h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So you have a 50k bill - ouch. Have you got any equity increase that could cover it?

This would be the joy of buying leasehold and having a rubbish freeholder then, only barely one step up from renting. After our current trauma with the roof I will never buy another leasehold again - for very similar reasons to my objection to renting.

If I buy a house freehold then I am responsible for maintaining it - not some other management company. If the roof caves in due to poor maintenance after that then it is my own fault!

Did you have a proper survey done when you bought it?

I thought the letting market was dropping? As there are so many places to rent, it keeps the prices down?

Excuse me a moment.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA at Kelli's last question.

We have no bill at all at the moment as the buggers won't communicate excpet when it suits them.
I bought my half of the leasehold from a friend who was moving to Switzerland. My flatmate, an old schoolfriend had bought the place about two years before that and not had a survey done. Being a bit of a trusting soul, it didn't occur to me that he might *not* have had a survey done, because all sane people have a survey done. I only started to get worried about his state of knowledge when it transpired he
1) had no idea that house insurance was different to contents insurance
2) had no understanding of what the term 'negative equity' meant
3) having had the term explained to him, expected me to compensate him for the negative equity of the property if I moved out and his girlfriend moved in.

I don't really blame him or the lack of a survety for the freeholder's current position though-I suspect that they are hoping we will move out if threatened with this sort of bill, and frankly, we ain't going to.

>>because all sane people have a survey done

The situation in Belgium is much more akin to the UK - most Belgiums want to own and preferably build their house.

However, currently land and property prices are low (though rising) but there are of course the hidden extras - 12.5% land registry tax payable within 10 days of purchase - very high legal charges from public notaries etc.

However having said that if you are registered for tax and the property is you principal residence you get to claim a vast chunk of the interest payable on any loan used to purchase it back against your tax liability.

Currently renting is cheap with city centre unfurnished flats in Brussels going for between 4&6 euros per square metre per month

Much sympathy Did they only get one quote? And did that quote only cover the repairs to the roof rather than the freeholder's own flats at the top of the house? Do you want to see if we can get 'the boys' assembled and 'send them round' to get the answers to these and other questions?

Ok, so where renting is dearer than buying it is better to buy providing you have a proper survey/good searches and are very very careful etc!

Oh yes, and endowment mortgages are evil, as are son-of-endowment ISA mortgages (IMO).

k

Excuse the rant!

We were lucky enough to buy our house five years ago before prices went mental around here. Local house prices have gone sky high - third highest rises in the country according to the BBC. Our house has more than doubled in price since we bought it, in fact, we had the house valued about three months ago - saw the same estate agent last week and it had gone up another £25k in the meantime!

All well and good you may say as we are sitting on so much positive equity, but it doesn't equate to real money. We are pushed to pay the mortgage and all our bills. We have a young baby, but I need to work to keep us going... childcare costs locally are through the roof as anyone wishing to offer childcare can't afford the area without charging through the nose. Catch 22 - We can't afford childcare but I can't afford to give up work.

First time buyers are looking at paying £200k plus for a two bed conversion flat around here. All new developments are aimed at the luxury end of the market - with (admittedly very nice) flats in a converted church around the corner going for £375k!

Who can afford this? certainly not us. If house prices are going to keep rising, which looks likely as most 'round here sell within a week of going on the market, the Government is going to have to start helping normal people with subsidies and tax breaks.

Not everyone can be an accountant, QC, or stockbroker!

I agree with your rant, but giving subsidies and tax breaks will be tricky depending on how you define normal people!

Would you work for less money and/or more loyally if your employer bought a house and gave it to you free while you were employed with them?

OK, by normal people I would be refering to those of us who are not earning massive amounts of cash - which is all relative I suppose.

If the average wage is around £25k I would class that, or below that, as normal, and lets face it, for the average wage to be £25k, there are an awful lot of people earning far less.

I don't like the idea of an employer owning your home. If you loose your job, you loose your home too.

Good point, imagine if you had a vile boss...

That sort of thing happens with the armed forces doesn't it?

My employer has bought me a house but I think I will be ok, shes really very nice...

k (self-employed)

It's not just down there that the housing market is spiralling upwards. Here in Edinburgh, it looks like I'm going to have to pay around £250-300 pcm for one room in a flat shared with 3-4 others. When you're living off a student loan, that's pretty steep...

You could doss down in Hollyrood house - that's hardly ever occupied

Or sell The Big Issue - seems to be one of the few growth areas of employment here at the moment.

I saw a friend of mine the other week who I haven't seen in ages. Him and his Dad have had to move out (didn't ask why) and are now living with his Dad's mother.

His Nan lives in a cottage on an estate of a very veyr rich person, which used to be the kind of 'manor house' of one of the local villages.

My friends Nan cleans the big house and is given the cottage to live in (not that bad an arrangement really), her father used to be the game keeper of this estate and the cottage passed on to her after he died as a kind of 'family deal' with the owners of the estate, as long as she looked after the manor house.

I just think it is fascinating to see a very old-fashioned arrangement of housing ownership like this still existing in the modern world. I also thought that she really doesn't have that bad a deal. Providing she can retire and carry on living there when she does retire - the deal seems very good compared to modern standards. All the stuff I've read here comfirms this.

Next time I see my mate I'll find out more about it as I asked him this at 7.30 in the morning after staying up all night, so I may have got one or two facts wrong.

As of last Christmas when our 25 year endowment mortgage came up trumps we now own our home.I was musing that the original price of the house will just about cover the cost of a new car.We also got about £7000 extra on top.
What was the mortgage you ask.I'll tell you....£9000.The highest the monthly repayment got during the really high interest rate days was £85.
I just wouldn't want to be a young couple trying to rent or buy now.Houses price are absolutely too high and eventually it must occur to everyone that no one will be able to keep paying such ridiculous prices.I wonder how many are STILL paying for homes they no longer live in or own after the last fiasco of high interest rates.

Incog.

I remember my time working for a major high-street bank. We had a training session on mortgages.

Me: So what if the endowment doesn't cover the mortgage?
Trainer: Ah, but it will.
Me: But what if it doesn't?
Trainer: er, um...