Too Poor To Purchase? (Renting a Home)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Renting a Home
Date:	21/05/01 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A way to have a nice house to live in, without needing the capital to buy, Can get Housing Benefit to help pay the rent in some cases, Some landlords are nice

Disadvantages: Can't feel secure, High rent to pay, with little choice!, At the mercy of the landlord!

I used to own a house, back in 1990. Then I split up with my husband, he kept the house and I moved into rented accommodation – sharing a room with my baby daughter, in a house full of strangers. I have lived in rented accommodation ever since.

My dream is to own our own home. Whenever we play the ‘what if…’ lottery game, both of us – me and my fiancé – say we’d buy a house first of all. Nothing too grand, just something big enough for all of us and being our own, we wouldn’t have the constant insecurities associated with renting.

Our landlord once had the gate and fences painted out in the gardens. We immediately thought that meant he was going to put the house up for sale, but nothing happened. It is a huge worry though. Any time he feels like it, he can give us notice and we’d have to find somewhere else to live.

Finding decent rented accommodation is difficult where we live. We’re also a large family – two adults, four kids, a dog, cat, hamster, three rats and three stick insects. We currently rent a three-bedroomed house from a private landlord, who charges us £500 per month. For that, we only have one toilet to share between all of us and my son sleeps downstairs, in what used to be the dining room. But it’s home.

We have lived here almost three years. It’s strange, because it does feel like home and if I had the money, I’d like to buy the house. Part of me wants to redecorate, fit new carpets and get it all just how I want it – but another part of me thinks – What’s the point? We might have to leave soon. Who knows? I hate that feeling, I like being in control, not to have my life run by someone else.

But what’s the alternative? The council house waiting lists are long, often with seven years to wait and as you can imagine, the size of house we need is pretty rare. We have got the kids settled into school her
e and we really don’t want to move out of the area.

So why don’t we buy our own place? Well, we’d love to, but we can’t afford it. My fiancé works full-time, but he’s only 26 and has been in that job for only fifteen months. He barely earns enough to support us all and we have absolutely no savings. We don’t go on holiday (unless our parents treat us), we don’t smoke, we have very little to cut back on. So how can we earn enough to get a deposit for a house? Around here, we’d need at least £60,000 for a small three-bedroomed house, never mind a four-bedroomed, which we could do with.

So we continue paying the rent, knowing any mortgage repayments would probably be less, but we can’t save up for a deposit. We think of this as a home, but it’s only ours for as long as our landlord decides it is. Renting isn’t the best way for us, but it’s our only viable alternative – until we win the lottery anyway!

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