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Housing market

Has anyone lived in a converted flat? Am I right in think the noise insulation is terrible, especially for ground floors?

Ive lived in victorian conversion flats for my entire adult life, and living below someone can be absolute hell. The basement is the worse as the ceilings are generally lower, I nearly had a breakdown when I lived in a basement flat. I didnt sleep for almost a year.

Insulation is one thing, but it needs to be done properly for sound isolation and proofing, it is quite a complicated and skilled process to do it correctly. As there are no real laws around how buildings are converted its very rare to find any that have been done properly.

I live in a top floor now, which is bliss as I dont need to listen to footsteps of people walking around above me, but I still have to listen to them underneath me on their work calls 9-6, however as they are considerate and respectful and quiet people its something I just have to accept - Id much rather that than parties and surround sound av systems...the people before them were assholes and life was tough, so silver linings en all.
 
Yep, been there. It depends on the Insulation between floors and above all the behaviour of the tenants above. I've had mixed experiences and on balance would much prefer not to live in a conversion.

Reading around it seems to depend when the conversion was done, before a certain date and no insulation between floors was required. A quick search results in mostly negative experiences of conversions, especially ground floor.
Ive lived in victorian conversion flats for my entire adult life, and living below someone can be absolute hell. The basement is the worse as the ceilings are generally lower, I nearly had a breakdown when I lived in a basement flat. I didnt sleep for almost a year.

Insulation is one thing, but it needs to be done properly for sound isolation and proofing, it is quite a complicated and skilled process to do it correctly. As there are no real laws around how buildings are converted its very rare to find any that have been done properly.

I live in a top floor now, which is bliss as I dont need to listen to footsteps of people walking around above me, but I still have to listen to them underneath me on their work calls 9-6, however as they are considerate and respectful and quiet people its something I just have to accept - Id much rather that than parties and surround sound av systems...the people before them were assholes and life was tough, so silver linings en all.

I'm top floor now in a dedicated new build flat and it's still not great, this sounds like another one off the list. Cheers.
 
Reading around it seems to depend when the conversion was done, before a certain date and no insulation between floors was required. A quick search results in mostly negative experiences of conversions, especially ground floor.


I'm top floor now in a dedicated new build flat and it's still not great, this sounds like another one off the list. Cheers.

They are MUCH better than Victorian conversions.

Honestly the whole 'insulation' thing dosent do a great deal. Sure, a super dense Rock Wool helps dampen things, but to do it properly all the timber joints need to be siliconed together with acoustic sealant, the floor boards nailed down and the gaps sealed, etc etc, theres quite a few processes to get it done properly. If there are plasterboard walls in either apartment they become echo traps and thunder away through the floor and ceiling.

If the people below you go and lay and engineered wood floor - then ALL their noise is sent through the ceiling as its the path of least resistance. Thats what has happened with me. I can literally hear them eating their cereal since that floor went down.
 
Not sure what they expect when they beat the hell out of landlords. With eviction bans, landlords will be far more picky over new tenants, require 6 / 12 months rent in advance and some who can afford to will simply not let their property at all. Not much incentive for many long term landlords to sell up either if they crystallises a high CGT bill (recently increased for property). A total mess.

With all due respect to assorted landlords out there (I have been one for one property previously) it is just another side to a multi-faceted issue. The problem should never have been allowed to become as big as it is. I'm not clever enough to present any viable solutions but significant corrections are required and resisting it is rank stupidity and can only result in bigger tears later.

I'm subsidising my sons in our flat in town so certainly not making any money there.......

Regards

Richard
 
Reading around it seems to depend when the conversion was done, before a certain date and no insulation between floors was required. A quick search results in mostly negative experiences of conversions, especially ground floor.
I'm top floor now in a dedicated new build flat and it's still not great, this sounds like another one off the list. Cheers.

Not just floors, we were dry lining a pair of our semis a few years ago and half the wall between the two was a single skin of old plasterboard; zero acoustic insulation.

Fixed it by continuing the dry lining from front wall to fireplace on both sides.
 
Not sure what they expect when they beat the hell out of landlords. With eviction bans, landlords will be far more picky over new tenants, require 6 / 12 months rent in advance and some who can afford to will simply not let their property at all. Not much incentive for many long term landlords to sell up either if they crystallises a high CGT bill (recently increased for property). A total mess.

Agreed, Ponty, but governments just can't stop tinkering with housing and rental markets. BTL is a business, but unlike other businesses (incl. holiday lets), there's no relief on mortgage interest. Why?????? When you sell, CGT is 18% whereas other cap. gains are at 10% (or less, depending). Why??????? When you buy, you'll need to pay 3% over existing S.D. As if this wasn't discouraging enough, gov'ts keep loading the ante for the tenant (and I'm not including safety issues). Pets must be allowed, regardless of facilities or landlord wishes and as for a S in the EPC; that's simply ridiculous; and so it goes on.

