Right to Buy purchase - advice needed

Pixie5740

It's not rocket science. The tenant (OP's mother) is the one with the right to buy therefore to benefit from the very generous discount it's the tenant who has to exercise their right to buy not other family members doing it to [STRIKE]line their own pockets[/STRIKE] "help" the tenant. Quite rightly mortgage lenders want the one supplying the deposit (the RTB discount) to be named on the mortgage.

The OP's mother is 71, I don't see what benefit it will be for her to buy the house now. She has a secure tenancy for life. You never know what's round the corner, what if the OP gets married, divorced, widowed, hit by a bus? How would his mother pay the mortgage then? What if her home has to be sold. The OP "helping" his mother to buy this property makes the mother less secure than she is as a council tenant.

The OP's mother doesn't have to pay for repairs and maintenance to the property. If the property is bought who will pay those costs?

The OP's mother has the option further down the line of swapping this council house for something more suitable if necessary. In fact some council are giving cash incentives to people swapping larger family homes for smaller homes. If she ever needs care in the future then as a homeowner then the house can be used to pay for that care leaving the OP with diddly squat but since he's only doing this to help his mother I doubt that will be a concern.

JohnTaylor

Ok for those who have chipped with their opinions the facts are: both of us are on the tenancy and both of us are entitled to make a joint application. There is no actual need to buy the house at all, it would pass to me after my Mother does anyway and I could continue paying rent for it.

But having lived in it for so long we would like to make changes such as adding an extension and maybe reconfiguring the layout - things you can't do under a tenancy agreement.
We're in a position where we can financially make the commitment to purchasing the house, but we can't due to the mortgage restrictions I originally posted about.
And if I got hit by bus tomorrow, there's enough money set aside to pay off the house in full!