Owning your own home

Not sure - it certainly sounds like an excellent scheme though.

hand-painted muriel

The place I bought had been fully renovated and never lived in and, as it was done by a private developer, had no warranty.

Before exchanging I went in with a big list of stuff to test and made sure everything was working. I picked up on a few things which they subsequently fixed but after moving in we have found various minor stuff like small leaks that needed to be fixed, the boiler was inconsistent, etc

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/aug/30/truly-madly-deeply-meet-the-people-turning-their-basements-into-secret-fantasy-worlds

Has anyone on here got any experience on shared ownership?

Yeah we've done it. Have been in this flat for seven years. Housing association is L+Q. No more or less problems than other buildings in this area which are different tenures. We have a nice two bed place in Bermondsey next to a park, which we would not have been able to afford outright back then, and certainly couldn't now that the area is so desirable. We haven't staircased or anything like that. We have two kids now and are looking to move on but stay in the area. Where we can go to is depending on a few factors, work and contracts etc., but we are starting to look at ex-council 3 bed flats, but even they are still a bit beyond us.

It's worked well for us, but I am fairly active in keeping the building up to scratch to be honest. I'm the admin of our block's facebook group which has actually been very good in fostering a bit of community here, long before the lockdown. L+Q do eventually get around to repairs but I'm happy to do them myself and not let the situation get worse. Examples are painting scuffs on communal areas, fixing the lock on the bin room door, cleaning the communal yard up out the back, and so on. But I hear from other people in private blocks and they have the same issues with their management companies.

It's better than private renting. Our rent is stable and linked to the RPI rate. Our block is a mixed tenure (council, shared ownership, market rent, outright owners) and any problems are not confined to any one tenure. The market rent three beds on the top floor are probably the most long term problematic with noise, dumping bulk waste in the bin room (high tenant turnover), and so on. We have had some issues of late with one council tenant and weed smoke floating into the upper floor balconies, which was probably always there but only brought into focus when people are working from home and have their doors open during the day.

(thanks for the heads up @T4NY4)

I think it depends on your circumstances and medium/long-term plans. If you plan to stay in the place for a long time and possibly staircase (buying more % of the property) then it could work out quite well. There's no way I could have bought my place outright (1 bed flat in E15) and the privately rented flats in my block go for about £800 per month more than I'm paying for my rent and mortgage combined.

However, if you think you'll be in a position to buy somewhere outright in the next few years then I would say to hold out. You will no longer be a first-time-buyer, so will lose out on any incentives like stamp duty, for example. The fees for selling (with my HA, at least) are also very high. I'm with L&Q, who charge 1% of total market value plus VAT. I only own 30% of the property, so I'm effectively paying 3.33% of my share + VAT, which is way more than any estate agent would charge and you still have to conduct your own viewings, etc.

I've got quite a few colleagues who have done it and they're generally happy-ish but a few things seem to consistently come up.

Often errors/overcharges on service charge and rent calculations. Getting these fixed seems a real effort and not for the faint hearted. My colleagues are forensic accountants so used to doing this kind of thing for work and it still seemed a hugely lengthy process. For example one is being charged for a concierge that they can't use (the concierge is only for the private tenants) and there have been lengthy arguments about what benefit they are getting from this concierge they can't use.

One who staircased to 100% has still had issues in selling as there is no sub-letting allowed so you have to buy to live in it which cuts down the market for selling a modern flat in central London. Also issues with cladding but that seems to be everywhere at the moment.

Saying that, they are all generally happy in them. It's allowed them to "buy" places they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. Saying that, they do seem to be generally pretty expensive but I guess that's new build flats in prime locations.

Getting these fixed seems a real effort and not for the faint hearted.

Can vouch for this. Utter misery each financial year. Like leasehold but shiter

no sub-letting allowed

Depends on the specifics of the lease. Mine allows it and I rented out for ten years. Duck all appreciation because leasehold new build flat though.

Often errors/overcharges on service charge and rent calculations. Getting these fixed seems a real effort and not for the faint hearted.

Yeah, this is a biggie too that I forgot to mention. I guess it's the same with dealing with any landlord, but it just hurts a bit more as it's "your" place.

I've only just got a refund from 2017, when a concierge and gym were included in my service charge. Neither thing existed.

Depends on the specifics of the lease. Mine allows it and I rented out for ten years. Duck all appreciation because leasehold new build flat though.

