Having to move for health reasons - mortgage???

grummps

Hello

I'll keep this as short as possible.

We (wife 67, myself 63) are having to move due to health problems.

We currently own a property (house) and need to buy a bungalow.

Current property is worth about £190,000, with an interest only mortgage of £100,000 on it.

Bungalows are priced at about £250,000.

Our weekly income is currently made up of:

DLA for me £49.30
State Pension for my wife £56.66
Pension Credit £78.99
Private Pensions for me £54.73
Industrial Injuries Benefit for me £60.12

£299.80 a week.

from 2014 my State Pension will come into payment which will stop the Pension Credit but give us £168.87 instead.

making it £389.68 a week.

We don't get any help with the interest payments on the mortgage as it is not classed as a 'normal' mortgage.
At the moment we are having to find £82 a week out of our income to pay the mortgage.

Given all of that information, is there any way that we can buy a bungalow with the help of some sort of mortgage and not leave us penniless?

BitterAndTwisted

Sell up and rent.

grummps

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Sell up and rent.

Thank for that - very helpful!

Apart from my objection to renting and pouring money into the back pocket of a landlord, I prefer to own my own property.

If I was to accept your suggestion, I would have to use the £90,000 of equity to fund the rental payments. And when that has all been used up we will be at the mercy of a landlord putting up the rent, having to claim Housing Benefit which may not cover the rent!

At the end of the day we would have nothing left!

Thanks, but no thanks - I would like to be able to protect what money we have.

ronmiel

I have recently been in the same situation. Is it not possible for you to buy a bungalow cheaper than that or to find a ground floor flat?
I sold my house for £175,00.00 and by moving 5 miles I bought a bungalow for £148,00.00.
Is it because you cannot manage the stairs where you are now living? If so have you thought about installing a stairlift, they are not cheap, but much cheaper than all the moving costs.
I hope you find a solution to this problem.

Debt_Free_Chick

grummps wrote: »

Apart from my objection to renting and pouring money into the back pocket of a landlord, I prefer to own my own property.

Sorry, but you don't own your own property at the moment and you're very unlikely to do so, unless you can find £100k.

You are currently renting half of your property from the bank/mortgage lender - the interest you're paying on your (interest only) mortgage is, in effect, rent.

You should not discount the rental option. Be brutally objective though and not emotional about the concept of "owning your own home". I'm really sorry, but this is never going to happen.

In addition, you perhaps need to consider moving to a completely different area and/or property. As has been suggested, perhaps a ground floor flat? Or a different area with lower property price. I'm going to the West coast of Scotland when I have to and will get Tesco to deliver everything I need :rotfl:

Please - be objective and practical about the options you actually have, rather than dream about those you wish you had.

Wickedkitten

grummps wrote: »

Thank for that - very helpful!

Apart from my objection to renting and pouring money into the back pocket of a landlord, I prefer to own my own property.

If I was to accept your suggestion, I would have to use the £90,000 of equity to fund the rental payments. And when that has all been used up we will be at the mercy of a landlord putting up the rent, having to claim Housing Benefit which may not cover the rent!

At the end of the day we would have nothing left!

Thanks, but no thanks - I would like to be able to protect what money we have.

Retirement Property maybe? Mind most of those seem to be flats

grummps

ronmiel wrote: »

I have recently been in the same situation. Is it not possible for you to buy a bungalow cheaper than that or to find a ground floor flat?
I sold my house for £175,00.00 and by moving 5 miles I bought a bungalow for £148,00.00.
Is it because you cannot manage the stairs where you are now living? If so have you thought about installing a stairlift, they are not cheap, but much cheaper than all the moving costs.
I hope you find a solution to this problem.

Thanks

It seems that bungalows are more expensive than houses and a lot smaller!

Due to health problems, both daughters live within 2mins of where we live at the moment so it is ideal to stay in the area.

We have considered a stairlift, but the sensible idea would be to have everything all on one level.

If we could find one for the same money everything would be fine - we could just move the mortgage.

jjlandlord

grummps wrote: »

Apart from my objection to renting and pouring money into the back pocket of a landlord, I prefer to own my own property.

You state that you have an interest only mortgage... Meaning that you are no closer to owning a property than if you were renting.
At least it seems that you have significant positive equity in your current property.

The down side if that I doubt banks will be warm to the idea of granting a mortgage to a couple in their mid-sixties, retired, with health problems.

jimjames

You may find that you cannot move the mortgage and are unable to get another interest only. Most banks are no longer offering them and with your current income I would imagine they wouldn't grant a new mortgage on any basis.

Unfortunately it sounds like you're stuck between a rock & a hard place and with the numbers you've given I can't see any way that you'd be able to move to a more expensive property so the choice may end up as stay where you are or rent. Sorry

Wickedkitten

It would be interesting to know when the IO runs out as they might have to end up renting anyway.

grummps

jjlandlord wrote: »

You state that you have an interest only mortgage... Meaning that you are no closer to owning a property than if you were renting.
At least it seems that you have significant positive equity in your current property.

The down side if that I doubt banks will be warm to the idea of granting a mortgage to a couple in their mid-sixties, retired, with health problems.

That's what I thought.

The problem is the equity. I wouldn't want to sell, bank the £90,000 and then have to use it to pay the rent. That to me seems a bit harsh as we would end up with nothing.