Is there any wonder that rental prop's are getting scarcer, leading to inflated rental costs etc.? The rental market is not only essential, it should be competitive too, with lessee choice (which of course would deter rogue/lazy landlords and increase property conditions). Why can't legislative authorities realise this simple market concept?
 
^ Because its popular to kick private landlords. Plenty in this thread are in favour of beating up landlords while simultaneously complaining about the cost of housing. Clueless.
 
I wonder how the square the circle in countries like Germany where the culture is biased to renting? Never had problems as a student but there was a period when the advantage was so tilted towards the tenant(me) that it was difficult to find anywhere short term to live. Was a landlord for eight years. Had a costly eviction because the tenants needed to be seen as not voluntarily leaving. Daft for both parties.
 
Not clueless, just somewhat fed up with growing inequality.
I'm fed of that as well but we need a rental market so we need private landlords. The answer is council housing, not kicking landlords. All that does is bump up costs on the most vulnerable.
 
Had long discussion with research guy this week from national landlords association . Explained the many technical difficulties of meeting the epc rules proposed for 2025 like where the heck does someone put a big water tankfor solar heating n a small already crammed 3 bed house [ crammed with stuff and bed linen etc] . and cavity wall in houses with very poor access or none to the machinery .
 
Reading around it seems to depend when the conversion was done, before a certain date and no insulation between floors was required. A quick search results in mostly negative experiences of conversions, especially ground floor.


I'm top floor now in a dedicated new build flat and it's still not great, this sounds like another one off the list. Cheers.
It does indeed depend upon when it was done. Regs changed in the 80s. Prior to that it could be like my house, ie floorboards up and plaster down with only fresh air between. That's fine in one dwelling but no good otherwise.
I always found flats to be expensive relative to terraced housing of the same size.
 
Agreed, Ponty, but governments just can't stop tinkering with housing and rental markets. BTL is a business, but unlike other businesses (incl. holiday lets), there's no relief on mortgage interest. Why?????? When you sell, CGT is 18% whereas other cap. gains are at 10% (or less, depending). Why??????? When you buy, you'll need to pay 3% over existing S.D. As if this wasn't discouraging enough, gov'ts keep loading the ante for the tenant (and I'm not including safety issues). Pets must be allowed, regardless of facilities or landlord wishes and as for a S in the EPC; that's simply ridiculous; and so it goes on.

Is there any wonder that rental prop's are getting scarcer, leading to inflated rental costs etc.? The rental market is not only essential, it should be competitive too, with lessee choice (which of course would deter rogue/lazy landlords and increase property conditions). Why can't legislative authorities realise this simple market concept?

Politics, that’s why. As you say, they want to treat it as a business when it suits them and as something else when it doesn’t. Their meddling potentially makes it better in the long term as there’s less competition and I can’t see demand falling away. Pointless selling anything, it’s income for life albeit a dismal return but with everything else going on, can’t think of much else to put capital into.
 
Politics, that’s why. As you say, they want to treat it as a business when it suits them and as something else when it doesn’t. Their meddling potentially makes it better in the long term as there’s less competition and I can’t see demand falling away. Pointless selling anything, it’s income for life albeit a dismal return but with everything else going on, can’t think of much else to put capital into.
Dismal return? Maybe you got in at the wrong time. My pal who bought half a dozen BTLs in Leeds in the 90s for loose change now lives on the proceeds and spends her time touring Europe. She says it's just fine.
 
Dismal return? Maybe you got in at the wrong time. My pal who bought half a dozen BTLs in Leeds in the 90s for loose change now lives on the proceeds and spends her time touring Europe. She says it's just fine.

Mine are in the SE / SW, where capital values are high. The income in isolation is fine but dismal for the amount of capital tied up. Pointless selling as I don’t fancy a CGT bill.
 
Politics, that’s why. As you say, they want to treat it as a business when it suits them and as something else when it doesn’t. Their meddling potentially makes it better in the long term as there’s less competition and I can’t see demand falling away. Pointless selling anything, it’s income for life albeit a dismal return but with everything else going on, can’t think of much else to put capital into.
Not £££ obviously, but what % are you calling a ‘dismal return’? Current offerings from the bank (robbers) is dismal, if you beat that then what’s the complaint? I see info from Rightmove suggesting many parts of the country see 6-7% return on BTL. In current times that isn’t at all dismal.
 
Mine are in the SE / SW, where capital values are high. The income in isolation is fine but dismal for the amount of capital tied up. Pointless selling as I don’t fancy a CGT bill.
This is probably an example of why people are so keen to kick private landlords.

What you’re saying is the income is ‘fine’ (means ‘good’) but you want more even though I suspect it’s still better than the bank. In summary, because it’s not making enough you would prefer to sell but you won’t because you don’t want to pay what’s due in tax on the increased value of the property.
 


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