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Original poster

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

533 replies

chocolatekatie · 17/05/2015 07:19

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.

OP posts:
suzannecanthecan · 17/05/2015 09:49

H2B, helpful to the individual in the short term, very damaging to society in the longer term.

Obviously individuals will act in accordance with what they see to be in their own short term best interests, it is the job of government to legislate so that people's short term individual best interests are brought into line with longer term benefits for society as a whole.

Unfortunately it not an easy message to sell to us we prefer to be told that we can all have our cake and eat it?

skinoncustard · 17/05/2015 09:50

Putting my head above the parapet here!
You can save!, rent smallest/ cheapest flat, and save as much as you can. It's not a glamorous or 'sexy' lifestyle but it's the only way!
My DD and her partner did it , took them seven years, but they did it. Minimum expenditure, no meals out, cut food bill to minimum, cheapest old car, no holidays, no unnecessary clothes etc. It wasn't a miserable life just a frugal one for a short period of their life. They paid rent bills etc and saved.
Eighteen months ago they bought a 3 bed semi, got married, now pregnant.
I'm extremely proud of both of them. No rich parents here!
Stop moaning and do something about it. The deposit isn't going to fall from the sky.
Not all , but many people are not willing to make any sacrifice in their standard of living. You can't pay ( inflated) rents, bills, cars, holidays, nights out etc and also save.
It can be done, but you have to cut right back in the short term to gain in the long term.

suzannecanthecan · 17/05/2015 09:52

Yes we should all have two jobs so that we can afford a mortgage
Are there enough jobs for everyone to work 80 hours a week? ?

mintpoppet · 17/05/2015 09:54

Don't be an idiot OP. The landlord is providing a service. You are paying for that service. It's not his fault that you can't afford to buy and he could. That's life I'm afraid. Some people will always be richer than you. Some people will always be poorer than you . Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on with it.

JassyRadlett · 17/05/2015 09:55

Given the tax breaks and the amount of housing benefit going to BTL, it's difficult to argue that private landlords (and high rents overall) aren't state-subsidised.

faitaccompli · 17/05/2015 09:57

Also, I put all my money into my house and have a ridiculously small pension as a result (could not put money in a pension and mortgage at the same time living in the south east). Without the house, I have no pension at all! My plan is to sell up when I retire, buy two smaller properties live in one and rent the other out out to supplement the state pension. Can I call myself a property magnate at that stage?

LotusLight · 17/05/2015 09:57

It is sad and difficult for people but 30 years ago many of us made major sacrifices to buy whilst our friends were having holidays or a meal out or going into a Starbucks to buy a coffee. We bought all the baby equipment and school uniform second hand. I call it all Jam Tomorrow.
If you put off today nice things and have years of sacrifice then you might be able to buy something.
You can apply it to all kinds of things - I worked very hard as a teenager and at university and did not go out, get drunk have lots of boyfriends - I deferred that gratification and it worked.

Now many people don't want to do that and that's fair enough but they will find no fairy godmother government is going to say poor you - let us steal money from this landlord and give it to you to "make things fair". So if you do want a property you need to adopt the jam tomorrow attitude because no one is going to give you one handed to you on a plate.

What I hope this thread can do is to help people see ways they might be able to buy. So the person above who I think could raise a 5% but not 10% deposit - the biggest hurdle for people with no savings that is where the energy needs to go - finding the help or right to buy scheme, finding a lender for the balance of the deposit, taking the second job (I work 6 or 7 days every week of the year bar about 1 or 2 by the way even 30 years in and guess what after 30 years I just paid off the mortgage).

Floggingmolly · 17/05/2015 09:58

Why do people react like this when asked why they can't buy instead of rent?

Don't you know there's been a global recession?? Where have you been since 2008?? If you've managed to get a mortgage since then you must be part of the inner circle! Why suggest something that's only available to the chosen few??
Yet ordinary people are continuing to buy houses all the time... All the time.

Apatite1 · 17/05/2015 10:01

Yes it's hard but for some people it will be absolutely impossible. It's the people who would just about be able to afford it say 20 years ago, and who now have no chance, that I feel sad for. £250k won't buy you anything much in London but outside its a good shot at a family home in some areas. Sacrifice is always needed. Both our incomes is in six figures but we still spent a year living with my parents to save the deposit. On 25k it would have taken ten years to save it.

However, this all depends on having parents who will put you up. What if you don't? Not everyone is lucky enough to parents to put them up/give them a deposit/lend them a deposit/do childcare so a deposit can be saved etc etc. I get a bit annoyed that assumptions are always made on mn that you will have the opportunity to make the sacrifice that you need to make. Some people simply won't get the chance, and if that's what it depends on, then you've got no chance of buying a house.

Mamus · 17/05/2015 10:02

It is funny to see all this feather spitting over the heinous idea that private renters should enjoy some sort of RTB discount, yet the country just elected a government who wish to force HA landlords to sell off their properties at a discount!

