Desperate to buy for disabled child

turnitround

Snookie12cat said:

turnitround said:

I really feel for you as it cant be easy. However, paying 3000 a month for housing when it does not suit your needs is crazy. I understand what you say about schools and jobs but it may be better to bite the bullet and go through the upheaval of moving to a cheaper area in order to find something more suitable even if it means changing jobs and schools.

If you have experienced the effort and work involved in getting your disabled child into a specialist school you would seriously think about this comment. 
I am too scared to leave my county because I can't bare the fight involved and the risk he will be out of school for a long time while you fight the council.

I have, twice. The second time was when I moved 45 miles because the school I had got my son into (after a  long fight) did not meet his needs as I had expected and there was nowhere in the area I could move him to.  I know life is full of major challenges with a disabled child but I also know that no-one is going to wave a magic wand and provide everything you need.

Snookie12cat

turnitround said:

Snookie12cat said:

turnitround said:

I really feel for you as it cant be easy. However, paying 3000 a month for housing when it does not suit your needs is crazy. I understand what you say about schools and jobs but it may be better to bite the bullet and go through the upheaval of moving to a cheaper area in order to find something more suitable even if it means changing jobs and schools.

If you have experienced the effort and work involved in getting your disabled child into a specialist school you would seriously think about this comment. 
I am too scared to leave my county because I can't bare the fight involved and the risk he will be out of school for a long time while you fight the council.

I have, twice. The second time was when I moved 45 miles because the school I had got my son into (after a  long fight) did not meet his needs as I had expected and there was nowhere in the area I could move him to.  I know life is full of major challenges with a disabled child but I also know that no-one is going to wave a magic wand and provide everything you need.

Fair enough. You are braver than I. I can completely sympathise though why they don't want to have that fight. It's draining and if the school he is in is fantastic for him, it's very scary changing that to one that might not meet his needs

Owleyes00

Appreciate this might not be very popular but do you really need a 5 bedroom house? You have 7 children and the one with a disability I appreciate will need his own room. Would it be possible for your other 6 children to share two rooms? Or yourself and your partner to sleep in the living room/convert a second reception room into another bedroom?

As pp have said there are no schemes for people with disabled children to buy a house. If you could share your income, budget and area, people might be able to give you some better information?

Bonniepurple

OP, I really feel for you.  I don’t know where you live, but we used to live in a shared ownership place which was sold on the open market - so don’t completely write it off.  Alternatively, could you think creatively?  We’ve recently moved house, partly because I’ve become disabled, and, long term, we are probably going to split the sitting room into 2 so one side becomes a downstairs bedroom with an en-suite shower or wet room (currently a cloakroom).  It will involve moving 1 stud wall and adding another.  That’s a 4 bed into a 5 bed.  New builds - they’re not brilliant on space, but again you could look at dividing rooms.  What put me off was they tend to be townhouses with the master bedroom with the en suite at the top.  I can just cope with one flight of stairs but not 2 - and I can only imagine the fighting over which daughter got the best room- but that might not be an issue for you.  

Good luck!

onylon

A friend with a large blended family bought a new build with HTB. They put up a stud wall to convert the dining room into 2 small bedrooms and built/insulated a shed to give them more living space. Could you do something similar to stretch your budget?

Edit: Our house has a fairly typical new build layout and it would be fairly cheap to convert the garage into an accessible bedroom with a wet room. Pipes etc are already in the right place.

I know none of this is ideal from an investment pov but you do have an immediate housing need.

strawb_shortcake

If you don't have the deposit for a 5+ bedroom house, do you have the deposit for a smaller home with scope to extend. Living conditions might not be ideal to start with but sounds as though whichever choice you can realistically go with aren't going to be ideal either.

frankersBri

@homeforh I really feel for you - there's no easy answer here.

But it may help to makesure you have maximum time available in your current home before you forced somewhere else. The landlords can't simply ask you to leave - they will have to file a Section 21 notice correctly and which has 6 months notice. I believe then they could take you to court to get possession of the house, but with the backlog in courts that could take forever. I'm no expert, but others on the board have indicated it could be 12-18 months for a S21 eviction to complete. Have a look at this post for more info. 

In terms of finding a home suitable for your son I understand; I have a disabled sibling and remember how stressful this can be. When we were younger my parents purchased a house with the space to convert the garage to fit my brothers' needs. Could that be an option for you? Maybe a house a little bit small to start with, but with potential for a garage conversion/extension? Disabled Facilities Grants might be an option for you too?

turnitround

frankersBri said:

@homeforh I really feel for you - there's no easy answer here.

But it may help to makesure you have maximum time available in your current home before you forced somewhere else. The landlords can't simply ask you to leave - they will have to file a Section 21 notice correctly and which has 6 months notice. I believe then they could take you to court to get possession of the house, but with the backlog in courts that could take forever. I'm no expert, but others on the board have indicated it could be 12-18 months for a S21 eviction to complete. Have a look at this post for more info. 

In terms of finding a home suitable for your son I understand; I have a disabled sibling and remember how stressful this can be. When we were younger my parents purchased a house with the space to convert the garage to fit my brothers' needs. Could that be an option for you? Maybe a house a little bit small to start with, but with potential for a garage conversion/extension? Disabled Facilities Grants might be an option for you too?

The current notice period for a Sect ion 21 is 2 months, not 6.

saajan_12

A "3/4 bedroom property" upstairs will often have 2-3 reception rooms, so 1-2 could be converted into bedrooms, just leaving one family living / dining room. If none of them are box rooms, then should be able to fit into 4 rooms for [parents], [disabled child], [3 other kids], [3 other kids]. 

To actually advise further, what area are you looking, and what is your max mortgage affordability?

[Deleted User]

turnitround said:

I would also question why you need a 5 bed plus, obviously I dont know the ages etc of your children but its not unusual in a big family for 3 or more children to share a bedroom.  Im from a family of 5 children and we had 2 bedrooms and a box room. Mum and dad had the smallest bedroom, brother had a the box room and 4 girls had the biggest room with 2 sets of bunk beds. That was the way till I married and left home. Sometimes compromise is the only way round things.

Keep in mind that depending on the disability they might need a lot of equipment, separate room for that child etc.