Housing Catch 22 please help

demelza5

Hello All

You seem like a nice, helpful bunch. I would welcome any advice on my housing problem.

I own a 2-bedroom ground floor garden flat that I don't use beyond storing my belongings there as I stay with my boyfriend. I am unable to sell it as it is in need of renovation, following my letting it through an agency who allowed a tenant to cause a great deal of cosmetic damage to the place. Frankly I don't want to live there as it has become an emotional and financial millstone for me. I try to avoid going there, and it's become the cause of huge stress and anxiety.

My boyfriend and I would like to get a place together but my flat situation is preventing us from doing so. It seems ridiculous to be paying out every month for council tax, mortgage and bills for an unoccupied property.

I paid £133,000 for the flat in 2008, knowing at the time that the lease required extending. I have not been able to afford to engage a solicitor to help me sort out extending the lease, which must be down to about 52 years now. From talking to the neighbours, I think the freeholder would want £8-10,000 to extend to 99 years.

I am unable to let the flat any more as I used up the 3 years allowed under the current terms of my mortgage. If I were to let it, my mortgage provider informed me I would have to get a buy-to-let mortgage now, although this is immaterial as I cannot afford to do the jobs that would get the flat to a lettable stage and I find even thinking about it overwhelming and depressing.

If you could offer some help or advice about my options I would really appreciate it. The flat next door is currently on the market for £120,000 so negative equity is also a concern for me. I'm going round in circles with this situation.

Cheers All

xylophone

Would it be possible for you and your boyfriend to move into the property, renovate then sell?

demelza5

Thank you for replying - not until we at least have a working kitchen in there. I have looked into trying to get a cheap one or repair what's there, but the units are rotten from mould at the top and dog wee at the bottom (the tenant had 9 dogs in there!), and I can't afford even a second hand kitchen at present. I am trying to earn some more money, but I'm not going to get enough together to make a difference any time soon.

orangeslimes

How much could you get if you sell in its current state? Might it be worth it even if you lose money?

Talc1234

demelza5 wrote: »

Thank you for replying - not until we at least have a working kitchen in there. I have looked into trying to get a cheap one or repair what's there, but the units are rotten from mould at the top and dog wee at the bottom (the tenant had 9 dogs in there!), and I can't afford even a second hand kitchen at present. I am trying to earn some more money, but I'm not going to get enough together to make a difference any time soon.

You allowed your tenant to keep 9 dogs???

I am struggling to believe that someone would have gotten away with keeping 9 dogs in a flat without the neighbors going ballistic which makes me suspect that the post is a windup.

However should you be genuine

1. Time to find the person responsible (tenant, letting agency, housing association etc....) to make a claim for costs in returning your apartment to its former state

2. It is unrentable and unsaleable and its current condition which means that living there and renovating it is likely to be your only option for now. However if your BF moves in with you, you can use the money you save on the other place to refurbish.

3. 52 years lease is horribly short. Is there anyone who could lend you the money for the extension?

[Deleted User]

Costs can be cut to some extent when renovating a property but most importantly, i'd be wondering what caused the mould problem. If its just a guttering problem (blockage/leaves) that's easily solved with the aid of a ladder.., but it may be an expensive problem to solve.

At the moment you are looking at this too emotionally, and that's not going to help. You need to really investigate what the problems are.

Dog wee smells may be dealt with with bleach or vinegar depending on what is affected by it. You will lose nothing by trying to get rid of the smell. A good scrub can work wonders and help you to investigate what the state of the place actually is.

The situation won't change if you don't do something about it. You have no choice I'm afraid.., you'll have to start sorting this out.

If needed a second hand kitchen could be purchased on ebay.

You haven't said anything about any other problems so help on here can only be limited.

You can live without a kitchen in the short term if you have to (removators do it all the time).., and save the money you are not spending on rent to sort out the more expensive problems (short lease) over time.

Some of us (me) would love to have the problems you have if it means a roof over your head.

moneyistooshorttomention

Do you know anyone absolutely Guaranteed to be trustworthy and good at DIY that you could rent your flat to at a nominal rent on the understanding that they will (instead of rent) do the work and paying necessary to get your flat back up to scratch?

Would it be possible for you to get a "new to you" kitchen off Freecycle? (don't know if you live in a wealthy enough area that there is likely to be that chance). If your (and neighbours) flat are 1 bedroom at a normal going rate on sale of £120,000 then you live in much the same level of House Price Area I have just moved from and your area is "wealthy" enough that there will be people there giving away perfectly good stuff on Freecycle, so you might have a chance...

EDIT: Someone like Deanna Trois (if she has the necessary skills) and yourself pooling your respective dilemmas and there might be a way forward here......

