What sort of house?

[Phil L]

After reading the entire thread, it seems to me that mr whiskeyomega appears to have given up on life to some degree and is now ready to climb into a coffin and wait. There is no reason at all why they couldn't budget for a bank loan of a few thousand pounds to have CH installed, then when that's paid off, get another loan for a DPC - within a few years the place could be like a palace, but he sounds like he's depressed and it all seems too much for him and he wants to hide away from it rather than confront it, hence the 'package' of the OAP unit. I think some, if not all of his depression comes from his percieved inability to earn a wage, but there's plenty of opportunities if he looks around, but he sounds like he's assigned himself to the scrapheap, making it all impossible, which has a knock-on effect of stopping him spending any money (no heat, house falling to rack & ruin etc) - if they've got no mortgage and £1600 a month coming in between 2 of them, they should be living like royalty, and I doubt if they'd need a loan to do anything - there must be quite a few grand lying around doing nothing already

[geoff]

In message , whiskeyomega

[geoff]

In message , whiskeyomega

[geoff]

And ...

don't be timid and scared to post here

plenty of experience and the worst that can happen is you won't get a reply to a post

I have 4 years on you and there are plenty of older farts around, don't get old before your time

Have another look at the various grants available for insulation, central heating etc, You might be surprised Ask your social services and /or CAB

[Theo Markettos]

Ouch! Do they have lots of swimming pools in the south west, or something? Those sound very high for 'averages' (200-400pa is roughly the sort of ballpark I'd expect).

Theo

[Andy Cap]

Unusually I guess, the site actually accepted that their sewage charges were higher than average, due to essential investment. However, that element shouldn't affect the OP as she's not liable for the sewage charge. For comparison, my metered charge with just the two of us is £380 /annum.

Andy C

[whiskeyomega]

He isn't 60 until February.

I thought it depended on being in receipt of benefits and not having any savings. We have savings because he insists on saving and keeps putting it all into ISA's and saving accounts, even though now most don't give much above 3% interest.

He is obsessed with saving , so we cant get any benefits. But as I said, his pension ( occupational - he wont get a state pension until 65) is £200 a week. I also earn £200 a week in my job. So we are not on the bread line. He just keeps saying we will be if we don't save and save and save.

I wont get a pension until I am over 65 because of changes in the pension pay outs recently.

I will be 50 next April.

[whiskeyomega]

> Water meters questions and answers for domestic customers - Page 9 >

But currently my water bill is only £200 a year based on our rateable value. They are right, my bill would rise.

[whiskeyomega]

SW water themselves were the source of that information I gave you. I dont know if things have changed in the last year but it was the case that SW water did not charge separately for swereage and fresh water. It was a one charge, but even by most of the figures being quoted here, my water bill ( and especially for SW water) is low. I suppose thats because out house is so rural and has no facilities and so is "rated" low. Consequently, until they re rate it, I save

I can only say what I saw on her bill.

[whiskeyomega]

I love this house. It me going out to work that paid for it. I paid the mortgage off in six years ( our mortgage was supposed to run until he was

65) . He input the money from our last hell hole ( an ex council house, which wass damp and cold and had belonged to his father - he inherited it. After he rowed the neighbour over a bloody leylandii bush we had to move)

This house was warm and dry and had few problems when we moved here - 12 years ago.

I used to keep it up whilst he was at work - get workmen in to do things or my mother and father to help me decorate.

Then the bastard retired last summer. Since then he has been on a savings trip.

I told him this morning I would buy him out of the house and he could F Off to his precious old peoples bungalow. I wouldnt be able to live there anyway, I am under 55 and thats the minimum age you both have to be. I told him I was not going to live in the cold any longer. I have switched all the heating on to come on this evening.

The kitchen is still a problem though. Its got condensation ( even he admits it).

I also now have a decorating and maintenance problem I would not have had otherwise. That will now cost of course.

But I still like this house. Its what most of you on this board would give your right arms for to be honest. I did too.

All it needs is a bit of care instead of an arse who is intent on being obsessed with money and mains gas. He still keeps saying that because we dont have gas we cant be warm.

