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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be really worried about the prospect of privately renting forever?

83 replies

Confusedmartie999 · 10/05/2015 16:17

I'm in my early 30s and always have privately rented since I was 18 after my mum moved to the country and I stayed for my job / friends.
I then met my husband who was flatsharing so we moved in together 8 years ago.
This was the wrong decision as obviously once we were shelling out £900 for a 2 bed flat we weren't able to save hardly anything.
Anyway, here we are now, 2 children later and I've recently gone back to work evenings to top up our income so monthly we now bring in £2400 and our rent is £1100 so again nothing to save once we pay for everything we need and the kids stuff / travel to and from work etc.
what happens when we are old age pensioners who won't have he deposit / ref fees / month in advance every time a landlord decides to sell or increase the rent beyond outlet affordability? Where will we end up? :-(

OP posts:
opheliaria · 10/05/2015 16:28

There is going to be a whole generation of people in the same situation so they will have to finally do something about it. Otherwise the benefits bill will be in the trillions in 30 years time.

Lesausage · 10/05/2015 16:29

My family are in the same boat, were 30s, 2 doc, no savings etc! But look on the bright side repairs are up to the landlord, you don't have to worry about your house belonging to the bank if house prices go down etc.

Feminine · 10/05/2015 16:33

I think you are worrying because some people have mana it.
Also, because we don't have a fair rental system here.
And... Because some snooty people 'look down' on renting.
Try not to worry. If you can't do anything about it, don't own the problem.
I hope your dream works out one day. :)

Feminine · 10/05/2015 16:33

*managed it = mana

Original poster
Confusedmartie999 · 10/05/2015 16:36

Yeah it's the instability with it all that outweighs any pros for me I'm afraid
It's been hard enough having kids through this constant moving every year or so but as we've always had an income we've been able to find places but no idea what will happen once we are old and not working

OP posts:
AntiHop · 10/05/2015 16:39

Pp is right. Things have to change. I'm in my late 30s. Between the time that I moved into a rented flat with my partner and buying a place, prices went astronomical. I feel extremely lucky that we were able to buy a place but if we'd bought just a couple of years earlier we would be hundreds of pounds a month better off aa the price the flat was worth previously waa much lower. The situation with house prices just baffles me. And now our flat is too small but we can't afford to move.

Have you looked into options such as help to buy or first steps to home ownership op?

I understand your concern about what happens when your older. I hope things are different by then, either prices become more affordable or renting becomes more secure. Surely things have to change??? On the plus side, if you're never a home owner then you'll never have to sell your home to pay for care which is the situation for some older people now.

Babyroobs · 10/05/2015 16:41

If you can't pay your rent when you are OAP's the state will have to pay it for you in the form of housing benefit etc. Or perhaps if there is a large scale house building project then you may be abele to get a housing association house and later buy it. The government seriously needs to address the housing problem and problem of high rents as there are going to be an awful lot of others in the same situation as yourselves.

Babyroobs · 10/05/2015 16:42

If you can't pay your rent when you are OAP's the state will have to pay it for you in the form of housing benefit etc. Or perhaps if there is a large scale house building project then you may be able to get a housing association house and later buy it. The government seriously needs to address the housing problem and problem of high rents as there are going to be an awful lot of others in the same situation as yourselves.

Babyroobs · 10/05/2015 16:42

If you can't pay your rent when you are OAP's the state will have to pay it for you in the form of housing benefit etc. Or perhaps if there is a large scale house building project then you may be able to get a housing association house and later buy it. The government seriously needs to address the housing problem and problem of high rents as there are going to be an awful lot of others in the same situation as yourselves.

lastuseraccount123 · 10/05/2015 16:43

YANBU

I'd be worried in your shoes too.
Just an idea, can you afford to save a downpayment for a flat in a cheaper area as a retirement home? You could rent it in the meantime, hopefully pay it off then once you retire move in to it?

TooManyHouseGuests · 10/05/2015 16:46

YANBU! It's a massive issue and really needs sorting out for society's sake. Radical steps need to be taken, and I don't mean rent control.

Original poster
Confusedmartie999 · 10/05/2015 16:50

No we can barely afford to save £100 a month and generally that then goes on something or other the kids need.
We have no chance at ever buying hence the worry.

