I should have the right to buy from my my to let landlord after 6 years here

[chocolatekatie]

No government will ever do it as loads of them are into buy to let hence why they do all they can to prop up the bubble.

My landlord thinks he's some businessman doing me a favour by letting me live here. Actually he's the problem, he just had money so can afford to buy up property - push up the price and force people like me to rent.

If you could afford to buy the house you're living in, why don't you buy a different house?

If you're suggesting you should be given it, or sold it at a big discount after 5 years, I think you'd find your landlord would have evicted you before 5 years to prevent that.

Some landlords are businesses, buying up loads of properties and having an empire. Some, like my husband, have scrimped and saved, paid through high interest rates by not having luxuries, been unable to sell due to negative equity, worked hard to save a deposit for our family home so we can keep our flat and not lose literally 50,000. We look after our one rental and our tenants, and accept housing benefit as a means of payment, and now you think our tenant should have the right to buy our property? When they chose, not when we do? (ie at a time when values drop, no doubt). I've been a single parent on benefits and there was no way I could have afforded to buy my home, even if there was a scheme. I think river cam has a valid point; if you're private renters and pay 100% of your rent yourself, you could most probably afford a mortgage, so you'll need to do what most property owners do and save a deposit. While you're doing that, you've got a few years to actively sort your credit rating out (see Martin Lewis website for some good advice) so that you are able to get better rates. There's a help to buy scheme running at the moment which has helped people I know to buy with a 5% deposit. The first few years in any property are tough, with money needing spent and high rates, but once you can remortgage after a few years you should find your rates improve.

Rivercam you clueless re the rental situation. Your comment if you can afford to rent you can afford to buy is laughable. Ive rented for 10 years now and its impossible to buy if renting as the rents are too much to save. I cant live in thin air for a few months whilst saving. Whilst living in london i lived in flats which whilst only 1-2 bedrooms and cheapest in area would cost 650. K to buy but my rent was ' only' 1200. We lived on £30 per week food. On my wage i couldnt get a morgage for even quarter of that amount.

It's not just the difficulty in terms of scrimping and saving, going through the difficult process of getting a mortgage etc, no-one is disputing that that is usually a hard process for everyone or attacking those who have bought homes already. It is that for many, many people it is more than difficult, it is a complete impossibility to get to that point with the disparity between the rise in wages and rents/house prices. Just to say 'why not get a mortgage' is very short-sighted.

The OP is trying to think of an idea to help the housing crisis. Unfortunately it is flawed and it also highlights why Right to Buy for council homes is flawed - far more so, as it takes much-needed social housing out of the system.

How to slow house prices to a more reasonable point without harming those who already own and at the same time slow rents and improve situations for tenants, that's the conundrum.

"Never missed"
I was going to say YABU but the comments on here suggesting that any renters just go and get a mortgage intead are showing a complete lack of understanding for the situation of those currently forced to rent.
The OP is clearly frustrated at the disparity between those lucky enough to have obtained property before the last decade or so and those who lucked out and are struggling to get a foothold on the property ladder while paying double the mortgage value in rent.
I don't think that tenants should automatically have the right to buy a house they have lived in for many years but completely understand the frustration of watching landlords expanding their portfolio, while paying considerably more each month to rent a property than you would to buy it yourself.

londonrach at the prices you mention a BTL landlord would be likely making an operating loss on the flat so there is no way he would want to sell at a discount. He is probably banking on a capital gain in the long term to counterbalance the operating losses. If there was no likelihood of capital gain due to needing to give the tenant a RTB discount he wouldn't be letting out the flat and you wouldn't have had that flat to live in (and many others in the same situation).

YABU.

If you can afford to save up a deposit to buy the house you're currently in, then you could buy any house in the same price range locally. I appreciate that you've lived there for 6 years but if the Landlord doesn't want to sell then that's up to them. Or are you proposing that Landlords have to give you a discount on the price or the bank doesn't need a deposit under this idea? Either way sounds like a disaster for Landlords that would then cut down on the amount of rental houses available.

Rivercam you clueless re the rental situation. Your comment if you can afford to rent you can afford to buy is laughable. Ive rented for 10 years now and its impossible to buy if renting as the rents are too much to save

I've two second viewings booked in to see my house tomorrow, both are in rented and have mortgages in principle. How have they done it?

How did I do it?

Thanks Rivercam

Super..i know. Property went up 200. K in the years we lived there. Its the reason we left as we had no hope of ever buying. He couldnt rent it for more as its really only one bedroom. Saw him advertising it for 1300 but it stuck.

