... to be worried about moving into social housing

[Bennifer]

I've been offered a shared ownership flat that would work out cheaper than my rent, and would allow me to build up some equity. However, it's on the edge of an estate and when I went to measure up on the weekend, someone had dumped a mattress in the street and I got all worried.

What are your experiences with social housing? am I just worrying unnecessarily?

Depends where you are but I live in a council house and any problems in the last 20 years we have had have been with home owners! eg kid opposite in a owner occupier house shot at our windows with a bb gun and air pistol! Social housing tenants can be evicted if they break terms of tenancy which includes anti social behaviour.

Some social housing is very good, some isn't. You really can't generalise. We live in London so much of the social housing are street properties i.e. they buy a couple of houses in a street, split them into flats and rent them out.

One flat we lived in we had drug dealing neighbours in the flat below who were raided by the police a number of times. The flat we are in now, is in a good area and our neighbours are great. The houses next door are in private ownership.

In London, you do find the odd mattress / furniture dumped in the street. A lot of people don't have a car to take it to the tip and don't want to pay £20 for the council to come to collect it.

We lived in a shared ownership proerty for a few years on a housing development that was a mixture of social housing, owner-occupied and buy-to-let. It was a great way to get on the property ladder and tbh, the only way we could.

Check the estate out at different times of day, weekdays and weekends. Be brave and introduce yourself to some of the neighbours. The mattress could have been a one-off, or waiting for someone with a van to take it to the tip. I'm sure you will find the pros far outweigh the cons. Do come back and let us know ow it went, it could be such a great oportunity for you.

Find out if there's a residents association. If so, ask one of the committee members about the running of the estate and whether there are any particular problems.

Ours is great - I've been here 9 years in a cul de sac with 6 houses and a block of 9 flats - you get the odd one as you do in any street but by and large we are all polite - the mattress tipping may have just been the previous tenants moving out.

Social housing is not a euphemism for sink estate, all areas are diferent and I have always found if I am polite and friendly and considerate, so are my neighbours - I don't get involved in gossip but always say hello and welcome new tenants and have found that works for me - best of luck in your new home.

I think I'm particularly a worrier at the moment. Mumdad2kids, how did you find the shared ownership scheme? Did it work out well for you?

People dump shit in the street anywhere. YABU to be scared about living near an estate - don't be daft.

Shared ownership BE CAREFUL.

We bought a property which was shared ownership. Had no problem with it, and we have since bought the other half of it. It worked well for us, BUT and this is a BIG BUT I would exercise caution though. There are a hell of a lot of pitfuls with shared ownship and you need to do your homework carefully and think about what you see yourself doing in 5 years time...

Pros (few but important)

1. They are great, particularly in nice areas which you wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. If its lifestyle you are after they definitely have a plus. I can definitely see the benefit in terms of good schools.
2. If you are paying less in rent/mortgage combined then you otherwise would, they are very attractive.
3. It gives you a step onto the housing ladder and allows you to build up equity rather than 'waste' it on rent. (Though of course, if the house price goes down you may have even bigger problems).
4. It gives you greater long term security as its YOUR house.
5. If you haven't got a large amount of money to put down as a deposit, it gives you and extra option.
6. It can be cheaper than renting.

Cons (and there are many!)

1. Don't compare one shared ownership scheme with another. They are all so different so cant easily be compared! The devil is in the details.
2. Get a specialist solicitor (or a damn good solicitor) even if they cost slightly more! Our saving grace has been we've had a decent one, who has known whats going on even when no one else has. They will help you read the small print and know what you are actually buying! Our original neighbours didn't and ended up moving after a year after finding out they couldn't rent the place out.
3. Don't believe the sales pitch. After dealing with people who sold ours, we know for a fact they have no idea what they are selling themselves and are just after figures. Take responsibility and do your own homework too.
4. Check out who runs the housing association that rents you the property. Are they not for profit? How much experience do they have? Avoid privately run for profit ones and stick to charitable or not for profit schemes.
5. Housing Associations are run by morons. Just varying degrees of stupidity and incompetence. They are difficult to deal with.
6. SERVICE CHARGES!!!! Check them out. Particularly if you are looking at flats. Pay attention to how easily they can be raised. Your rent may have limitations but your service charge may not.
7. How much of the property can you buy? 100% or a fixed maximum percentage. It affects how attractive the property might be in the future to other buyers and what your options might be.
8. Shared Ownership can be more difficult to sell. It has a bad rep in the press and people are more wary about them as they don't understand them. Its worth considering how much demand for low cost housing there is in the area. If there are a lot of alternatives, maybe think twice.
9. You can not sub-let your property. If you can not sell and need to move you are in a really difficult position as your options are more limited than if you own your whole property. Consider how likely your personal circumstances are to change. Are you planning on having or extending you family?
10. Even mortgage lenders are useless with shared ownership and are often unaware of certain issues. If you are getting a specific shared ownership mortgage you will also be paying higher rates of interest too.
11. You can end up paying the same in rent and mortgage combined than a mortgage would be on the full property.
12. Staircasing and selling on is a minefield. There are hidden extra charges and fees at every step compared to normal ownership. You don't have full control over the sale price or valuation as it has to be agreed with the housing association. Legal fees are higher as the process is more complicated. If you staircase, watch out for your mortgage - we ended up being mis-sold a mortgage with fees assistance as their solitictors did not cover costs. Its worth asking your mortgage company repeatedly at every opportunity about how they deal with shared ownership, is this suitable for you etc etc. We had our housing association trying to pass off some of their legal fees to us. If you are a first time buyer, even if the total value of the property is less than £250k, you will be liable for some stamp duty at some point if you staircase.

