Wreck of the Week is one of my favourite blogs, so I was delighted to see that the most recent post was on Highland crofts and even more delighted to see that Ethel’s House was listed as one of Sue’s picks! She’s obviously cleverer than I am, as she’s managed to extract the selling solicitor’s picture from the listing, so if you want to see what the outside currently looks like, go and have a look – and have a drool over the other five crofts as well :
The countdown has begun
I’ve had a letter from my solicitor! It enclosed the reply from the seller’s solicitors, several maps and the entries from the Crofting Registers for the two crofts. I’m not exactly certain why or how, but it seems that because the crofts are still held in Ethel’s name, it makes the paperwork an awful lot simpler and cuts out a lot of the waiting around for the Crofting Commission to approve things. I think, although I may be wrong, that it essentially now treats me as if Ethel had nominated me to take over the tenancies.
Anyway, my solicitor has asked me to confirm that I’m happy with a few changes they’ve made to the clauses (things like the sellers not being able to warrant that the electricity works properly or there are no contaminants, because they’re the executors and haven’t lived there – usually in Scotland you have 2 weeks after the date of completion to report serious defects to the seller, this will essentially be cancelled) and as long as I am, then all I have to do is deposit the purchase price in my solicitor’s bank account and the other side will start the paperwork – my solicitor will hold the money in escrow until they’ve confirmed the transfer of the tenancies has been completed correctly.
So it’s SHOW ME THE MONEY!! time. I am paying £95,000 for the two tenancies, so I’ve rung up the financial institution that runs the part of the family trust I’m borrowing the money from to see how much is in there. This makes me sound like a total rich kid – I’m not, my father died when I was relatively young and his investments were put into a trust fund to provide an income for my mother for the rest of her life and capital growth for me and my half-brother to inherit after she dies. For one reason or another, it’s split between two financial institutions and the bit I’m borrowing hasn’t been paying Mum an income for a number of years now, so my brother and I, as the trustees, decided that the trust would be better off loaning me the money to do this and I’ll pay Mum an income off it at a rate of base rate + 3%.
They told me that there was £91,500 in there and all we needed to do was write to them to confirm that we wanted to liquidate it (1% fee for liquidating it) and close the account. They’ll also take a pro rata amount out for the quarterly management charge, so I’m expecting to get around £90,000 transferred into my bank account early next week, though this is a bank not renowned for its customer service skills, so I’m half-expecting it to go wrong somewhere! The remaining £5,000 will either come out of my savings or Mum will add to it from her Premium Bonds so she gets the monthly amount she’s expecting in income.
Raising the roof
I have my friendly local roofer doing some work on my house at the moment and since rain had temporarily stopped play, I dragged him up the road to have a look at the roof on Ethel’s House.
The roof is currently Marley Eternit cement fibre slates and it’s not too bad. There’s one tile missing on the back and a few that have been glued back into place, but it’s basically sound and should survive the winter. However, what I want to do is enlarge the two tiny Velux windows – if you can see the size of the one on the front, there’s another the same size on the back and that’s the only light for the third bedroom which, consequently, is rather like a prison cell.
As I was standing out the back and the roofer was admiring the views over the fields and moor to the hill, it slowly dawned on me that I could put three Velux on the back, one in each bedroom, which would really bring some light into the upstairs, open up the views behind the house and, with the right positioning of the beds, would mean guests could lie in bed at night and look up at the stars or the Northern Lights (the house is about a third of a mile from the nearest street light).
Roofer thought this was a fab idea, but pointed out that he’d be taking off so much of the roof to do it that it would virtually be only the cost of the slate and a couple of days’ labour added on to the job to get the whole thing re-roofed at the same time. So, subject to the purchase all going through, we’re booked in to have it done next March.
It’s good to talk
I was typing away at my day job yesterday (I’m a freelance transcriber and virtual assistant) when the dog started barking and shot outside – a sure sign that I have a visitor. I followed her out and, to my surprise, saw John’s car halfway down my drive. We’ll pass the time of day if we meet and wave to each other if we drive past, but this is only the second time in over seven years he’s come to visit me and I suspected I knew why he’d come – John was Ethel’s partner for the best part of 25 years. I don’t know the full story of what went down between him and Ethel’s children after she died, but it ended up with angry accusations on both sides and the police getting involved, so I was slightly nervous about what he might want to say to me.
