End the Right to Buy Now

claire23

Sorry for butting in ....

i felt I had to post a reply as my husband and I are currently going through the RTB process. My Husband has a good full time job (incidentally with our LA) while I stay at home to care for our 2 children. But even with my husbands wages we would struggle to get a mortgage for any house the size that we need in the area we need (to be beside our families).
Are you saying that we are "cheating" by buying our Home to get onto the property ladder?

mspig

I agree with Claire23.

We bought our council flat a few years back and sold it last year, so because we were in a chance of getting a helping hand onto the property ladder were apparently cheating our way up.
And yes were tax payers how on earth do you think we get mortgages, no matter how much capital is in the house you still have to be in work to get a mortgage on a council property.

And to Blacksaturn regarding the housing stock on machester - when i was in a silimar situation the council in Manchester put me on the emergency housing list and found me the flat which we bought within weeks, if they don't do this contact your local councillor he will get you on.
Also prior to that when i left an ex partner due to domestic problems i was housed in a hostel and out of all the people in there no one of them was doing drug as we could tell, and they were quite nice people and i made a good few friends, the only one i know that did have a bad rep was in fallowfield behind mcdonalds.

But back to the subject - i think that people who are in council properties and want to make them nice and buy them should have the opportunity, may be it the length of stay in the property after it has been purchased that should be looked at, i know that it has been increased to 5 years but maybe making it 10 years would stop people doing it just to get the money.

And before you slate me for selling up so soon it was nothing to do with wanting the money more due to personal problems.

muffle_2

If you want to buy a council house you should buy it at the market value with a SMALL concession, eg. up to a maximum of 20%. The huge discounts on offer are madness and unfair to everyone else and have meant that there is now a huge shortfall in social housing, which is affecting many people. There is no reasonable defense for the big discounts.

For existing council house owners who benifited from the dscounts, the council should get at least half of the profits gained from any subsequent sale of the property.

mspig

so what your saying is that you buy a council house in lets say in the year 2000 for £60,000 and then sell it in 2008 for £90,000 your saying that the council should be entitled to a share of the £60,000 that the property has risen in value.

Why? You have kept the place nice, made improvemnts and the value of the area has gone up so has your property.

I don't think so.

Maybe if they valued the property properly rather that undervaluing it to get rid of stock. They don't want the stock anymore especially in my town anyway as their selling all the properties off to housing associations.
In south Manchester where i live there is next to none council housing due to them being sold off area by area, as in the councils words there too dear to look after and take up too much budget.

In my experience and i'll be honest. The council came out when we started buying our property and they valued it at £35,000 they then gave us 50% discount because we had been in council property for the minimum needed for full discount.

The mortgage company who we used came out a month later than the councils valuer and they valued the property at £60,000.

3 years later we had to sell up so got the estate agent in and he revalued the property and the value was now £90,000 due to people wanting the property we actually got £91,500 for the property.

Not my fault the prices were as they were but if thats what the council wanted to sell the property for then its the councils problem. The valuer who came out told me we always go for the lowest value we can as we want to get rid of the properties.

davieb71

Hope i'm not interrupting.
The real probelm is the lack of investment in the Housing Market, more and more properties are being built by Housing assocaitions and the Local Authorities are only just realising the problem and trying to fix it.
This country is expanding at a rapid rate and it is only going to get worse.
Most council properties are not to the standard of new and thats why they are below property value, i mean have you seen the workmanship on some of them. It would be easier to knock them down and rebuild.
Councils seem to be knocking alot of properties down in the north east and selling the land to private investors??
Whoever we are, when we take out a mortgage we all pay nearly double back over a long period and still have to keep our homes safe, secure and to a standard.
The council only give out a £22,000 discount maximum now as well.

angeleyes

mspig wrote:

I agree with Claire23.

We bought our council flat a few years back and sold it last year, so because we were in a chance of getting a helping hand onto the property ladder were apparently cheating our way up.
And yes were tax payers how on earth do you think we get mortgages, no matter how much capital is in the house you still have to be in work to get a mortgage on a council property.