Please don't be completely put off by what I've said. Take horror stories with a pinch of salt but realise what the problems are, so you can avoid them. If you are able to save and maybe look at buying outright in 5 years it may well be worth being patient though. They aren't necessarily a magic solution.

Like I say, its worked for us, but they are a pain in the backside at times.

PS feel free to PM me, if you want any advice. If I can help I will.

GOOD LUCK!

I don't really see how you're making the connection between mattress dumping and social housing?

I own my home and yet people still dump all manner of things in the streets at times

It worked really well for us, although we didn't make any money when we did sell our half last year, we had time to build up enough equity for deposit on a bigger house, but I could have happily stayed put if our circumstances hadn't changed. That was more to do with the housing market though, and being shared ownership we sold pretty quickly. Our neighbours were also shared ownership and we all got on well on our street, it was a shared bond.

I hated private renting, the lack of security, the not being abe to decorate, bad luck with landlords, 6 month contracts. etc. I hadn't realised how stressed I was living like that until we were lucky enough to get a shared-ownership house and I felt so much more secure.

I know not everyone has the same experiences of shared ownership but ours were really positive.

Thanks, it is a not-for-profit HA who "should" be quite good, but I can't guarantee it.

It's the selling on I'm worried about to an extent. I want somewhere where I won't lose money (rather than make it) so it shares the risk. I'm in the South West where affordability of housing is quite a big issue, and I would hope there are people in a similar position to me looking for their first home, and therefore easyish to sell. I've got tired of private renting.

Mum, do you think your shared ownership house roughly follow the general market, (i.e. house prices have fallen / been steady over the past few years), or did it do better / worse?

As I say, I don't want to make money, just want not to lose it, continue saving and pay off some mortgage

Why would you be worried??
Its no different from anywhere else. When we owned our house(in a nice area), the neighbours were worse than where we are now. We now live in a council house(which is supposed to be a less nice area), and have had absaloutly no problem with any neighbours. I keep my house nice, and clean, as I do with the outside, as do my neighbours.

Theres always the back up of the housing association if you do have a problem, they will look into it and deal with any problems

Not everyone who lives in social housing are the lowest of the low, most people are there because they have to be probably through no choice of their own and are respectable people and feel lucky to have what theyve got!!! Yes there are a few people who dont have any respect for where they live but isnt there everywhere????

Thanks Elves, I am looking to live in live in Social housing, and so I'm not anti-social housing, I am however a massive worrier

Sorry didnt mean to off on one there!

We looked into shared equity, I think unless your sure that sometime in the future you will be able to buy the % off the HA, then I dont think you would make any money.
Ive known people who have needed to sell their share and 1. have had trouble selling and 2. if they have managed to sell then they have lost money due to one reason or another!
I have yet to meet someone who has made money through a shared buy!

Bennifer from what you've said, then it sounds like its not a bad idea. If there are lot of people struggling to buy, in the area, and theres not much available my gut would say go for it. Just make sure you do check out the service charges.

I know the shared ownership properties on our estate have followed market value with the rest of the full ownership on the estate - but I do know that hasn't been the case everywhere. Devil is in the detail of your contact.

Theres always the back up of the housing association if you do have a problem, they will look into it and deal with any problems

Not necessarily. Heard plenty of cases where HA just ignore SO tenants over stuff like that. Because they are only half owners, they have a habit of abdicating responsibility when it suits them. Never had any trouble were I live, but having dealt with the level of unprofessionalism and incompatence displayed, I have to say, don't expect them to do much for you.

As for making money with SO. Slightly disagree with TheElvesSawBatgirlKissingSanta. Few people who have bought SO bought much before peak of the market. Of course few people have made money with it. Anyone who bought full ownership in the same time frame is unlikely to unless they made improvements to the house.

For the HA sorting out probs, I think if they have tenants renting from them they step in more. I wouldnt know about the shared housing. I do know though that you are responsible for any repairs to your home, where as as a tenant in rented, the HA has to take responsibility for repairs, heating ect.
I would imagine that they probably wouldnt step in as much with a shared owner as you are meant to live there as its completely your home! Plus it would be harder to evict!

I've checked on the HA's website, and they say that things that are dumped will be removed by the HA within a week, so that's good.

When you resell, you have to sell for market value using an approved agent. There is no room for haggling. Due to the way the market has gone, we sold it for what we paid, so didn't gain anything. If DH hadn't got a considerably better job we would have stayed put, waited for the value to drp then staircased when the house was worth less.

There's a filthy old sofa in the front garden next door to us. We live in a private street.
What has the mattress got to do with social housing?
I have a shared ownership property (one bed flat in Steatham) which I'm lumbered with. It's gone down in value by 20 grand since bought a 40% share (all I could afford on a nurses salary) in 2004.
I can't sell the effing thing and I'm prevented from renting it out by the HA.
The communal service charges continue to rise and rise.
I wish to God I'd never bought it in the first place...worse decision I ever made and not a dumped mattress/sofa in sight.

Flats seem to definitely fair worse than houses for SO as the service charges seem to be the real killer and are higher than if you have your own private front door.

Most of the horror stories I've seen tend to be from flat owners rather than houses.