NOW CLOSED: Is it still a home if you don't own it? Make your voice heard and discuss this topic with Barclays - £150 John Lewis voucher up for grabs

[AnnMumsnet]

Hello - you may have seen that this week Barclays have a big campaign to get people talking about home buying and money topics.

Yesterday we discussed "When are you too old to ask your parents for financial help?".

As stated before - the team at Barclays say "We want to know what Mumsnetters think about home buying and money dilemmas.

So our second question is "Is it still a home if you don't own it?""

Please share your thoughts on this thread - there are no right or wrong answers and the question will mean different things to different MNers.

Add your thoughts below and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £150 John Lewis voucher.

Look out for one final thread on Thursday where we'll be asking one more question.

Thanks MNHQ

PS Please note your comments  along with your MN name may be used on the Barclays pages on Mumsnet and elsewhere.

[Leafmould]

You sank: I agree, you have to be able to feel comfortable with the people you are sharing your home with. Be that your partner, family, or also the shared interest with landlord or bank.

Social housing definately is the best deal. You get your repairs done, and you have security. A shame that the tenancy agreement has changed so that new tenants no longer have the same security as existing ones.

In my last private rent, I was always worried that the children of the aged landlady would flog it when she popped her clogs. Landlords have got loads of different reasons for evicting you, and after all, it is an investment to them, so if they need to release the capital, they will flog your home, in all likelihood to someone who does not want a tenant.

[FrillyMilly]

I'm a tenant and a landlord. The house I live in is definately home although I do wish I had a bit more security. I hope the tenants who rent from us feel at home. I'm very happy to let people paint or put up pictures.

[SarahG41]

A home is somewhere you feel settled. With renting you are always (well I am) on edge that the landlord could give you a months notice to leave.

[SuchFunSuchFun]

My husband, our daughter and I live with my MIL, it's not our house as MIL owns it and we pay towards the bills, but it's still our home. This is where we're building our memories and our lives together and while it might be an unusual living situation I wouldn't change it for the world.

I used to rent a house and it still felt like my home, although I couldn't paint the walls or hang pictures up, I could still put my photos and pictures on the shelves and bookcases and my cushions on the sofa, and when I came home at night and shut the curtains it definitely felt like my home to me.

It might not feel permanant as some people have said, but even with a mortgage life has a habit of turning things upside down, I don't think you can live life worrying what "might" happen; the landlord might chuck you out, but you might equally be made redundant and not be able to pay your mortgage.

In my opinion, whether it's your home or not is a state of mind, not a matter of who owns the bricks that keep you dry at night.

[BehindLockNumberNine]

I think yes, your house is still a home if you don't own it.

I grew up in the Netherlands. My parents always rented. We moved house regularly (between the Netherlands and Germany) as dad's job moved. We moved roughly every three years, always into rented homes.
But my mum and dad had a knack of making the house our home within weeks. Our own lovely furniture, decorations and knick knacks and a plethora of new friends through the dore all helped to turn it into a home quickly.

I am now married with my own dc. We are on our second owned (with mortgage) home. The first one felt home the minute we moved in. The second one though took over two years before it felt like home. In fact, at times it still does not feel like home. It does not have that 'feeling' ....

So, for me a house can be a home whether it is owned or not.

[AlexanderS]

I've rented from a housing association, rented privately and, now, have just bought my own house.

It just doesn't feel like your home when you rent privately. You can't decorate how you want or have pets, but more importantly you can't ensure the house is maintained safely or that you are left undisturbed in it. I've had so many bad experiences as a private tenant I can't list them all, but they include:

• cockroaches
  

• mice
  

• the kitchen ceiling collapsing after the landlord tried (and failed) three times to fix a leak in the bathroom himself (thankfully it was 4am so nobody was in the kitchen; instead we woke up and thought we were being burgled)
  

• my DP electrocuting himself on a light switch (just after the landlord had got an "electrician" in to do an "electrical test")
  

• the landlord letting himself in whilst we were on holiday
  

• the landlord turning up (the day after I'd had a miscarriage) and announcing he was thinking of kicking us out and letting the house to students to maximise his profits (DS was 18 months old at the time)
  

• after the lock on the back door broke, meaning it was permanently locked shut, the landlord sending round a "builder" who hacked the door open with a chainsaw, meaning we were then unable to lock it
  

I've never lived in a private rental that was kept in a decent state (at our old house the bottom of the bath was so scratched we used to get friction burns on our bottoms!), or had a private landlord fail to keep some of my deposit when I've left even if the house is spotlessly clean.

