Help on Our Situation

ognum

Life is difficult, it has always been difficult, sadly in your situation you have to make sacrifices, people have always done that.   40 years ago I returned to work 8 weeks after the birth of both our children.  (8 weeks post delivery was the total pay you could receive) if i hadn't returned to work we wouldn't have been able to pay our mortgage.  Did I want to?  No of course not!  I worked nights at weekends so my husband could look after our babies.

Try to work out the compromises you can make to increase your income.  Not the perfect situation you want.  I actually don't know one couple where the wife doesn't work so your wishes are quite elitist.

I guess you can stay in your rental until the bailiffs arrive you will then be given temporary accomodation, the quality could be poor.  Can you live with relatives and save hard for a home, spend nothing, just save.  Can you get a housing association home or a shared ownership home.  Can you move area, these are all the compromises people make everyday.  So, rant if it helps but then be pragmatic.

LHW99

Buying a "tired" house isn't always bad. If the structure is sound, and the rest livable in the short term, you have security, and can work on the rest, so probably will increase your profit when you eventually sell.

B&Q or similar basic paint is fine to slap on, kitchens can be cheered up by changing doors on the units, and if you don't have a holiday for a couple of years, your baby really won't notice - he will only be interested in your / your wife's attention for the next 2-3 years.

RHemmings

pinkshoes said:

I guess it's time to have a reality check on what you want from life.

Why do you live in Devon? Do you want to stay in Devon? Do you have family there?

£900 for rent isn't that bad! I live in a "Cotswold" ish area and they want £1600 a month for a grotty 3 bed semi! 

 

I thought the same. Often the advice is to move out of Devon to a cheaper place, and they do exist. I'm in Leicester, and depending on how many bedrooms you want (I'm guessing two), then it isn't going to be much less than that here. Maybe a two bed terraced house in a student lets area might be £800 or a bit less per month. But, it's not going to be a night and day difference. And, I'm not sure those areas are the best for a very young family.

To stay in rented with one income is most likely going to require other compromises. E.g. have you got a car and can you give it up? 

Personally I agree with some parts of your 'rant', but discussing house prices and the economy is not allowed in this forum. 

RAS

Obviously, the West Country had always been challenging but you're dealing with a much more difficult situation now than you would faced in 2019. The rush to leave London in Covid, stayacations, Brexit and Truss-economics have been added to by Ukraine and Gaza on the wider stage. All putting pressure on local housing and on people trying to keep a roof over their heads. And work isn't easy to find there either.

If you have local connections, try word of mouth. If not, consider if you where you need to live and whether to move? Although almost nowhere is easy now. If you work in a job with a national agreement, certainly consider moving north where housing can be cheaper.

Regarding income, if your wife can return part-time consider it, perhaps WFH? Every pound she earns is worth at least £2 earned by yourself because she doesn't pay income tax or NI, although she might want to make voluntary contributions. Given how much of the economy is tourist based, it doesn't even have to be year round. Although I appreciate that child care is a big issue.

Then live on your income and save your wife's for a couple of years?

lincroft1710

£1050 pcm for a 3 bed???


50 miles north of London in a not particularly attractive town and you are looking at £1500 pcm for a 1960s 3 bed semi, refurbed 2 yrs ago in an OK area but about 90 miles from the nearest beach.


£1200 pa is less than £15K pa, which is 37.5% of your £40K pa gross

[Deleted User]

The council will eventually get to you but they are a bit last minute and will have to constantly chase it up.

Saying that, they will likely put you in temporary accommodation if the s21 gets to bailiffs stage and you become homeleess. It can take 6+months.

You might have to consider relocating to cheaper less competitive areas within your budget.

You might eventually get council property but can be years, the council was renting my property for a family and after 5 years they have been moved to another temporary accommodation. 

The s21 needs to be valid and with that the court system is quite slow so gives you a bit of time to figure out the next step. 

Jami74

Tom, I feel your pain. 20 years ago we were in the same position. I worked some unsociable hours in a supermarket while baby and partner slept at night, by day I was a stay at home parent filling in surveys for pennies and listing stuff on ebay. We ended up in temporary accommodation for a few weeks, in a house of multiple occupation sharing a hallway and bathroom with addicts other people also with unfortunate circumstances. There was talk about some longer temporary accommodation in a park home but our health visitor encouraged us to avoid that. We managed to borrow a deposit and rent a house which over the years we have paid twice what it would have cost had we bought it. 

