NOW CLOSED: Is it still a home if you don't own it? Make your voice heard and discuss this topic with Barclays - £150 John Lewis voucher up for grabs

[AnnMumsnet]

Hello - you may have seen that this week Barclays have a big campaign to get people talking about home buying and money topics.

Yesterday we discussed "When are you too old to ask your parents for financial help?".

As stated before - the team at Barclays say "We want to know what Mumsnetters think about home buying and money dilemmas.

So our second question is "Is it still a home if you don't own it?""

Please share your thoughts on this thread - there are no right or wrong answers and the question will mean different things to different MNers.

Add your thoughts below and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £150 John Lewis voucher.

Look out for one final thread on Thursday where we'll be asking one more question.

Thanks MNHQ

PS Please note your comments  along with your MN name may be used on the Barclays pages on Mumsnet and elsewhere.

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

Yes, a home is the place you live with your family.

Some people own them, some are paying for it, others rent - none of these diminishes the fact that it is a home

[expatinscotland]

Many landlords are of the opinion that it is not a home to the tenant, it's space let out which should be able to be reclaimed following the first 4 months of the tenancy, available for them to visit when they please, kept in the minimum state of good repair, not available to persons with children or pets or who are in receipt of even partial Local Housing Allowance.

The government has fostered buying to let or hanging onto second or other multiple properties to let in many ways, propping up a housing bubble which leaves more and more people stuck in the insecure, expensive cycle that is private letting in the UK.

We rent, and tbh, due to the tenancy laws here, do not consider a privately let dwelling a home due to the insecurity of tenure.

[BananaPie]

Of course it is. What a silly and slightly provocative question.

[stargirl1701]

I am both a landlord and a tenant. I feel like my rented house is my home. I don't feel too insecure at all. I know this isn't my forever house, just a stepping stone on the way while we wait out some kind of market recovery. I do see my flat as the tenant's home. I leave them alone unless they call me and only inspect once a year to check for maintenance needs.

[trueblood1fan]

its a home but will never be on a level par with owning as you cant decorate, change windows/doors or kitchens/bathroomd but so difficult to buy.

[MikeLitorisHasChristmasLights]

Not for me it doesn't.

I used to have a HA property and that felt like my home.

This rented house simply doesn't.

I cant decorate and do anything here.the landlord does all his own repairs and its all bodged jobs. Doors don't fit the frames properly etc.

I would love to buy but the deposits for first time buyers are just ridiculous.

It is so frustrating to be paying a fortune in rent when the mortgage for the same place is about £300 a month cheaper.

Having an ex that left me with a horrific credit score doesn't help.

[CMOTDibbler]

To me, yes - I've lived in lots of places, and I'm pretty much happy to call anywhere I've unpacked more than one bag home

[BananaPie]

I'm both a tenant and a landlord at the moment. My house is the one I own, and it'll be my home again when my family and I move back to it. My home is where I live, with my family and all our things.

I think the question is provocative because it suggests that people who aren't able to afford to buy their own house don't have a "home" which is clearly nonsense.

[TitHead]

I'm also a tenant with a private landlord. I would love to buy but unfortunatley I have no where near the deposit required and my cedit history is not exactly sparkling although much improved.

It's frustrating that we can't decorate or renovate the way we would like however, this house is where our son said his first words, took his first steps. It has so many memories and it has the three of us in it so yes it is home, albeit a tempory one.

[ohfunnyface]

Yes, home with a mortgage you can't afford is much less a home than somewhere you can walk away from.

[Llareggub]

Interesting and timely topic for me as following my divorce I have sold the family home and about to move into a rented house. I have owned several properties and been a landlord, and will buy again in a few years.

My new rental feels like a new start, a safe space with all the potential that a new start will bring. It feels like freedom and happiness. I can picture my boys and our friends in it, and I am imagining the memories we will make after this year, which has been the worst of my life.

Homes are made (and broken) by our emotions and the house I currently live in, whilst mine (mortgaged!) does not feel like a home. It feels like a trap.

[TiredofZombies]

Where I live is my home, be it rented or owned. I spent 15+ years living in rented properties, and even if I only lived there a year, it was still my home. Where I go at the end of the working day, to warmth, my dinner and my bed, is my home.

Unfortunately many landlords don't see it that way. They think of it as "their house" and won't allow the tenant to treat it as their home, as a prior posted said, decorating, having pets etc. It's like they're saying "well you can stay here, but don't get settled."

I think you have to make your own home, wherever you can.