I found it such a stressful way to live that we moved heaven and earth to buy the house I'm sitting in now, which we moved into on Monday! It hasn't quite sunk in yet that it's ours.

We lived in a little 1-bed housing association flat when DS was first born - we only moved from there into a privately rented 2-bed house because waiting lists for social housing are so long in our area we knew we'd be waiting for a very long time to get anywhere bigger (our neighbours, also a couple with a DS in a 1 bed flat, were still waiting to be transferred to a house the last time we heard from them - their DS had just started school!).

[AlexanderS]

P.S. In the cockroach and mice-infested flat I discovered that cockroaches do not die even if you trap them under a glass for weeks and weeks on end (I was too squeamish to just squish them). They really will be the only living creatures in the event of a nuclear holocaust. I also once pulled out my fridge to clean underneath only to discover a solid square of mouse poo. Yeah, that flat had been "professionally cleaned" before we moved in .

[Wallison]

I once lived in a place where the landlord let himself in while I was in the sodding bath!

Actually, reading through this thread I'm changing my view a bit. I do agree that a house can be a home even if you don't own it. It's where you make your memories and where you live your life from; it's important. That said, it kind of makes it even worse that private tenants (not those renting from LA or HA) have so little legal rights, protection and redress and lack of fundamental security in regard to their homes.

[AppleOgies]

I grew up in army quarters... Moving every 2 years. I considered each and every quarter we lived in home. Home isn't about ownership it's about family, coming back to the same place every day and feeling secure.

I imagine some rentals don't feel secure and that may be a problem, but having a home isn't about longevity it's about security.

[FlourFace]

Does this social media campaign have any objectives or is it just designed to irritate?

What are you going to do with people's responses, Barclays?

[expatinscotland]

They're going to become buy-to-let landlords.

[thisonehasalittlecar]

We rent and I consider this our home, even though it was supposed to be temporary until we bought and now it seems it's going to be for the foreseeable... It niggles at me that the dcs are aware we don't own it and we have inspections every six months which I hate we just had one and I get worked up about them for days in advanced even though they're a total non-event. The not being able to decorate bothers me a bit, especially as my tenants don't seem to mind throwing up purple paint everywhere! But realistically if I got the place just how I wanted it the CDs would probably have crayon all over it after a day or two. (Just like they psychically manage to every time we have an inspection coming up.)

As an aside I'm surprised to see how many on here are both renting and landlords themselves. Thought we were in a fairly unusual situation but seems not!

[smilingthroughgrittedteeth]

We rent and it is most definetly our home, to me home is wherever my dp, step-children and dog are.

I am lucky in the fact that our landlord is happy for us to decorate however we want on the understanding that if we move out we will repaint everything white.

Having read lots of threads on MN I think making a rented house feel a home depends a lot on the landlord and letting agents, some seem to think they can have access to the house anytime they want.

our landords made it very clear when we moved in that all the time we are paying rent we can treat the house as our own and the only time we hear from them is when we need them to fix something, which they do quickly and efficiantly.

Same goes for the letting agents they do one visit a year to check the house is still in one piece but they always write asking us to contact them to arrange a time and then ring the day before to check its still ok, they never just let themselves in.

[CouthyMowEatingBraiiiiinz]

My rented from a housing association house is still my home.

Wherever I live, that is my home. Doesn't matter if I am paying a mortgage and the bank owns most of it, or if I am paying rent to a Housing Association and they own it.

I don't class that somebody paying a mortgage 'owns' their home either, until they have paid the bank back every last penny, though.