And to Blacksaturn regarding the housing stock on machester - when i was in a silimar situation the council in Manchester put me on the emergency housing list and found me the flat which we bought within weeks, if they don't do this contact your local councillor he will get you on.
Also prior to that when i left an ex partner due to domestic problems i was housed in a hostel and out of all the people in there no one of them was doing drug as we could tell, and they were quite nice people and i made a good few friends, the only one i know that did have a bad rep was in fallowfield behind mcdonalds.

But back to the subject - i think that people who are in council properties and want to make them nice and buy them should have the opportunity, may be it the length of stay in the property after it has been purchased that should be looked at, i know that it has been increased to 5 years but maybe making it 10 years would stop people doing it just to get the money.

And before you slate me for selling up so soon it was nothing to do with wanting the money more due to personal problems.

sorry to correct you but loads of people who dont work can still get mortages ---I know I used to work for DWP and we paid their new mortages .. which honestly used to goad me as 1) not working 2) where paid more than I was for in the most cases either sitting at home havin kids ( always never knew the father) or working on the side -while partner and I working can't afford to have children -does this seem right that people who work and will have children who will grow up to contribute to society and tax payers cannot afford to have them and the majority of Claimants will have children who again will be like them and have children who will not work for a living -it it a cycle that I have seen that won't be broken for example a sixteen year old mum picking up her first giro and her mum crying cos she was so proud of her ....... for what having a child who again will probably end up doing the same thing and the cycle continues....
sorry for the rant but this has been my experience .... It is there for people who need it not for people to make a living cos they cant be a*sed to get a job or education ... or to supplement thier income on the side ( there are expections and for that I'm sorry if offended)

asandwhen

The people knocking the great mrs "T" must have really short memories or just dont know much about politics - During the 1970's this country was run pretty much into the ground with massive inflation around 20% a year mainly due to a socialist (labour) party being in power and backing all the trade unions - Inflation at that degree caused this country to become one of the poorest in europe high unemployment and making parts of the country real SLUM areas - In 1982ish shortly after mrs "t" came to power the RTB scheme was born - giving people who would never have been able to buy a house the chance to buy a house thus giving them pride in there home/area - another impact has been people now feel more wealthy because they know they have this asset to pass on to there children and childrens children ect - There are still subsidised house (council and housing association) but it is not everyones god given right to have one - you cant just expect to have a council flat because you dont like paying full rent its for people that simply cant afford full rent - I agree there may have been a few poor decisions made by that conservative government but the right to buy scheme was definately not one of them - I would love for you lot to see what this country would be like now if it never came to be.........Now enough of politics this is supposed to be a money saving website.

Sofa_Sogood

richgirl wrote:

Its too late

So much housing stock has been sold that it would be unfair to those that have lived in houses for decades to say, sorry you do not have the right to buy.

But definetly all new tenants should not have the right to buy.

I agree with you richgirl. My parents lived in a council house, and had the RTB, just before my Dad died.

I'd imagine that over the years, they'd paid for the house tenfold, and myself and our siblings could have bought it for them, but it was, and still is, in an area where they give houses away with jobs now.

The authorities, education for example, advertised a free house to go with the job, but not locally as far as I recall. This was because anyone knowing the area, although not the one my parents lived in, avoided it like the plague, and still do now.

Where the right to buy fell down is where councils offered it to people who really cared about houses they'd lived in for many years, whilst still offering the RTB to others that had been there for many years less, although at different prices.

It struck a bad chord, and some people chose not to buy simply because they'd spent longer in the houses, improved them more, asked the council to improve them (before they knew there'd be a RTB) ...and it all fell down.

Like Thatcher did ...

Sofa_Sogood

asandwhen wrote:

"The people knocking the great mrs "T" must have really short memories or just dont know much about politics .....

.....I agree there may have been a few poor decisions made by that conservative government but the right to buy scheme was definately not one of them - I would love for you lot to see what this country would be like now if it never came to be.........

There you go....

Say one thing ....and mean the other

It would have been terrible imho.

muffle_2

mspig wrote:

so what your saying is that you buy a council house in lets say in the year 2000 for £60,000 and then sell it in 2008 for £90,000 your saying that the council should be entitled to a share of the £60,000 that the property has risen in value.

Why? You have kept the place nice, made improvemnts and the value of the area has gone up so has your property.

No, they should get a share of the PROFIT like I said, in your example the profit is £30,000. The reason being because you got a huge discount on it in the first place. If you buy it at market value then fair enough.