to give up my council house and buy a house?

[dirtyface]

here is our situation, i am 33 and dh is 42. am (mostly) a SAHM to 2 dcs relying on tax credits and a very small income from a (very) part time job :o

DH earns about 28k, which is an ok salary where we are are (in the midlands). we are in a 3 bed council house which i was lucky enough to get a few years ago, as was a single mum at the time. my house is my bit of security, i love it, i love the area even though its a bit rough lol and i know if the worst happened the kids and i would still have it.

i always assumed buying was out of reach due to mad house prices in the last few years. but did a bit of research and looks like we could buy a decentish house for about 80 - 90k. nothing great, just a small 3 bed. we have a couple of grand in savings already and could easily save a few more by really cutting back and would poss get help from my Dparents as they are very keen for me to buy a house.

however, i worry if we bought a place, if dh and i split up i would be left a single parent again in private rented. as this is exactly what happened to his exW. as, like me, she didnt work, she was a SAHM, and he paid the mortgage etc and got the mortgage based on his salary. i would never get the security of a council place again.

DH is opposed to buying as he owned before we met and says its not all that. he had money problems and at one point was depressed and almost suicidal due to the pressure of trying to keep a roof over his familys head when interest rates went up :( and i never want him to feel that again. he feels there is more security in renting ie if he lost his job we could just sign on and get HB to pay the rent, whereas we could lose everything if we owned a house and he lost his job (or worse). in fact money stresses were one of the (admittedly many) things that caused him and exW to split.

i also worry that with DH's age we may not be offered a mortgage anyway. as he would be 67 by the time its paid off. plus both of us have had debts / bad credit in the past (although they have mostly been cleared or are being cleared now)

however, buying has always been a big ambition of mine, and one of my biggest life regrets is that i did not buy in the late 90's / early 00's when i had the chance and when prices were very affordable. and i think its a now or never thing tbh. unless we have a lottery win :o

something i would also add is that we are TTC for #3. so if that happens it will effect our finances (obviously)

phew! sorry its long but would appreciate some advice please :) x

running surely even a private housing association would have to respect a lifetime tenancy.

TBH, I don't know what a private HA is anyway? :)

We were given a lifetime tenancy about a year ago. Its in an area that is not very popular, and the HA would like the house to be lived in.

I'd stay put OP I'm a home owner and its realy not all that, I'd wait and see if you got right to buy on the property you are in and meantime continue to save so you ha e a bigger lump to put down.

And...with a lifetime tenancy, you keep that. Regardless if you move or not...with the council anyway.

Most socialized housing is with HA s now.

Pearly whites - why on earth would I be jealous? If you see the state of council estates in manchester then you would understand that i Have nothing to be jealous of. I grew up in council housing and would return to it if I had no other options, but I wouldn't want to return if i had any choce in the matter.
I am very happy in my home and it will be paid for well before retirement age and then I can help my children out financially to get them started in adult life.
I moved out of my parents house and got a mortgage a the age of 18. There were plenty of council flats available at the time and if I wanted one then I could have had one, but I didn't see the point in paying rent for the rest of my life.

let me say - i have NO intention of splitting with DH. we are very much in love and i see no reason why we would not always be together.

HOWEVER, i cannot control the future. i got married thinking it was, and wanting it to be, for life but thats not always the case, is it? just look at the relationships boards.

so where are people getting that i am not committed to him or something? i am. but no one can be 100% certain of anything can they.

The government makes the laws. Therefore they can change them.

Obviously revoking lifetime tenancies would be an enormous, shocking, unprecedented step. But that doesn't mean it won't happen.

The holocaust happened because it happened it tiny stages. Had Hitler just annou ced in 1933 that he was going to gas 6 million Jews then I suspect Germany would have protested. But pointing out that the schools were overcrowded so limiting the number of Jews that could attend was acceptable. (Especially if your child needed a school place presumably.) And "encouraging" Jews to emigrate was fine to.

In the same way, if the aim of the UK government was to revoke lifelong tenancies then they would probably start by no longer issuing them for new tenants. And perhaps by "encouraging" people to leave their tenancy by reducing their benefits if they have more bedrooms than they need.