[kellestar]

I do feel that my house is my home... like someone else said it's not my forever home. We have a mortgage, albeit smaller now then when we first bought our house. Oddly we both didn't feel it became our home until we had children. But I still don't feel like we own our home until the mortgage is paid off.

I have never rented nor am I a landlord and my friends that do rent feel they are in hiatus until they are on the property ladder as then you can do what you like to your house and make it a home. They lived in Germany for a couple of years and the rental system is so much easier/cheaper and less regimented [you can decorate] yet the opportunity to actually buy your own property is slim.

[RichTeaAreCrap]

I own a house and also rent an appartment during the week for work. I definately do feel a difference between the two. I am not sure if it is all in my mind because I know I do have my own home, but I often sit in my rented place and wonder what is missing.

For me, the missing thing is the security and warmth of knowing its my own. I am constantly aware that the landlord could ask me to move out anytime. While it wouldn't be a huge problem for me as I am just in a city centre appartment and could find another, I imagine that if I was here and settled with my family it could be very unsettling to know that my landlord could force me to make a drastic change to my life at anytime (i.e. having to uproot family and move). I am also aware that I cannot do what I want in the appartment because it belongs to somebody else. I can't decorate it and hang things on the wall like I would with my own flat. Also all the soft furnishings - curtains, carpets etc are not my own and not my choice. I know that they could be replaced with a landlords agreement, but again knowing that you could be asked to move out at anytime would make this a gamble - you wouldn't want to invest too much money just to leave it all for somebody else.

Overall I feel much more secure in my own house. I do like the flexibility of renting because people's financial situations can change anytime and I am guessing it would be a lot more cost effective to move to a cheaper rented place if needed. You dont really get that option quite so easily if you own - you have to pay the mortgage amount every month and if you were to downsize it would actually cost you a lot of money to sell your house and buy a smaller one with legal fees, stamp duty, etc etc.

[littlemonkeychops]

I think a rented house is still a home, when we used to rent our flat felt like our home, but we were only in our early 20s and it was our first place together, so even though it was damp witn a kitchen the size of a cupboard we still loved it.

As we got older we did start to want somewhere that was more "ours", and nothing beats the feeling when you first walk in a house on moving day and feel "this is ours", albeit with a mortgage. A bank doesn't interfere with your use/enjoyment of a house in the same way a landlord does.

[lisad123]

A home is what you make it. It is only bricks after all.
We own our house but will be selling and going into rental. I'm nervous and worried its not ever going to feel like home, but I'm sure it will ok

[FreddieMercuryforQueen]

I'm also a landlord and a tenant, the hous I rent out I have a fondness for as it was my home before it was my tenants. The house I rent I consider home as I have made so many happy memories here, I hate the insecurity of renting though and would love to buy this house, it's just not a possibility right now and although the landlord is generally an ok bloke, he has already kicked us out once (in a failed attempt to sell the house) and the house we lived in prior to moving back here never felt like home. So I don't know what makes a house a home, it's not owning it as I feel at home here, equally I don't feel at home just anywhere as the other rented property was just a house we lived in for a bit.

[AmberLeaf]

Ive never owned my own home, but of my varied addresses over the years, most have been 'home'

I think it's a silly question too.

Of course its still a home.

[Piffpaffpoff]

Yes a rented property can still be a home. Home to me is where my family are, where we sleep, eat, play. Doesn't matter who it belongs to.

[Llareggub]

Why do LLs ask people to move out? My LL rents out his former family home, which belonged to his mother. He uses the rent to supplement his pension. He looks for long term lets that won't impinge on his life. I think so long as I pay up and respect his house I'll be there for as long as I want. If he wants to sell I will happily buy it. (crosses fingers!)

[Wallison]

Obviously tenants aren't homeless but they are treated appallingly badly in the UK compared to other countries because they don't have any security. This lack of security makes other 'rights' effectively unenforceable because if you pull the landlord up on the fact that he doesn't do repairs properly or indeed at all, then he could just give you notice. It happens, and so the precarious nature of renting means that tenants are unable to enforce what limited rights they have. I would absolutely love to have a home that I own but the insane housing market makes that impossible.

[FannyPriceless]

Country estate / farmer landlords seem to be more willing to encourage tenants to regard a rental property as their own. In our old village there was a woman whose family had 'rented' the same cottage from the estate for nearly 100 years.

[Llareggub]

I have had such terrible service from letting agents. They don't see the tenant as a customer at all. Terrible profession, on a par with recruitment consultants.