A Local shop for local people.......

Just been reading on the BBC website an intruiging tale that a family has been banned from selling their house to a Scottish couple because of a covenant preventing a sale to anyone without links to Dorset.

Phillip Collins thought he had sold his former council house in Dorchester to a couple from Glasgow offering £192,000.



But Synergy Housing Group, which took over Purbeck District Council's housing stock, blocked the sale.

The group said they should have been aware of the rule but Mr Collins now fears he will not find a buyer quickly.

Mr Collins said: "That creates an exceedingly restricted market for us in a time when the housing market is already at one of its lowest points.

"There is no date by which we can sell it outside the covenant.

"This property could be on the market for 40 years and we would still only be able to sell it to Dorset people."

The covenant was part of Right to Buy government legislation brought in in the 1980s.

The Collins' house is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

There are some exemptions for key workers and people with close relatives in Dorset, the BBC has learned.

Brian Miller, of Synergy Housing group, said: "The covenant was there when they purchased the property and they should have been aware that there may be these issues on re-sale."

There's been chatter, in recent years, of similar covenants returning, in a bid to stop second home buyers pricing locals out of rural beauty spots. While this former council property languishes on the market, its value diminishing, I'm sure the Collins's will be keen to tell all just what good such a covenant does for the local community.

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Love your garage.....

The garage is like Aladdin's other cave - the one where he keeps all the scuffed, burnt-out and broken stuff he just can't bring himself to throw away.

They are no longer places we keep cars, but elaborate death-traps, where 12 cans of creosote can be balanced on top of each other while dumb-bells, running machines and collapsible canoes are wedged behind broken tumble dryers.

Which begs the question: is it the beginning of the end for the humble garage?

No home-buyer in decades has been able to walk past a house being sold with its own double garage without thinking: 'Well, that would be useful . . .'

As wages rocketed and consumer prices plunged, the desire to buy, buy, buy gripped the Nineties, with the result that cars were relegated to driveways.

When I bought my house two years ago, I was instantly beguiled by its double garage - but not because I wanted to park the trusty family Espace in various spots in it on different days.

Like many men, I had my eyes on turning it into something else. This could be the games room, I pondered. A home cinema. Is it OK for us chaps to have a room dedicated just to drinking?

Of course, logic won out, and my garage was converted to become a nice new entrance hall to the house, plus a side room to store junk.

The Espace is surviving remarkably well without a concrete roof over its head.

In a straw poll of friends, I found that 80 per cent of them were not using their garages to park their cars.



Many, especially those in their 20s and 30s, had never deployed them for their intended purpose. They were using them as guest rooms, bathrooms, even a sauna.

'People are using their garages less and less to park their cars,' says Paul Hammond, manager at Moray Property.

'There are some modern townhouses in both Elgin & Forres, where the house is built over the garage, and owners have turned them into gyms, offices or somewhere to keep a hot tub. It's rare to open the garage door and actually find a car.'

Older properties fare no better, because garages have stayed the same size, while the cars have got bigger.

'Some garages are so weeny that you could drive in, but couldn't get out of your car,' says Paul.

Lee Coan, a 29-year-old journalist from Inverness, converted his garage into an office after giving up his job in London to go freelance - and claims it was a masterstroke.

'When I had my house valued, I found I'd added maybe £40,000 to it, all thanks to my fancy "annexe". So I sold up and moved on,' he says.

Lee hasn't yet got round to tinkering with the garage at his new home.

'At the moment, it's got an old Morris Minor in it and some paint,' he says, but he admits he has grand plans for it, which include the word 'mezzanine'.

He's not the only one with garage nirvana in mind: The Garage Conversion Company (0800 587 0262, garageconversion.com) claims to have done up more than 2,000 garages in the past four years.

The company's speciality is the part-conversion of a double garage: the front bit is retained to load up with oily lawn-mowers and bikes, while the back becomes a useful sliver of extra living space.

The process is, of course, far cheaper than an extension. And yet this rising tide of garage 'reimagining' seems to have bypassed Britain's homebuilders entirely; indeed, the shutters are down.

When I asked, none of the big names would tell me why they were still building garages - which, via some admittedly lateral thinking, brings me to the alarming conclusion that they're all secretly in cahoots with Britain's beleaguered car industry.

How else do you explain a new development by Muir Homes near Biggar, South Lanarkshire: four bedrooms, three bathrooms - and a nice triple garage.

It'll be a laundry room by Christmas, mind. . .

Adios amigos

Mr Jackson.

Schoolyard Tales.....

