Why we won't be sharing

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In the middle of all that, we found out about the possibility of a shared ownership house.
The last one we got wind of, we qualified for, were offered, and then were denied the mortgage, on grounds that during a ten year period of consistent self employment, Neil had chosen to spend one year employed. There had been no blip in his income, only a change of contractual arrangement. But it was inconsistent, so no mortgage.

Now I say we found out about - by the time these properties hit the pages of Help to Buy South - the agency where you are supposed to find them - they have gone. You have to hope you catch the right email at the right time from the Housing Association representing them.

Then you are told you need to go through a specific mortgage company for assessment.

Bear in mind, you are buying, in this case, a 40% share of a £200,000 house. You are not invited to see it, to visit the site, or to enquire any further about it. You are just Housing Association. You are parting with £80,000 but, they say, they *may* permit you to keep pets.

Now for the 60%, they charge you £300 a month rent. Which is good, because obviously with the lions share of the property in their hands, they're mostly responsible for the upkeep, right? Wrong. You are 100% responsible for maintenance and upkeep, despite only getting 40% of the house and despite paying market rent on the remaining 60%.

So we spoke to the compulsory mortgage advisor, who plagued us day and night for a day or two - and hurrah, we qualified for the mortgage. At our ages, the longest one they were prepared to offer was 12 years, so it was twice the price most people would pay, and nearly twice our current rent, once you added in the £300 they were getting in rent for ... er .. nothing.

Exhilarated by finally qualifying for a mortgage, we got back as instructed to the Housing Association, still having not seen the site, or been given a jot of information. There are no show homes for Shared Ownership, and it's no use looking at the regular show home, because the Shared Ownership one will be built to the lowest of low standards, with the cheapest of materials and fittings, and the absolute minimum footprint, so will look literally nothing like the rest of the houses.

At no point had anyone been courteous to us, much less simpering. No one cared if we were interested or excited or not. Just tenants.

utterly bloody annoying shared ownership website whereby we learn that shared ownership is really for badly drawn teenagers of limited intelligence.


Still in a high state of excitement, Neil phoned the HA to be told - oh it's gone. There will be no more three beds on that development. We're expecting one in {neighbouring town} in Autumn of 2017.

Really? That's a year away. One a YEAR?  And we could go through all this again (11 years on the mortgage now,  though, and counting) and still be told 'Oh, it's gone'.

No. I'm not sure where or how we'll live if this rental goes pear shaped, but I am not going through that again. Treated like scum, as if at any minute they'd have to slap an asbo on us, with no courtesy or politeness, much less 'customer service'. Treated as disposable, making up the numbers, presumably a back stop in case the chosen family failed at one of the many hurdles.

Failing again. Our fourth attempt - the first time both my children were still in school, by the next time, they will both be at University. In the time from the first 'opportunity' to the last, we will have paid £45,000 in rent.  Despite having paid rent here for a decade, with no let up , we have nothing to show for it, nor now it seems will we ever.

Something needs to be done on so many levels about housing in this country. It's an utter disgrace. Council Houses are sold off for a song.  Buy to let landlords get rich off  my taxes, because their exorbitant rents are paid by Housing Benefit. I work until I drop and for my trouble I get to pay out - over the course of a decade over £80,000 in rent and what will I do when I'm too old to work to pay it? I don't know.

This is why I've decided we just have to step out in faith and trust that we will be come up with something.

We won't be sharing.

1 comments:

mel said...

good grief! that sounds like an utter racket!

something will turn up. i just know it. xoxoxo

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