Jury needed. Bring your judge pants, and knowledge.

[Evilwater]

Today I've had the official letter that I'm no longer part owner of ex's house.
I've got 20k in the settlement, my annual wage is 12,500, I do also receive benfits. The 2 bed properties are around £140k.

So do I go for another mortgage?
Or
Try for Council house?

Help please.

Hi Evilwater. Congrats on your recent news!

TBH though I don't think a mortgage company would give you a mortgage on £12.500 and 20k savings.
Do you have any more savings?

Buying fees will easily eat at the 20k.

Good luck what ever you do :)

If you can, I'd go for a mortgage, you'd have a 14% deposit, maybe 10% plus money for solicitors etc.

If that's not enough for a deposit, I'd look to buy in a slightly cheaper area, or a flat, rather than rent as that you give ou no return on your £20k.

I have 5000 for fees and moving.

Bump

Don't try to buy. You're not in a strong financial position and even if you could get a mortgage you could dip into negative equity very easily.

Have you actually looked at how much you can borrow? The multipliers on that income aren't good. I don't think many (any?) Lenders take benefits into account these days.

Where are you living now? Do you think you'll be prioritised for a council house?

The only other thing is to maybe buy somewhere cheap, a one bed flat or smaller (don't know your price area) and renting it out?
But again I don't think you are in position to get mortgage though, I might be wrong!

No I've not looked into how much I could borrow.

Priority??? That's a laughable. There is too much demand and no houses. I've tried I'm too rich, apparently.

I do also receive benfits

Won't this affect your benefits? They'll likely get a bit cranky if you're collecting benefits with £20K in your account. Or am I missing something here?

It's a lump sum.
Plus how on earth can I escape this renting nightmare?

Agree part ownership is the only way you can afford your own place. You should be good for 50% right now, and maybe in five years you can buy a further 25%?

Regardless of you wanting to escape renting, if you have £20k in the bank, you are above the allowed savings for any means tested benefits. If you don't advise them, you're collecting benefits illegally. That's fraud. Something to consider.

Hi there, do you have kids? Is that why you need 2 beds? If not, I am just thinking out of the box here but do you have anyone close in a similar position who you could do a shared mortgage with? I think you will need to declare that 20k to the benefits office as others have said.
Otherwise maybe it's a run down one bed that you can add value to, shared ownership or cheaper area. Will you be able to add to that lump sum in savings over the next year or so?

I would stick with renting for now, & use the lump sum to pay off other debts , get a new/ better car improve life generally & enjoy the freedom. Then see how things are in a year or so.
Maybe see an independent financial advisor who can tap in to all sorts of funds & schemes to see what the options are.

Isn't it about 3.5 times income for a single mortgage.

You are ever going to get a mortgage of £100k plus on £12.5K a year, not even with some of the non standard lenders like Handelsbanken.

Also, if you receive certain benefits (such as HB or CTB) these will be affected by your settlement. IIRC if you have savings over £16,000 the benefits stop immediately and spending it could be seen as a deprivation of capital. Its best to phone them straight away to discuss it.

Sorry to piss on your chips OP :(.

You mention that you have debts. FIRST priority should be paying off those debts. Depending on the size of your debts, that may bring you under the £16k threshold for benefits - without incurring the ire of the authorities for reckless spending of your non windfall.

Ditto if you do genuinely need a new car - but be reasonable in what you spend!

If my benefits the op means the newly rebranded TC as " benefits" only the interest above £300 on any capital is counted.
When this changes to UC savings will be reduced to 6k without being affected ( current claims will have TP)
Op buy anything you can afford even if it's a bedsit you may not get the chance again.

I'm in a similar position and I can't even get a shared ownership house.
There was one with a £50000 share offer recently which I enquired about. Minimum income was around £24000 and even with me having the higher deposit I got a flat no. It's ridiculous as the mortgage plus the rent on the rest of the property would have been cheaper by £100 to what I pay now in rent. It's ridiculous.
So for now the money is sitting in an isa until I can up my hours to full time.