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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To buy my housing association home now and not wait for right to buy

214 replies

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 09:20

I have lived in a housing association home for 6 years. Refurbished houses sell for roughly 130,000. Average semi detached houses in the area sell for over £200,000 as it's not a bad area but my house is on a medium sized (100 houses) council estate which brings down the value.

There's absolutely no way I want to live in this area any longer than I have to. It's okay for now as it's 12 miles from my job.

I have the right to acquire. I requested to know how much the housing association would be willing to sell me the house for. They said it was worth £90,000 and with discount of £9,000 that's £81,000. The reality is that my house is a worth around 110,000-130,000 but HA's tend to under value.

My house is a Council house it was just transferred to a HA 9 years ago. The right to buy is supposed to be extended to HA properties but I've been waiting over a year now and there doesn't seem to be ANY development. I'm starting to believe it's never going to happen.

With the RTB instead I would get a 36% discount and would only pay £57,600! Well, well worth waiting for. I'd be willing to wait a few years to get the discount as the discount gets bigger with each year I'm a tenant.

BUT I don't know if it will ever even happen and I don't want to live in this area indefinitely.

My parents and friends said wait for the Right to buy. But I'm sick of waiting.

Buying my housing association home is my only chance of buying a house. It's the only mortgage any lender is willing to give me because of a less than stellar credit rating from a few years of unemployment.

AIBU to just buy my house now? And just forget the chance of a much better discount?

OP posts:

MrsJayy · 17/06/2017 09:23

How can you buy it if the housing assoc have not got the RTB scheme in place yet there is strict conditiins on selling or renting out on RTB anyway how long are you planning to live in it?

MadameJosephine · 17/06/2017 09:24

Are prices rising in the area? You may find that if you wait a few years the price might be higher and then even with a higher % discount you won't be paying much less than now.

Also you said you didn't want to live in the area for much longer, isn't there a penalty if you sell on within the first few years? That could mean you wait for a couple of years to buy and then have to wait another couple to sell

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 09:27

I don't WANT to live in the area much longer. But I will obviously have to live here from the day I buy th house until 5 years.

I am allowed buy it and rent it out. I've already checked. But I'd not do that. I'd just live in it.

I can't buy it on the RTB yet. That's the whole point. I can however do the right to AQUIRE.
The discount is much lower though.

House prices aren't rising massively at all.

My income goes up every year too.

But I don't think I want to wait more than another year for something that might never happen.

OP posts:

MrsJayy · 17/06/2017 09:27

Our council dont have strict conditions on RTB think it was 5 years before you could sell or rent out

MrsJayy · 17/06/2017 09:29

Do have* sorry i totally misread you if you dont want the discount just buy it now

Binglesplodge · 17/06/2017 09:30

If you don't intend to live in the area for long, what is the need to buy your house? Is it just a way to make a profit by depleting the social housing stock even further?

If the end result is that you sell the house and pocket tens of thousands of pounds to buy in the private sector then YABU in my opinion. Social housing is in a parlous enough state in this country without people using it as a way of making a huge profit at everyone else's expense.

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 09:34

Buying this house is my only chance of buying a home for myself and my son.

I've not got a good credit rating and banks have made it clear this mortgage is the only one I would get. It's less risky for them as the mortgage is lower than the value of the home and there's no deposit.

I'm allowed sell before 5 years but there's some discount to pay back if I do that. So it's better to wait 5 years.

OP posts:

Binglesplodge · 17/06/2017 09:41

So what happens next when you sell it, if you don't think you'll get another mortgage?

elessar · 17/06/2017 09:42

Honestly I think it's pretty greedy of you to hang on to buy your house at a much bigger discount (less than half what it's actual value is?) just so you can make more profit out of the other end as you're planning to sell and leave the area.

It might be legally your right but it's ethically very questionable in my view, particularly given that you can afford to buy your house now for 81k (already 30% less than what you reckon it's actual market value is.)

If I was you I would buy the house now, rather than waiting to try and take even further advantage of the system for your own profit. If you buy at 81k and spend 5 years there paying off the mortgage and then resell for 130k then you'd probably have 60-70k of equity banked, more than most people would be able to hope for on a normal house purchase. Wanting any more is pure greed.

