Stuck in the help to buy trap.

GDB2222

To summarise:

You are currently living in the house, but it's too small to start a family.
If you let it out, you will need to raise £15k as a loan to pay off the HTB, as you are not allowed to rent out a property with an HTB loan on it. Based on what you can actually sell the property for, that £15k figure is about £1k too high.
The rent would be more or less enough to cover the mortgage, plus the usual landlord expenses, but you'd then have that £15k load to service as well.
Your ex is still a 50% owner of the property, so you'll need to involve him in any decisions to go into the landlord business.
The property can actually be sold for around £70k. If you sold it, you'd make a small loss of £3k or so.

You are beating yourself up a bit, because you didn't  spot the notices about the planning application, even though it's unlikely that your objections  would have made any difference at all.

Tokmon

SophieHull said:

GDB2222 said:

I think that renting the flat out is just kicking the can down the road, to some extent. Is there any real hope that the value will increase in say one or two years? Otherwise, are you planning to be landlords for years and years?  

There's a 1 bed house up for rent at £425 pcm nearby. I assume that your flat above a bar would go for less. Is letting really a viable proposition, anyway? 

I notice lots of really nice furniture in the current sale listing. Are you proposing to leave that there for a letting? 

Another thing I should note is that we simply don't want to live there. So renting it out is just a way out. If we did get £500pcm it would be self sustaining, breaking even with a little but extra for repairs if needed. The important thing is we won't live there anymore. We want a family and whilst it's not ideal living with parents, my parents have a 4 bedroom house so we have a living room, bedroom and spare bedroom for a child, and an in house babysitter. 

That sounds like an awful idea living with your husband at your parents house as a married couple raising a family. How does your husband and parents feel about this? Surely everyone would prefer their own space and i think it's very unfair on your parents to start a family in their home.

Plus you and your husband don't seem to have any money to your name if you would need to borrow money to pay off the £15k help to buy so sounds like your in a terrible position to be adding the extra expense of a child to your lives.

Tokmon

SophieHull said:

Tokmon said:

SophieHull said:

GDB2222 said:

I think that renting the flat out is just kicking the can down the road, to some extent. Is there any real hope that the value will increase in say one or two years? Otherwise, are you planning to be landlords for years and years?  

There's a 1 bed house up for rent at £425 pcm nearby. I assume that your flat above a bar would go for less. Is letting really a viable proposition, anyway? 

I notice lots of really nice furniture in the current sale listing. Are you proposing to leave that there for a letting? 

Another thing I should note is that we simply don't want to live there. So renting it out is just a way out. If we did get £500pcm it would be self sustaining, breaking even with a little but extra for repairs if needed. The important thing is we won't live there anymore. We want a family and whilst it's not ideal living with parents, my parents have a 4 bedroom house so we have a living room, bedroom and spare bedroom for a child, and an in house babysitter. 

That sounds like an awful idea living with your husband at your parents house as a married couple raising a family. How does your husband and parents feel about this? Surely everyone would prefer their own space and i think it's very unfair on your parents to start a family in their home.

Plus you and your husband don't seem to have any money to your name if you would need to borrow money to pay off the £15k help to buy so sounds like your in a terrible position to be adding the extra expense of a child to your lives.

I mean, that's pretty much nonsense. Just because we don't have £15000 sat in our bank doesn't mean we don't have any money. I think you'll find most people with kids don't have that kind of money lying around. I'm not going to get in to that though. The issue is we have a flat that we have no way out of so please try to be helpful or just don't bother commenting. 

How much do you have because when you consider that you have been living in a flat where the mortgage would have only been a couple hundred pounds a month it's surprising you don't have any savings. 
The point I'm making is that kids cost a lot of money so if you have no spare money now to save then it will only get worse when you have a kid. 

Plus when you add in the fact your going to be stuck living in your parents house as an adult married couple starting a family sounds like an awful idea. 

