Category: Property

I remember standing in a drafty hallway in a mid-Victorian semi near Andover back in ’94, watching a lad in a crisp, brand-new suit walk through a property without so much as a torch. He spent ten minutes looking at the kitchen tiles and then handed over a report that missed a blatant subsidence crack […]

I remember standing in a drafty Victorian terrace over in Salisbury last autumn, watching a young couple shiver in their own living room despite the radiator being cranked to full blast. They were staring at a piece of paper, completely baffled by the technical jargon, trying to figure out what is an epc rating and […]

I remember standing in a draughty village hall back in ’94, watching a man lose his shirt because he thought a shiny brochure meant a sound structure. He’d been blinded by the idea of a bargain, completely ignoring the fact that the damp in the corner of the drawing room was older than his marriage. […]

I remember standing in a draughty hallway in a mid-Victorian terrace near Salisbury, watching a young couple stare in horror at a crumbling lintel. They had just bought the place, only to realise that what does grade 2 listed mean wasn’t just a bit of trivia for the local history society; it was a legal […]

I remember sitting in a draughty kitchen over in Chawton back in ’98, listening to a young man in a sharp suit tell a widow her cottage was worth twenty percent more than it actually was, simply because a new development had broken ground down the lane. He looked at his spreadsheets, but he didn’t […]

I remember standing in a drafty old threshing barn near Sevenhampton back in ’94, watching a young couple marvel at the “characterful” exposed beams while I was busy noting the massive damp patch creeping up the north elevation. They saw a dream; I saw a structural nightmare that would cost them a small fortune in […]

I was standing by the old stone bridge near the bottom of High Street last Tuesday—the one built in 1842, mind you—watching a surveyor from the council squinting at a map of the meadow behind the pub. It’s a scene I’ve seen a dozen times over the years, usually followed by someone asking me, with […]

I remember standing in a damp meadow near Sevenhampton back in ’94, watching a young couple look absolutely shell-shocked because a farmer’s tractor had just rumbled through what they thought was their private, secluded garden. They had been sold a dream of total isolation, but they hadn’t looked at the old tithe maps or the […]

I remember standing in a draughty hallway in a mid-Victorian terrace near Hungerford back in ’94, watching a young couple beam at their “new” home. They’d been sold a dream, but all I could smell was that unmistakable, heavy scent of stagnant earth creeping up from behind the skirting boards. They thought a bit of […]

I remember sitting in a draughty solicitor’s office in Salisbury back in ’94, watching a young couple stare in absolute horror at a stack of conveyancing papers. They had just put a deposit down on a lovely mid-Victorian cottage near Sherborne, only to find out that a centuries-old legal quirk could potentially land them with […]