It sucks. But the op doesn't have the answer.

Penalising or blaming existing homeowners isn't the answer either.

Although useful for the govt if people are too busy blaming other people.

We need more affordable housing and sensible lending ..... But the banks are still dealing with the newly imposed regulations and are ridiculously over cautious, and in many areas the inflation means deposits required are huge, even at 5% with htb.

Forcing LL to sell at discount is not the answer though

Honey...we left london so are now saving...like mad and are looking to buy in next 6 months as long as market doesnt run away from us here too...

Yabu by the way op.

Sorry if I have offended people. Didn't mean to upset anyone. Sorry to be so ignorant.

I think I was trying to say something similar to yellowdaisies, but phrased it differently. Ie, if you can afford this house, why can't you afford a different house. I phrased it wrongly.

I've been paying line rental for years, do you think BT will sell me their entire network of phone lines? I want them, and think its sooooo unfair I cant have them too!! (Stamps feet). I also don't want to pay market value.

Rivercam our rent is £1200 a month for a damp, mouldy 2 bed terrace. We could probably get a mortgage on a nicer house for about £800 a month. The problem... Saving for a deposit when paying £1200 a month in rent! We're currently saving about £50 a month so may take a while .
Every single one of mine and DH's friends who have managed to buy have done so with help with the deposit from parents.
YABU though OP.

One of the reasons we're trying to move now is its apparent our area is climbing due to people leaving the city.

So it's a more expensive mortgage now or potentially priced out the area in a couple of years.

Also, in an odd way I think that now because property is seen as a thing that makes money not a secure way of living they are terrified of negative equity risks etc.

If you are buying a HOME, than its not that scary an issue as long as the mortgage is paid you have a secure place to live. Regardless of what it's perceived to be worth.

Clearly the OP is applying theReductio ad absurdumtechniqu?e to the issue of right to buy

Fine, Cactus but if the op gets her way and her discount I want a rebate on my stamp duty.

YABU and ridiculous.

The reason the government won't support your proposal is not that some of them have properties they rent out, but because governments in this country don't have the right to seize personal property and tell people what they're going to do with it.

Your landlord is unlikely to be the problem, unless he's one of these that own tens of rental properties then he's doing nothing wrong. He's taking the financial risk that you currently can't afford to take. And if the investment goes well, in the long run he will get the financial benefit from that. Just like you would if you could afford that property.

Yes it is hard to save whilst renting, but owners also need to pay life insurance, buildings insurance, day to day repairs and a lot will be saving for bigger repairs and/or improvements over and above the cost of the mortgage. Hence it's not quite as simple as looking at rent vs mortgage cost.

I do agree that proof of rental payments should be taken into account when applying for mortgages. Perhaps there could be insurance policies you could pay for if you didn't have a large deposit that would cover the bank for any shortfalls if they needed to repossess whilst you were in negative equity.

Thats ok river its a huge sore spot for me. We have being trying for 6 years to buy. Our one attempt that came close (had bought new curtains, had huge plans etc) resulting in a buy to letter buying the flat from under us as we about to exchange for more than we could afford. We were at that point trying to buy slightly further out so alot cheaper than we were living around 200k. That was the final straw after years of living on 30 per week food. We looked around for other jobs and left london...

So, we have the option of investing in property, or investing in a pension (stocks and shares) to provide for our future.

Stocks and shares. Yes, you get all the fun of investing in the likes of Wonga, tobacco companies, the weapons industry, polluting industries like the aeronautical industry and oil companies. Even the C of E found it very difficult to invest their money ethically.

So, what are people expected to do. Not save for their future? Invest in high risk industries like R&D into green energy, which might mean ending up with nothing? Or invest in property.

I remind people that the whole "right to buy" idea was an invention of the Tories, under Maggie Thatcher. Lots of people were renting, with long term leases, or from a local authority or housing association. If they couldn't afford to pay rent, the landlord usually just had to suck it up, as evicting was difficult (still is). This meant workers could afford to go on strike for better wages and conditions. But get them all owning their own houses! They wouldn't be able to strike, because they couldn't afford to pay the mortgage, and they would lose their home. Brilliant idea!

Wasn't 'right to buy' part of the problem in the first place? It massively reduced stocks of social housing, pushing tenants into private rented accommodation. If there was plenty of social housing available private rents would be kept low, and renters would be much better placed to save for a deposit. Right to buy was a very short sighted policy.