Turns out it was about poo. Specifically, one of these:
There’s no mains drainage out here, we’re all on septic tanks and John had kindly come to warn me that the tank for the house blocks fairly regularly, every three months or so, so I might want to look at getting it sorted. I’ve adjusted my mental budget accordingly, because I suspect ‘getting it sorted’ might involve digging the whole thing out and installing a new one.
In the end, since it was a lovely sunny day, John and I stayed chatting over the gate for the best part of an hour. He talked about Ethel, told me stories about when they were younger and his face lit up as he laughed at the memories. He might be nearly 72, but when he smiles it takes a good 15 years off him.
Inside Ethel’s House
No, I haven’t completed and got the keys already, but I have finally made time to get some pics I took when we viewed it off the memory card and onto my PC.
The kitchen – needs some work and sadly I don’t think that range will make it. However, the washing machine’s new and there’s another range wrapped in bubble wrap in one of the outbuildings – I’m waiting to find out if it’s included in the sale or not.
Kitchen ceiling – we were slightly alarmed by this until we went upstairs and found a nearly new immersion heater above it!
Bathroom – also very new, much of this can be kept.
…though I might want to fiddle with the layout a little.
Wiring – newer than I was expecting, but still going to be redone.
Love this little cupboard in the panelling in the second bedroom.
Standing in the second bedroom looking across the landing to the first. The third is a tiny single off to the right.
Original fireplace in the first bedroom. The whole of the upstairs is panelled like this and much as I would love to keep it, it’s going to have to come off because the house isn’t insulated at all. I’d hoped we’d be able to save it and put it back on, but a friend who’s renovated more than one of these says it’s impossible – if it doesn’t split when it comes off, it’ll split when you nail it back on. May see if I can save enough to do the lower half of one room and glue it back on…
New skirting board needed for the landing! The home report did note woodworm, so one of the first jobs will be to seal up all the windows and doors and pump in some bug-killing chemicals.
The first project – Ethel’s House
Missives aren’t concluded, but there’s now a formal written acceptance of my offer on my solicitor’s desk, so unless something goes horribly wrong, I’ve bought a house! It’s not actually called Ethel’s House, it’s number 156, but like so many houses in this village, it’s generally known by the name of its longest resident in living memory, so Ethel’s House it is. From the agent’s blurb:
This traditional 1 and ½ storey croft house which requires internal restoration is set in an area of true space and openness. The house was built in approximately 1920 and has panoramic sea views. On the ground floor is an entrance hallway, a living room, kitchen and bathroom and on the upper floor a landing and three bedrooms thus making it an ideal family home or fabulous holiday retreat. The house is mostly double glazed and has the original v lining through the whole of the upstairs. There are stone built outbuildings which were formerly barns and stables also included in the sale and these offer various conversion options. There are areas of garden ground to the front, rear and side of the house. The house is heated with oil fired radiators and there is also an open fire in the living room.
The agents took the picture of it straight on and full frame (it’s on one of these rotating image things and even looking at the page source, I can’t track down the url for the original image, sadly), so it looks rather grey and sad. I prefer this picture of it from the day the Google Street View car came past (yes, I can’t believe they made it this far north either!), because it shows a little of the amazing views the house has:
What I’m buying, technically, is the croft tenancy with all its improvements, one of which is the house. The field on the right belongs to someone else; the house comes with three fields behind it, one down on the point (not down the track in the picture, there’s another track about 15 yards to the right) and then another croft at the other end of the village, next door but one to my house (I live in the white one in the picture below):
As you can see, there are the remains of an old house on it (there’s actually another one on the other side as well if you look really closely) and we’re hoping that one day we’ll be able to build our dream house here – a few years of planning and saving to do first though. This field is 5 acres and runs all the way down to beach level.
So, step one in this project (once I get the keys, obviously): get Ethel’s House sorted out and ready to be lived in again.
Holiday let – half home, half hotel
I’m writing this lying on the sofa in a hotel suite in Vienna (my husband’s been working out here, so we were able to access a corporate rate that made it less expensive than a tiny hotel room in London) which is my home from home for a few days and it’s got me thinking about what I can learn in terms of furnishing my holiday let from how this four-star hotel has decked out one of its best rooms.
Firstly, the shower. I LOVE it. It’s a combination shower with a fixed waterfall head and a separate hosed shower, a bit like this:
(that one’s on sale at Victoria Plum at the moment). Since I don’t have much space to play with in the bathroom and I’m not a fan of over-bath showers, I think this is a fab idea – we only have a rainfall head in our shower at home and it makes it a pain in the behind to (a) clean and (b) wash the dog!
