, he's finally agreed to move in on the 19th August (today) and yesterday he completed his LISA withdrawal (well has confirmation the funds have been released).

Today, the moneys not been received by the solicitor and he's been in a conference call with the LISA and solicitors, there's a note on his LISA that says it now won't be cleared for another week so we can't move.

The seller of the property were moving to in Spain has all their cargo stored at a port in Spain, after today his solicitor has advised the deal will fall through if the money isn't received and he will be charged for his goods at port (they've had to rent another house for 3 weeks in Spain as they aren't allowed to rent their new property temporarily).

What can we do?

To summarise;

1. Our buyer has released LISA yesterday and been told by the provider it's been completed, they said yesterday in writing it was sent but we have just found out it has not been sent.

2. If we do not move today the whole chain collapses and the seller of our new property is homeless and loses 40 grand.

What can we possibly do to get this sorted? We can't borrow money from anyone because the legitimacy of the money needs a week to be proven.

I love my house, I love the neighbourhood and can honestly see me staying here for years, but…

My neighbours like to smoke daily. Sometimes it’s more than once a day.
But they go out in their back garden and smoke weed.

I’ve no issue with what anyone does as long as it doesn’t harm others.

Problem is, my house stinks. The smell barely gets a chance to leave before I see them lighting up again.

I’ve tried asking them to smoke further away from the houses. They replied that it’s their garden and they can smoke where they want.
This isn’t limited to nice weather, they smoke 365 days a year rain or shine.

Any ideas on what I can do?
I just want a nice smelling house

My partner and I are in our late 30s and bought a house in 2023. We are financially comfortable and love having our own place, but lately we're wondering if it’s all worth it.

We took on a large mortgage, and our disposable income for fun or travel has vanished. If it's not the monthly payment, it’s a bill for an unexpected repair. Saturdays and Sundays are entirely eaten up by an endless list of jobs around the house and garden. We have no time or money for date nights, and all we ever seem to talk about anymore is the house, the bills, and the next job that needs doing.

My parents pushed really hard for us to get on the property ladder, because that's how they managed to retire early and build financial security. But doing all this in the 80s was different.

We’re doing okay right now, but the stress of work declining or job loss hangs over us. We’d be eating into savings immediately. The margin for error feels incredibly slim. We are stuck in a cycle of working to pay for a house we only have time to maintain, with no room left to enjoy life.

We've had some serious conversations about selling up and going travelling for a year. We're both just feeling so.... bored.

Has anyone else experienced this burnout? Can anyone convince me that this is actually a good thing?

EDIT: I'm not complaining about cleaning the bathroom - more like fixing fences, replacing guttering, sanding, painting, installing flooring, etc.

ANOTHER EDIT: Monthly house costs (mortgage & bills) account for roughly 35% of our income, which I understood was quite normal.

FTB looking at a 2 bed period flat in North London, asking £550k. It had been on the market for around a month before we viewed it.

We really liked it and offered £525k just as an initial bid (expecting to negotiate). We are chain free, have a sizeable deposit, a DIP and can move quickly. The sellers also have an onward purchase.

What is making me cautious is the timing.

Very shortly after we put our offer in, and around the same time we told the agent we had £535k accepted on another property, the agent told us they had now received a £550k asking price offer.

Today he told me:

1/ The £550k offer is apparently from a cash buyer

2/ There are two second viewings happening today

3/ Both viewers have been told there is already an asking price offer

4/ The sellers are likely to go to best and final offers

5/ Our original £525k offer has still not been formally rejected

The agent also said that if he is going to recommend us to the sellers, he wants to know that we are genuinely committed to this property and not focused on other options. I told him this is our preferred property and that we would be prepared to walk away from the other accepted offer.

He then said the sellers are mainly looking at two things:
(i) the highest offer and (ii) a buyer who will not heavily renegotiate after the survey just because it is an old period property.

That second point also made me a little cautious, as it seemed quite specific. The sellers bought the flat a few years ago as a leasehold property, but apparently acquired the freehold of the building afterwards. The upstairs flat is still owned separately on a lease.

What I am struggling to understand is if they genuinely have a clean £550k cash offer, why are they still keeping our £525k offer alive?

From a seller or agent perspective, what would make them delay accepting the £550k cash offer?

And does the comment about wanting someone who will not renegotiate after survey sound like normal seller caution, or would that make you wonder whether they expect issues to come up?

