Buying council house advice versus taking over rent
I am in a stressful situation that I would like advice for please. I am a student and one of 4 children, 3 of us live at home and one of which is under 18. Our parent, following trauma including being widowed has decided they will leave the country in <2 years when the youngest turns 18 to be with family. They seem adamant on this and have made it clear they have no intention of extending this timeframe because “the rest of us as old enough to take care of them”, despite it being pointed out that 18 is not old enough to survive without a parent (plus still being at school).
She has said that we (children) have until that point to buy the house or pay the rent we lose it.
I am a student and I should be entering a field where I should earn decent money, but I have been given a job very far from home but I think makes sense to take as it gives the opportunity to get the most money together. I had originally said that I would pay all the rent if given a job near home but If I wasn’t I couldn’t as paying two rents would be too much and If given more time I could work towards saving for a deposit to buy.
When I ask her for further details on how exactly this would work, she fails to give specifics. She says there will be a big discount for all the rent she has paid over the years and that will be her contribution to buying, the agreements need to be in her name or joint (which I don’t fully understand why as she is going to leave us/not going to be the one paying - I think it’s her looking to secure things incase she changes her mind after abandoning us). She also says if she was younger she could do this on her own and that she might just let an ‘uncle’ stay and team up financially, renting out the rooms and kicking us out.
From what I have looked up online, houses on our street range from £215k to £300k but I can’t see how much ours is worth, looking on the gov website the discount should be capped at 38k. So that’s £177-262k to take out on a loan, if a mortgage gives 4-5x a salary I wouldn’t be able to afford that on my own and even though she suggests it I just know a joint mortgage wouldn’t make sense because she wouldn’t stick around long enough to pay it. I also cannot find any information on how one can take over rent while the main tenant is still alive. Do these numbers make sense? What has the process been for others who have done this?
In an ideal situation I really don’t want us to lose the house, mostly for my youngest sibling as the alternative would be moving her away to a distant city with me or my older sister, but I just don’t see how I can make this work. My older sibling has cut off my parent for valid reasons, and my younger sibling who is at home full time is generally irresponsible but enabled so I feel like its on me to make this work if it’s possible. My gut is telling me that there is something shady about all of this so I am keen to hear other people’s experiences with this.