RTB isn't the answer, it's as stupid in the private sector as it is in the public. However I have no sympathy for the whining 'well what else could we possibly invest in' self justifications of some small time private landlords. If you're going to profit from people's basic need for housing, making it even harder for said people to share your enjoyment of secure home ownership, don't expect a round of applause. Have the decency and honesty to at least own your actions and accept your contribution to the housing crisis.

hoarseoldfrog · 17/05/2015 10:03

But what if you aren't young when you meet your partner? If you're 35 do you just not have kids so you can save a deposit for 7 years? Childcare would straight away wipe out any ability to save.
I wouldn't mind renting if you couldn't just be given 2 months notice for no reason on the landlord's whim. I actuallyhad several excellent landlords who let me stay as long as I wanted but the last two did give notice as they wanted to sell up, being a landlord was too much hassle for them. I understand how people end up in that situation but it's a very insecure feeling wondering where you will find 1500 quid from at short notice and having to compete to find a rental again.

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 17/05/2015 10:03

Skinon - where did your DD buy?

In the home counties house prices increase/d quicker than most people could save...

Congratulations to her if she did this?

Apatite1 · 17/05/2015 10:03

Oh and HTB is doing nothing but pushing prices up. The government is not prepared to let the housing market crash, it will prop it up forever. The gulf between the haves and have nots is growing no will continue to do so.

hoarseoldfrog · 17/05/2015 10:04

I certainly didn't feel able to bring a childinto such an uncertain situation so wasn't going to have any!

YouMakeMyHeartSmile · 17/05/2015 10:08

skinon many people in the country live like this just to keep their heads above water.

SanityClause · 17/05/2015 10:13

Perhaps, Jassy, the government that presided over RTB, should have ensured that the money raised was ploughed back into social housing, instead of being spent on other social services.

In other words, they raised money by selling housing stock cheaply (along with other publicly owned assets) in order to cut taxes.

We now have "austerity" in part because there is nothing left to sell, in order to pay for essential social services. Of course, we could increase taxes to pay for them, but people don't like to think of rich people having to pay a lot of tax. After all, they may, themselves, one day be rich, and they certainly wouldn't like to have to pay a lot of tax.

SanityClause · 17/05/2015 10:18

hoarseoldfrog, why do you have to wait to meet a partner before you start saving?

LotusLight · 17/05/2015 10:20

hoarse - you buy as soon as you can in your 20s. You don't enjoy single life, holidays and parties and only once you are in your 30s and meet Mr Wonderful do you think about buying. Also best to buy before you breed given the 2014 mortgage criteria which was very tough, too tough in my view. By the way where I live in London there has been a drop in prices of over 1.6% in just the last 6 months.

So going back to someone who needs a 10% deposit and she and her other half cannot save £10k each they might be able to save £5k each which is a 5% deposit so they should try to find a good mortgage broker who can find them 95% mortgage deals - they do still exist.

As for people without parents or friends use my idea above - www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23082912

SanityClause · 17/05/2015 10:22

Why would the people who live frugally just to keep a roof over their head be given a mortgage, YouMake? Wasn't it the U.S. Government's insistence on allowing people who couldn't afford to buy ("sub prime") the impetus for the whole banking crisis?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying "to hell with them". I honk we should have a much more progressive tax system, which would help such people. But I don't think society is well served by allowing people to take on debt, if they really can't afford it.

SanityClause · 17/05/2015 10:23

*think. And I don't honk; I've had a bath.

Thymeout · 17/05/2015 10:29

Sanity - I thought that money raised from RTB was not allowed to be spent on other services? I know that my local council had millions in a separate account, some of which they managed to lose by investing in Icelandic banks.

Thatcher wanted a smaller state, so encouraged a shift from LA's to private landlords.

The current proposals, encouraging LA's to sell off 'expensive' properties and using the money for more social housing, is a reversal of that. Tho' equally short-sighted and unlikely to work.

specialsubject · 17/05/2015 10:30

OP is exposing the stupidity of the right to buy policy.

council houses are subsidised so the rents are lower so they provide housing for those unable to afford market rate. As it should be. They should be a stepping stone to purchase/market rate rental. If people never reach that level, fine; they stay housed. Sell off the council houses - housing shortage because councils are not building new ones to replace them.

all of you bleating the landlord-hate are just falling for the troll.

GreenAugustLion · 17/05/2015 10:30

But what if you aren't young when you meet your partner? If you're 35 do you just not have kids so you can save a deposit for 7 years?

If you wait until you're 35 to start saving you can hardly moan that you're not on the property ladder! I bought when I was 19, but would have been looking to save and buy even if I'd not met dh.

My sister is 23, single, average salary and currently living in a bedsit and saving like mad so she can buy her own flat.

Lots of her 20 something friends who are travelling, living it up and spending all their money I suspect are the next generation of 30 something's that will be moaning about being 'unable' to buy anything.

Superexcited · 17/05/2015 10:33

But what if you aren't young when you meet your partner? If you're 35 do you just not have kids so you can save a deposit for 7 years? Childcare would straight away wipe out any ability to save.

I bought at 19 as a single person after life became unbearable at my parents home. I was earning under 10k because this was before minimum wage. The house was cheap because it's before prices went crazy. But even now, I could afford that house as a 19 year old because it's in a shit area and is valued at about £70k but my old job would now be paying me about £18k (because that is what the company now pays it's juniors). Interest rates are also lower now making the mortgage more affordable.
I do understand that people in the SE have very different house prices though and somebody on £18k can't buy anything.

suzannecanthecan · 17/05/2015 10:41

Those who invest in property instead of a pension may find that when the time comes legislative changes have made being a landlord as far less attractive prospect ?.
Any investment is a gamble ?
?

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