House Renting

copier_guy

Hi Everyone,

I still read all the posts everyday but this board is moving so quick these days!!

Just wanted to get peoples views on long term renting.

We are settled in our home but no that one day the land lady will want to sell it and we will rent again.

Has anyone decided to buy again post BR?

What are people views on long term renting?

As we get older and maybe stop working through retirement or ill health who will help us to pay the rent?

Sorry if these are stupid questions but i think im having a low moment with all the hassle from saving to go BR!!!

Thanks

MicheH

We all have low moments and I think BR makes us think about the future in a bizarre way. I am settled in my new rental too but I'm itching to plan how i could renovate and make it into our home. I need to have things my way not just have things that compliment what's already there.. no choice for at least 6 years though!

So, yeah, we'll want to buy again but it will be a cheaper terraced house in the area we're in, a home is what you make it and life is for living.. no more wanting the newest, biggest and best. Here's to cosy and interesting - here's to life! OK, Ok, i'm off on one. Back to earth!

To rent is so much cheaper than to have a mortgage as I see it where I live, well i'm proof, mortgage was £600 a month for a new build box, 1930's rental huge home is £450 a month. But yeah, what happens when we retire? How will we pay our £450 a month etc. That will probably be the reason why we try to get a small mortgage again.

You're not alone, i've thought about it too.

alastairq

As we get older and maybe stop working through retirement or ill health who will help us to pay the rent?

It is perhaps easier to get rent rebate than support with mortgage interest, from the Local Authority.

With my LA, one can register for, and become eligible for, Council housing, if one can demonstrate that there is nothing suitable to rent from the private sector.

So, providing one is living as a tenant, in what will be deemed as ''appropriate housing'' for one's family circumstances, physical abilities,etc,the LA is happy to leave you where you are...and if your income falls below a certain level, rent rebates are available, up to 100%.

This is attractive to older people....at least, no hassles or worries regarding the structure of the property and its maintenance.

The biggest drawback under English law is the absence of protection of tenants should a landlord decide, 'enough is enough'.

Under the new Assured Shorthold lease system, one can be guarenteed a tenancy for the first 6 months...after that, usually it's on a 'month-by-month' basis...and the landlord does not need to provide a reason to demand a tenant surrenders the tenancy.

New, long-term tenancies are very rare/hard to come by.

In France, for example, the opposite applies...with landlords [and tenants] being activley encouraged to engage in long-term tenancies. In fact, in France, property ownership does not have the ardent following it does in the UK.


The Assured Shorthold tenancy system, whilst it offers a modicum of short-term protection, seems to me to be designed to encourage a host of folk with money, to 'buy-to-let'....an attempt at easing the affordable housing situation, perhaps?

It gives a potential landlord peace of mind, that they will not be lumbered with an undesirable tenant.

My feelings are, that something has to be done, soon, to encourage long-term tenancies, and the security those would bring.
{MY sentiments are shared by the millionaire owner of the north's largest leasing company!]

I am reluctant to rely upon the argument that a continuous tenancy means continuous income for the landlord....[if a tenant is moved on, then there are few guarentees that the home will re-let quickly..leading to loss of income for the LL....perhaps a lever if the LL is relying on the rent income to finance loan payments?]

On the other hand, especially now we have internet access, if one is renting, and desires a move, it is easier to do so, with less potential financial loss,than would be the case if one had to sell up to achieve the above.

From my viewpoint, it would be undesirable to try to buy, post-BR.

Given my age, the sort of mortgage I would need, at payments I could afford, would extend well into any retirement I might be left with......even though I know that, in my job, with good health, I can work until I'm 70!


and what then?

I buy a house..I'm still paying SOMEONE.....with little support should my health prove an issue, or retirement loom.....with all that extra maintenance to finance, increased insurance...and for what, in the end?

My kid's inheritance??

whatever path we chose, we are all vulnerable to loss of our homes....as we read about on here, or via a LL's whim.

In the end, I think it's the 'people' who make their homes, not the building...

pingu2209

I have often thought about what happens if you rent and then retire. My mum is 69 with a paid up mortgage. She retired at 60 but only last week she was telling me of friends who are well into their 60s who have to work as they rent and need money to pay the rent. What is rent rebate?

Also, in my area renting is a lot more expensive than a mortgage (based on low interest rates of course). A 3 bed semi is about £850/month.

alastairq

.....which is about 300 more than round hereabouts....


Well, your Mum is relatively lucky in that her mortgage is paid-up......in other words, the task of meeting mortgage payments is over.....although,maintenance on her house will still have to be paid for [getting in a builder isn't cheap anymore]

....and her only income will be what she gains from her pension.....so there's no respite on that front.

If renting, for sure, rent has to be paid....if one's pension, or income, is sufficient , then benefits like rent rebate, and C/tax rebate are reduced or not claimable.....if one's income is insufficient, then one may claim rent rebate [or whatever it's called these days]...from one's local authority....in much the same way as a young person on benefits can get rent paid for.

On the upside, when renting, maintenance of the property is paid for by the landlord.....and there's always Council housing, if pensions are small.

So, basically, as a pensioner, if renting, one get's looked-after...if in own home, one gets left alone...[and there is the issue of Mum needing care in the future...if she still has the equity of her own home, this may have to be sold to pay for care......

if renting, that care is paid-for by the LA....

as an aside, I often here the olds complain about how those OAPs living in Council housing get this benefit and that benefit, and it isn't fair when ''we've'' saved all our lives, bought and paid for our little house, and are living on a similar income, but can't get nowt....

the price of financial independance can be high and unreasonable....