To feel absolutely desperate re our housing situation

[AwfulMaureen]

Some may remember my thread worrying about the fact that our Landlord is selling...we got our official notice today...2 months. Fine. I have no hope that the local authority will house us though I will try.

We have some savings...which we can double in the next two months if we save every penny and eat nothing but porridge...which will amount then to 20,000.

I don't want to try for a mortgage as A: We are both 41 and don't want one at this point ...the stress and worry of being chained to a bank is not for me...my sister is always in constant fear of her mortgage provider...and B: I doubt we'd get one anyway as we're both self employed and so not a good bet.

I did look into part ownership but around here the only properties available are flats...upper level flats with no gardens. So our 20 grand would go on owning 25% of a flat in an area we'd never choose.

What can I DO! It's SO frustrating....if we could find a little wreck of a barn with planning permission, we have the skills and patience to do it up...I've even found myself looking at frigging barges and Park Houses...you know...those little trailer park things! Most of those are for retired people with no children.

Why the arse should we continue to rent privately? I just don't want to!

The savings we have have come to us through freakishly good timing so we can't really replicate this amount of money over the next few years and I'm afraid it will all leech away on rent etc...I just want somewhere to call my own.

I think about all those English Heritage wrecks....rotting away...when we could improve and protect them...and other listed buildings which are going to waste. We're willing to be a bit quirky in our lifestyle but have to consider the children which is why a barge isn't really ideal!

As you state you can double your savings to £20k in the next two months, by living frugally, presumably you are bringing in pretty substantial incomes. That's 5k per month you will save!!!

What exactly is it you're worried about?

Either you're now going to back pedal massively and tell us something different to your OP, or you're being massively ridiculous about not being able to afford a mortgage. Or you will now disappear and not answer...

I just don't it OP. Given your situation, surely your savings/cash in the bank are the answer? Deposit for a house. So many people would be grateful for that, as I am sure you are aware from all the other posts here.

Continuing to rent means i) you run the risk wherever you rent next that the landlord can serve notice and get you out and ii) your money goes towards someone else's mortgage and you have nothing to show for all it has cost you.

Moving house is stressful but for goodness sake! Are you renting somewhere fully furnished perhaps? Just trying to think why it's such a big deal. I hate the phrase, but it seems like a no brainer to me.

OP I really don't see your problem.

If you continue to rent then you will potentially be in this position your whole life - landlord deciding to sell up and you needing to look for another home.

Why are you so frightened of a mortgage? Would your monthly payment be any more than you are paying in rent at the moment?

Have you actually been to a mortgage advisor and looked into what you could borrow and the costs?

That should read 'I just don't get it'.

I also forgot to add: If you can save up so much money quickly why not have a plan to rent for 6 months to a year and save, save, save so you can buy somewhere pretty much outright, with no or a minimal mortgage? If that's an option you need to start now before house prices rise much more and while it is still a buyer's market.

I love your vague, confusing op followed by swears and anger that nobody had read it.

Why all these people are bothering to give you all this detailed, helpful advice in the face of your rudeness is beyond me.

London and country are supposed to be very good for self employed mortgages

Our mortgage is at a fixed rate until paid off 2023 so no angst re increasing rates here

I have to say I agree with you Op. There's no way you should get a mortgage because you clearly haven't got the maturity to manage one.

Unfortunate in someone apparently 41 but there you go.

I don't believe for a second you could save 5 grand in the next two months. That's pie in the sky isn't it? Like all your plans. You need to grow up and work out here and now how you will house yourself and your kids and if you can't afford it on what you make from being self employed then one or both of you need to pack that in and go and be a wage slave. Whining and stropping will do nothing.

I haven't read all the replies. You will have 20k to move? At present you have 10k?? Why don't you just continue to private rent?? You should count yourself lucky! We have to move out and have no savings!!! If i had 10k to move I would be counting myself lucky!

Totally agree with Northern!

Oh Northern is there a history here?

OP, the main difference between paying rent and paying a mortgage is the following:

If you have a mortgage you pay a monthly amount as a down payment for your own property.

If you rent, you pay a monthly amount as a down payment for landlords mortgage, plus you pay him his profit, and a sum set aside for maintenance and repairs (in theory), landlords insurance, etc.

I am not sure why you dont want to have a mortgage. If you dont pay your monthly amount, you risk losing your home whether you rent or pay a mortgage.

One more point.

You dont want to have a mortgage when you retire. How are you planning to pay your rent when you retire? With your state pension?

Are you planning to let your pension pay your rent in retirement?
If you have paid your mortgage down, you wont have to worry about this.

I'm sure most people who could afford to save at the rate of 5k per month by 'living frugally' and sticking to porridge would chew off their arm to be in your situation OP.