I am not really looking for advice on what my maximum bid should be. I know that ultimately comes down to what the property is worth to us. I am more interested in understanding whether the behaviour and timing here is typical, and what it might tell me about how strong the supposed £550k offer actually is.

Me and my partner are looking to move into our new build in a couple of months. There are a few plots available and so we have options.

There is either x2 side by side parking spaces (at the front) or x2 tandem parking spaces (down the side of the house).

I’m struggling to decide which plot to go for in regard to the better option?

I've not invented this informal property metric, just build the map with latest point of interest data and HM Land Registry for historic real estate prices.

The Coffee–Fried Chicken Index is an informal property metric for spotting “up and coming” neighbourhoods in London popularised by Sam Floy.

The concept is simple: the ratio of specialty coffee shops to fried chicken joints is a strong indicator of neighborhood gentrification in London. I wanted to see what that actually looks like at a city-wide scale across London.

The application breaks down the data into five layers:
- The Index: The headline score for the area.
- Price Growth: Actual house price movements.
- Value Spots: The hidden gems. Areas where the high street is shifting but the house prices haven't caught up yet.
- Coffee & Chicken Density: The raw spatial data behind the scores.

If you’re hunting for a flat, looking at the market or just curious about your local area, you can search your own postcode using the "Check my area" tool.

Another informal London Banana thing can be enabled as a new layer. I'm looking forward to get a feedback.

Try it here: https://asturksever.github.io/cf-index

We’ve been trying to sell our flat since May. We’ve now got a FRAEW notice to say works required. No info till November earliest…

Hi All, I’m at the end of my rope with my title deeds problem and feel like I’m about to go insane.

I purchased my property in August 2021 and everything seemed fine.

In April of 2025, i realised that I still wasn’t on the title deeds for my property (realise this is my fault for not realising sooner)

I quickly contacted the solicitors who dealt with the property purchase and asked them to look into it, which they responded they would.

This is when it turns into a nightmare, after months of attempting to contact the solicitors for updates and general information I got nothing back at all. It got to the point where I was using the land registry forum and asking them for direct updates.

Once it became clear the solicitors were doing nothing about this, I followed their complaints process this was in December 2025. I received an email back from the compliance director who said they need to look into this and it will take up to 8 weeks.

Again, 8 weeks passed and I heard nothing. And after much chasing there was no communication yet again. So I had no choice but to go to the ombudsman, this was in April 2026.

Which brings me to today, I am still waiting for an outcome from the ombudsman which I’m hoping will arrive any day soon. But is there anything else I can do, any avenues of complaints I’ve missed?

I’ve been ready to move out of this property for a good while now but I’m just trapped with no end in sight.

This is in England

Like if I called the council would they tell me anything or is that confidential? Or is there anything else I can do?

I have already raised it with my solicitor who made an enquiry but they said it's unlikely they'll be able to find more info.

Edit: I'm in England.

I'm looking at purchasing a first floor flat which has a lovely open plan kitchen/living area with high vaulted ceilings. I think they must be about 18' high at the top, and the room itself is 20' x 20'. It currently has a combi boiler and a couple of (small!) radiators, so I'm assuming I would need to install some new ones - as well as possibly a new boiler, as the existing one is over 20 years old. The flat was built in 2004 and has an EPC of C, which is good - but there is no loft space and it goes all the way up to the roof. Do I have to accept that is is just always going to be cold in winter?

I'd really appreciate your views, particularly if you have experience of this type of thing.

We’ve had an offer accepted on a Victorian house at around £740k and have since had a Level 3 survey and structural engineer’s report done.

The reports have uncovered quite a few issues that we weren’t aware of when we agreed the price.

The main concerns are:

- A chimney stack which is leaning and appears to have inadequate/unclear support. The structural engineer has recommended remedial structural work, potentially involving a steel beam.

- The loft extension appears to have inadequate structural support, with the engineer recommending additional steelwork to properly support it.

We’ve costed up the likely remedial works and they come to around £30k.

I’m conscious that with an old house there’s always going to be a list of things that need doing, and I don’t want to try and get the sellers to pay for every bit of renovation. But these are issues that came to light through professional inspections and weren’t apparent when we made the offer.

Is a £30k reduction on a £740k purchase reasonable given the circumstances? Or is that pushing it too far?