Chris owed a flat in SE4, and it had been tenanted for years.  However things were no longer good as he wasn’t getting his rent paid and the property had become dilapidated.  Whilst he waited for his tenant to be re-housed, I waited with baited breath.

Eventually I got the call. “He’s leaving James, whoop-de-doo”.  That was until I viewed it.

It was a mess.  Unhabitable and therefore very likely un-mortgageable too.

“Chris, you have three options” I said.  “You can sell it to an investor via and agent or via auction, and on both counts they’ll want to steal it from you” or you can listen to my proposal where myself and my business partner joint-venture as partners and renovate it.  Incidentally, I forgot to mention it had a very short lease (60 odd years) and Chris didn’t have the cash available to renew it.

A RICS surveyor had valued the flat at £140,000 with a 100 year lease (which it didn’t have).

After scrutinising our proposal, Chris said he’d like to go ahead and let us partner and refurbish his flat.  It was all done legally, a contract drawn up by solicitors and signed by all parties. It is a true partnership.  Both parties are equals and what was good for us, was good for Chris too.

This was the flat I went to see after Chris’ tenant had moved out:

The first thing I had to do was find a way to fund the lease extension, as without that, it would be cash buyers only.

So I called my good pal, Vincent Burch, who happens to be a brilliant mortgage guy, who can help with tricky situations.

It took a while, because of getting documents translated for Greek Solicitors, however Vincent arranged the finance and the property lease extension was started.  The brilliant Chery Vaughan from Setfords handled things quickly from hereon in.

Finally it was time to get documents signed and start the work.

I managed the project, spent time sourcing the best value materials, organising builders, the brilliant Steve Addis from Chislehurst Bespoke Builders, an accredited Master Builder and made sure builders were on time and more importantly on budget.  I sent videos several times a week to Chris to reassure him that things were going well, and when any issue was uncovered (and there were plenty), where I needed to advise of the steps we were taking to put things right.

Before work started I had to sanitise the flat, so everything got stripped and bleached for builders to start.

The walls were sub-standard, so they all got demolished and re-built, with sound and heat insulation, far exceeding building control standards.  The were now solid as a rock. Everything in the property was stripped out and we started from a shell.   The flat was re-wired with a new consumer unit installed.  In fact the only thing we kept were windows, which weren’t very old.  Everything else was new.  We also added in-built storage as I knew buyers would comment on the fact there wasn’t any.  The little things make a big difference.  The kitchen had integrated appliances and a ‘quooker’ tap and granite work tops.  The bathroom was designer with Italian Terrazzo combined with mint green flat metro tiles.  The living room and bedroom featured sound insulation panels as feature walls.  The floor was a gorgeous raw solid wood from Howdens.  And I colour splashed the entire flat for a neat, modern look using beautiful tones of grey/green.  All architraves skirting and internal doors were replaced.

Here is the full repertoire of images of the finished flat.  It was under offer within a week and I received 6 offers from 8 viewings.

As a comparison, the flat below, which was actually in very good condition, sold for £245,000 in Jan 2021.  Flat values have barely moved since then.

I sold our joint-venture flat for £285,000, an astonishing result and it’s proof that high quality workmanship and great design can add massively to the value of a property.

Our joint venture agreement was a rousing success.  Chris and ourselves were on the same team.  After all, ‘Together Everyone Achieves More’.  Chris ended up with around £40,000 more than if he’d sold the flat for a low price initially.

If you have a property that would benefit from a complete refurbishment and you don’t have the funds and don’t want to give your property equity away to someone else, please do get in touch for a chat and an appraisal of your property.

Here was Chris review of our service.

Here is what he said –

Our first contact with James Hall was in June 2022. The two year nightmare of selling my leasehold property finally ended in August 2024. James Hall had supported us throughout this period. Without his professional, personable expertise and support it is highly likely I would have resorted to selling the property at auction. Courtesy of a tenant’s actions my property had been made uninhabitable. It had turned from an asset to a liability. I had considered selling at auction to dispose of it and take the financial “hit”. Fortunately, however, our research led us to James Hall – a partner in the long established Fishneedwater property specialists. He pointed us to their “property flipping” service and were able to provided a well documented history of a local property that reflected our own circumstances. That was in June 2022. Two years later James had Project Managed and leveraged his professional contacts to enable the financing of a leasehold extension, a complete internal refurbishment of the property which he designed himself and was exceptionally stylish, with an interior designer feel about it and had marketed it, hosted open days, secured a buyer and sold it us at a fabulous price that we at first thought was impossible to achieve. Throughout the 2 years he has made himself available – both formally and on a personal level – to answer our questions and offer options based on his expertise and local knowledge of the property market. In a market seemingly riddled with charlatans and Dickensian property laws we consider ourselves fortunate to have come across a property specialist who is open, honest and talks common sense. James Hall and his Fishneedwater partnership are exemplars that others would do well to emulate. If you have a tired, dilapidated or unmodernised property, I would recommend James and his team and their renovation service as they are brutally honest and always acted with utmost integrity, and they proved to me that a well designed property can sell a record price, as my flat did. Thank you so much, Chris

Here’s how we may be able to help you.

If your property qualifies –

• We’ll fund the refurbishment works and project manage it
• We’ll work with you on a joint-venture basis and act as your selling agent
• You won’t need to sell at a low price because of the property condition (meaning someone else will eventually profit from your property)
• We will sell your property for the very best price in fully refurbished condition
• You don’t need to pay us anything until your sale completes.
• You’ll end up with a far better sale price and more money in the bank

Not every property will qualify, so call me now on 07855 828 736 to discuss your property.