Permanent Housing

Most of the sites that we recommend ex-service personnel to use involve paying for short or long term leases or tenancies. The period of tenancy depends on your needs and what the landlord is prepared to lease to you.

In many cases, once you have signed the tenancy lease, as long as you behave in a reasonable manner and do not breach the terms of it, you have the right to remain in the property for the duration of it.

To find a private landlord or letting agency is possibly harder than you might think! Word of mouth is possibly a good start but otherwise go to the yellow pages or local directories. Many estate agents and solicitor firms manage properties on behalf of their own clients and can often be a good source of high quality housing.

In most cases, you pay for what you get. You should be careful about what you agreeing to in terms of the conditions of the lease. If you are in any doubt - don't sign until you take advice.

Obviously city centre properties close to ammenities attract a higher rental price whilst those out of town might be cheaper. However, this is a balance between the needs of you and your family and what you can afford - you should consider access to shops, local schools, transport, specialist support (if you need it), ease of getting to work and simply where you want to live.

Things to be mindful of when entering a lease include defaulting on your payments (i.e. how long before the landlord can ask you to leave), size of advance rent payments or deposits, accidental damages, who can come into the property, inspection times, use of the property (especially if you are planning to run a small business from it), any shared responsibilities with other occupants, notice to quit, pets etc.....the list can go on. Make sure you either read everything contained in the terms of the lease or get someone to explain it to you.

The aim is to be fully informed about what you are letting yourself in for so you don't end up with a problematic property or lease that you can't get out of for 6 months.

If you have gone through your local council housing office, it is likely that you will be placed on a waiting list for something suitable to come up. You will need to agree to the house when it does come up but if you don't, it will be offered to someone else and you may move down the waiting list.

Buying

Despite the credit crunch, now is possibly the best time in recent years to buy a property. House prices are the lowest for years and the interest rates are very low as well. If you have a good credit rating and a 10% deposit, you could probably be in your own home very quickly!

Banks and building societies are hesitant about lending to anyone, not just service leavers. In fact, you may be in a stronger position as you have good salary records and traceability. It may also be that if you have been away on deployment, that could be a method for saving up for a sizable deposit.

What the banks will be assessing is your ability to continue to meet mortgage payments. The phrase that they use is "affordability" - ie do you have enough regular income to afford the mortgage payments and still have enough money to pay the bills and enjoy a quality of life? If they are in any doubt they probably will not take the risk at the moment.

Different banks and building societies all offer mortgages and are bound by the Financial Services Agency to operate within strict lending guidelines. Part of these guidelines involve explaining to you the impact of this mortgate to your finances, how they will manage risk, how much you will be paying back and what happens if you fail to keep up your payments.

Always take legal advice before agreeing to a mortgage as you may be paying for it for a very long time.

If you need help with raising funds for a deposit to secure a tenancy, both SSAFA and Poppy Scotland can advise on obtaining loans or in some instances the actual deposit.

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