|
by
Erica Smith
Last
month the National Housing Federation and the Chartered
Institute of Housing published a survey which revealed that
nearly three out of five people in the South East felt that
they would never be in a position to buy their own home. This
situation is further polarised in Brighton, where the wage
level is twelve per cent lower than the national average, the
location is a highly desirable, and house prices have
spiralled out of all proportion.
Mortgage
mania
The current housing boom has affected the South East in
particular. The UK's largest mortgage lender, the Halifax says
that in the last twelve months house prices in the South East
have risen by 19 per cent compared with a national average of
11.5 per cent. Brighton and Hove prices have risen further
because of the arrival of the long-promised 30-minute rail
link to London. People with jobs in the City are choosing to
move here, causing house prices to escalate out of the reach
of local workers. A typical example is Adrian, a 29-year-old
self-employed graphic designer who is a native Brightonian: "I'm
beginning to think I will have to leave my home town just so I
can afford to buy."
Another
reason for rising prices is the high proportion of students
and young people - making accommodation in Brighton a sound
investment for anyone with enough spare money to buy a
freehold property. The Government's recent policy encouraging
people to take out second mortgages and become landlords
further extends the gap between those who can afford to buy
and those who have to rent.
Additionally,
properties bought in the early 90's no longer have negative
equity, which means that homes that were rented have now been
put on the market, causing major upheavals for long-term
tenants. David, a senior care officer for Social Services and
his partner told me: "We felt our rented flat would be sold
from under us if we did not buy it ourselves, although we didn't
really feel in a secure enough financial position to do so.
The landlady had raised the rent until we could only just
afford to stay there. "Facing the prospect of having to move
again, we offered to buy it. My partner and I are both
professional people in our early-thirties yet we found it
stretched us to be able to afford a moderately-priced
one-bedroom flat."
In
theory, owning your own home should be cheaper than renting,
but Carol and David actually found that they were slightly
worse off because of the managing agent's charges for building
works and maintenance. At 22 per cent, Brighton has an
extremely high level of leasehold properties, and managing
agents often charge excessive rates for maintenance and
building work. If you've just managed to scrape together
enough for a mortgage, getting landed with a high bill for
work on the property can put your finances on a rocky footing.
Raging
rents
One of the cruelties of high accommodation prices is that even
if you're paying the equivalent in rent to the cost of owning
your home, if you are self-employed or on a short term
contract, banks and building societies may not give you a
mortgage. But you still don't have any security in the rental
market. Recently, the number of rented properties that have
been put up for sale has escalated, and owners and letting
agents sometimes don't even inform tenants that their days in
their homes are numbered. Steve, a local music promoter,
recalled how he learned that his flat had been put on the
market: "I came back from the shops to find three people in
the front room. They looked too well-dressed to be robbers, so
I asked if I could help them - and ended up having to show
them round my home!"
...So,
your home has been put on the market, and it's up to you to
find another one. Brace yourself, it isn't going to be cheap
According to Leaders letting agency, rental prices have
increased by up to 20 per cent in the past year, with 1-bed
flats going from £435-£650 per month, and 2-bed flats
anywhere between £500 and £800.You're going to need a month's
rent in advance, at least the same again for a deposit, and on
top of that, you may well be asked to pay an administration
fee of up to £100.
I
challenged Louise Hayden, manager of Leaders in Hove about the
high level of administration fees. Like other estate agents in
the town, she explained it covers the cost of drawing up the
tenancy agreement, checking the inventory, phone calls, faxes
and sending out s.a.e's plus using an agency for the credit
check. But even at a rate of £15 per hour, it is hard to see
how this basic administration can take over six hours to
complete. Potential tenants might take some comfort in
realising that landlords are often asked to pay the equivalent
of one week's rent to cover drawing up the tenancy agreement
and inventory - at least both sides are paying through the
nose.
And
the costs don't necessarily end there. After your initial six
months shorthold tenancy agreement, in theory you should
simply move on to a Statutory Periodic Tenancy, which means
that you are allowed to give one month's notice if you intend
to move, and the landlord has to give two month's notice if
they wish you to move out. But several agencies insist upon
you signing a further six months agreement - which means that
you have to stay put until the end of the contract, unless you
are rich enough to pay the full rent or you can find someone
else to take over the tenancy. What's more, they will charge
you again for administering this loss of your rights.
Louise
Hayden admits that this is a way of protecting landlords, but
it is up to the tenants whether they want to sign for a longer
or shorter period than six months. She adds that it is
possible for tenants and landlords to agree to have a one
month notice clause written into the contract. It's certainly
worth asking the right questions before you sign on the dotted
line.
Maintenance
with menaces
You might think that considering you are paying money upfront,
and the agency is taking a 10-15 per cent slice of your rent
every month, that you would be offered a fast and reverent
service when things go wrong in your flat. In reality it
depends what sort of agreement the landlord has with the
letting agent. Gabriel, a glass worker, found this out when
his cooker fused in a shower of sparks one Friday; the letting
agents refused to send anyone around to sort the problem out
before Monday, and no private contractor would agree to fix
the cooker because they knew they wouldn't get paid for at
least six weeks. Bureaucracy and the low rates that agents pay
their contractors means that sometimes cowboys are the only
ones who will work for them. Andrew and Rena moved down from
Scotland to a letting agency managed flat in Seven Dials.
