Shared ownership should be banned – it trapped me and I lost £12k
Shared ownership should be banned – it trapped me and I lost £12k
Posted by 457655676
Shared ownership should be banned – it trapped me and I lost £12k
Shared ownership should be banned – it trapped me and I lost £12k
Posted by 457655676
29 Comments
Predatory scheme set up by predatory government to sort a problem that they created is predatory.
Tldr of shared ownership for those who don’t know is you rent a house with all the negatives of home ownership, none of the freedoms of home ownership, that you still need take out a mortgage to _eventually_ acquire a minority stake in. You can still be evicted. You still need permission to do anything to the house. **And** you’re still on the hook for boiler repairs and other incidentals.
Worst of both worlds.
You do have to wonder why an account executive didn’t know that buying half a house wasn’t a great idea.
So the real issue with the shared ownership is the shitty property management agency. The rest is fine. The mortgage and rent combined isnt horrendous it just the service charges on these buildings is extortionate and fool of scammers.
They aren’t as bad as people say they are it just need to be a bit more cautious. I won’t be having my rent increased yearly or having to move out after a year. The cost of moving can be several hundred cleaners etc
Source bought one.
Flip side: I’ve got shared ownership and my cost of living has not really increased substantially in 10 years. Would a full mortgage be better? Yes but the boomers made that impossible. If I was renting I would be paying a huge amount more. £600 more a month.
Landlordism culture should be banned too. Companies owning houses should be banned. Rent should be capped at 65% of a 30 year mortgage of a properties house value. Shared ownership should be banned. So many reforms needed just to be a first world, civilised country again. Edit: Accidentally put ‘joint ownership’. I meant Shared ownership lol.
Well i rent affordable housing with a housing association its a 3 bed at £1300 a month currently, been here 6 years. Spent close to £85k on rent and I have nothing to show for it.
Managed to save a deposit for a shared ownership nearby where the rent and mortgage of a 40% share works out at £50 more. Can’t afford a full mortgage on the house prices in my area so in my circumstances shared ownership will actually give me some equity and something I own even a part of. For me it seems a no brainer unless someone can give me a good reason otherwise.
I bought a shared ownership at 21 as our housing situation was falling apart – either we move into shared ownership or we go into private rentals (and subsequently never afford a full mortgage as we’d be paying rent). My salary was crap at the time, but enough to cover the affordability checks for the SO mortgage.
I had a few issues over the years, most notably, them suddenly deciding I wasn’t allowed pets – despite having them on record saying my dog was fine to be living there. Also, no matter what broke down in our flat, we were *always* liable.
There was also a service charge which was used to pay for cleaners (in communal areas), however, the cleaners never actually turned up… £250 a month for cleaners who don’t even turn up, and we despite our complaints, the SO partner never did anything about it… Bargain!
The selling process was okay – they had to do *god knows* how many “additional checks” which almost led to us losing our buyer – but luckily nothing completely stopped the process…
I wouldn’t recommend it – but giving the housing/CoL crisis, I can only see these sorts of deals becoming more popular.
I started with a shared ownership house and it was a great way to get on the housing ladder. Worked my way up to 100% as soon as possible and eventually acquired the freehold and sold it on for a decent price. The housing association were an absolute ball ache to deal with and I nearly lost my mind prizing the freehold from them (they’d been granted it by the former owner on condition they offer it to any 100% owners but made it soooo painful). So I can see how it can be a nightmare, but it can also be a really useful leg up.
If it were not for shared ownership, I would have not been able to afford the deposit for my current house.
We were looking to buy a house during the first few years of shared ownership. Fortunately, I smelled a rat and as I dug deeper into it and the estate agent was unable to answer questions I pulled out thank Christ.
Shared ownership would work better if you were only liable for your share of maintenance and repair.
So if boiler replacement was £3000, and you had 50% ownership then you contribute £1500.
A flat in the block I live in is being offered for sale as shared ownership at £145,000 which is about £45,000 more than it’s actually worth
The schemes are a joke
It can work out but it’s very circumstantial. I bought a one bedroom shared ownership house, with 40% ownership a few years back.
As a single person with rental and living costs eating my national average wage, raising any further deposit was a pipe dream. This was the only thing within my budget except for shitty flats. This was affordable in terms of deposit, and the mortgage and rent came to half my old rental cost. The rental fees have barely risen in 4 years, and are limited properly in the paperwork – there’s no hidden risks here. Private garden, private driveway, 6 years old so in decent condition. Small, but big enough a professional couple and a cat to live happily. In a rural village on the outside of a small city, 15 minutes to the city centre or 5 to two major employment centres in a research park and hospital, plus university.
I’m paying a good amount extra off the mortgage every month, plus increasing my savings, as a new, small house costs me next to nothing to run, in terms of bills.
Sure, there’s plenty of horror stories with SO, and I can only speak for myself, but I’m incredibly grateful for the fact shared ownership existed when I was looking.
Shared ownership does seem to be very bad when paired with ridiculously large service charge increases, which admittedly don’t apply for my property. I only pay my rental for the 60%. I guess I’m just lucky.
Had a shared ownership, laddered up into the freehold and sold it on. Worked out really well for me. We did have to take a bit of a hit on the price and selling took ages as there were 3 sets of lawyers. They should not allow leasehold only SO.