The comment re renovators provoked a "Tell me about it..." thought in my mind....as I've just had to live without Internet for a short while and without central heating/hot water/proper cooking facilities for weeks now courtesy of renovating...and I expect I'm recognisable by now for the dust in my hair and on my clothes...scruffs 'r us...

lessonlearned

Demelza - first look at the positives. You own this flat - you are not renting - that's a good starting point. Although you currently feel that the flat is a "millstone round your neck" it is in fact an asset.

Time to grasp the nettle and turn this asset into a money spinner, or at least try to ensure that you do not face a catastrophic financial loss.

1. You should not sell it without extending the lease. A 52 year lease makes it very difficult for the next purchaser to get a mortgage. The only buyer would be an investor who will want to pay rock bottom prices. You would be lucky to get £100K. Extending that lease is crucial.

2. A refurb doesn't need to be expensive. All you need is a little bit of creative thinking and then just roll up your sleeves and get stuck in.

You don't say whether or not your boyfriend has his own place.

I know you want to get a place together but, as an interim arrangement, could he not move in with you. It would cut your living expenses down and you could tackle the refurb together.

A few ideas for a quick fix to make that kitchen habitable.

Try the bleach/vinegar option for the dog smell. You might need several goes but it should work.

The mould can easily be dealt with - there are loads of products on the market - less than £5.

Get a dehumidifier to dry out the kitchen, then find out the cause of the damp. It may be nothing. It could be just that your tenant's lifestyle caused a lot of condensation.

(It could be guttering, it could be a leak from the flat upstairs).

Back to those units. If the bleach/vinegar treatment doesn't work, provided that the cabinets themselves are not damaged, you might get away with just replacing the doors.

Even if you can't afford replacement doors just yet remove them anyway and either go "open shelved" for a while or make some cheap curtains to hide the clutter.

If the units are beyond redemption and the smell is overpowering, remove the cupboards and do without. Just replace the sink unit for now and then you could get something like a couple of second bookcases and go for a open shelving look.

Alternatively, you can buy industrial style wire shelving for very little - think professional chef/urban apartment style. Very trendy and dirt cheap.

Kitchens do not have to be fitted, you can work and cook in an unfitted kitchen. In fact they are becoming quite fashionable.....

Look at any furniture you might already have or that friends and relatives might be able to give or lend you that you can revamp and repurpose, ie bookcases, sideboards, Welsh dressers, chest of drawers etc.

You can make a "temporary" kitchen out of next to nothing, whilst you save up.

For the rest of the refurb. If as you say it is just cosmetic, then simply repaint throughout and sort out the flooring. When it comes to selling then just dress it nicely for sale. In the meantime you and your boyfriend will have somewhere nice to live.

However, you really must address the issue of the lease.That will be your top priority.

Good luck.

Just take a deep breath, dive in and get cracking. Properties only deteriorate when they are left standing empty. The longer you put it off the worse it will get.

Who knows once you have done the refurb you might fall in love with your flat all over again and be happy to stay for a while.

moromir

If you're prepared to be tied in for a good 3-5 years - my local council run a scheme where they'll pay for the refurb of a property while they rent the property on a 5 yr lease, and then sublet it to their own council tenants.

I think they also cover any maintnance during the tenancy.

If your local council ran a similar scheme it might give you some breathing room?

dancingfairy

Before you start doing any work have you gone after the tenant that caused all this damage? Can you claim on the insurance at all?
You have 4 main options
1) sell as is
2) do some work on the property, either extending the lease or internal renovations, or both
3) rent it out, having done some work on it
4) move in.

You need to weigh up the pros and cons of each option (And the costs involved).
So if you spent say 10k on the house for renovations and 10k on the lease it would be worth approx 120k? so you would be in negative equity?
How much would it cost to bring it up to a standard where you could let it out? What does it really need as a basic minimum?
You could sell it in the current state at auction but then you'd have to find someway to cover the shortfall.....
It sounds like the best option is to try and do it up and get it rented again and try and save up for a lease extension.
df

lessonlearned

Demelza - another option.

If you cannot afford to extend the lease for the foreseeable future then your next best option would be to let out the flat again.

Yes you would need a BTL mortgage but that shouldn't be too much of a hurdle. Get a few quotes from brokers and see how you go.

Obviously you will have to do some remedial work to get the property to a lettable standard. You would definitely need to sort out the mould/damp issues and do something with the kitchen. Then a quick lick of paint to make it clean and presentable.

Speak to a good broker, you might be able to release a couple of grand's worth of equity to sort out the refurb.

Let it out and any profits you make you can put towards saving up to extend the lease.

However do be aware that letting out property is a business, with all the attendant risks. You were very unfortunate with your last tenant, you might have better luck next time. I would definitely make the tenancy agreement a strict "no pets allowed" one though. And enforce it.......