Right to buy questions

davidbb

We are currently considering buying our council house as our preliminary calculations look like even taking into account extras such as buildings insurance we may well be better off financially than if we were paying rent.

Other advantages we see are firstly getting on the housing ladder and secondly not needing a deposit as the discount is usually counted by many lenders. Finally we should be entitled to the maximum £24,000 discount for our are which provided we stay in the house for 5 years and the housing market doesn't crash further (which i don't think it will) will essentially make the £24,000 cash in our pocket.

However we are looking for some advice, primarily we are wondering about borrowing extra for home improvements, do some lenders allow this, the reason we are asking is that we are due a new bathroom under the governments decent homes scheme but this is not likely to be fitted in the next couple of years due to budget cuts and even if it was it would techincally increase the market value and the the buying value of our house. So bearing in mind we need a new bathroom could we lend extra.

Other things we are wondering about are a rough guide to costs

We know we will need to pay solicitors fees, how much on average would this be?

We are also confused about whether we need an independant survey as the council will do one to assess our home before we buy anyway.

Any other short/long term costs would be useful too, altohugh we are fully aware we would need to pay for our own maintence/repairs etc.

poppysarah

If you need enough work on your current bathroom then it's a repair not a modernisation.

If it's just a modernisation then you don't *need* a new bathroom.

kingstreet

The Council doesn't survey the property. The District Valuer assesses the value when you apply for the RTB. The discount is taken off to establish the discounted purchase price.

Once you have your paperwork, you apply for a mortgage. You'll have a choice of a valuation for mortgage purposes, at your expense, or a more in-depth survey, which will double the valuation cost from £280ish to £550ish. Cost is paid upfront.

Some mortgage products have arrangement fees which can be payable upfront, or added to the mortgage. Interest is charged on anything you add. Solicitors' costs and disbursements will be in the region of £1,000.

If you're borrowing a relatively small amount, you're probably better off looking for a mortgage product which has no/low setting-up costs and free legals, or a contribution towards your legal costs. This may aid you better than a 0.5% rate difference.

You will not need a deposit. You'll be able to borrow 100% of the discounted purchase price. Some lenders will allow you to borrow more but only for agreed improvements to the property.

davidbb

poppysarah wrote: »

If you need enough work on your current bathroom then it's a repair not a modernisation.

If it's just a modernisation then you don't *need* a new bathroom.

Admittedly our bathroom is adequate, but the government do state that all bathrooms over 30 years old fail the decent homes criteria, which ours is, so although if you want to be pedantic i dont "need" a new bathroom ours is still far from adequate and due to the nature and age of the fixtures and fittings would not be economically practical to maintain/repair should we buy our house.

Other things to consider are things such as tiling, ours is in dire need of renewing which is something that would be done under the decents homes scheme however it cannot be considered a "repair".

Our Bath also hast rusting and scratches, again this is considered cosmetic and not a repair, but again it would be done under the decent homes.

And as we are viewing this as an investment for the future it would make no sense not to replace the bathroom once we have bought the house as it would clearly have an effect on any future market value.

Thanks kingstreet for some good info, we are aware of mortgage arrangement fees, and having looked around we realise the trade-off for 0 fee or low fee mortgages is usually a higher monthly payment so we would have to do the maths to figure out what is best.

Anybody else got any good advice?

McKneff

Buy it as soon as you can.

Get a new bathroom suite as soon as yu can.
They are cheap enough nowa days.