Housing Association House - What happens when I retire?

ska_lover

chrisyboy wrote: »

Unfortunately not as I live in what they call a 'Rural Village'. Seems silly as its a life long tenancy. I don't know if this will every change but knowing me it wont. I really don't want to come across as selfish as I am far from it, just want my own house, I work really hard and worried about my future and finances. Also my rent is actually higher than a lot of mortgages therefore I know I can afford a mortgage I just cant save a bigger enough deposit up to get one, probably a lot of people are in the same boat!

Ahh I see. I dont think you come across as selfish at all mate - there is nothing wrong with wanting to own your own place at all. I have been in a similar situation.

Looking to the future, one idea might be to do a mutual exchange to a house that does have the right to buy. If yours is rural, I bet there would be people wanting to snap your hand off to exchange. You could move to a housing association house or council place and should retain all the years of tenancy discount you have accrued, and therefore get a discount.

The way I understand the RTB is that your discount acts as the disposit so no need to have a large deposit to start off with and could well be that your mortgage ends up less than rental costs. The RTB does seem to only affordable route for a lot of people who do not have rich relatives who can lend them deposit money. All these new build and goverment schemes seem to be a recipe for disaster from what I understand about them

It might be worth looking to join one of these online mutual exchange boards/forums just to scope what is out there, what kind of properties and areas you could live in etc - you are not commited to anything by just joining. If you search on facebook 'home swap in 'whatever area' you will find pages you can join and observe what other people have to swap. Everyones circumstances are different and some people never want to own, and a house in a rural location would be enough of a pull for them, without ever owning it

specialboy

thequant wrote: »

But don't forget your HB will be reduced by bedroom tax for any spare rooms you have.

For some stupid reason pensioners are exempted from the top up and receive full HB.

carefullycautious

specialboy wrote: »

For some stupid reason pensioners are exempted from the top up and receive full HB.

I must admit I agree with the above (and my hubby is a pensioner)

I thought the whole idea of releasing large family homes was for older people to downsize to make way for the next generation as we did by moving from 3 bed to 2 bed and now one. I realise we were lucky to be able to do this as there was a vacant bungalow for us.

I expect that they have been exempted due to there not being enough accommodation for them to move to.

theartfullodger

chrisyboy wrote: »

Hello Everyone

I currently live in a Housing Association house under an affordable rent scheme and pay full rent on the property..... ...What I wanted to know what when I retire I take it I will still have to pay my rent and if its still the same rate, I wont be able to afford to do this, I have a work pension but it wont cover the rent. Does anyone have any experience with this, will I be able to claim some sort of housing benefit?


Many thanks


Chris

You are 13 years out-of-school (I'll guess that makes you about 31yrs old...). What will your retirement age be in 30+ years time?? No, me neither, we & you have no idea except the likelihood that you'll have to keep working to (say..) 70+/....

And what will be rules on HB & Housing Associations (if they still existt..) & rent be in 30+ years time?? No, me neither, we & you have no idea except the likelihood that the current rules will change...

You've as much chance correctly telling me what the lottery balls will be in February as anyone answering your question correctly: And no, MSE may not be around for us to check...

Cheers!

AlexMac

HB58 wrote: »

Do you have a personal pension? The sooner you start contributing, the longer the money has to accumulate before you retire.

Hi Chrisyboy,
Sorry to disagree HB, but even though the Government has threatened to cap the criminally ruinous fees currently imposed by Pension Providers (which can wolf through 30% or more of your funds) I still wouldn't touch private pensions as I don't trust the bedsteds (Politicians or Pension privateers) to get it right in future.

Pension tax-breaks can arguably be said to benefit high-rate taxpayers, but the only private-pension investors who know I've known, and who were on modest incomes, got burned.

If you can save, I'd stick to conventional savings or ISAs which are more under your control; and as others say, things will change so much in the next 40 years that no-one can predict where you'll be.

But the fact that you're thinking ahead implies you'll always be on top of your finances, which is what matters- Happy New Year(s)

PasturesNew

You have three choices:
1] Save more
2] Earn more
3] Get hooked up with somebody

Only other alternatives are:
4] Hope for an inheritance
5] Win the lottery

Therefore, the only two you have the most chance of managing to work out are [1] and [2]. So work on those.

moneyistooshorttomention

specialboy wrote: »

For some stupid reason pensioners are exempted from the top up and receive full HB.

Well maybe its just showing a little bit of compassion and recognition that people of retirement age have "done their bit" as regards holding down a job for umpteen years and would be bottom of the queue to get what jobs there are. Add the fact that many pensioners have quite high-level health problems that:
a. preclude them working
b. mean they have quite enough on their plate to cope with without being harassed out of their homes.

I can see this quite impartially, because I am a pensioner, but wouldn't be affected by the "bedroom tax" whatever age I was.

geri1965_2

thequant wrote: »

There use to be a mortgage provider that use to accommodate people like yourself who couldn't save for a deposit but could afford a mortgage.


They were called Northern Rock, and what happened to them ? yeah lots of people who supposedly could pay their mortgage didn't. As their was no deposits put down for these properties, tax payers like myself had to pick up the bill.

There were a number of providers of 100% mortgages, I got mine with Bank of Scotland. The problem was not with 100% mortgages per se but with lending more than people could afford to pay back.

I never defaulted on my mortgage but then again I only needed 3 times my salary and it was easily within my budget.

thequant

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Well maybe its just showing a little bit of compassion and recognition that people of retirement age have "done their bit" as regards holding down a job for umpteen years and would be bottom of the queue to get what jobs there are. .

Totally disagree with this, in fact the question has to be asked why any pensioner who has worked hard all their lives does not own their own home ?


pensioners who don't own homes, either never worked or if they did, they didn't bother save because they expected the state to pick up the tab.


In both cases neither has my sympathy, A logans run type solution for these people should be considered in order to free up housing stock.

moneyistooshorttomention

Maybe you've got one weird sense of humour....but I'm certainly not laughing (except at the thought that you too will one day reach the age of 30 and beyond...).

Anyways, back on topic and I can quite understand why OP is worrying (having lived in public sector housing myself some time back and it was only a stroke of luck that brought me the chance to buy my first house). Chances are that I would still be there and, at the least, wouldn't have been able to retire at my Retirement Age for one thing if I had (as there would have been no chance of managing on the half pension I'm on until I reach my personal Revised State Pension Age if I'd had to pay rent still).

Many people, through no fault of their own, simply don't earn enough to both pay rent on the place they are living in and save for a home of their own. In fact some peoples salaries are that low that they couldn't afford to save up for a home of their own even if they didn't have to pay rent. That is the position I personally was in until that stroke of luck came along.