Run out of money for renovation - what do do next?

[dadsweb]

We've done the main parts of our renovation but due to increasing materials prices and certain 'choices' by a certain S.O ;-) we've ultimately run out of money. We probably need another £40K-50K to get the nice-to-have bits done.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Does anyone know what the options are out there for low interest loans etc?

Landscaping can be hugely expensive, to get our concrete and overgrown garden cleared, new lawn and patio laid (total garden about 70ft x 10ft) cost the best part of £10k and took 2 weeks work. Skips alone cost £1,000! (we needed 4 of them for the rubble).

If you want to spend £20k on a garage, best thing for you to do is to save up for it, given you don't need to live in it!

Even £50k over 5 years with NO interest would cost you £833 per month.

Realistically I don't think you would be able to afford loan repayments on such a huge amount, even if someone would be prepared to lend it to you.

No way would I get a big loan out in your situation for garden landscaping and a garage. I'd do the minimum to sort out the garden mess and wait until I'd saved up or had windfall/increased earnings. Maybe when the mortgage came up for renewal, if equity had increased and it made sense to borrow a bit more, I'd consider sorting the garage then, but otherwise these things are entirely fine to live with and you can't afford them so the need to have them done now is nonsensical. Enjoy the fact you've completed the house and save the rest till later. Delayed rewards and all that.

We couldn't have lived with the state of the back garden left after the builders had finished building an extension. it was like the somme. So I appreciate the OP might have an issue with the garden. But we could probably have lived with having a path put round the edge and a bit of turf put down.

Instead we spent a lot putting in 3 new paved areas, new lawn, a retaining wall, a platform for the oil tank and a couple of raised beds. as well as an unexpectedly tall fence.

Don’t do the garage. If you desperately need outdoor storage get a shed. You could also look at cost of second-hand shipping container which can be used as a garage with a ramp to drive up, but they may be just as expensive.
Landscaping - can you hire a mini digger and do any of this yourself? Or what exactly does it need?

With regard to the garden, I would spend the weekend clearing and levelling (with top soil that you have) as big an area as you can, buy a big sack of grass seed, and rake that in. When that's grown you'll at least have some grass.

For patio, dig out the area you want as patio to a few inches below the level you need, smash up any rubble you have with a lump hammer, and fill in as a base. Then buy a small quantity of sand to spread on top and level. Keep scouring Facebook market place for cheap patio slabs. Mostly they're the same thickness, you'll need a spirit level and string to ensure you get the patio level and if you need a drop for drainage. And do as we did, have a patio made of assorted sizes shapes and colours as we've acquired them cheaply/for free. That will suffice as it did us.
Also keep an eye for sheds and green houses (buyer dismantles and collects), likewise plants people dig out. Saves a fortune!

That's an awful lot to borrow for non-essential things. Landscaping is nice to have, granted, but not something I would ever borrow for. I'd have it made safe if it wasn't, and the rest I'd do myself or live with not having.

We had about 40m of old wall foundations dug out and the rubble disposed of, cost somewhere under 2 grand IIRC, they did it in half a day with diggers. That would have been silly to do ourselves, as it would have taken months of back-breaking work and we'd still have had to pay for a skip. Everything else we did ourselves, digging, edging, levelling. (We're still doing it, we just keep at it ). You can hire tools, like proper powered cultivators, reasonably cheaply to help do some of that work.

if could get a £40/50K loan say if I could afford £200-£300 a month, but to save up that kind of money would take 20 odd years which is not a reasonable amount of time...

If interest wasn't a thing, it would take the exact same amount of time to pay off the loan as save the money. So the benefit of borrowing money is that you have now instead of in 20 years time.

But because interest is a thing, if you borrow money to fund the work it will actually cost you more money overall for the exact same thing. That is money you could otherwise have spent on yourself or your family going to the bank instead.

So if I were making this decision, these are the questions I would ask myself:

Is having the work done now rather than later worth the interest I will pay on the £40/50K, or would I rather keep that money to spend on something else?

Do I plan to pay it back by selling the house? If so, will it increase the sale price by as much or more than I borrowed including the interest? If not will I be ok having to lose some of the sale price?

Will the work I am doing now see me through for at least 20 years (or until I sell the house)? If not, what happens when I need work done again but I'm still paying off the loan for the last lot?

@dadsweb re:raising funds, I think you’ve had plenty of opinions here… presumably you’ve ebayed redundant items in your home etc? Unless you are retiring, is there a reason you think both of your incomes won’t rise in the next 5 years or so? Any bonuses you might get? Rising cost of building materials aside (fair enough), I think you need to examine how you found yourself £40/50k short at the end? Did you not discuss the choices made that took you over plan? Or was it a ‘homes under the hammer’ budget? In your shoes, I’d say you need to finish the last room yourselves, and unless the garage is declared structurally unsafe by someone who understands, you need to make minimum repairs to make it safe and live with it. Ditto the garden. Or do it yourselves. We’ve all been there at the end of a build/renovation and everyone is exhausted but honestly with material costs and labour shortage you are not going to get much bang for your bucks right now and I’d be concerned that a disposable income of £200/300pcm should really be diverted into an emergency fund for other events that could occur - car change/redundancy etc. I say this as someone whose garage and landscaping has been on the back burner for 8 years now yes it’d not perfect, but in that time our plans have changed with what we’d like to do anyway. Enjoy what you’ve created until prices calm down a little.

Same here

Quote didn't work! We also bought a money pit and you just live with the unfinished bits. You only have the nice bits left so are in a good position. I'm still missing key structural bits 5 year on! Its part of the fun surely

If considering a loan bare in mind interest rates q are probably going up very soon

Does the garage need rebuilding from scratch?
What are your plans for it for 20k?
If its just storeage,I agree with a pp- get a shed.

What is your income OP?

And how much have you spent to date?

Because unless it was a >£500k build
Being short by £50k is significant

And perhaps indicates not the best grip on your finances
Especially as you are on a “very low income”

If it would take 20 years of saving disposal income, then the repayment term on any loan would be far longer as you'd also have the small matter of interest to repay too.

Your only real option is to look into extending your mortgage, if you have enough equity to cover it that is. But you do need consider what would happen to the repayment term of interest rates rise - in that event your £300 disposal income could easily get swallowed up. There are various mortgage calculators on line you can put the figures into and you can check for yourself if a raise in interest rates is something that you'd be able to comfortably deal with

A perfect home is one which is warm, dry and affordable.

You can spend limitless cash on 'nice to have's' and risk having it repossessed by the bank.

Or enjoy what you have and the security that comes with it.

House consumerism in the UK is obscene. On eBay there are secondhand kitchens for sale which are the stuff of dreams and in perfect condition.

Presumably the owners want a new style or are having their vast kitchen space extended.

So materialistic, pointless and shocking for the environment.