Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

ivyleaf wrote: »

....shared ownership ...we'd have to rent. We looked at Eastbourne area as we really like it, but rents are very high, not surprisingly. But as has been said, often an area like that is far from ideal when you get older, and you don't always realise.

OH grew up on the coast though, and I was born there (not the same place, but on the coast) though I've moved around a lot, but we both miss the sea.

Give us a figure to work with .... and what you liked about Eastbourne.

We might think of places that you'd not have known about. There might be somewhere suitable that also has a similar house deal, or where there are some cheap enough to buy 100%.

Are we talking £40k, or £140k?

Or maybe you "didn't look properly"
£106,500 ... sold, but if that's in budget then anything's possible.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-64078223.html

I'd not want to pick up the bill for sorting out window coverings in that one though! I bet that'd be nigh on £1k at the "cheap as chips" bodge it end of budgets!

silvercar

....but we are a bit stuck, as it's a shared ownership house and needs a lot of repairs atm, which we can't afford.

Do you have to pay all the repair costs, but the HA gets the benefit of the increase in value in their share?

silvercar

PSA: Today is the last day for the MSE energy club Big switch.

Comparing my tariff, I am apparently on a better deal from my October switch from hell to the tune of £200+. Pleasingly I also looked at my usage compared to my estimated bills and my usage is much lower so my new boiler is more efficient.

PasturesNew

I "joined" that club ... but was at a loss in how to change as it wouldn't let me do it "through the club" due to some reason I can't remember (something about ID numbers of meters or something that meant my property couldn't be found on the system).... I didn't take too much notice.

In any case, me changing, would only potentially save me £5/year as I use so little.

Pyxis

Ivyleaf, I don't know Eastbourne, but would have thought it was the size that would have all the amenities pretty close to hand.

ivyleaf

silvercar wrote: »

Do you have to pay all the repair costs, but the HA gets the benefit of the increase in value in their share?

Yes, that's exactly it. The rent for the 75% of the equity the HA own is low to reflect the fact that all repairs are down to us. Or up to us. You know what I mean. We also have to tell them when we want to do anything - for instance we recently needed a new boiler as the old one was past repair and was leaking, so we had to let them know we were getting a new one. I suppose it's so that they can ensure any works are carried out by someone competent/fully qualified.

We ended up in shared ownership because it was the only way to afford a decent home when OH left the Forces. He was actually offered a council house in his home town, but we didn't want to go there as there was no work for him and he'd already been offered a job in this area

Thank you Silvercar and PN, (oh, and Pyxis!) it's still just a very very vague "Hmm, maybe we could move at some point" thing at the moment. The house needs some structural repairs, so those would certainly need doing before we could move on.

michaels

silvercar wrote: »

PSA: Today is the last day for the MSE energy club Big switch.

Comparing my tariff, I am apparently on a better deal from my October switch from hell to the tune of £200+. Pleasingly I also looked at my usage compared to my estimated bills and my usage is much lower so my new boiler is more efficient.

I ran the figures through when the deal started and was horrified that the current best deal is about 35% (£500) more than we are paying on our fix which ends in October. Ouch!

A lot of our bill comes from heating not hot water as we heat all day so we see a huge variation depending on the outside temperature. This year for a couple of months the SE was colder than normal (although not snowy) but then March and April were milder than last year - I think overall the 6 months to the end of April were very similar to the year before (December 15 was a real mild anomaly).

PasturesNew

ivyleaf wrote: »

....still just a very very vague "Hmm, maybe we could move at some point" thing at the moment.

Oh, we know that ... and we wouldn't force you to move just because we thought there was a nice house

But "we like looking at pictures of houses", so you giving us a figure gives us a hobby.

chris_m

Tea upon arrival at site, morning tea break, elevenses, noon tea break, lunch, post-lunch tea break........

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

I ran the figures through when the deal started and was horrified that the current best deal is about 35% (£500) more than we are paying on our fix which ends in October. Ouch!

A lot of our bill comes from heating not hot water as we heat all day so we see a huge variation depending on the outside temperature. This year for a couple of months the SE was colder than normal (although not snowy) but then March and April were milder than last year - I think overall the 6 months to the end of April were very similar to the year before (December 15 was a real mild anomaly).

Really? I'm very surprised that you don't control this more strictly!