In fact, the bathroom in general has been done beautifully – not quite enough space for his & hers sinks, sadly, but they’ve provided top-of-the-range toiletries and flannels for us, enormous white fluffy towels, enormous white fluffy bathrobes and there’s a separate loo.
They also score points for having HD Samsung TVs in both the living room and the bedroom and the pod-system coffee machine is a nice touch too (not that I drink it, but my husband is enjoying a morning caffeine jolt each day!). The sofas are comfortable, there’s air conditioning and there’s a small balcony with a table and two chairs on it with stunning views over Vienna. All things I can take and use (well, I can’t magic up views of Vienna, but I can manage stunning sea views instead).
What don’t I like? Some of the furniture positioning is a little strange. For example, there’s an enormous desk in the bedroom, but the wardrobe is in the living room – I’d have swapped those around. Also, no mirror in the bedroom, the bed is two singles pushed together rather than a double/king (with two single duvets on it) and I’d have liked a sound bar/music system I could dock my MP3 player into.
Talking of beds, I stayed in a Travelodge in London on my way out here and got one of the new beds – they’re not kidding, they really are incredibly comfortable, though the edges of the mattress are quite hard and I caught my leg on it more than once walking past the bed to the bathroom! I’m prepared to overlook that, given that I didn’t wake up with my normal stiff back (I tend to fall asleep on my side and over-curve my lower back – or, in less posh terms, I sleep with my bottom sticking out!). Apparently you can buy them – I’ve just had a look and mattress-only is £399 for a standard double, so they’re definitely going on my list.
The waiting game
This is the bit I like least about buying a house. You’ve found the place, arranged the finance, had your offer accepted – and then everything grinds to a halt while the solicitors do their thing.
Matters haven’t been helped by my solicitor coming back from holiday today and me going away tomorrow morning. Thank goodness for email, at least if anyone comes up while I’m away I’ll be able to reply to it immediately.
In the meantime I shall just have to be patient a little longer. There’s the most amazing display of the northern lights up here tonight; clearly visible to the naked eye. Watching them dance from the study window makes my fretting about delays seem pretty insignificant really 🙂
Buying a croft
When is a house not a house? When it’s a croft.
Technically, when I say I’ve had an offer verbally accepted on a house, that’s not strictly true. I am, in fact, buying two croft tenancies, one of which happens to have a house on it. Many crofting tenants have bought out their tenancies and become owner-occupier crofters, these two still remain as tenancies and the house site has not been decrofted, so the Scottish Ministers own the land and, assuming that I’m considered a suitable person to be assigned the tenancies, I will have to pay them rent for the crofts until I can buy them out. The buy-out figure is usually 15 times the annual tenancy (which will not be huge – to give you an idea, the 3.12 acres that go with the house we currently live in was bought out by the previous owner for under £100) but once you’ve become an owner-occupier, if you sell the land on within ten years (recently increased from five years), you have to pay half the difference between the amount you paid and the current value back to the landlord.
It’s all a bit of a legal minefield and having a solicitor who understands crofting law is absolutely essential. The formal offer that went in for these two tenancies ran to 23 clauses on top of the Scottish Standard Clauses and includes things that wouldn’t have crossed my mind, such as ensuring the crofts are sold “together with the whole permanent improvements, including the dwellinghouse” (it would be a shame to pay all that money and find they’ve bulldozed the place…), that “it is an essential condition of this offer that the Crofting Commission consents to the assignation of the tenancies” (it would also be a shame to pay all that money and not be able to do anything with the place) and various other clauses that ensure I don’t get stuck with any very large bills or long-lost claimants to the tenancies popping out of the woodwork.
The other big stumbling block is because the purchaser of the tenancies doesn’t own the ground the house sits on, it’s completely unmortgageable. Even the bridging loan companies I rang wouldn’t touch it (not enough equity in our current house to back it up). One absolute right a crofting tenant has, however, is to buy the house site from the landlord and have it decrofted – usually an area of 0.2-0.5 acres is permitted to be taken out of crofting tenure to give some garden space as well. This then makes the house suitable for mortgage lending purposes. I’ll talk about finances in another post – I will be completely transparent about money on this blog – but I’m in the very fortunate position of being able to borrow money from family to make the initial purchase, on which we’ve agreed I’ll pay interest of Bank of England base rate plus 3%.
One of the conditions of the Crofting Commission thinking me a suitable person to be assigned the tenancies is that I work the crofts. So I’m not only taking on a renovation project, I’m taking on just under 10 acres of fields, which means I’m going to be learning to keep sheep and make hay as well. Never a dull moment!