If relocating is an option, do it now while you only have one job to find/organise and while your little one is young. We stayed because of family and that felt like the only good thing we had for a while. If you have any chance to buy, even if it's a small flat then do it, because with a five year fix your monthly housing cost will stay the same and you'll be able to save more. Plus, at your age you could a mortgage over 30 years bringing the monthly payments down. We couldn't because we did not have a deposit and despite being frugal some of our income was from benefits so would not meet affordability criteria for mortgage, but house prices have doubled in our street over the last 20 years so if we had managed it we would be in a very good position now. Ask your wife to reconsider some part time work, even a few hours around your job can reap benefits other than money (my supermarket job gave us 10% discount on groceries, SIM contracts and I was often in the right place at the right time for toy/clothes sales). 

ian1246

My 2 cents - buy a "tired" house provided the "tired" aspect is merely cosmetic - you can live with a 1980's bathroom & kitchen I'd needs be. This way you'll be on the property ladder & able to make improvements overtime.

There is now free childcare for babies 9months old & above - 15hrs a week is 11.22hrs across 52 weeks a year (vs. Term time).

Your not going to want to hear this - buts its unrealistic & unreasonable to expect help from the government when wifes not working but has the capacity to do so (including the provision of free childcare). Sadly the modern age requires 2 wage earners to live....

If there is any capability for her to do so- maybe see if she can get a small part time job (1 8hr shift or 2 5hr shifts etc...?) to allow her to earn whilst the kids are in nursery (free childcare). This extra income could then pay for a gradual upgrade of the "tired" house. Medium term, once the works done, you could assess whether she needs to stay at work. Also worth remembering the childcare scheme expands to 30hrs (22.44hrs a week, 52 weeks a year) so there is the capacity to work longer hours & increase earning potential....

Keep in mind by wife not working, your not just condemning yourselves to what sounds a fairly bleak existence now, but also later in life in terms of retirement/pensions since she won't have accrued one!

It's horrible and harsh - but do consider the pro's & cons of working even a single day a week (8hrs at £12an hour is £96 a week - £4992 a year. That's £416 extra a month, all with no tax/Ni due to being below the threshold. 16hrs a week - 2 days- is £9984...  £832 extra a month, again below the tax thresholds). It's also worth considering the benefits for your kids of going to nursery once or twice a day & for your wife keeping her foot in the door with employment (& the social/human interaction side of working!)....

.... not to mention the possible benefits for your own welfare/mental health from having a more comfortable financial & living position. Financial strain can be horrible... don't feel that you have to carry it alone.

In all seriousness - what does your wife want & does she know how you feel/the impact the financial strain is having on you? Definitely have a open conversation about it - I know my wife (now ex wife) really struggled with the social exclusion/loneliness of not working during maternity & did enjoy returning back to work part time (giving her a break from our son & a chance ro make friends, natter etc... etc...).

Either way....Good luck.

ka7e

ian1246 said:

There is now free childcare for babies 9months old & above - 15hrs a week is 11.22hrs across 52 weeks a year (vs. Term time).

In theory there should be childcare provision, but in reality there is a shortage of nursery places. You may also be only offered certain hours on specific days, which might not coincide with work that is offered locally.

caprikid1

"You have recently been issued an S21 which says that after 2 months the landlord might start court proceedings to eventually (if they did all the documents correctly) get a court to say you need to move out.  Do not leap."

Just to be clear you will see the standard replies on this board, "Only a Court can end a tenancy" etc etc.

We have seen one illegal eviction recently following a section 21 ignored, yes the landlord will ultimately be in severe trouble but they were still homeless.

Secondly the rental market is tough, do you think a new landlord will want a tenant that has been evicted / a landlord is going through the eviction process ?? Very unlikely they can pick and chose so why take the risk.

There is a big difference between the law and the reality of the world we live in, we seem to treat the law as the go to position on this forum not the last resort.

Anyone who tells you there is no rush is not helping you, more likely pedalling their own personal agenda, the only time I would recommend going the eviction route is if social housing is a strong option but even then you may find yourself in horrid temporary accommodation. speak to the local housing department as a matter of urgency.