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

[Fulani1989]

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?

A lot of bitter, jealous people on this thread. Pay no attention OP. Do what's best for you. Makes me laugh when people say 'you ARE ON £33k, WHY are you renting social housing. Fuck off and live in private let!' Yeah right, like THEY would! They would cling on to that tenancy for dear life, no WAY would they give it up.

For a start, £33K is a good salary but it's not excessive. Many couples have close to that or more. And the OP clearly didn't have that salary when she was offered the tenancy. And she may be in a position when she isn't on that money some time in the future. Good for her for looking after hers and her son's welfare and future.

Yeah it's not great that people buy their social housing homes and reduce the housing stock, and the HA's and councils should build one for every one they sell, but the opportunity is THERE and you would have to be dippy to not take the opportunity. As for the person who said 'I rented a council house but didn't buy it because I am a better person than that and I know people need the homes...so I bought on the private market.' Bully for you!

Millions of people have taken the RTB offer because they could and because the government made it possible. Stop making out that anyone who does it, is a money grabbing selfish cunt!

As I said, many people on this thread sound bitter and jealous!

While I don't necessarily agree with RTB or purchasing social housing, I certainly can't blame anyone for making the most of any advantages they are offered in life. I can't fault the OP at all for putting her future and that of her child before the principles of others. She didn't create the system we are all complaining about and none of that is her responsibility.

We moan that people live on benefits and don't want to better themselves. The OP is actively working to secure her future and that of her child. I completely understand why anyone would be loath to let go of a safe home and move into privately rented accommodation where she has no security or stability whatsoever. Some people may believe that it is unfair but as I tell my children, life is unfair so it's up to us to make the best of it. Buy the house and good luck with it all.

This is an interesting thread because the Tories have proposed making council tenancies time limited and everyone seems to be against that. Well this is an example of why it's a good idea.

In regards to the OPs question, what are you going to do if you buy it and then either can't sell it or can't get another mortgage? If you don't want to live there long term it seems like a risky idea to buy. Only buy somewhere you're prepared to live for the next 10 years or more. If interest rates go up or the market changes, it might be a struggle to sell at all.

In my area as soon as a council home becomes vacant it seems to go straight up for auction!! It's crazy as we are short. I'm living in a 3 bed council flat, I would have to wait 3 years for a house

FFS, I'm fermenting in a big heap of sour grapes here and freely admit it.

How come I don't get a HA house I can buy at a reduced cost? I earned less than £33k last year.

I was forced to use my hard-earned house deposit savings to continue paying my private rental two years ago when I had to take long-term sick leave - SSP didn't come close to covering it. Trying to build it back up again (I also have a Help To Buy ISA now) but it's pretty disheartening.

In practical terms the OP is sensible to take the opportunity presented to her. A more sympathetic attitude for those fortunate than herself wouldn't go amiss though, and I think it's the tone of the posts that is grating more than her situation.

(...goes back into box, grumbles bitterly, reminds self that a negative attitude will become a self-fulfilling prophecy...)

RTB is just wrong. So wrong. It makes me sick.

The council's never make enough to build anouther house in its place. They'd have to sell 2 or often even 6+ just to cover the costs of building one new home. There is no sense to it whatsoever.

You should be ashamed of your decision. Yes you have worked hard to turn your life around, but so have many. No one deserves that kind of monetary bonus. Longterm tenancies yes, tens of thousands just to move away and have a new life at the taxpayers expense? Or perhaps worse, to rent out to people on housing benefit costing the council thousands per year. No way. NO WAY.

If £9000 is so easy for you to save, then you should be thankful for that and your below market rent and save enough money to use as a deposit. You could have that in less than a couple of years if it is so easy for you.

This selfishness has to stop

OP just go for the rta discount, live in it for a few years then sell. For most councils/HAs if you sell within a certain time, usually 10years (which it sounds like you will), the council or HA you bought it from has to get first refusal on it and most times buy it back anyway to build stock up again. That's what my LA do at least.

RTB and RTA are not being used properly by LA's as they were intended, but that is not OP's fault or anyone else's.

For those saying OP should rent private because she "can afford it", when pay to stay is rolled out (if still going ahead) in london at least, it will only be put on households with 40k or over income. Not 27k, because although that might be the average, it's not enough to rent private in a manner most people would like to live in. Ie, not desperately living hand to mouth each month and without having hb.

In practical terms the OP is sensible to take the opportunity presented to her. A more sympathetic attitude for those fortunate than herself wouldn't go amiss though, and I think it's the tone of the posts that is grating more than her situation.

Exactly my view

You're pissing in the wind trying to get a non south-east centric discussion of SH on here OP. Doesn't matter how often you point out to people that there are plenty of areas in the UK where there's no shortage of SH and barely even a waiting list, you'll still get a load of badly informed comments about taking a home from someone who needs it, tower blocks et al.

There have been dozens of threads over the years where people have been educated about the fact that quite often, being working is an advantage when applying for SH, and every HA in the country lists their criteria online, but you'll still get pearl clutching because someone who isn't in abject poverty has a HA home. Even if nobody else wants it. Because our national discourse on the subject is framed around London.

