to think you're not a 'home owner' if you are still paying a mortgage on it

[pipsqueak25]

prepared to be flamed but over heard a conversation of a loud guy the other day and it really irritated me. the jest being ' got my mortgage last year, £260,000, in my name so she can't get the house [knob], now i can do what i fucking well like with it, gonna knock out the interior and do open up stuff, blah,blah' eh?? so he's splitting with his dp/dh and possibly going to knock half the house down that he does nor own because he's paying a mortgage and the bank owns most of the house ? er, knob, you aren't a home owner until you've paid in full for it !
mainly i felt sorry for the ex, but glad she was going to be rid of him!

[WorraLiberty]

He's probably applied for all the planning he needs to.

I'm confused though OP. Are you saying that if your DD got a mortgage, you'd advise her not to do any building work/renovations for 25 years, or however long she has the mortgage for?

[MyWineTime]

Yes you own the house if you have a mortgage. It is very different to renting because you can do anything to the house within local planning and building regulations. I don't recall getting permission from my mortgage provider when I had an extension built, just needed building regs as I would if I didn't have a mortgage.
You would need to get permission from the mortgage provider if you moved out to rent the house out but that's about it.
If you stopped paying the mortgage, the bank would repossess the property but once the outstanding debt had been settled, you would receive any profit from the sale.

[NarkyMcDinkyChops]

YABVU. You are the home owner, you own the home. You may have borrowed the money to buy the home, but the bank does not own it, they merely have a claim to the home in the event of you not paying your loan back.

IT's pretty basic stuff.

[NarkyMcDinkyChops]

if you buy a handbag for £500 on credit card and that is the only charge on your card then you only pay £10 on the cc bill you still owe £480 plus interest, but you don't own the bag until it's paid for in full as you've borrowed the money from the credit card company to pay for it

More nonsense. Of course you own the bag!

[AyeAmarok]

Forms give you the option of either "tenant" or "homeowner". I'm sure they don't only expect the few people who are mortgage-free to select homeowner.

So you're incorrect.

And a bit strange, pawing over someone who has a mortgage, while simultaneously sneering that a stranger said he is a homeowner when he has a mortgage

[KoalaDownUnder]

It's the figure of speech i was commenting on koala, everyone has a different view point on the matter, so as a result you aren't 'correct' and neither am i,

Not really. Ownership is a legal concept, not a 'figure of speech'. I'm a lawyer, albeit in Australia.

Fairly sure the law on this is the same over there, though.

[AQuietMind]

What a load of shit, of course he is a homeowner I also don't get why he was a 'knob' tbh.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

Well you are definitely a part home owner. So you may as well shorten that to homeowner.

YABU.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

And I don't know why everyone assumes he's a git. His ex might have shagged her way around their home town whilst spending his £500,000 savings on champagne and caviar whilst doing it.

[stillpinching]

How ridiculous - especially the handbag analogy. Of course you own a bag that you bought with a cc, even before the debt is paid off. If you couldn't pay your cc bill and offered the bag back what do you think the company would say?! They don't own the bag, nor would they accept it as 'part payment'. Bizarre outlook .

Also agree it's odd that you are so impressed with a pp's mortgage in contrast to the guy you overheard. all round.

[Somehowsomewhere]

*£260K mortgage?! shock

*

Ours is 330k .

Of course he's a homeowner. He just borrowed money to become one, like most people do.

[gillybeanz]

We have done lots of work to our home it has nothing to do with the bank what we do.
Have made some of the houses we have lived open plan, knocked walls down, extended.
it has fuck all to do with the bank.
You are termed as a homeowner if you have a mortgage, even though the bank can repossess if you don't keep up payments.
This man sounds a right knob though.

[Niskayuna]

If they're married she still 'gets the house' (or has a half share in it) whether he likes it or not. If they're not, then yeah, she gets nothing, hope she realises.

[robinofsherwood]

Its surprising how much you should tell the bank. Ours was a doer uper, so I was in touch with the bank about various work.to get retentions released. Mentioned in passing that the bathroom was being redone. It all kicked off. Apparently even though the down pipe had rotted away, the toilet had half an inch thick of hard scum & the bath had lost all its enamel we needed their express permission to disconnect it as the house needed a working bathroom.

[ProfessionalPirate]

And I don't know why everyone assumes he's a git
For my part, I thought he sounded like a knob simply because he's mouthing off/bragging loudly in public about his mortgage, ex, swearing etc. Sounds very crude. No assumptions about his relationship made.

[HemiDemiSemiquaver]

then gets even more complicated if you are in shared ownership! Forms definitely don't have that as an option (usually) - even for things like contents insurance, where you'd think it wasn't such an uncommon thing. None of them know what to call you. But even then eventually decided that 'homeowner' was the choice - mortgaged. Despite 'owning' (mortgaged) less than half the property. So if even if that situation, the legal people seem to treat it as home owership, I'd say the guy is entitled enough to call himself that.

Obviously being aware that things could go wrong and you could lose the house if you don't pay your debts, but that's legally different I think. You are still the homeowner. I think disliking this guy from what you heard of his conversation (which might be reasonable enough) has made you judge what he said more harshly than you would with someone else. I'd assume most people who said they were homeowners still had mortgages.

[Kennington]

Yes I agree: I am renting from the bank

[NarkyMcDinkyChops]

Yes I agree: I am renting from the bank

The bank would disagree, as would the law. And the english language.

[ProfessionalPirate]

Yes I agree: I am renting from the bank
Right, the bank can give you notice if they decide they want to live there themselves? They are responsible for maintenance and repairs? They are entitled to enter the property with 24hours notice? They are listed on the land registry? No thought not.

You own the house. You have a debt secured against it.

[MistressDeeCee]

Well if going strictly by your post title OP then I don't see anyone as a homeowner unless the property is at mortgage-free stage. Or, they own the house and the land it stands on. Some people(sadly) lose their homes via circs that mean they can't meet the payments on it. You don't own a house if you're paying somebody else for it and can it lose it via being unable to pay for it any longer

[stillpinching]

Yes I agree: I am renting from the bank

How are you? You are responsible for all maintenance and repairs, unlike renting.

You have freedom to decorate/extend/modernise, unlike renting.

If/when you pay off the debt the property becomes fully yours, unlike renting.

The bank cannot decide on a whim that they no longer want you living there, regardless of your being up to date with repayments, unlike renting.

If the property did get repossessed you would still get back any equity left after the debt had been cleared, unlike renting where tenants often don't receive their deposit back in time to use for another property, even when they've done nothing wrong.

It's really nothing like renting so why say it is??

[gillybeanz]

robin

It's different if the part of the mortgage has been retained until essential work is carried out.
This isn't the same as having been granted a full mortgage.
You don't have to tell mortgage company about any work undertaken.

[allchattedout]

You don't own a house if you're paying somebody else for it and can it lose it via being unable to pay for it any longer

You do though, according to the law and surely that is what is important? You just have a debt secured against your house, meaning that you may be forced to sell to repay the debt if you cannot keep up payments. However, the house does not and never will belong to the bank. They can only force sale to recover the debt, they cannot take it for other reasons.

Even when you are mortgage free, if you are a business partner, you are usually required to give a guarantee, so your house could be at risk even if it has no mortgage.

Basically you own the house, end of.