Ah yes, that was just an example of what may bite you. Obviously it will all depend on the lease but it sounds like there is scope for shared ownership to be a bit more restrictive and the no sub-letting seems reasonably common. It seems the theory is that if you're having the benefit of buying it on shared ownership you should be living there.

there is scope for shared ownership to be a bit more restrictive

Yes - the freeholder can get away with even more murder than usual and you can never get RTM or SOF because of the shitty multi-tenure nature of the developments preventing you from getting the volume required to turf the landlord out.

Because of this SO places should be discounted by 15%-20% compared to single tenure blocks but guess what people poney up for them anyway.

I echo many of the SO experiences described above.
Housing associations are staffed by people who are too useless even to work for local authorities.
It's important to remember in any dealings with them that they are exclusively in the business of building blocks of flats and trousering government cash to fill them with social tenants. Once they have done that they don't give a shit.
When not overcharging (it was maintenance for non-existent lifts in our place) or handing out contracts to companies who overcharge they are hopeless to the point of neglect with the maintenance and repair, dealing with complaints, or even leaving tenants to the quiet enjoyment of their homes. Ours regularly threatened to remove our bikes, and once my car, despite the fact my parking space was demised to me.
Shared ownership isn't really ownership. It's renting with the upfront purchase of an option to buy outright. You can lose your half and theirs if you don't pay your rent. As such you have a limited choice of mortgage products, and are usually restricted to expensive and non-fixed mortgages. You cannot remortgage unless you own 100%.

When you come to extend your lease, staircase, or sell your flat (or as I unwisely did, all 3 at once) you will find the housing association useless because they are simply not geared up to do it. Leaving aside their 6 month option to sell to a shared ownership tenant (try and get out of this if you can), it rarely happens. You have to push and push and push. I was reduced on the day of exchange to refusing to get off the phone with the woman from the HA until she had done all the paperwork, I had received all the emails and I was satisfied I could actually exchange with my buyer. Oh, and their legal and valuation fees? You're paying all of those too, despite the fact their lawyers are in-house.

Don't believe any guff about getting to keep the full uplift in value of any improvements that you have done (e.g. new kitchen or bathroom). This is a lie, and there is no way they are not taking their half.

Despite all that it worked for me. I made a very large profit when I sold it, although I did have to live in Cambridge Heath for 19 years to do so, so not all gravy! A lot of that was due to buying in 1999, before Bethnal Green was fashionable, and selling just before the Brexit vote.

If I were doing it again I would staircase to 100% as early and as fast as I could, rather than leaving it till the day I sold it. I would have made over £100k more profit when I sold, paid a lot less in mortgage payments over the years, had a better lease and been able to sublet.

@fizzy.bleach Small world, I went to SJDs too. I arrived the year after there was a big drug bust and there was still and area known as the fag pit so you could have a cigarette between classes

Currently in the process of moving back to Chester

I was there 04-06, still had the fag pit then.

I never heard anything about a big drug bust so we may have been there around the same time. I'm still working on trying to persuade my wife that we should consider the north but I'm having very little success.

I didn't go there, but lots from my school (Holmes Chapel) did, including my best mate. Would have been 02-04. My sister went to Mid Cheshire.

I'm not overly concerned with treating my home as an investment. Value can go down as well as up etc. It is safe and comfortable, it's in a nice location, we have decent communal spaces including bike parking for our ten bikes, and a yard where I've built loads of pallet furniture for the residents. It's close to breweries now, and places I like to go to are close by on my bike. @rakesmith what are you thinking of when asking? Do you want a way out of renting? Do you have kids?

I did 97-99 at SJDs. My parents now live on the Crescent behind what was the art school, which is now flats.

Anyone have experience of buying a house that was lived in by smokers? Reading horror stories of people either never being able to get rid of the smell or having to replaster every room.

you have a limited choice of mortgage products, and are usually restricted to expensive and non-fixed mortgages. You cannot remortgage unless you own 100%

I don't think this is the case anymore. It's certainly limited but there is a range of products now including fixed and you can remortgage.

Yes. My place. All walls and ceilings repainted, lots of elbow grease, sugar soap on the floorboards and skirting boards and toothpicks to clean out in every gap and joint. And after 3 years it’s sort of getting clean. But if you like the place....

I don't think it would put me too. But obviously that depends on the level of smoking in the house. Few smells here and there would be okay but tar stains in every single room I'm not sure.

Place my parents bought when I was younger had that smell in the kitchen and I'm sure if they didn't strip all the kitchen out and replaster the whole place it would still be smelling now.

csb

when we were looking at houses in 2013, there was one in streatham that STANK of smoke and it must have been about 50 less than equivalent properties in the area

The whole place is (hopefully) getting scrubbed and at the very least repainted and we've been researching the correct paint for that application. Hopefully that will work. Just another back up for our planned low offer.