Found a house - please help Rhubs decide!

[Rhubarb]

Need input on this.
Good sides are;
2 double bedrooms, large front garden, school stone's throw and it has places, small rural location but 10mins from Carlisle, 10 mins from place of work for me, private nursery across the road (don't know about places though), pub round the corner that serves food (baby alarm distance!), open fire in living room, double glazed.
Bad points;
no central heating (heating is leccy storage heaters and leccy for hot water, NOT economy 7), council tax band C works out at another £120pcm, school has no after/before school clubs, that is arranged by nursery which is private and will be expensive, no shops in walking distance, quiet village not much going on, was badly flooded last year and although the risk is very low it means our contents insurance would be high.

So the biggest drawback is NO central heating, NO economy 7 so it'll cost a fortune to heat. The open fire is just that, it isn't a wood burner or anything. The rent is £400pcm, but add to that the council tax and the leccy bills. I've phoned and put these points to the agents and asked if the landlord will drop the rent by £50pcm as we are ready to move in and we know the house has been on the market since Feb.

It's a lovely little house though and the location is perfect. I need to know just how expensive the leccy bill will be. Our winters in France were very cold, -10 on days, but not damp. We had leccy storage heaters and single glazing and it was a nightmare in winter, but at least this house is double glazed. And it's mid-terrace so possibly not as cold as an end terrace?

Honest, honest advice and opinions needed please!

And I am still having a mare here and I miss regular internet access, I feel helpless and frustrated and I miss the support of MN!

it sounds like you want it and as it wd be unrealistic to expect landlord to fork out to install c/h, sure you could negotiate on the grounds that elec bills wd be high.
cd you offer £350 inc council tax for example? after to-ing & fro-ing might be able to settle for £400 inc ct.
sounds gorgeous tho' - open fire, quiet rural location! if it helps, we're mid terrace and the shared wall rooms are definitely much warmer than the back ones. HTH?

How about switching to Economy 7?

There is info here you could ask the landlord to pay for the new meter.

FFS what is the point of storage heaters without economy 7?

400 pcm???? sounds a bargain go for it

Sounds a bargain but the lack of heating and also no shops in walking distance would make me unsure? But go with your gut feeling - I think negotiating with the landlord is a really good idea - if you can get the £50 a month off and put that aside for the electricity bills it's probably worth going for.

Good luck!

It sounds lovely rhubs

I used to live in Carlisle, there are some beautiful villages nearby

would you have a car?

They haven't got back to me yet but it is a good idea if they say no to knocking money off the rent to ask for it to include council tax too.

I have asked for a rent reduction to £350pcm. It's not really that much of a bargain, this is Carlisle after all, but we saw 4 properties yesterday. To compare, we saw a farmhouse on the south side of the city, it was £450pcm council tax band A, fully gch, double glazed, 2 reception rooms and a front garden, rural location. But it was the wrong side of the city, getting to work would be a problem for me, there were also no shops or pubs within walking distance and I don't know about schools/nurseries, there was a school bus I think.

I will look into switching the meter, does anyone know how much this would cost. Again I'll ask for the cost to be covered, but it would help if I had an idea as to how much it would be.
And does anyone else live in a house without gas? How much are your bills?

Yes, we'll have a car.

hiya rhubarb,
how did you get on yesterday??
where else did you view?
you can give me a ring if you wish......or do you never want to set eyes on us again??

Hiya! I'll give you a call!
Some more updates - the council tax is band B £1,074 per year. The nursery across the road have places and they also run a breakfast club and an after school club.

Does no-one have leccy heating then?

How much childcare can we claim for the government? This nursery will be expensive I think.

which nursery?
is it stone(something)in?

rhuby!!!!!

Can you email me the phone number at the farm pls?
Or is your French mobile still working?

Re the house, a friends of ours live in a mid-terrace without CH although they do have gas fires. Theirs is N/S facing which means they don't get much in the way of draughts - prevailing wind round here is westerly (our house is E/W and is very draughty).

Portable calor gas heaters might be your best bet but they do cause condensation.

My house in Ambleside was 3 beds for £425 per month for 3 beds and full central heating (bilss extra) Council Tax similar.

In Langdale - v. cold even with central heating, 5 bed farm for £614 per month.

Sounds a little steep for near Carlisle and no decent heating.??

i used to have economy 7 storage heaters, they are not brill, as you have to try and predict the day beforehand, how cold it will be next day, before setting the temp!, they start to cool down in late afternoon, so can leave you chilly in the eves, but most have a "boost" button.
i found that my electric bills were still a little higher than i would have liked, but at the end of the day, they are ok, and in the morning it would be toasty warm!.
it used to cost £40 to have a 2 rate electricity meter put in, however im not sure whether there is still a charge as i think it depends on the electricity supplier.
hth.
house sounds lovely btw

My mum charges £450 pcm for a beautiful four bedroomed house (front portion of a manse)with huge garden, central heating, school and Drs about 100 yards away, village shop, and her and my stepdad next door (and she LOVES young children) - but this is in New Abbey near Dumfries which might be a bit far from Carlisle. The current tennants are moving out in a week or two...

Geez I typed my reply badly - did that make sense?

Have you tried the National Trust?

fio, the worse thing would be anticipating a cold day, whacking the storage heaters up the night before, then you get up the next day and its not as cold, and your roasting with these heaters that you cant turn down, or off!

Once had storage heating. It runs through the night and tops up the heating for few hours during the day. Worked well for us and wasn't that expensive.

That said ask for the discount. You should get something.

You can ask for past records of elec usage to get an idea of what previous tenants were using.

Just heard back, the landlady wants to discuss it with her dh, should hear by 5.15 this evening.

Have lined up 2 other viewings in Brampton for Friday just in case.

Sooooo, considering everything else, if the only downside was the heating, say you could get it changed to economy 7, would you go for it? It is only renting, is it worth it or is it a major downside?

we only have electric at the minute and its working out massively expensive - do you have a boiler there at all for hot water? we rely on the immersion and it costs a fricking load

IIRC Economy 7 is more expensive.

Storage heating also works through the night at a cheap rate.

Water can be an issue if you run out of water and need the immersion. Though can't remember if hot water was on night rate; I think it wasn't.

Ask for billing history.