Tokmon

SophieHull said:

Tokmon said:

SophieHull said:

Tokmon said:

SophieHull said:

GDB2222 said:

I think that renting the flat out is just kicking the can down the road, to some extent. Is there any real hope that the value will increase in say one or two years? Otherwise, are you planning to be landlords for years and years?  

There's a 1 bed house up for rent at £425 pcm nearby. I assume that your flat above a bar would go for less. Is letting really a viable proposition, anyway? 

I notice lots of really nice furniture in the current sale listing. Are you proposing to leave that there for a letting? 

Another thing I should note is that we simply don't want to live there. So renting it out is just a way out. If we did get £500pcm it would be self sustaining, breaking even with a little but extra for repairs if needed. The important thing is we won't live there anymore. We want a family and whilst it's not ideal living with parents, my parents have a 4 bedroom house so we have a living room, bedroom and spare bedroom for a child, and an in house babysitter. 

That sounds like an awful idea living with your husband at your parents house as a married couple raising a family. How does your husband and parents feel about this? Surely everyone would prefer their own space and i think it's very unfair on your parents to start a family in their home.

Plus you and your husband don't seem to have any money to your name if you would need to borrow money to pay off the £15k help to buy so sounds like your in a terrible position to be adding the extra expense of a child to your lives.

I mean, that's pretty much nonsense. Just because we don't have £15000 sat in our bank doesn't mean we don't have any money. I think you'll find most people with kids don't have that kind of money lying around. I'm not going to get in to that though. The issue is we have a flat that we have no way out of so please try to be helpful or just don't bother commenting. 

How much do you have because when you consider that you have been living in a flat where the mortgage would have only been a couple hundred pounds a month it's surprising you don't have any savings. 
The point I'm making is that kids cost a lot of money so if you have no spare money now to save then it will only get worse when you have a kid. 

Plus when you add in the fact your going to be stuck living in your parents house as an adult married couple starting a family sounds like an awful idea. 

Strangely we didn't think, oh we better start saving as our flat is going to be in negative equity in a couple of years. We bought nice cars, went on nice holidays, spent a fortune on getting married. Never in a million years did we think this would happen with the flat. Then even when it did it was over a year before it was discovered the flat could not in fact be mortgaged. So we started looking at different solutions. We found a solution and HTB delayed it by 14 months before saying its not possible. It has been a long chain of stressful events that has lead us in to this dead end. Now I am off work and we are relying on my husbands wage of which he has managed to save just short of 3k since January. So please don't just assume things we still have to live our lives but now we have put all spending on hold to try figure something out. 

You should have been saving money anyway and that is the issue and nothing to do with being in negative equity. Instead of blowing every penny you had on nice cars, nice holidays and a wedding (which is just one day!) you should have been planning for your future together and saving money for that. 
Two of you living in a one bedroom flat should have been reason enough alone to make you realise you needed to start seriously saving so you could afford to buy somewhere bigger in the future, especially if you knew that starting a family together was something that might happen.

I don't know any married couples who live with their parents because it's simply a bad idea as all couples need their own space and it's even worse that your considering starting a family while living there.

I'm not saying this to be mean but I honestly think the best thing you can do is live with your parents but only for a couple years to get back on your feet and save every single penny you can in that time. That will then give you a good amount of money sort out the mess with the flat, buy your own place together and then start a family. 

Crashy_Time

Tokmon said:

SophieHull said:

GDB2222 said:

I think that renting the flat out is just kicking the can down the road, to some extent. Is there any real hope that the value will increase in say one or two years? Otherwise, are you planning to be landlords for years and years?  

There's a 1 bed house up for rent at £425 pcm nearby. I assume that your flat above a bar would go for less. Is letting really a viable proposition, anyway? 

I notice lots of really nice furniture in the current sale listing. Are you proposing to leave that there for a letting? 

Another thing I should note is that we simply don't want to live there. So renting it out is just a way out. If we did get £500pcm it would be self sustaining, breaking even with a little but extra for repairs if needed. The important thing is we won't live there anymore. We want a family and whilst it's not ideal living with parents, my parents have a 4 bedroom house so we have a living room, bedroom and spare bedroom for a child, and an in house babysitter. 