You didn't help yourself with the 9k line, mind. That was asking for trouble.

I'd buy now. The RTB for HA tenants was a Cameron govt pledge, and they blatantly put it in as something to give way on when they went into coalition. It wasn't in the most recent Tory manifesto.

Look I agree with PP that OP's attitude probably isn't the best.

However, I also live in HA property and earn £32k per year. I've lived in my house for 9 years, it's mine and DD's home. Why should I have to move because I earn more than when I got it?

I couldn't afford to live in private rented nor would I be able to get a mortgage. So what is the answer?

I have no intention of leaving my home and would probably buy it and live in it for years. Does that make a difference?

Are people jumping on OP because she just clearly wants to get it as cheap as possible and get maximum profit from it?

I don't think RTB is wrong in principle but it clearly needs reform, houses must be replaced, can't be rented, if earning over a certain threshold pay more, etc.

I think the entitlement that the OP has shown plus daily fail articles, etc are why the austerity cuts have been accepted by the majority of the public. Unfortunately they target the most vulnerable as opposed to the minority who are on the take.

Pink - For someone in your circumstances I don't think it's fair to kick you out. However there would clearly be people who need housing more than you as your circumstances have changed. I think you should have to contribute more as earnings go up.

Chickpea, I would be happy to pay a bit more! I know I'm really lucky to have my home and a secure tenancy and would pay more for the privilege. I currently pay £450 a month. But private rented where I am is around £600-750 per month which I could not afford at all!

However there would clearly be people who need housing more than you as your circumstances have changed.

We don't know whether any of them are in her area though, do we? It's quite possible that she's talking about somewhere with no shortage of SH, so while there are clearly people in the country on waiting lists earning less than that, if none of them are prepared to live there then it becomes irrelevant.

The issue of charging more was mooted a couple of years ago, but dropped. Not surprising really. I can't imagine how they thought they were going to monitor it, and it would have led to ghettoisation and people deliberately keeping their income under the threshold. It's one of those things that sounds nice on paper.

I just think it's very unfair that plenty of people who earn 30k have no choice but to pay excessive private rentals. They have to afford it.

Personally I think reform is a nice idea as opposed to getting rid of RTB completely which is wear I think it's going.

Also to the OP who thinks 9k is nothing, I'm what you would call comfortable (SE) & I think that's a lot. It's more than 1/3 of your salary!

Are you sure you're allowed to buy the house and then rent it out?? What a farce . I don't know how you qualify for a housing association property, but surely buying to put it straight on the letting market precludes you from actually "needing" (in the real sense) social housing at all?
There really needs to be stricter regulation on these things, when there aren't enough to go round in the first place. Shocking.

Parking my views on RTB. Much as it pains me in next 3 months May resign and we'll have another GE and labour will probably scrape in. Corbyn and his cronies will almost immediately can the RTB scheme. So do it now, or risk it no longer being an option.

Fruitbat If May resigns, someone else from the Conservatives will take over. Labour didn't come close to winning the election, so a couple of months is vastly unlikely to change anything.

Grab what you can off everyone else then. Fuck the rest of them eh OP

Your timing sucks OP

Mean buy the house fuck yes

But given what's going down in the world and in large cities .... consider yourself lucky

Maybe the answer for right to buy is to let the tenant have the house with the discount, on the condition that they live in it and don't sell. If they do sell within say 5 years, they have to pay back the entire discount. And if they sell within 5 and 10 years, they have to pay back two thirds of the discount. I mean, if they like their house so much that they want it forever, they wouldn't want to sell would they?

Making people pay back the discount if they sell should hopefully eliminate the opportunities for people to buy their house, sell at a huge profit, and then a private landlord obtaining it. Maybe they should be made to sell it back to the council?

I do feel RTB is so wrong. On 33k you're taking the mick OP. And £9k is nothing?

I just think it's very unfair that plenty of people who earn 30k have no choice but to pay excessive private rentals. They have to afford it.

And that's a perfectly valid point chickpea, it's just that clearly none of those people are willing and able to take SH in OPs area. Or they'd have done it already, and there'd be more than a two month waiting list. So the issue for those people is a lack of suitable SH for them, where they live, not what someone does in an area where supply broadly matches demand.

Re discounts notknown, the rules do actually specify that people are supposed to pay it back on a sliding scale if they don't stay in the property for a certain amount of time afterwards. I think the issue is policing it. HAs and councils quite understandably don't necessarily have spare staff for checking Land Registry, electoral rolls etc.

And if you sell within a certain period of time, the council/HA are actually specified in the rules as getting first refusal on the property. Not sure how this works in practice.

Although I've just recalled we were talking about another poster and not OP... so my first paragraph should be amended to read possible rather than certain. One cannot assume that she is in an area where there's insufficient SH.

Op post has just shown everything thats wrong with right to buy and council houses. Isnt there an mp somewhere in one. It should be if you earn x amount you have to pay market value in rent or move out. Maybe revalue housing every 5 years depending on need. Cant see it ever coming in but pretty shocked at op post. Is it really true that you get that much discount. We were caught in the rent trap for 10 years