Christmas

The only thing people want for Christmas in my household is a home I've flogged this one to my next door neighbours.... All I need to do is sign the contract and we're done.....  Since June I've purchased 5 properties subject to contract and then once we start doing the searches you'll find a previous vendor who has nothing any longer to do with the property has put on clauses to prevent any new owners from doing what they want or if they do build on the land they may want to claim a percentage of the uplift which I have seen up to 25% of any future sales and it can be on the deeds for 30 odd years..... The worst ones I have come across during the summer are where vendors have added 'ransom parcels' basically a 4inch strip of land crossing or bordering the land you are buying.... So if in the future you decide to build you need to pay the ransom and it can be whatever they want.... Sometimes I think we need to bring the legal profession and land law into the modern world.... If I back out off selling to my neighbours now.... They lose around £2k in mortgage arrangement fees and searches..... Well unless I find a suitable property this is going to happen....

Never come across that before? After watching the hassle and grief my folks have had recently selling their place, and the hassle our man Clive has had, I shall be staying put for the foreseeable!

Back to the OP, we have a xmas shop in Stratford which the kids love going to, and is aimed at Amercian tourists. Open all year round and very surreal, but the down side is they have a big sign on the door counting down how many sleeps to xmas  Something the kids always like to keep me informed about, and xmas lists have been long written...

Halloween, Bonfire night, then two months of being bombarded with xmas propaganda, it's that time of year again...