advice on buying my council flat

baby_dumplin

I have been living in council flats for 20 years and i am wanting to buy the flat that i am currently in.

I would be greatful if anyone has any advice on doing this or if anyone has any information on it.

thankyou

Richard_Webster

It is usually worth doing because of the discount that you will get on the value. Depending on location and type of flat (how many in the block or stairwell?) you might not "profit" from all the discount if you want to sell in the future because such flats can sometimes be difficult to sell.

Unless you have major credit problems (in which case it may not be sensible to buy in any event) you should aim to get a mortgage from a well known lender and get a local solicitor to act for you.

See the thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=369624 where there is a horror story of a kind you need to avoid!

eamon

Baby Dumpling

Before you make any decisions you need to find out the following.

1. Are you in your flat/house long enough to qualify for all the discounts? Your local housing office should have the information.

2. Shop around for an "In Principle Mortgage" i.e. this means that the lender of you choice has already checked out your credit file etc. Check a variety of lenders, also depending in which council you are in they may have a mortgage scheme.

3. All social housing stock (e.g. housing associations, council houses and housing trusts) has to might the "Decent Homes" standard and the cut off year is 2010. This means that all social housing stock will have been surveyed for new doors, windows, roofs, kitchens, bathrooms, heating systems etc. If they don't meet the new standards then they need to be updated. Has yours been done? i.e. surveyed and replaced if needed ? If not hold fire on any RTB application .

yours

Eamon

JasonLVC

If a tenant in any council/army residence for more than 2 years you qualify. The discount is based on years as a tenant but is also capped so if you've had 20 years in any council property then you'll get the maximum discount - varies depend upon what part of the UK you live in (between £18k-36k).

The thing to remember about flats is they are leasehold, that means you own the flat but the not ground it's built on. If the council needs to install a new lift (£100k) then it will seek a contribution from leaseholders (you if you've bought the flat), whereas the council tenants will not pay as there's an element for repairs built into the rent anyway. If there's 100 flats in the block then that means 100 flats divided by £100,000 = £1,000 contribution you'd be asked for. Not a big deal, but you need to know this. Also, if they upgrade the windows in the block, they'll have to do yours too (to make everything look the same), so even if you don;t want new windows, you'll have to pay for them in full or a percentage of the total cost for your flat.

But flats are usually valued very cheaply due to the stigma attached to them and so that valuation, coupled with the capped discout should mean a very cheap purchase price for you. As long as you can afford the payments, understand that any housing benefit will stop once you become a mortgage/home owner and understand the concept of being a leaseholder (and not a freeholder) then a council flat is a good buy.

Before buying ask what the maintenance/upgrade plans are for your block as it would means they put the new lift/lights/windows in before you buy -may even be worth renting a couple of more years if they plan the maintenance that far ahead.

ps. The housing market attaches a stigma to council housing in general, especially flats but I'm not suggesting anything derogatory towards you. Note that once you own the flat/property the housing market sees it as a private property with the added love that owners lavish on their properties and so will value it higher.

baby_dumplin

Thanks for all your advise / help. It has been useful....there were a few points that I didn't realise, although nothing discouraging!
There has been talk in our local newspaper that our council is trying to stop some of the housing stock being sold ( due to a shortage ) so I am concerned that we will ' miss the boat' if we dither too long.
I thought that the whole idea of the right to buy scheme was to allow the local council to build / improve / repair more homes in the area with the money made off existing stock? Had they done this , then there wouldn't be a shortage.
Many thanks again for your points and for taking the time to reply.

JasonLVC

Baby D

The right to buy is an extra-statutory concession in law and so the council cannot just stop selling council houses. The only exception is if it has so little houses left that it can no longer provide it's own statutory obligation to provide housing. To achieve this, it needs a lot of statistics and would need a judicial review, that is, sek permision to 'break the law'. It could be granted but will take some time and in my time in RTB, never saw a single council achieve the withdrawl of RTB.

To be honest, politically, it would be devastating so it'd be a brave council to challenge the law and not sell the houses.

On your other point, the money doesn't go to the council at all. It goes to John Prescott's department who re-distrubtes the funds to needier areas (so that's basically the North!). Council receives nothing and of course loses rental income, putting pressure on the remaining council tenants, hence rent has to increase to plug the gaps. Which is why many council talk about stock transfer where they 'ell' the houses to a housing association - so everything stays the same, just not the Council's problem anymore.

Only Housing Associations can build new 'social' housing. It is funded directly by the government to do this. Council's are not allowed, in law, to build new homes. Makes no sense at all and this is partly why we have a housing crisis. For every Right to buy sold there is one less house for someone else. The Housing Association do build of course, but not at the same rate as council sell houses and normally these new houses are in different parts of town/old landfill sites, etc.

But, if you can afford it, got for it. It's your Right.

JasonLVC

Baby D

The right to buy is an extra-statutory concession in law and so the council cannot just stop selling council houses. The only exception is if it has so little houses left that it can no longer provide it's own statutory obligation to provide housing. To achieve this, it needs a lot of statistics and would need a judicial review, that is, sek permision to 'break the law'. It could be granted but will take some time and in my time in RTB, never saw a single council achieve the withdrawl of RTB.

To be honest, politically, it would be devastating so it'd be a brave council to challenge the law and not sell the houses.

On your other point, the money doesn't go to the council at all. It goes to John Prescott's department who re-distrubtes the funds to needier areas (so that's basically the North!). Council receives nothing and of course loses rental income, putting pressure on the remaining council tenants, hence rent has to increase to plug the gaps. Which is why many council talk about stock transfer where they 'sell' the houses to a housing association - so everything stays the same, just not the Council's problem anymore.

Only Housing Associations can build new 'social' housing. It is funded directly by the government to do this. Council's are not allowed, in law, to build new homes. Makes no sense at all and this is partly why we have a housing crisis. For every Right to buy sold there is one less house for someone else. The Housing Association do build of course, but not at the same rate as council sell houses and normally these new houses are in different parts of town/old landfill sites, etc.

But, if you can afford it, got for it. It's your Right.

baby_dumplin

Thanks for your reply to my post.
We are in Aberdeen and in an overcrowded situation....(I may add that the size of our family is the same as it was when the council first offered us this flat , it's just that the little kids are now all teenagers!)
It's one of those no choice situations.
We are in a 3 bedroomed flat, but need 4. (3 teenage boys..1 teenage girl)
There aren't any 4 bedroomed houses available for exchange / transfer.....they've all been sold!..(we've been on the list for approx 10 years now)
So, we have no choice but to try this route in order to sell at the end of the 4 years and buy a bigger property.
We don't want to make our kids feel forced to move out by themselves before they are ready.
It's really a catch 22.
Thanks again for the info!

motch

I have a friend who is thinking about buying their council house but cannot
afford it on their own.
Could another person buy it with them? as in someone who doesn't actually live there?