I asked the chaps at Moray Property recently what they thought about some of the other agents in the area. With a smile and to their credit they simply advised me that there were some better than others and it would be unprofessional of them to comment on their competitors.

"We let our qualifications and experience do the talking", said David. "You are only as good as the staff you employ and we have exceptional staff !".

What a good answer and what a refreshing change this made - Just this week I've been into two separate agencies, one in Forres and one in Elgin and spoke with the company partners of each. It was the first time I had met these people and within seconds they were quick to tell me not to use Estate Agent X or Letting Agent Y, as to quote "they're struggling for buyers, they are a waste of space, they're bargain basement, offer poor service and drab marketing".

Frankly I was astounded to hear such blatant condemnation of other professionals - I know the industry has not got the best of names and with company partners like these it's not surprising ! It was like being in the school yard.

I find that the best way to choose between any product or company is by a recommendation from an independant reliable colleague or friend. If this is not available then choose the one that is best qualified to meet your needs.

Though I for one won't ever be using either of the two agents I spoke to. Time to grow up boys....

Caveat emptor (and seller and landlord) !

Until next time,

Mr Jackson

Chocolate box / Tea caddy cottage......

Beckside, in Staithes, near Whitby, is one of Britain's most photographed homes, featuring on souvenirs, postcards and calendars of the village by the seaside.

The historic property, now a holiday cottage, which sits by the quayside next to the lifeboat station overlooking Roxby Beck and the harbour, is on the market at £295,000.



Beckside started out as a fisherman's cottage 250 years ago and was at one point the home of the lifeboat coxwain.

But thanks to the village's popularity, the property has turned into a successful holiday property.

Andrew Revitt, who owns the home with business partners Clare Revitt and Chris and Fran Peace, said: "A friend saw it and picked up the brochure for us. When we saw it we fell in love with it and bought it.

"It was a bit tired so we renovated it but we really tried to keep its character because we didn't want to spoil it at all."

"This area of the village is one of the UK's most photographed places, so the cottage features on everything from postcards to the Millennium calendar and on brochures and adverts promoting the East Coast, and, of course, on the Yorkshire Tea box.

"I've lost count of the number of people who have said: 'We've seen your cottage on a chocolate box, tea tray, tea box and so on."

What an ideal place to 'have a break' ......

Enough puns, until next time.

Mr Jackson.

Scam of the day

Turn up to a viewing at an expensive house in your best togs, boasting about your homes in Jamaica and Barbados, make a cash offer, ask if you can rent in the period up until completion because you've sold your previous property, and then move in claiming squatters' rights. Hmmm, crafty. But who could pull that off?

A couple in their 60s called Richard and Hazel Jerome, apparently.

The couple who posed as affluent house buyers to con sellers into renting their homes before squatting in the property were facing prison today. They did not pay rent or utility bills and had no intention of ever buying the properties, the jury was told.

They repeated the scam on two different properties with a combined total value of over £800,000 and squatted in them for a total of 18 months.

The elaborate scam left their victims - including a top criminal barrister - unable to sell their homes until the couple had been evicted following lengthy court proceedings.

One victim, Janet Jarvis, of Milton Keynes, Beds., and another of Mrs Jerome's former colleagues at a primary school where they both worked, died of cancer before the trial took place.

The con artists were finally arrested for driving a stolen car after it was spotted by police operating an automatic number plate recognition camera in January 2008.

A police detective, who first came across Mr Jerome 30 years earlier in an earlier case, then unearthed their web of deceit.

Today, the husband and wife, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two charges of fraud at Huntingdon Crown Court in Cambridgeshire.

Mr Jerome pleaded guilty to an additional charge of fraud and a charge of obtaining money by deception.

Still at least they'll soon have a place to call their own home, even if it is a 8' x 6' cell.

Don't have nightmares.

Mr Jackson

Who'd be a landlord ?

The month starts rather badly... attending a legal update course on property management I learn about risk assessment, legal compliance and the new Housing Act (with all its delicious new penalties). Juggling 15 hours of concentrated learning with free-flowing coffee is not so easy for someone of my age; battle with the yo-yo of reading glasses up and down the nose whilst trying not to appear senile or incontinent in front of the lithe young things from the national agencies. Leave the course with the stark realisation that if I were starting a property management company I would not choose to start with the one I already have.

On Wednesday morning miss the opportunity to dash into the back office as Kim Possible(Not her real name) arrives at the front door - she calls in every month and after three years in her property still fails to pay the correct rent in one go - a young single mum she embarks into lavish detail to explain why her social life/holiday plans/the CSA/young daughter have conspired to her offering short rent (sometimes by £100 but sometimes by only £5).

