Comments on: Top Tips 6 – 10

By: Leonie

Leonie — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Hi George

Can you tell me what is should pay per square meter for to build a 4 bedroomed house ?

By: Lynette

Lynette — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:10:54 +0000

Dear George,

Can you recommend a good website about how to find a derelict building to buy and renovate in Ireland. Thankyou

By: Jo Homewood

Jo Homewood — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:57:29 +0000

Hello George,
I have watched your shows & have always been interested in Architecture & design. My ambition has been to buy a house that I could gut & design to suit my families needs. Recently we bought a 1930s detached house. I draw up lots of different designs then I came across your ‘Home Bible’ book. I read it from cover to cover, it is brilliant. It gave me the ideas I need to complete this project. Keep making the shows & writing the books.
Thank you
Jo

By: cd agarwal

cd agarwal — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:21:17 +0000

Hi George,
My patner and I got a builder to do a complete renovation of a 1930′s build. The builder who took the job confirmed that he will positively finish this 4 bed house in 6 weeks. however, he did not adn we had ot move into rented as our previous house was sold. We currently had around 10% of money to be paid. But we asked them to finish the work to good standard and then come back to us with the final invoice on the payment. The builder is threatening us of calling baliff and also that he will take the boiler out if we did not pay. I am very scared with all this and don’t know what to do. Please advice.
Thanks,
cd

By: alison walsh

alison walsh — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:27:53 +0000

once the snaging list has been completed can I hold retention if this condition had not been previousley agreed.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:02:55 +0000

Hello George,

My partener and I have fallen in love with a three storey terraced house, we’ve made a bid on it and
the structural survey has come back showing some subsidence in a rebuttal wall in the kitchen with some dampness. My question to you is do you think (with your vast experience) whether a polymer deep injection technologies are better than the more conventional methods of underpinning walls? Adore your show. Thank you.
Alex Scott x

By: helen hill

helen hill — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:14:33 +0000

hi george what a lovely show renovation man we purchaced a3 storey 1800 town house with quite a lot of history ,we would love to be on your next series . we live in kings lynn an old historical fishing town , we are doing moast of the work ourselves , to raking out motar and re pointing to fitting windows we would love youre advice and experties, let me know when you are comming and ile put kettle on

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:07:27 +0000

Hi George,

Thanks for the tips. I just wanted to point something out regarding Tip 8.

You mention trying to get penalty clauses in the contract but a true penalty clause is legally unenforceable. Without getting into too much legal detail, there is an important distinction to be made. A penalty clause is a term of the contract whereby the parties agree that a certain sum will be paid/or forfeited on a breach of contract and where this does not amount to a genuine pre-estimate of loss. This is unenforceable. In contrast, what is known as a ‘liquidated damages’ clause is enforceable and means that the clause, effective upon breach, provides for a sum that amounts to a genuine pre-estimate of loss. This distinction means there is an inevitable danger of relying on any such clause without legal advice.

A good alternative is to make an agreement in terms of positive obligations. Instead of thinking in terms of ‘penalties’ for a breach of contract, think in terms of how to positively ascribe a price in relation to purpose of your contract and the different possibilities you hope to avoid. For example, if it was time for completion then think not in terms of (i) this is the fixed date, (ii) if you breach that then you will pay this. Rather, think of (i) this is the date I’m aiming for, (ii) if you are late by one week then the price will be £100 less, and so on. This latter option is not based on a breach of contract because it operates on the level of the primary obligations of the contract, rather than the secondary obligations to compensate for a breach of contract, and it therefore does not attract the penalty clause rule.

Hope this helps.

By: Blueberry Taylors

Blueberry Taylors — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:25:58 +0000

George
I just adore the show’s you have done, realy inspiring to be creative. We are doing up the house we currently live in, 1970′s box, we are then planning a self build in the garden using a lot of your ideas from the show, we are sure that we will have to fight for planning consent as we are within a national park, any advice on this greatly appreciated.

We are updating the kitchen, my question is how much should we be aiming to spend, we will live in the house whilst the new house is built so probably 2 years. I thought about £20.000 including the removal of a supporting wall, appliances and granite work surfaces.

By: june kings cross

june kings cross — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:25:32 +0000

hi george
i am think of renovating my bathroom but it belongs to a housing association. my walls have that crackling paint effect on the drylining. unfortunately i have no idea how to fix and the HA are unco-operative. in addition, i was wondering when renovating a room what is the order of work because i have been told so many different manners of completing the project. love your shows. june