That sounds like an awful idea living with your husband at your parents house as a married couple raising a family. How does your husband and parents feel about this? Surely everyone would prefer their own space and i think it's very unfair on your parents to start a family in their home.

Plus you and your husband don't seem to have any money to your name if you would need to borrow money to pay off the £15k help to buy so sounds like your in a terrible position to be adding the extra expense of a child to your lives.

Sounds much better than a HTB (help the bankers) deal TBH.

Tokmon

Crashy_Time said:

Tokmon said:

SophieHull said:

GDB2222 said:

I think that renting the flat out is just kicking the can down the road, to some extent. Is there any real hope that the value will increase in say one or two years? Otherwise, are you planning to be landlords for years and years?  

There's a 1 bed house up for rent at £425 pcm nearby. I assume that your flat above a bar would go for less. Is letting really a viable proposition, anyway? 

I notice lots of really nice furniture in the current sale listing. Are you proposing to leave that there for a letting? 

Another thing I should note is that we simply don't want to live there. So renting it out is just a way out. If we did get £500pcm it would be self sustaining, breaking even with a little but extra for repairs if needed. The important thing is we won't live there anymore. We want a family and whilst it's not ideal living with parents, my parents have a 4 bedroom house so we have a living room, bedroom and spare bedroom for a child, and an in house babysitter. 

That sounds like an awful idea living with your husband at your parents house as a married couple raising a family. How does your husband and parents feel about this? Surely everyone would prefer their own space and i think it's very unfair on your parents to start a family in their home.

Plus you and your husband don't seem to have any money to your name if you would need to borrow money to pay off the £15k help to buy so sounds like your in a terrible position to be adding the extra expense of a child to your lives.

Sounds much better than a HTB (help the bankers) deal TBH.

Well I'm certainly not suggesting they do another HTB purchase. They need to save up and buy when they have a good amount for a deposit, like i said in the post above.

RelievedSheff

Tokmon said:

Crashy_Time said:

Tokmon said:

SophieHull said:

GDB2222 said:

I think that renting the flat out is just kicking the can down the road, to some extent. Is there any real hope that the value will increase in say one or two years? Otherwise, are you planning to be landlords for years and years?  

There's a 1 bed house up for rent at £425 pcm nearby. I assume that your flat above a bar would go for less. Is letting really a viable proposition, anyway? 

I notice lots of really nice furniture in the current sale listing. Are you proposing to leave that there for a letting? 

Another thing I should note is that we simply don't want to live there. So renting it out is just a way out. If we did get £500pcm it would be self sustaining, breaking even with a little but extra for repairs if needed. The important thing is we won't live there anymore. We want a family and whilst it's not ideal living with parents, my parents have a 4 bedroom house so we have a living room, bedroom and spare bedroom for a child, and an in house babysitter. 

That sounds like an awful idea living with your husband at your parents house as a married couple raising a family. How does your husband and parents feel about this? Surely everyone would prefer their own space and i think it's very unfair on your parents to start a family in their home.

Plus you and your husband don't seem to have any money to your name if you would need to borrow money to pay off the £15k help to buy so sounds like your in a terrible position to be adding the extra expense of a child to your lives.

Sounds much better than a HTB (help the bankers) deal TBH.

Well I'm certainly not suggesting they do another HTB purchase. They need to save up and buy when they have a good amount for a deposit, like i said in the post above.

They wouldn't be eligible for the new Help to Buy scheme anyway. It is only for first time buyers now!

Crashy_Time

Tokmon said:

Crashy_Time said:

Tokmon said:

SophieHull said:

GDB2222 said:

I think that renting the flat out is just kicking the can down the road, to some extent. Is there any real hope that the value will increase in say one or two years? Otherwise, are you planning to be landlords for years and years?  