Each month she asks if I think the Landlord 'would mind' if she pays when convenient - every month without fail I grimace sweetly and inform her that there is no problem as her mother is her guarantor so I'll call her for the shortfall... within the hour she is back with the balance of the money, now complaining about the ugly carpet (which, to be fair, was ugly when she moved in and is still just as ugly now).

The problem is that it actually IS an Axminster (a real claim for once - not one from Landlord who seeks replacement of a bonded felt hotel-lift style monstrosity with something far more superior). This carpet will not wear out until the third millennium - come dogs, children, upturned Ribena and fag ends - do your worst! Kim will live with this carpet until the end of her days. (Have you noticed how the durability of any carpet is in inverse proportion to its attractiveness?)


Call on another new property - one handed to us by a Landlord disgruntled with her previous agent - the nightmare logistics of this set-up (a very large pleasant house with a very UN-self-contained annexe) could produce an article of its own (and probably will one day). Suffice it to say that we called for an initial inspection of the annexe to find a large bin outside full of dog-poo bags. Rapid barking inside stopped instantly when we knocked, and we were ushered into the rather dank interior by Wayne Kerr (Not his real name) - a young man seemingly lacking in any charm or ability, he smiles, giving us a dentist's eye view of his remaining teeth.



The smell of dog is overpowering - 'Do you have an animal in here?' I ask 'Oh no' he replies 'It's not allowed on the tenancy agreement'. He glances furtively back towards a large cage in the corner of the bedroom area covered by a blanket. We start the inspection, which takes only a few minutes due to the restricted size of the place. Curiously the blanket on the cage moves as we walk around, rather as though a mystical periscope lies underneath. Bite my lip, and determine not to catch my partner's eye for fear of collapsing into giggles. Attempt to get Wayne and Mrs Wayne to understand that they need to remember to pay rent every month.



This concept seems to prove problematical for them them. They smile sweetly and say ' we've been in much worse arrears than this before, so we're getting better'. I glance down and realise that his self-tattooed arm contains the two words 'war' and 'pease' -I have the temerity to assume that he is neither a keen student of Tolstoy nor an epicure dedicated to mashed pulses - I remain mesmerised by the spelling mistake and begin to think that we may be onto a lost cause here with a man who can suffer so much pain intentionally to advertise a vegetable on his arm. As he starts to point out that he really does need to use BOTH the parking spaces for his (small) car as he can't reverse accurately enough to get the car into one or the other, I begin to lose the will to live and say we will call again.

I'm off to drown my sorrows.....

Mr Jackson.

The Tour Continues....

Fresh from huge success in America, the bargain hunter property bus has driven all the way from the states to pick up passengers on the Costa Del Sol in Spain – offering tours of distressed real estate for sale at rock bottom prices, so get your tickets now…



Ahhh, the world of bus tours – from oohing over celebrity houses in Hollywood to creeping across Austria with a group of pensioners, to living it up on an 18-30’s coach.

Now, there is a new trend in bus tours – the credit crunch bus. Already hugely popular with bargain hunters in Florida and Arizona, the bus, which tours distressed property for sale, has made it to Spain.

Organisers Circulo Financiero Internacional, a property investors club, is offering tours of luxury properties on new developments, some of which have had their prices slashed by as much as half.

The organizers said that all properties featured on the tour were ‘real bargains,’ with other developments all offering discounts of between 20 and 40 per cent.

The first tour of the Costas took place earlier this month with a bus-load of Spanish, German and Russian bargain hunters sniffing out the best deals on new developments in Marbella, Estepona and Benehavis.

They saw golf and beach real estate and penthouses, one of which had 50 per cent slashed off its £967,000 original guide price.

On a new development in Puerto Banus, 250 square metre penthouses were going for under £440,000 and 200 square metre apartments were on offer for £351,000.

On a golf development, 200 square metre semi-detached properties that had been repossessed by the bank were for sale at £262,000, a reduction of almost 50 per cent on their original asking price.

The tour is free for members of the CFI investors club and £17 for non members and the property prices can be negotiated still further with the Spanish banks, which is currently far easier than it has been in the past.

A CFI Spokesman said, “The market is stagnating and developers need to shift new homes that in some cases they have built and paid for or are being repossessed or belong to the banks.”

Following the initial success of the credit crunch bus in the Costas, CFI are now planning to introduce similar bargain hunting bus tours in other parts of Spain, possibly in Barcelona and Madrid.

Lets hope you don't see that bus in Moray anytime soon !

Mr Jackson.