OP posts:
Mandatorymongoose · 10/05/2015 21:54

We're in a similar boat, the worst thing is that we've had to move a couple of times and so we've seen what little savings we did scape together towards a deposit get decimated by agency fees and moving costs and having to cover two lots of rent in overlap periods etc. It's very depressing Sad

Talismania · 10/05/2015 22:14

Hmmmm your rent seems very high for your income. Usually the advice is no more than 30% of income on rent and you're spending almost half on it. How about moving to a cheaper place and saving the difference?

ramanoop · 10/05/2015 22:25

So what? Buying a house isn't compulsory. A house is an investment; that's all. There is really not a whole lot of difference between complaining you can't buy a house and complaining you can't buy bonds or shares or oil futures or whatever. Plenty of people do just fine without any of them.

Hassled · 10/05/2015 22:29

The French and Germans are much more likely to rent than not, apparently - they don't have this compulsion to buy that the British have. And they seem to cope. If you can't buy, you can't - your rent does seem extremely high as a proportion of income, though. Are you in London?

ltk · 10/05/2015 22:40

"Buying a property is not compulsory." Well, no, it isn't. But the OP's complaint is not that she has to but that she can't. Buying means the money you pay every month pays down your debt on an asset that you can sell. Rent is generally much more expensive than paying a mortgage, and you never see that money again. And renting is terribly unstable as LLs can ask you to leave (with notice). If I was given the choice to rent or buy, obviously it is generally better to own. And fucking awful that so many cannot hope to do so.

TribbleNamedDave · 10/05/2015 22:48

I'd challenge anyone to find a decent rental property that wasn't a Bedsit for £720 a month.

violet1986 · 10/05/2015 22:49

chuckling at the 'hmm the rent seems very high can you move somewhere cheaper'. If it was that simple do you not think OP would have done that already!!! Rents are ridiculously high, everywhere or the place is a shoebox/dive, moving fees/letting agent fees are through the roof, combined with extra travel costs if moving further away from work to live in a cheaper area... nobody but the very rich can afford to rent and save for a deposit sadly!!

milliemanzi · 10/05/2015 22:53

i was so pleased to hear that one of Labour's policies would be the banning of extortionate agencies fees and the implementation of secure tendencies. At the moment when house prices are so unaffordable then it seems incredibly unfair for renter's rights to be so poor.
Share prices in Foxtons went through the roof on Friday, go figure! Yay for landlords!! Jesus.
If we want to move we'd likely have to save up 6 weeks rent and 300+ quid in agency fees, it is vile, Tories clearly don't give a shit, there is no affordable housing being built in London it's nearly all luxury flats, I just want a standard flat we can feasibly save to buy not a bloody 2 bed for 475000!! It's mad.

Original poster
Confusedmartie999 · 10/05/2015 22:57

Exactly, we had saved £10,000 but then 5 moves in the last 6 years swiftly took that down to 0 with the costs :-(
It's so depressing.
I hope my children never have to go through this.

OP posts:
suzannecanthecan · 10/05/2015 23:12

If you can't pay your rent when you are OAP's the state will have to pay it

I expect they will pay just enough for the poor property-less pensioners to live in a room in some multi occupancy place owned by son of RackmanHmm

suzannecanthecan · 10/05/2015 23:14

Exactly, we had saved £10,000 but then 5 moves in the last 6 years swiftly took that down to 0 with the costs
all your savings gobbled up by landlords and middlemen :(

MrsToddsShortcut · 10/05/2015 23:19

I live in the SE and my rent is a spiffy 88% of my salary! Yay me!

I'm a single parent, working 30 hrs a week (I can't increase my hours as I have no support and can't afford to pay after school club fees for more than 1 afternoon a week).

I work in the public sector and haven't had a pay rise in 8 years so while my rent continues to rise, my salary has stagnated. I desperately wish I had bought somewhere 20 years ago, but didn't and had no idea my life would turn out like this.

I am completely reliant on housing benefit to survive. I will never get a mortgage on my single salary. I will have nothing to leave my children when I die (DD is disabled so would dearly love to see her safe and secure in her future). I dearly wish that all this taxpayers money wasn't going to a LL and that I was somehow able to secure my children's future.

I can't afford to move as I have no money for agency fees and no agency would take me on due to my low salary and reliance on HB. I'm trapped.

The thought of how this pans out scares me senseless.

suzannecanthecan · 10/05/2015 23:30

I dont know what to say, except something along the lines of 'you cant fool all of the people all the time.

There are always unexpected events and consequences, world political and economic events, etc.
No one, even the experts can take these things into account so we cant know how things will pan out

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