Should I keep mortgage on house that needs a lot doing to it, or sell and rent?

[Fubsy]

Last year my partner and I separated. I kept the house and remortgaged it in order to give XP something towards his own property. he still has a charge on this one, as I could not afford to buy him out.

This house is OK, its in a nice village and I love the school DD goes to. But theres a lot of little bits going wrong with it, like damp and water coming in round a window, and I have no money to spare to get things sorted properly.

Im not keen on the neighbours - a retired couple on one side, he doesnt speak to me because he has never forgiven us for having a child and spoiling his rural retirement idyll. On the other side is a Mum with a child a bit older than mine, he has major behaviour probs and although DD likes him, she gets upset when they play together as he doesnt understand give and take, breaks things and swears.

Ive started wondering if it would be better to sell up and rent.

The pros to renting would be:

I would have a reasonable lump sum from the sale, and I wouldnt have to worry about maintaining a property on my own. (My DIY skills are nonexistant.)
I would also have all my pension funds to myself when I retire as at the moment I will need it to pay off the mortgage.
Also, because XP has a charge on the property, i have to sell and pay him off when DD finishes FT education, or if I live with someone else, whichever comes sooner.

The cons would be - no profit if house prices go up.
Possibility of landlord problems. (Ive rented before and the landlord would not fix the gas boiler even though the Corgi guy said it was on the verge of being dangerous when he did the yearly check)
Property selling slowly round here at the moment.

At the moment I am wondering why the hell Im owning, as I cannot get at the equity in the property.

What do people think?

Has anyone any experience of going from owning to renting?

A bit
My concern would be where would you live in retirement.
I would suggest renting a managed property through an reputable agent, we are doing this now, central heating broke and was fixed before we were back from work, however house is infested moths are eatng all our clothes we have got rid of mice and today our first rat so looks like we will be moving again, I would however definately be looking for a managed property (our agent has decined to send in rentokil says wait until you see another -I think I might think I see one in a couple of days IYSWIM)
Is there much to rent in your village?
Don't think property is going up much I've had a couple of convos with estate agents recently and it was all (prices down, sellers have to drop price, lots coming onto market stuff)

It sounds sort of theoretical since, as you say, property isn't really shifting at the moment and those people who are looking will be haggling hard on any place that has things going wrong .

I wouldn't sell unless I thought I was going to get some sort of lump sum to use as a deposit for somewhere else - maintaining your own home is a pita but getting someone else to maintain a rental one can be real aggro.

If your dd is likely to be in education for some time, I would hang on there. Neighbours might move before you...

Lala, I suppose any move would be theoretical in a way, you never know how easy it will be to sell unless youve got the most desirable property, in which case why would you be moving?

Yes there are properties locally to rent, no the neighbours intend to die before they move, the retired chap actually threatened to cause problems for us at one point so that we would have trouble selling as you have to disclose any disputes with neighbours.

He is unpleasant to my other neighbour, reported her to environmental health for having a hen and cockerel that crowed in the morning. EH visited her, said FFS why is he living in the country if he cant cope with cock crow, and advised her how to arrange her chicken house so he wouldnt crow so much!

Financially I could be much better off as I would have a lump sum to invest.

Its just that its sort of drummed into us at an early age that its important to buy and be a home owner.

As far as my retirement goes, I would have lost most of my retirement money paying off the mortgage. So I cant see much of a future that way!

Hard decision Fubsy