Oh, and he now says he didnt stop me putting the heating on if I wanted to pay the collosal bill at the end of it.

I just told him to bugger off out of it. He hasnt. I have just had enough. I dont see why I need to move to a box in a town for nothing. Now I need some cheap fixes until spring - for guttering, for the damp and the decoration . I saw the suggestion for wall paper earlier.

[Roger Mills]

Saving for *what*? A rainy day? The problem with his attitude is that he will die with lots of money in the bank, and never get any benefit from it.

Your challenge is to persuade him that the rainy day has *arrived* - and that you now need to *spend* some of that accummulated money in order to improve your quality of life. Otherwise, what is it *for*?

I think you need some outside help to get your relationship back to a condition where you can move forward, pursuing common objectives. Have you considered Relate? You also need some help with financial planning, to convince yourselves (him!) that you *can* afford to use some of your savings to do up your house, and can still afford to live on your earnings/pension on a day-to-day basis.

Get him to draw up an annual budget with all predictable items - council tax, water rates, electricity, insurances, etc. - and callendarise to show the cashflow throughout the year (easily done with a spreadsheet). He can then remain 'in charge' but will be able to understand that you *can* spend some money on things which he may consider non-essential in order to make life more pleasant.

[mark]

Good on you.

mark

[whiskeyomega]

[Cicero]

================================================

You don't really need to do any of the jobs right now. Just buy a few electric heaters and plug them in. Fan heaters are good for this purpose as they give instant localised heat which will shift most of the obvious damp. Repair the jammed open kitchen window and keep it closed except when cooking. You can work out the potential cost of electricity if necessary but it's really time to say forget the cost and live a bit better.

When you're feeling a bit warmer draw up a list of jobs to be done and post it here for advice on priorities and how to do them.

Go out today and buy a decent-sized dog kennel and lock your miserable old dog in it - it will give him a taste of the kind of living he's trying to impose on you.

Cic.

[Owain]

Sadly the "Warm Front" scheme is conditional on qualifying benefits, and most of those are related to (lack of) savings.

At that income level you might qualify for working tax credit and if you could claim the disability component then you might fall within the Warm Front scheme. The Warm Front scheme offer a benefit check to see if you would qualify.

IANAbenefitsexpert, but AFAICS owing your own home, regardless of its value, is not taken into account in most benefits calculations, but cash savings are. So you could be better off drawing down from savings to improve the asset value of your home (as well as making it more comfortable and reducing running costs) and then becoming eligible for some benefits. Using savings for essential home improvements should be a permissible use of capital for claiming income-related benefits but check with the appropriate bit of DWP/Benefits Agency.

You have an acre of ground and a husband who doesn't do much; the two combined could produce a lucrative little sideline in home-grown veggies - forget ordinary potatoes, they're so cheap in the shops; try something like asparagus or speciality varieties of veg that people will pay extra money for. Maybe get a polytunnel. You might even put a caravan on it and do holiday lets. If the house was nice and warm you might be able to take a lodger (up to about =A34 of income can be tax free under the rent-a-room scheme).

Even more radical suggestion - could you sell a chunk of garden as a building plot?

So you have probably another 40 years to go. Would you like to spend those in a nice house with garden, or a granny hutch with only bingo on Tuesday nights to look forward to?

Owain

[Toby]

The bill may have been an accumulation of estimated readings that were all under estimated, then they actually go and read the meter, and issue a new bill to bring the account up to date. Or, as someone else said, maybe they have a water leak and haven't noticed!

Toby...

[Adrian]

"whiskeyomega" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Good for you, girl.

Soddit. Get the heating on now. Once the place is warmed through, it won't take as much energy to keep it warm as it takes to get it there.

[Adrian]

"Roger Mills" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

WO - print Roger's words and frame them.

[F]

Warm Front doesn't take into account savings. You just need to be old enough and/or on the right benefit. Check their website at

[F]

Low rateable values can mean you'd be better off without a meter but I think you need to talk to SWW and get them to check it out with you, making sure they understand that there's a septic tank involved!