But then like others have said, you're either telling porkies or maybe can't do sums, in which case you're probably right.. You shouldn't get a mortgage

I think some of the responses are a little harsh, OP clearly has issues with the idea of a mortgage, possibly from seeing family struggle with them. I would say it's similar to the posts from woman /men who are very against marriage after having seen very bad divorces (possibly being the DCs involved), wanting the legal protection of marriage but not to do it and getting a hump on that everyone keeps just saying "just get married, it's quicker and cheaper and only way to get all the benefits of marriage."

But OP, like those people who have to accept they take the risk of the downsides of marriage if they want the upsides, as you don't have enough money to buy a house outright, you'll have to risk the possible downsides of a mortgage if you want the upside - ie. security that a landlord can't just evict you, and eventually owning your housing outright so not having rent/housing costs to pay in your dotage.

It might seem daughting now to be forced to make the choice right now as your landlord wants you out, but it's not desperate, you are far from desparate, it was the wrong choice of word (which has quite rightly annoyed a lot of people) what you are is confussed and not sure which is your best option.

Oh and another thing to remember OP, while you can be thrown out of your house if you don't pay your mortgage, this is the only reason you can be forced out if you've bought your property.

As you can see from your current situation, if you are renting, there's many reasons you can be asked to leave that have nothing to do with paying your rent on time or not. You can pay nicely each month and still find yourself looking for a new home. If you buy, no matter how noisy you are, no matter how much you trash the house, no matter what anyone else wants to do, as long as you pay your mortgage each month, you will keep your home. This was my reason for wanting to buy.

You're not the sister are you Northern ?

I am always amused when the anti-landlord whiners don't seem to realise that if they have a mortgage, they are paying to bankers - who in their little fluffy world they hate more than landlords because they don't like certain ways of making a living.

The OP has to her credit worked that one out. But yes, the bank does own the house until the mortgage is cleared, because, sweetybumps, that's how it works in real life.

but with a plan to clear the mortgage over many years (because that's what everyone else does) you do eventually own it. Of course you are also responsible for maintaining and fixing it too - unlike in a rental.

not sure why adults find real life so difficult. Terribly first world.

But buy renting, they are paying to both landlords and bankers, and is that not worse? They are "lining the pockets" of two kinds of "scum of the earth", instead of insuring they have a rent/mortgage free retirement....

But if your emigrating this all becomes a bit of a non issue and waste of time to be honest. Rent another house and sort yourselves out when you go.

And why should you get council housing when you will have £20k on savings!!

AwfulMaureen, I DID read the thread properly. You said you have 10K in savings and by eating porridge and saving every penny could DOUBLE THIS IN THE NEXT TWO MONTHS. Those were YOUR WORDS!! This means you are able to save 5K a year!!! A figure most people can only dream off.

Monthly mortgage payments roughly equate to monthly rental amounts (for equivalent houses where I live the mortgage payments tend to be a bit lower). So if you can afford to rent you can afford to buy. Your 20K is a fab deposit. We were only able to put down 5K deposit and that was begged and borrowed from family members...

We don't earn well. Dh is a skilled manual worker, I am a Teaching Assistant. The vast bulk of our salary goes on the mortgage. There are things that need doing to the house we cannot afford to do. We don't go on holidays as we don't have the money. We are paying the mortgage on a modest 3 bed semi. But in 21 years time it will be paid off. It will belong to us. We will then sell it, buy a retirement property outright and use the rest of the profits to live off.

You can't do this if you rent the rest of your life.

So stop stropping and grow up. You appear to have more money than a lot of people you just refuse to see it!

Agree with loads of posters

In the interest of trying to help though, am trying to work out when you talk about part ownership if:

1. Flats round your way go for £80k, so your £20k would buy a quarter of the property.

or

1. Flats round your way go for £400k so your £20k covers a 20% deposit on a quarter of the property.

If its the former then its very likely that you could comfortably afford to buy a house with a mortgage (part-ownership is not designed to work like this, buying a quarter of £80k is designed for people with much less money).

If it's the latter then you do need to move out of central London!

Behind No...it DOES NOT mean that we can do that all year round. I think I know my own earning capacity thank you! We both currently have short term contracts which happen to be lucrative. These are the first of their kind for us since we've both been self employed. We have NO reason to assume this will be regular earning.

Badvoc I accepted that we are not ideal candidates for council housing. Further up thread.

There are some incredibly nasty posts here. We are currently at a crossroads...it is confusing and sometimes frightening. Moving to Oz is an OPTION....not a plan as of yet. I don't know what to do. But I shouldn't have posted in AIBU. My own fault.