Affordable housing - A joke!!

nubiwan

My wife and i live in a part ownership home.

2-bed end of terrace on a new development. We have a mortgage for 40% share of the house and pay rent on the remainding 60% share!

Unfortunately we are in a situation currently where with household bills etc, we currently spend more than 200 pcm than i earn!
We know that our neighbours (who have 3 bed property rental only) pay only very slightly more than us in rent, and we have heard that others in the social hosuing areas near us have much lower rents for 100% of property than we have for 60%

Obviously our financial position means that we could have to lose our potion of the house! We have contacted the housing association and frankly they dont seem that bothered! When we asked about a rent re-alignment or reduction they said they couldnt do anything unless we defaulted a payement!

Can anyone offer advice?
In real terms we would like to buy a bigger share of the house (whilst prices are low and rates so good). But we cannot remotgage either as we need 'deposit' to secure a frther mortgage! We are now trapped in an 'affordable' house that we cannot afford, cant leave without losing equity, is rapidly becomming too small (2 kids!) and cant get any help with!!

Any advice??

poppysarah

Go to a news paper and sell them your story. Might tide you over with some cash to help you out. (The Sun pays well I have been told)

Seriously flawed idea these shared ownership cons.

Of course CAB, and then complain to your MP if you don't fancy being in the paper.

ruggedtoast

I'm really sorry to hear of this. SO schemes are disgusting imo. A way to fleece both the taxpayer and the owner, only of benefit to the house builders and the HA's that are funded to administer them.

savemoney

And often you cant swing a cat in these properties, I use that word sparingly more like rabbit hutches for humans

Ulfar

Are you not eligible for local housing allowance, working tax credits, etc.

If you aren't eligible for the above then you are on a wage the same or higher than mine, I just miss out as I earn £1 too much.

I pay private rent so I would have thought your rent would be cheaper.

So my suggestion would be that you need to cut all non-essential expense and seek help from debt counseling. If your property is with council or housing association you can ask for a rent review from the rent officer, as I understand social landlords are bound by this were private ones aren't.

The primary bills you must pay each month to keep a home are your rent/mortgage, utility bills gas/electricity/water and council tax, everything else especially credit cards/loans are off a secondary importance.

nubiwan

Thanks for your suggestions!

I am not sure the Sun would really be interested in our tale of mediocre struggle!! May well try the CAB though!

As for cutting bills, we have tried. We dont live exotically by any means! i havent boughtany new clothes for about 18 months and we rarely go out! I am just frustrated at the injustice of it all. Like Ulfar says, it seems the ones who get least help are those who actualy do get off their asses and work, but still cant make ends meet!

Does anyone have any experience of negotiating with Housing associations and benefiting i guess thats what i want to hear!

poppysarah

You're a classic example of Brown's Britain.
You have my sympathies. Press publicity is probably the only way to alert others to the problems though

gabyjane

Well was very suprised to see this as we too are S/O

I really dont know what to suggest as you sound like you have spoke to the HO what about the mortgage ppl do they have any ideas? or an IFA? really hope something crops up..as for the losing equity bit you will find that in many houses at the mo and SO is not much differet in terms of losing money all houses have! as for the size..have you left it til the last min to realise it is too small or tried selling before? didn't mean that to sound patronising just wondering the circumstances.

We do very well out of our house and honestly think it is a good move for us, friends in smaller houses pay around the £1000k mark per month and struggle so we thought we would do this and not! Our house is bigger than most too so as for the rabbit hutch bit doesn't stand for them all! ..
We too are the same 40% and the rest rent, we pay £450 per month in total bargain as far as im concerned as rents are far far higher so we would never be better off renting as we wouldn't get HB..we are going to purchase another 10% which then knocks the rent down so will be no worse off but are going to overpay at the moment until prices go up slightly then we won't require a deposit, if not we will re think.

Let us know how you get on.

gabyjane

poppysarah wrote: »

Go to a news paper and sell them your story. Might tide you over with some cash to help you out. (The Sun pays well I have been told)

Seriously flawed idea these shared ownership cons.

Of course CAB, and then complain to your MP if you don't fancy being in the paper.

Lol I have to say we complained to our MP to the lack of SO and it is how we got ours, so glad we did in these times as nothing imo has improved enough for us to buy outright!

poppysarah

gabyjane wrote: »

Lol I have to say we complained to our MP to the lack of SO and it is how we got ours, so glad we did in these times as nothing imo has improved enough for us to buy outright!

Do you not feel more let down by the fact this government conspires to allow you only to buy one half of a house?

They should let the market play out.

Dithering_Dad

How were your finances prior to purchasing a house? I assume you rented somewhere, was your rent more affordable than your part rent/part mortage?