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 10:06

It might be greedy but I'd be stupid not to take th opportunity.

OP posts:

Ellisandra · 17/06/2017 10:11

I ageee the OP would be mad not to take this opportunity, so no offence to you OP.

But why the fuck is this still going on?! Someone who has been in a house for just 6 years can get a big discount on an undervalued house and then let it out. Ridiculous. Every bit as bad as rich people buying property and leaving it empty in my opinion.

ilovesooty · 17/06/2017 10:19

I'm both surprised and disgusted that these options to deplete housing stock in this way are even available.

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 10:36

It's a low value home. So the discount isn't that big in my opinion. £9,000 is nothing.

OP posts:

ilovesooty · 17/06/2017 10:39

And the fact that people are not only allowed to acquire or buy houses like this but allowed to rent them out is obscene.

Binglesplodge · 17/06/2017 10:39

It's not that low-value, just under valued by the housing association as the OP states. A tax free profit in the tens of thousands for selling it on is a huge windfall, and the house won't be replaced in the housing stock so others will have to wait even longer in the future to be housed by the local authority.

Ellisandra · 17/06/2017 10:49

"£9000 is nothing"

Well, you just lost my support - entitled, much?!!

£9000 is what creates the deposit that allows you to get a mortgage resource not have saved up for it yourself. £9000 is a lot of money now it's own right! But it's a hell of a lot of money when it is the difference between being handed your own home on a plate and being stuck renting.

You already have a HA tenancy.

I hope you get slayed alive by the many MNers in insecure private rented, who earn enough to pay a mortgage (and are doing so now, in rent) but can't get a mortgage for want of a £9K deposit.

I said upthread, I think it's ridiculous that this option exists but I don't blame you on a personal level for doing it. I would too.

But FFS love, can you maybe appreciate how bloody lucky you are, instead of calling NINE THOUSAND POUNDS nothing?

How about you get off your government subsidised arse and go earn and save £9000? Sound like nothing now?

Yeah, thought not.

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 11:14

I earn 33k a year. I could save £9,000 quite comfortably.

My issue is this kind of mortgage is the only kind a bank will give me as it's much more secure.

I don't consider £9,000 a lot of money.

OP posts:

DontTouchTheMoustache · 17/06/2017 11:20

If you are earning £33k a year why the hell are you in a HA house? That's insane.

Ellisandra · 17/06/2017 11:23

Great that you can save it.
You really think it's not much?
I earn 2x your salary and would never call £9000 nothing.
A total insult to the people that would give their eye teeth to hand my salary, yours, or be given a house on a plate

So disgusting of you to call it nothing.

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 11:27

This isn't the place to discuss the morality of the right to buy scheme.

OP posts:

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 11:29

I was give my house when I was on income support. I've worked very very hard as a single mum to better myself.

Don't care what anyone says. No one would decline the right to acquire if they had the option to do it. It might be unfair but doubt anyone would decline the offer if they were lucky enough to be in the position to have a HA house and the ability to buy it.

I have to take this opportunity anyway. Can't get any other kind of mortgage due to credit rating.

OP posts:

SquidgeyMidgey · 17/06/2017 11:30

I agree with the others. It's appalling that this scheme is still in place when so many are on housing waiting lists. If you can call £9k nothing then you need to get out of there so someone who NEEDS it can live there, not buy it cheap to sell it on because you're entitled to.

Chloe84 · 17/06/2017 11:31

YABU. If you earn £33k you can afford to rent somewhere.

You sound very entitled.

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 11:33

I'm not moving as it's a secure tenancy.

I'm not doing that to my son. Moving from a secure tenancy to insecure. No chance of ever buying my own home. No way!

Round here the rent difference isn't much. I pay £400 a month for my house. Open market it is £525. So £125 a month difference.

OP posts:

Original poster

Fulani1989 · 17/06/2017 11:34

People are angry about the scheme. But that's not my fault and I've done nothing wrong.

OP posts:

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