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We are told that the transfer of the council's housing stock, some 3600 properties, is being carried out because HBC cannot afford to borrow the vast amount of money it will cost to bring them up to nationally recognised standards of repair. So the council is going to give them away FREE to a private housing association which will have, at some stage to make a profit. Which means that at some stage the rents on these properties will start to increase year on year, with the benefits going to the housing associations backers.

I have a better idea. Why not convert all the rental agreements to mortgages. The council have offered mortgages before, so this is nothing new. Then not only will you create a whole new section of property owning citizens, it also gets rid of the idea of rent as "Dead Money". With their newly acquired equity, the new home owners can sort out the repairs themselves, as and when they see fit, and to a standard that they find acceptable as opposed to the usual one size fits all approach.

With property ownership comes a care about the sort of community in which you live. thus problem estates will improve somewhat.

And the nice thing is that the council still receives the income from mortgage payments, instead of suddenly having to give up £10 million per year.

The repairs on whatever properties are empty can be easily managed and they can be maintained for social housing needs.

A win-win situation all round. What do you think??

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What about people who are on benifits, they cant get a mortgage so where would they live??
:confused:

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It would cost too much money AB even if i owned the property to put right the years of neglect from previous tenants and HBC. At the moment i have alot of ridge tiles off on the side of the house from the severe gales a few week ago. HBC have been notified but no one has been out to see if theres any damage that might let rain in and cause even more damage to the property.

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I don't see that there would be a problem with the mortgage since the provider would be the council. Homeowner loans are always available and I am sure that the council can also help out there too!

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Can't get a morgage if you are on benifits such as income support or housing benifit
:confused:

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HBC helping out AB now that is a novel idea!!!

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Slinky..........by what ever means your rent is paid at the moment.. this will pay your mortgage..

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This doesn't make sense to me Simon can u elaborate

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If they can give the houses away FREE to a housing association, why can they not give them away free to the current tennants and that will solve all the problems?

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What about people that have already have bought theirs, maybe years ago, HBC going to reimburse all these people for their mortgage payments.

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some good ideas out there today:confused:

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Giving them away free is hard to justify. However, IF they are going to give them away FREE, why shouldn't the people who have been paying rent on them get the benefit? Not some housing association who will, as A-B says, start upping the rents before long in order to make profit. I see even less justification in giving them to a housing association. Of course, maybe the people who are advocating giving them away have interests in the intended benefiting housing association. That must be worth an enquiry or two!

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HBC give them away free to a Housing Association, HA get out a massive loan to upgrade the properties (which HBC can't do), HA collect rent to pay back the loan. It's just the way it works.

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Also most Housing Associations are a non-profit organisation.

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I think Slinky is saying that no lender will offer a mortgage to someone on benefits. If I understand A-b correctly, he is suggesting that HBC be the lender and that in fact the tenants don't actually borrow any money but continue to pay the "rent" to HBC as now but that it is classed as a mortgage payment so that at the end of a fixed term the tenant becomes the owner. Should the tenant wish to move house they put it on the market like an ordinary owner and receive part of the money just as they would if they had an outstanding mortgage.

The problem with this idea, which initially seems excellent, is that the tenants would immediately become liable for all repairs to their property and for anyone on a limited income they wouldn't necessarily have the wherewithall to pay for it. The answer to that may seem logical to borrow against the equity they have suddenly aquired in their property but this is where the plan falls down because a person on benefit wouldn't be able to borrow (unless the council were willing and able to stand as lender) but more importantly if they are on a limited income how would they find the extra money to pay back such a loan?

I fear that the council unloading housing stock is simply going to lead to a lot more private landlords and I've recently come across some very unscrupulous ones.

I know someone whose back door won't open and the front door now won't close properly, someone else whose fires don't work and there is no central heating installed so she has had to borrow electric fires. A house not a million miles from me has a backyard wall which is in a dangerous condition and could seriously injure someone if it falls on them. A couple of years ago whilst helping someone to look for a rental property we came across one with mushrooms growing up the bathroom wall and a lovely indoor water feature in the room below! I could go on ....................

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Sounds like another win win situation on HBC part to me willow. HBC still get there rent money AND tenants/owners still to pay for any repairs.

