Council Flat: Cash or Mortgage?

bengalknights

Personally i would avoid buying a flat to avoid all the maintenance headaches and the fact it will most likely be lease.

Invest in a freehold property or just clear debts.

[Deleted User]

There will be plenty of time to sort out what you can do when you know if you are going to get any money and how much. At the moment, I am afraid, its kindof a waste of time. You just don't know what is going to happen right now.

To Norman Castle, instead of implying all tenants are like this, why don't you just report them to the council? Sorted. If a tenant is away for long periods and/or subletting, most councils will take steps to remove the tenant.

Pixie5740

If you have enough cash to purchase a flat via RTB why do you have £10k of debt? You can go to prison for not paying your council tax. I'm also curious as to which part of London you could buy a 1-bedroom flat for £120k back in 2015. All sounds a little fishy to me.

Back to the original question the answer depends on a number of factors. Are you likely to obtain a mortgage? If not then that option is off the table. Would buying outright with cash wipe out all your savings? If so then how would you cope with a large repair bill? How quickly could you build your savings back up?

Norman_Castle

deannatrois wrote: »

To Norman Castle, instead of implying all tenants are like this, why don't you just report them to the council?

I haven't implied all tenants are like this, just stated facts from my experience.

[Deleted User]

You chose to discuss the actions of one tenant out of thousands. Just report them and have done with it. Then you might get a 'deserving' neighbour.

HampshireH

Surely, the plan was to clear outstanding debts first before buying it.

I am a council tenant, was given 60% discount which amounted to £48000 instead of £120,000 which was the value of the flat

I can manage paying services associated with management of the flat

If you get up to 70k (because you said you might not that you will) The property could easily be worth that now.

(I live in a 2 bed house. My landlord bought it in 2013 for 164k we have now bought it in 2018 for 258k - prices have gone up)

You have 10k debts so we can assume no savings?

70k doesn't go very far.

It's good you can manage the general maintenance demands. Most people with 10k debt would struggle to do that else they wouldn't have so much debt. When the council invoices for the new roof or your boiler packs up its hard.

Depending on your self employment & your income you could also be high risk for a mortgage and it may be very hard to get one with that plus a history of the debts.

There is a real possibility that the flat is worth more than 120k (therefore your 70k). That you may not get 70k. That you may struggle to get a mortgage.

Probably all worth waiting and seeking some financial advice once the money is in the bank.

Norman_Castle

deannatrois wrote: »

You chose to discuss the actions of one tenant out of thousands. Just report them and have done with it. Then you might get a 'deserving' neighbour.

Two tenants. I can't comment on the thousands as I've not had experience of all of them. I had a deserving neighbour, she was harassed out by a difficult and unpleasant neighbour. This was the second time a decent neighbour had left because of her.

From experience, just (implying its a simple process) reporting problem tenants very rarely makes a difference and is very time consuming. I've had numerous problem neighbours which most people wouldn't consider deserving.



My comment was a response to the assumption that the ops flat would be let to a deserving person which in my experience is often not what happens.

Ratkin007

Submit a new RTB aplication to find out curent cost as prices have gone up. 2015 price definately sounds cheap for London and surrounding even at that time.