Because they had to call the agents several times about the
blocked drains, they were accused of purposefully pouring
inappropriate items down the sink and given one month's notice
to quit. Eventually after insisting on a written report from a
reliable plumber, they proved that the problem was a result of
the shoddy conversion, and not their fault at all. Rena found
the whole experience extremely distressing and was horrified
at the way they had been treated by their agency. "In Glasgow
if you get a flat through an agency it's guaranteed to be
better than a private landlord - in Brighton it's worse," she
said bitterly.
So
far, I've assumed that everyone can afford to pay the high
rents and fees that letting agents demand. It is true that
there are some reasonably-priced agencies, and some benevolent
private landlords - but what do you do if you don't have a
guaranteed income and can't find a reasonably priced property?
Brighton
and Hove Council statistics are telling: at 18 per cent, the
proportion of private rented accommodation is twice the
national average, while council housing at 12 per cent is less
than two thirds of the national level. And even Housing
Association property is below the national average of 4.5 per
cent.
I
asked Jenny Backwell, director of Brighton Housing Trust, a
registered social landlord, about the low levels of social
housing in the town. She blames the Tory Council which
controlled Brighton until the mid 80s, and sold off 20 per
cent of the most desirable council homes. "The solution to the
problem is more social housing. We would love to build more
housing association homes on central sites but because land is
so expensive the cost of the rental would be at least as much
as that in the private sector. "We have 400 landlords on our
list who are sympathetic to people on low incomes and job
seekers, but they have no vacancies - there are no vacancies
in the B&Bs and hostels on our list. The truth of the
matter is that Brighton is full. There is a higher than
average level of unemployment in this town, but that's not
putting up the cost of accommodation - letting agents don't
even have to take people on low incomes, because they can rent
out flats at £180 per week to the first person who walks
through the door. It's the hype - Brighton is 'the place to be'
- and everyone wants to live here."
To buy or not to
buy.
How? is the question
If
you want to get a secure home but you can't get a mortgage and
you don't want to pay through the nose for rent, don't
despair! It takes hard work and initiative, but there are ways
to do it - and you can congratulate yourself on choosing to
take a positive step towards increasing the amount of
affordable housing in the town and showing others that it is
possible to escape the rent/mortgage trap.
SELF-OWNED
CO-OPERATIVE
By forming a co-operative you can get a loan from an ethical
bank and buy your own dream home. The minimum number of
members for a co-operative is three - so you don't have to
live in a post-hippy commune. There are around 60 self-owned
housing co-ops in the UK at the moment - and there would be
more if it was more widely promoted as a housing
solution.
Deborah, in her forties, lives in a shared house in Fiveways. "By
forming a co-operative it means we have the security of being
in control of our housing - we chose where and how we wanted
to live. In effect we are our own landlords - and that means
that those of us who are on low incomes or unemployed can
claim housing benefit. It is a means of providing an
affordable and stable home rather than being powerless in the
housing market."
HOUSING
ASSOCIATIONS
AND SHORT-LIFE CO-OPS
Housing associations provide affordable housing and sometimes
arrange part-rent/part-buy deals for people on lower incomes.
The Council or private landlords can sometimes be persuaded to
lease empty buildings for a period of three to ten years as 'short-life'
housing. These are usually managed through larger housing
associations, but there is a degree of autonomy for the
residents.
Brighton Rock is a run of three terraced houses on the
seafront in Portslade. Each house has four tenants and the
rent is less than £30 a week. The residents range in age from
their twenties to forties and include students, teachers,
social service professionals, health practitioners and
craftspeople.
Jen explained her reasons for choosing to be part of a co-op "It's
not the same as living communally, but it does reduce the
isolation of living in private accommodation. Cheap and stable
housing enables you to have more control over other areas of
your life - you're not forced to work in a job you hate just
to cover the rent. And it's empowering to be able to make
choices about how you live and to be an active part of a small
community."
SQUAT!
WHY THE HELL NOT?
With the boom in house prices, squatting is being seen as a
viable alternative for people from all walks of life. Despite
recent changes in criminal law, squatting is still a legal
practice. Dan, a trainee osteopath, had been forced to move
three times in 18 months as a result of his rented homes being
put up for sale. "I wasn't being guaranteed any long-term
security through paying rent, so I didn't have anything to
lose by deciding to squat."
Fiona is a young self-employed clothes designer/maker. She
lives in squats because: "I don't want to sign on or claim
benefits but I don't yet make enough money to cover rent as
well as my bills. I'm living in a building which would
otherwise be empty, so I'm not doing any harm to anyone, and I'm
not costing the council any money. Lord Bassam should be proud
of me!"
For
Advice and Further Information...
-
Brighton & Hove Council Private Sector Housing
Landlord/Tenant Advice: 01273 293157, Hove Town Hall, Tisbury
Road entrance
Advice for anyone renting, or thinking of renting in the
private sector, and for disputes between tenants and landlords
-
Housing Advice Centre: 01273 290000
Bartholomews Square, Brighton BN1 1JP
For housing advice, including information about housing
associations and short-life housing co-operatives
-
Brighton Housing Trust: 01273 234737
Community Base, 113-117 Queens Road, Brighton. For housing
advice and aid, including legal advice.
-
Radical Routes/Catalyst: 01273 672186
Advice on how to set up your own housing co-op. For a
handbook, send £5 to Radical Routes, 16 Sholebroke Avenue,
Leeds LS7 3HB
-
Advisory
Service for Squatters: 0171 359 8814
For a copy of the Squatter's Handbook, send £1.39 to ASS, 2
St Paul's Road, London N1 2QN
Statistics
and information in this report have been provided by the
Halifax, Brighton and Hove Council Housing Investment Strategy
2000-2003, six letting agents in Brighton and Hove and
interviews with residents of the town.
copyright New Insight 2000
|
