Right To Buy- Experiences

musheypeas

BlueberryB wrote: »

This annoys me something silly! We live in a council house, I love it, it's our home! We have lived her or 5 years and I've been a council tenant for 10.
There is a stop on RTB here now under a pressured area ban. So if you moved into your house or was a tenant before 2003 you are fine but we were 2004 so just missed out we were waiting to buy our house after the initial 5 year pressured area was released in November, we paid 4.5k to rip out the old stinking bathroom and put a nice modern one in at the start of last year! We were gutted when the council extended the PA for another 10 years!! We had big plans and was lying to gut the house after we bought it and put on a small extension to the kitchen and the house is plenty big enough for us and if we got it the way we wanted, it would be our forever home. But no we can't buy it and we are to young to be paying rent or the rest of our lives, we wanted an investment in property and a stable future without paying through the nose every month for a big mortgage.

We are now trying to save and get on the ladder ourselves, with 3 kids and living costs just now it isn't so easy, but I'm sure we will get there. All I'm saying is how very lucky these people who buy their houses on RTB for a "quick buck" as I'm seeing them pop up every day on here, and here is us that wants to buy our home and are stopped dead in our tracks! ;(

How awful, I'm not buying mine to make a quick buck, honestly speaking it was a friend who told me about hers! I had no Idea the discount was so big otherwise I would have done it years ago. The way I look at it is I've never claimed a benefit in my life and in the 14 years I've lived there, always paid my rent in advance so I deserve the discount. Isn't there anything you can do, have you sought legal advice?

leveller2911

musheypeas wrote: »

How awful, I'm not buying mine to make a quick buck, honestly speaking it was a friend who told me about hers! I had no Idea the discount was so big otherwise I would have done it years ago.

But if you had bought it yeasr ago you wouldn't have qualified for the amount of discount your given.;)

The way I look at it is I've never claimed a benefit in my life and in the 14 years I've lived there, always paid my rent in advance so I deserve the discount. Isn't there anything you can do, have you sought legal advice?

This arguement makes me chuckle.Its as though people who take up the RTB justify it by saying "We have always paid our rent on time so we deserve to be able to buy our house at a huge discount"....I'm failry certain the large majority of tenants pay their rent on time. Its in the tenancy agreement.

Everyone claims a benefit of some kind during their lives and you will be no different. Old age pension is a benefit,NHS is a benefit,free bus pass is a benefit,child benefit etc etc etc.

musheypeas

No need to justify anything and no, not claimed any benefit yet, did not claim the child benefit, Ive worked since I was 16 so any NHS service I've used Has been paid for through tax, No free bus pass and not of pensionable age and by the time I get there I doubt it would exist.

I didn't know the discount changed thought its been the same all along.

Not feeding this troll any more, seems a bit bitter to me, this thread is for peoples experiences, you clearly don't have a RTB so why comment, your not helpful

leveller2911

musheypeas wrote: »

No need to justify anything and no, not claimed any benefit yet, did not claim the child benefit, Ive worked since I was 16 so any NHS service I've used Has been paid for through tax, No free bus pass and not of pensionable age and by the time I get there I doubt it would exist.

Your no different for the majority of people and I will guarantee you will receive benefits during your lifetime.As to whether or not the tax that we all pay will be more or less than the benefits we receive during our lives are difficult to quantify.

I didn't know the discount changed thought its been the same all along.

If you go back a few years the discount you received was set at a rate dependant on the years you had been a tenant. So if you were a tenant for say 15 years the discount may be 50% but if the tenancy was say over 25 years it was the maximum discount of 69%.

Not feeding this troll any more, seems a bit bitter to me, this thread is for peoples experiences, you clearly don't have a RTB so why comment, your not helpful

Saying I'm a "Troll" because I have an opinion which I express on a public Forum ( look up the meaning of the word) that differs from your opinion is ridiculous. I don't think you actually understand what a Troll does. How many Trolls have over 6,000 thankyous on the profile?..

I'm not bitter about RTB I'm concerned about the long term problems it has caused. I am indeed a tenant in Social Housing.I grew up in a Council House and rather than giving the minority tenants a huge bung,bribe,handout (call it what you will) does nothing to help the dire shortgage of Social Housing.I have a tenancy for life as long as I'm a good tenant and pay the rent so I have no need to buy a house.

It wouldn't be so bad if people had the RTA (Right to Aquire) which means tenants can buy the property but at full market value. At least the money raised could be used to build more much needed Social Housing. This is best way of Councils etc selling off older properties that need money spent on renovations etc.

The sad thing is our children and their children will be paying the cost of successive poor Governments. They had the powers to stop the bribes it is paying to tenants but chose not too.Purely to buy votes and keep the housing bubble inflated.

As I have mentioned before I don't blame people for taking up the RTB but the fact is it at the detriment to Society as a whole.

tomorrowisanotherday

Just to clarify a point, old age pension is NOT a benefit. It is included in earned income for tax purposes.

tomorrowisanotherday

I am considering RTB (again) - the last time was just as house prices started rising and the discount was reduced, so I abandoned it. My son may buy with me, which makes it more achievable - although prices are still rising, the bigger discount helps (for the moment - there will come a time when it is wiped out, the way things are going in London...the housing market is just surreal). I do wish I had bought in the 90s, when house prices were reasonable. Many who bought then still do live in their homes (it is often the community they grew up in - why would they move?) - only a few sold on to make a quick buck. Also properties have to be offered back to the council or HA if selling within the first 10 years.