(Of course the government could make a law that all houses are to be seized by the government but that is even less likely as:-
1 There are more house owners than council tenants so any government doing this would quickly be booted out
2 Most of the highest taxpayers in the UK are home owners so the government doesn't want them to emigrate
3 Practically every MP in the country is a homeowner.)

And...with a lifetime tenancy, you keep that. Regardless if you move or not...with the council anyway.

OUR L A changed the lifetime tenancy years ago I signed a tenancy agreement which meant i had a secure tenancy and a right to buy but if i moved I couldnt take it with me,

i really wish i hadnt started this thread

i suffer really bad with anxiety as it as and now its absolutely through the roof, barely slept last night and woke up tearful

from most opinions on here it seems i will be fucked either way

No dirty face, I think you are in a good position. You have two good options.

I am with the poster who said, save as hard as you can for a while until your credit rating has improved, your DC are a bit older, and you can earn if you have to. Then buy when you are ready.

No need to be panicked into it. I agree that when you have enough money, it is nice to pass social housing intro the next generation of people starting out, but there is no need to jump until you are both ready. It will make both of you anxious and there is no need for that.

thanks beastof x

tbh what i want is to stay here. i love this house, it was a shell when i moved in. filthy, smelly, it had an overgrown garden filled with rubbish and broken toys, no carpets, an unsuitable kitchen, plaster falling off the walls, dirty lino etc. dh and i have spent 100's of hours, and lots of our own money, painstakingly decorating it and restoring it to something beautiful.

my children love it here, its a happy house. i have never lived in a happy house before, never. and until this house i have never felt secure. as a child my parents were skint. i grew up in the 90's when recession hit and my ddad was in the building trade so you can imagine. we couldnt afford anything, we didnt even have working heating. and were constantly on the verge of repossession. i then made poor decisions as a teenager / young adult and ended up living in various horrible rented accomodation, which i could be (and often, was) thrown out of at a moments notice. when ds was born i split with his dad and we lived in a horrible, cold, damp, falling down house. the landlord decided to put the rent up £100 a week, HB - quite rightly - wouldnt pay it so he decided to turf us out as out lovely kind soul and luckily, right place, right time, ds and i got into social housing.

this house represents stability and happiness, it is a place where my children can grow up happy and safe. its a place where they can have a happy mum and parents without money stresses. as its a place that we can afford, while also affording nice things.

i dont want to leave here. and i dont want this fucking damn goverment to start fucking about with tenancies etc just cos i have had the temerity to actually at the age of 33 begin to do something with my life, and that i have fallen in love with a man who is a damn hard worker and earns good money.

so the only reason i want to buy is reluctantly cos i am so scared of what the future holds for us as far as having a secure home, but as i said i feel we are fucked either way cos even if we bought we still might lose our home.

Better to think these things over though before you rush into a decision. If it's making you anxious then maybe it shows that you haven't taken into account some of the issues brought up on this thread such as the extra financial commitment of house maintenance, surveys, solicitors fees, stamp duty, etc.

Or the fact that you may not actually have a big enough deposit or enough good credit rating to get a mortgage. Don't bury your head in the sand about it, find out. It will put your mind at rest.

The worst case scenario is that you stay where you are and you are happy where you are so you're not exactly fucked are you. You do have a house to live in which you do actually like and is big enough for your family.

Sorry, x posted there but actually none of us is totally secure. Rented, mortgage, HA, we all face an uncertain future. Anyone happily married could split up, anyone could lose their job, anyone could suffer a bereavement, interest rates could go way up, rents could rise, anything can happen to make life difficult for any of us. You are never going to be more secure than you are right now tbh.

I would say don't do it because if the worse did happen you'll end up privately renting which will cost an absolute fortune.

I sold my house after separating from Dp two years ago and was lucky enough to get a HA house, its in a really lovely sought after location and rent is £360 per month, I have a gardner that comes every week!

I would never buy again, if there is a problem with my current house I ring and they send someone the same day, I wouldn't ever buy again!

So there are no guarantees in life, you and your DH have a bit of spare cash at the moment and you are wondering if the time is right to move onto the next step on the ladder [ish, since you would be walking away from a home you have refurbished and you love- do the council give you anything for the value that you've added?]