Yes. But when the government breaks the rules its OK. See also student loans, hmrc fines and our whole foreign policy.
Where shared ownership works best I feel is people who are buying their share with capital and so paying a reduced rent on the remaining share. So, typically those near or at retirement. With a low income they can then claim Universal Credit or Housing Benefit towards the rent.
Can we make a distinction between the old style Shared Ownership and the New Ones?
The rent on my shared ownership is like 150 quid a month. It’s one of the old style ones. My mate it’s about 700 quid and essentially makes him stuck.
It’s funny how on Reddit, everyone hates it; on Facebook, everyone likes it; and it’s nowhere else to be seen
Comedy that the political philosophy was that government ownership of homes was bad – but they come up with the scheme that sees government partial ownership but the person living there having all the risk – same lack of logic that sees the government happy that it doesn’t own railways but is content for foreign governments to do so.
I’ve had a shared ownership for a while now and happy with everything so far. Don’t need to ask to do anything to the house, and we’ve done a fair bit of work in the garden and changing the kitchen. Our housing association if fairly chill.
My mortgage and rent is about the same as a full mortgage for a similarly priced house in the same area. Even the service charge isn’t bad.
If it weren’t for this then I’d be renting for the rest of my life.
We were apprehensive at first given the horror story’s you hear but if you do your research then it’s a good way of just getting started.
When I first moved to Milton Keynes in the 80s they were trying to attract people to move, so they were offering shared ownership. It was done via the Development Corporation, so it was more or less like having a council house (low rent, good service) except that every so often you could buy a bit more of the house until you owned it outright. It was a pretty good deal.
Fresh out of uni, I wasn’t quite ready for that sort of commitment, but some colleagues who were a couple of years older than me did well out of it.
It has probably all gone to shit now though.
Shared ownership worked for me. Partner died, i private rented for a few years, but it kept creeping up. Managed to get a shared ownership 2 bed house for me and my son. 50k mortgage, so i just about managed to save the deposit – house valued at 230k. I pay £450 rent, including insurance and service charge. Mortgage brings total to £788. To rent privately in my area is double at least for the same type of property. I can’t afford that. I can have pets, decorate how i want, and have peace of that the landlord isn’t going to sell up, which is what happened with the last private rental.
I am the wrong aide of 50, so there’s no way I would be able to get a full mortgage and pay it off before retirement. At least my kids might get a couple of grand once im gone this way.
SO was fine for me, got a decent house and remortgaged in 5 years. Wouldn’t be in my current house without it.
Are Shared Ownership schemes in GB For Profit? Co-Ownership is a well established Non Profit in NI and is a fairly well accepted route to home ownership in NI if you’re on a single income or low combined income, it can be a pain in the hole to sell you house with outstanding equity since CO’s shtick is maximising profit to use the money raised to reinvest on someone else trying to get on the ladder, but I don’t see people here ever give off that it’s predatory.
With Co-ownership the lowest equity split you can buy a house with is a 50/50 split, so they’ll never own more than 50% of the property, and you get a 99 year lease on their equity so you’re never under pressure to buy out their stake if you’re sure this is your house for life.
There’s some not far from me £250k and you still have to pay rent is just vile especially when people are struggling
I started on 50% shared ownership because it was all I could afford with my salary at the time. Over the last 7 years I’ve “staircased” to 100% ownership, obviously with a massive mortgage, but it got me on the ladder.
I bought shared ownership when I couldn’t afford to fully buy a place, I then staircased to 100% when my salary increased. No complaints with the scheme from my side.
Complaints with leasehold, but that’s a different conversation!
Kinda misinformation.
I have a shared ownership.
On the day I moved in, the combined weekly mortgage and rent was £63 a week for a 2 bed house.
I paid my 50% off last year, its now just £130 a month rent, covered by UC, all I pay is bills.
My solicitor had the service charge / ground rent thing transferred into my name as well, so I don’t pay those either.
Basically what shared ownership actually is, is a stupid person trap. If you don’t know what you’re doing at all, its gonna suck.
Its quite fucking awesome being a bonafide linguistic savant. I bend everything to my will, society serves me. I even have both 128 IQ and an SMI diagnosis concurrently. Yup, no council tax either.
And next year I’ll be getting 8 points under ‘mixing with others’ because meltdowns. Fun words collected on my diagnostic letters – ‘Aggressive, angry, agitated, anti social, abnormally fast and loud speech’.
I don’t lie when I say I can intimidate / terrify anyone into submission, or just speak as nicely and persuasively as I want to get whatever I want. Or direct, firm but fair and having humans follow my every command like the minions that they are.
It happens on autopilot, zero forethought, no impulse control. Whichever magical words are necessary in any situation just come out of me. Manipulativeness is also actually one of the symptoms, but I never feel manipulative, Im just perfectly machiavellian and strategic at all times.
Is shared ownership a scam? No.
Is it likely a good idea to buy a property with shared ownership? Also no.
You need to fully understand what you’re getting into and the potential pitfalls. This is the biggest purchase of your life, spend some time to become informed.
The guy in the article arguing about going onto the standard variable rate isn’t an argument, there were ways around that. This is him making an excuse. Although it does sound like his council are incompetent.