Living in council flat & owning house in uk

MortgageMamma

shabani wrote:

Someone told me that you can get up to £50,000 in London for leaving your coucil flat. The £50K you get is towards deposit for your new house.

I have looked at the council website but can not find anything. Is this true ?

I really have no idea, but if it is true the 50k is unlikely to come from the council. Perhaps its speculators offering these amounts or people who will sublet on your tenancy agreement

cattie

The £50,000 maximum incentive was on offer for tenants of larger council properties by Westminister council. However, the scheme has been such a runaway success that they found they were running out of money. Although incentives are still offered, they are now much lower than the original £50,000. I believe the maximum they will pay is now £20,000 for a tenant to give up the tenancy & buy their own place.

The tenant isn't given cash as such, it is paid as a deposit on a property that the tenant is buying.

bobsa1

Just wanted to say that LA housing is not subsidised by tax payers. The housing revenue account (money from rental income) pays for LA housing and therefore it is actually all tenants of LA housing who pay for one another.

Check your tenancy agreement but I can't imagine that you would not be able to do this, whether it is morally right is another issue.

A_Nice_Englishman

Al_Mac wrote:

Who pays for replacement property when the current supply has been sold?

The taxpayer, via the Housing Corporation (in England) and Housing Associations. Councils are no longer building social housing as far as I know.

MortgageMamma

So the miniscule rents that council tenants pay cover the cost of renting the place, the repairs and refurbishments, the letting and payments administration and the court proceedings for evictions and property damage? AND it pays for replacement property as the council sell off all the stock or give tenants cash handouts to move out? Somehow, and I admit I don;t have any knowledge or evidence to back this up, I feel it is very unlikely this is self sustaining

A_Nice_Englishman

MortgageMamma wrote:

So the miniscule rents that council tenants pay cover the cost of renting the place, the repairs and refurbishments, the letting and payments administration and the court proceedings for evictions and property damage? AND it pays for replacement property as the council sell off all the stock or give tenants cash handouts to move out? Somehow, and I admit I don;t have any knowledge or evidence to back this up, I feel it is very unlikely this is self sustaining

It certainly isn't in the City where I live. Council rents are about half private ones and the council housing stock is in such a poor state that the council can't afford to bring it up to scratch. It is having to transfer it all to a housing association (I think) who will have effectively have to mortgage it to pay for the repairs / necessary improvements. (Councils aren't allowed to borrow for this purpose as it makes the Government's borrowing figures look bad).

astonsmummy

It seems like alot of councils are transfering their stock to HA now, our council wants to do this because they dont have the money to bring the homes up to a decent standard and keep it that way, alot of people are up in arms.
The estate in london where my sister lives has just been transfered to a HA from lambeth council and a big area is going to have a massive renovation - it looks really good.
As far as buying a property and still living in a council property is wrong, there is already such a shortage of social housing anyway why keep a flat when u dont need it when it could go to a family/person who is in genuine need.

A_Nice_Englishman

astonsmummy wrote:

As far as buying a property and still living in a council property is wrong, there is already such a shortage of social housing anyway why keep a flat when u dont need it when it could go to a family/person who is in genuine need.

Well the OP is thinking about buying a property to let out and that may well go to someone in genuine need too

astonsmummy

A_Nice_Englishman wrote:

Well the OP is thinking about buying a property to let out and that may well go to someone in genuine need too

and make a profit which could possibly pay all of the council rent or some of it, where is the fairness in that?

MyUserNamesTaken

shabani wrote:

I will only be able to get £16K max discount on the property. Obviously on £250K , though this helps this is no big discount.

Seems the only way out for me is to move out of London, and then I can afford to buy my own place.
From the views here it seems one can not buy a property abroad as well as living in a council flat.

Looks like it. At the end of the day, if it's important to you that you own a property, move out of London. Many people cannot afford to live in London, yet still own their own homes. They buy what they can afford. For £120K you can get a 4 bedroom house in Grimsby, for example.