The lack of social housing is not the fault of right to buy. Surely it's the fault of inadequate investment in new council housing/housing association type organisations. Presumably RTB was designed for exactly the reason outlined above which is that over time, people's incomes change but secure housing acts as a blocker to moving on. RTB creates an aspiration and an incentive to better oneself.

OP if I were you, I would sit tight, squirrel away the extra cash and make a call when the kids are a little older and decide whether or not you wish to move from the "rough area" because of school, work and other opportunities or because govt policy dictates. It's never a bad idea to have some money in the bank. Your DH has been burnt before and lost his home, I can't imagine what that must have been like. Try to put yourself in his shoes - it's all on him.

The feminist in me says, if you want a 3rd child (2 & 2x half for him to support, plus you) and a home outside council control then it's time for you to make a financial and work plan as to how you will contribute if he is not comfortable with that level of financial risk. It's not about offending the SAHM community and saying that what you do is not important, it's simply to point out that you can't necessarily have it all and it is unfair to expect the sole wage earner to take on a level of debt and pressure any more than it is unfair for them to treat you like a skivvy.

I think you're looking at this the wrong way - it is an over reaction to say you are "fucked either way". But as with all things in life there are no certainties. I'd suggest sitting down with a piece of paper and listing the pros and cons for each option.

Neither situation is going to be 100% risk free but nothing ever is. If you bought a house there is the possibility that circumstances change and you can no longer afford it.

If you stay in social housing you don't have that quite as acutely but given you'll be relying upon 50 years of government housing policy, nobody can give you a cast iron guarantee that at some point along the road your circumstances might clash with the then rules. But staying awake all night worrying about is is not going to be productive.

If you feel happy & secure where you are then why move? The only reason that I own my home ( when mortgage is paid off in 8 years time) is because we didn't upsize when we maybe could have, before my divorce. As you have said, this is a happy, affordable home & i have no plans to move, even if I won the lottery cos you can't guarantee your neighbours & i'm lucky with mine.

Don't be scared of what future policy might bring. You have enough to do having another DC, making your relationship work, and maybe saving up a bit. If you love that home it would be very traumatic to leave.

Why don't you sit tight and save up a bit. Once you get the right to buy you can reassess. I know they might take right to buy away, but that is your anxiety talking now. The risk of them taking it away is probably less than the other risks, of borrowing too much at the wrong time.

In your shoes I would probably wait until DC3 is old enough to go to nursery, then exercise your right to buy with help from your parents, knowing that you can support dH in the earning side of things if needed. By then, it will all be clearer for you. By staying where you are, you minimise the anxiety and disruption, and you get to keep all the value you have added to your home. I also means that if schools or something make you change your mind about the area, you have options.

I don't think you will miss the boat, not with right to buy, so stop worrying so much.

How come you get tax credits when your DH earns 28k????

Threshold for tax credits is 32 k

Just to make it clear there is help if you lose your income when you have a mortgage.

www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/overview

The interest only is paid (so obviously you would have to switch to an interest only mortgage should this happen) after 13 weeks and up to two years worth of payments would be made.

There is help should the worse happen.

You should look into right to buy although I don't really agree with the sale of council houses. But so many have been sold it's too late to take the moral stand. I think that would be your best option. I agree that this right to buy might not be around for much longer. And I wouldn't be surprised if the rules were changed about the right to a council house for life.

Pearly - thanks, i thought it was 17k

I would stay where you are OP, you sound happy there - we own our own house, DP is self employed and our income is erratic, every month i am stressed about the mortgage. I have a friend who has just got a council place, brand new but dodgy area - I envy her the security.

wow didnt realise was 32k for tcs. i thought we were right on the cusp of being allowed them. i barely get anything though, what do you get on 32k, about 10p a week lol :o

thanks again for all the advice

actually also just found out i am PG with DC3 - i POAS about half an hour ago so that might change things somewhat,..... :o

Congratulations

dirty, thats amazing news - congratulations :) I really hope everything works out for you. I suffer from anxiety too and can see how you are are now weighing up the pros and cons of every little thing, its difficult.