I managed to save around £15K stamp duty. But, I pay £50K extra because of my mistake.

[JaniceEnglish]

I just brought a house in South East England, after we sell our apartment in London. I managed to save around £15K stamp duty. But, We pay £50K extra because of our mistake. We view the property online. After moved-in we found the roof leak. The boiler is not working well. The plumbers ask us to replace pipes in the wall as well. The pictures look lovely on the Zoopla. We don't have this issue with our apartment in London.

I feel regret now. And now, my company needs me to back to the office at least three days a week. And my husband needs to be back five days a week from September onward. The train fare is expensive.

We have a big garden. My husband asks me to do the gardening once a month because I can work from home two days a week, this makes me mad.

We might plan to move back to London and get a flat.

Does anyone fell into the same trap? Should I stay or move back to London.

Sale up

@MurielSpriggs

I actually cannot believe so many people made rash decisions and planned their lives around working from home in such an uncertain situation.

I'd agree with this. The acute covid crisis is about to start receding. There are very many reasons why working from home is going to start unraveling and commuting is going to return. Invest in city-centre flats now before the tide turns

I did check this on Zoopla. The estimated price for my house is just £10K less than what I paid.

I doubt we can find a job which any close to our salary in the centre of London (huge difference). There are plenty of flats in London now and the price is low. We worried the flat price for the London will rise when everyone needs to back to the office like us.

We're just bobbing on to ask politely that rather than troll hunting, please report posts directly to us so that we can have a look.

All that troll hunting achieves is to derail threads and leave them looking more full of holes than Swiss cheese, as is the case here...

I hope you don't make rush decisions like that at work as well. Why did you think that you'd be working from home almost permanently? Did you not check the commuting times and cost just in case? I think the leaking roof is your smaller issue here. Start looking for a local job that pays what you earn now, minus commuting cost before tax, minus time spent commuting.... You might find something locally and have time to enjoy the garden

Get an estate agent in quickly to tell you how much your house is worth, then see if you can afford to buy another apartment in London if you sell this house. Be quick. If you have made a mistake, then the best thing is to try and correct it as quickly as possible.

But try to think ahead - if you don't have children yet, and you want children in the future, you need somewhere big enough for them, with good schools nearby etc.

@name6785

I wonder who could have possibly reported the troll hunting 😂😂 someone has had a tough day 😬

Had a great day hence why I didn't spend it bullying MNers

I am absolutely amazed that anyone would buy a house without looking at it in person. Or getting a really good survey at the absolute bare minimum.

Oh gosh.

I thinks there’s going to be plenty more of these, my boss wants me back in the office threads.

I work for a large well known company, I’ve WFH for over 15 years and we’ve had WFH as a recognised practice since 1999.

We now have new fancy intranet pages and policies relating to hybrid working, what is and isn’t ok and when you have to be back in the office and for how long. For now you have to book your desk in advance but there will be a time in the next year or so where I suspect the WFH element will be reduced down to very little, and to suit the business.

1. Did you have any kind of a survey which you can point to being wrong?
2. Where exactly is the house- is it commutable at all? many people do/used to commute to London from the south east - it takes some getting used to
3. gardening- a large house with a garden is extra work than a flat

Please tell me you didn’t buy the flat without physically seeing it, or having a proper survey.

You knew the location, garden size and communte when you bought so you need to take some responsibility. Leaks and problems can happen with any house. If you aren't happy then just move back to London.

@alwayscrashinginthesamecar1

I am absolutely amazed that anyone would buy a house without looking at it in person. Or getting a really good survey at the absolute bare minimum.

Agreed. Most people try shoes on before buying them.

A house is the most expensive purchase of your life and people are buying without seeing it ...unbelievable.

Ridiculous people are pulling up OP on grammar when English isn't her first language and she has much bigger problems!

Did you have something in writing from your jobs saying WFH would be a long-term option?

@Notajogger

Ridiculous people are pulling up OP on grammar when English isn't her first language and she has much bigger problems!

Did you have something in writing from your jobs saying WFH would be a long-term option?

Thanks for understanding.

We don't have that in the employment letter. It is just 1 hour per way for me (for three days a week). For my DH, it is 85 minutes per way (5 days a week).

I am happy to do that. It's just my DH upset the last few days after he knows he needs to back to the office five days a week. He tries to put all the blame on me. Because I told him this pandemic will at least last for few years!

We worry that the flat price in London rise, the commuting cost and time. He feels better today. But, after discussing with my DH. He agrees that he will help with gardening and extra. We decided to stay because that is not wise to make a rush decision again.

Thanks for all the comments :)

Bit harsh to the OP! I know loads of people who took this as an opportunity to move out of London, having been promised greater flexibility with WFH in the future. Even in writing. But unless it's in a contract, some of my friends are finding it hard to make that promise stick. And even contracts can be changed...

I'm sorry it doesn't seem to be working out, OP. On the upside, if you do decide it's not for you in the long term, it should be a good time to move back although you will lose out on stamp duty holiday of course now. Remember that all houses need maintainable now - what exactly is the biggest issue for you? The commute, the maintainable, the location...?

Also on the upside for other people desperately seeking a family home, I guess there may be more properties coming on the market due to rash decisions having been made!

It seems many people regret buying their home

Didn't seem to work

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-9806833/Half-moved-house-pandemic-regret-paying-much.html

This is starting to sound more like a DH problem than a housing/work problem. He’s not ‘helping’ with the garden; it’s equally his responsibility. And blaming you for saying the pandemic and WFH will last years! Doesn’t he have his own brain and make his own decisions?

I can see why he’s disappointed, and has it somewhat harder than you: you’re only going to ‘lose’ 6 hours a week to the commute, and still have more of your week in the house than in London, whereas the majority of his week is in London and he ‘loses’ 14 hours a week.

Is there any way he can negotiate even a day or two days WFH? Lots and lots of offices are compromising on this and offering at least some days WFH post-pandemic.

Buying a house and garden is always a shock when you realise the maintenance a bigger space takes, and when you’re newly responsible for roofs and elements you might not have been before in a flat. But that does wear off and you learn to budget for it. And generally once you fix a leaky roof it’s not like you have to do it daily.

@JaniceEnglish Well, what do you want to do? You need to weigh everything up for yourselves.
Fix up the house and put it back on the market next spring? Try not to lose too much on it?
Stay where you are and see if you might be able to organise wfh on a more regular basis?
Look for a gardener?

This is what happens when you make an expensive rash decision.

Surely people don't expect to be paid a london wage when they don't live or work there anymore

Unfortunately some of them do. To me it’s common sense but that seems to be vanishingly rare these days.

@Blossomtoes

Surely people don't expect to be paid a london wage when they don't live or work there anymore

Unfortunately some of them do. To me it’s common sense but that seems to be vanishingly rare these days.

Many of my colleagues do...

This is why I went back to the office as soon as allowed. So many haven't and also live way outside London and don't wish to come back very often.

They very much expect to continue receiving a central London salary despite not living there or working there anymore.