I accept I may be unusual with that one, but having been what I classed as a 'homeowner' in the past, I realised how wrong I was, and that I was no more a 'homeowner' then than I am now, when my house was repossessed when I could not keep up the repayments after a loss of career after a disability diagnosis.

I didn't own my home, the bank did. At least until they had had every penny I had borrowed on my mortgage, plus the interest, paid back to them.

So yes, my rented house is my home. As was the house that I had a mortgage for. But I didn't OWN either of them!

[KrismasKrackerhead]

Of course it bloody is. What an elitist bloody question, sponsored or not. Go away Barclays. You are the bane of my life...

[BoerWarKids]

Like many others have said, depends hugely on landlord, whether they're private, LA, HA, etc.

I've no hope of being able to get a deposit together so I face a lifetime of renting.

I need to make my rented property feel like a home because I can't think, "well, this is just temporary until I get on the property ladder." This is it for me.

[MammaTJ]

I rent but from a HA, so have a secure tenancy. It is my home!! Very much so.

[BikeRunSki]

Yes, a house is definitely a home if you don't own it. And it needn't be if you don't. When we were first married and renting our houses, DH and I moved every 6 months for 2 years - 4 houses in 2 years - because our landlords kept selling the houses! I have never been that bothered about the actual bricks and mortar and have never been hugely into interior design (on however an amateur level). But once a house is full of my things - books, music, paintings, photos, children(!), mess and noise - that is when it is a home. When I've lived in it and built memories there. When it's the place I look forward to coming back to at the end of a long day. I have had this with both rented houses and our "owned" (mortaged) houses. But I suppose my real "home" will be where we live now. It's a fairly non-descript detached new-build in rural Huddersfield. It's clean and tidyish, but nothing exiting and the countryside is quite nice, but it is where I bought both my babies back to after they were born. That is the best memory to have of a home.

[JugglingWithPossibilities]

Ah, I remember doing that - bringing my DC's back home - to two of our homes Bike - one was rented, the other where we are now (which we own) - like you say that makes anywhere a home !

[chrisrobin]

Yes, your home is where you invest your emotions not necessarily just because you own it. We call our house home as we have had good memories in it (starting out in life together, bringing the DC home for the first time, our 1st christmas as a family). The fact that we own it is not as important as the times we have had together there.

[CrackedNipplesSuchFun]

Of course it is your home, however it does come with a sense of unknown, IMO.

As a renter, with a DS and DH, we recently had to leave our previous property (of 6 years) due to the landlord needing to sell. It was so sad as it was where I got pregnant and then went on to see all my little ones firsts. It was sad to leave but we have settled into our new home well. But I do dread that we will have to move again at some point. Hopefully not soon!

This is how it will be for us as a mortgage is just not a reality for some time, more a dream.

[clubnail]

We're living in Germany at the moment where buying a house is less common, so maybe that changes my opinion. I know the feeling I get when I arrive back to the family in our rented flat, and that feeling is one of coming home :)

[spoonfulofnutella]

I am currently renting after having my own house and whilst I call it home and it is nice to return to at the end of the day it isn't the same. With two months notice I could be asked to leave, the management agency can come and go with a couple of days notice and I can do decorating. The lack of security is the main thing that stopped it feeling like home. I know with a mortgage you don't own it but at least you have full say on who comes and goes and how it's decorated.

[BlastOff]

Yes, I think it is, but we bought rather than rented because I'd be worried about having to leave a rented property prematurely. But it would still be home even if it were rented as long as my family were there. And we've talked about selling and renting because it would be cheaper, and may be something (despite above concerns) we'd do for financial reasons.

[justshootmenow]

Yes, Our landlord is great we've been with him 8 years, we had a 1 bed but when we were expecting he found us a 3 bed in a really nice area and we moved in and decorated it ourselves in exchange of deposit, we have this year completely re-plastered the walls and redecorated the whole house, we redesigned and fitted a new kitchen with a few luxuries (granite sink and touch hob and under cupboard lights) and he has had new carpets fitted throughout the whole house.
The price has never risen yet!
Soon we will be looking at discussing extending down under the house for a master suite as the house is now getting too small. My dad is a builder and we will be increasing the value for him.