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I hear what your saying willow but my point is if you are on housing benifit then it is the social that pay your rent, so if it was made into a mortgage then it would be social paying your mortgage, there for how can the tenant sell the house and gain half the money because by rights the house would belong to the social security then, this was point in the first place. No not a bad idea if all council tenants were working, which brings me back to the first question i asked '' what would happen to the tenaNts that was on social benifits??'' IF THIS DOES'NT MAKE SENCE THIS TIME I AM QUITTING THE ARGUMENT LOL:confused:

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I don't know for sure but i think it is just the interest

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Yes i can see your point about the people who have got a mortgage then unfortunatly end up on benifits but it does'nt work the other way round!! I f you went to a mortgage lender and said '' hello mr money bags!! please will you give me a mortgage for 50thousand pound so i can buy my council house?? OH by the way I am housind benifit and they will pay my mortgage cos they are good like that!!'' he would kick you out the door for wasting time

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TINKS you are right it is the interest they pay having just purchased my property i am still fresh with the deeds.

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Yes paying for repairs would be impossible for them. But in the case of an 18 year old single mother who is going to pay the mortgage and who would the house belong too if the social payed the mortgage? And why also should she be able to sell for profit when people that aren't on benefit work to pay theirs.

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If you can not get a mortgage for one reason. then your rent is being paid by some means :). If the council wanted they could use that payment method to pay your mortgage payments..:)

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ok so AGAIN who owns the house then??:(

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BUT who would the house belong too???

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I have heard that if you are on the high rate of DLA then you can get a mortgage to buy your house. But it's off the people who post the cards through your door.( buy your council house.)Not too sure if it's legal or not. Have you heard about it A-B.

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Good question.... have not thought that far ahead yet... but thinking on it ....

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What about Local Credit Unions, they offer loans, I'm not sure about mortgages to people on low income and their interest is only 1%.

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Not sure they would lend you 50 thousand pound for a house with 1 per cent interest lmao, if they do then i wish i would have gone there for my mortgage

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I suppose not, but it is good to know that there is some help out there for those on low income.

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oh yeah i agree with you there margret, alot of people are struggling with dept these days and it is nice to hear of people that want to help us not there own pockets:)

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Sorry I omitted the first part of your post, 3600 council houses in hyndburn.....WOW did'nt think there were so many.
Now on to the other bit. The "private housing association" will be as a "TRUST" and as such should, and will not make a profit that can be shared amongst stake holders, if it is a "Trust" then any or all profits should be re-invested in the properties. Think thats how its supposed to work

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so who gets the rent that the council pay in houseing beneifit

before the council got it strauight back but now our council tax will be making others richer

those properties will be worth a lot more than what they pay for them if not free and will get sold off probably to another assosiation in 5 years for yet even more proffit

whole thing sux and should not be allowed to happen but we dont get asked about decisions like this we just get to vote people in and once they are in we have no control over what they do

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Blackburn with Darwen have done a similar thing with their council house stock
You can find out how it works http://www.twinvalleyhomes.com/
Also if you check this out http://www.twinvalleyhomes.com/about.asp you will see that it is a non-profit making setup.
I think that Burnley have gone down the same road, here is some information on that
http://www.burnley.gov.uk/housingnee...allandlord.htm

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http://www.svha.co.uk/report_a_repair.asp
or here
http://www.svha.co.uk/general_enquiries.asp

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Willow, there was something in the L.E.T. tonight about bad landlords being forced to upgrade and repair their property under Health and safety legislation......didn't get to read it properly though as hubby was a bit quick to pass it on to our neighbour.....he thought I had read it.

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I haven't seen the Telegraph but that sounds hopeful or optimistic at least.

It's all very well having the legislation but how on earth do they enforce it? I'm sure there aught to be a way but a lot of landlords rent out their property on a sort of private arrangement basis so who polices them? The house next door to me is an example. Someone bought it when it was repossessed by the building society and then just rents it to other people to live in.

I think if anyone wants to rent they should do so from an accountable organisation or via an agency but maybe they fear paying more that way.

I've never actually been a tennant myself so I can't speak from personal experience, only second hand.

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Me neither, but if I was to rent something it would have to be from an organisation of some description. I'm sure there are rules and regulations about renting property.
I know at one point hubby wanted us to buy a house to rent out...... thinking you could just take the money and bank it.......I said 'whoa, there are very firm responsibilities that landlords have to abide by' and I knew who would be doing all the organising so that idea was kicked into touch very quickly.

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Well let's hope a few people saw the article in the paper and invoke Health and Safety to get their property up to reasonable standards.

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I was talking to someone last week who is living in a rented house in which none of the gas fires work. How does she get her landlord to face up to his responsibilities when he's on the other end of a phone call to London? She has tried but he does nothing.

I'm with you Margaret. I wouldn't rent from anyone unless it was through an accountable organisation or agency.

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Report the problem to the HSE, local office Preston.
but have a look at this
http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqlandlord.htm#2

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Thanks, I'll pass that information on to her. :)

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Only to pleased to help :)

http://www.utsu.org.uk/Media/downloa...7103404_13.doc
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