There's a 1 bed house up for rent at £425 pcm nearby. I assume that your flat above a bar would go for less. Is letting really a viable proposition, anyway? 

I notice lots of really nice furniture in the current sale listing. Are you proposing to leave that there for a letting? 

Another thing I should note is that we simply don't want to live there. So renting it out is just a way out. If we did get £500pcm it would be self sustaining, breaking even with a little but extra for repairs if needed. The important thing is we won't live there anymore. We want a family and whilst it's not ideal living with parents, my parents have a 4 bedroom house so we have a living room, bedroom and spare bedroom for a child, and an in house babysitter. 

That sounds like an awful idea living with your husband at your parents house as a married couple raising a family. How does your husband and parents feel about this? Surely everyone would prefer their own space and i think it's very unfair on your parents to start a family in their home.

Plus you and your husband don't seem to have any money to your name if you would need to borrow money to pay off the £15k help to buy so sounds like your in a terrible position to be adding the extra expense of a child to your lives.

Sounds much better than a HTB (help the bankers) deal TBH.

Well I'm certainly not suggesting they do another HTB purchase. They need to save up and buy when they have a good amount for a deposit, like i said in the post above.

They are still way better off in the parents four bed with free babysitting and free/small rent and their own space? Just think how much they could save over getting into large mortgage debt at a very volatile time for rates and job prospects!

Tokmon

Crashy_Time said:

Tokmon said:

Crashy_Time said:

Tokmon said:

SophieHull said:

GDB2222 said:

I think that renting the flat out is just kicking the can down the road, to some extent. Is there any real hope that the value will increase in say one or two years? Otherwise, are you planning to be landlords for years and years?  

There's a 1 bed house up for rent at £425 pcm nearby. I assume that your flat above a bar would go for less. Is letting really a viable proposition, anyway? 

I notice lots of really nice furniture in the current sale listing. Are you proposing to leave that there for a letting? 

Another thing I should note is that we simply don't want to live there. So renting it out is just a way out. If we did get £500pcm it would be self sustaining, breaking even with a little but extra for repairs if needed. The important thing is we won't live there anymore. We want a family and whilst it's not ideal living with parents, my parents have a 4 bedroom house so we have a living room, bedroom and spare bedroom for a child, and an in house babysitter. 

That sounds like an awful idea living with your husband at your parents house as a married couple raising a family. How does your husband and parents feel about this? Surely everyone would prefer their own space and i think it's very unfair on your parents to start a family in their home.

Plus you and your husband don't seem to have any money to your name if you would need to borrow money to pay off the £15k help to buy so sounds like your in a terrible position to be adding the extra expense of a child to your lives.

Sounds much better than a HTB (help the bankers) deal TBH.

Well I'm certainly not suggesting they do another HTB purchase. They need to save up and buy when they have a good amount for a deposit, like i said in the post above.

They are still way better off in the parents four bed with free babysitting and free/small rent and their own space? Just think how much they could save over getting into large mortgage debt at a very volatile time for rates and job prospects!

Yes there's nothing wrong with staying with parents for a couple years to save up enough money to be able to get their own place of a decent size. But starting a family now is a bad idea when they don't even have enough money to live independently of parents, never mind the extra costs of having a child. 

Mortgage rates are very low so the perfect time for a long fix and job prospects and job security are dependant on someone's current job and their skill set so not bad for everyone and some people it's been very good. 

SophieHull

Tokmon... Why are you still here? I feel like there's only so many times you can call a person poor before they retaliate. So I'm going to go ahead and call you a snob.
See what I did there? That whole thing was my opinion. I came here for facts. One guy informed me of the implications tax would have and we've decided it is going to be an issue. Especially since my ex probably wouldn't declare it even if he was getting money from it.
All you've done is tell me how I should spend my money and live my life and you don't even know me! I don't regret a single thing we spent our money on because I probably won't ever get to do 90% of that stuff ever again, INCLUDING driving, due to my illness. So get off your high horse and go bother someone else.