Leaving a council tenancy to move back in with mum need some reassurance

Ps the only reason I can see to give up a council tenancy is to buy. Certainly not to rent privately as in that scenario she would have less chance of saving to buy, and would be stuck in rented for ever. This way there is an end in sight.

And at 28 I wouldn't like to live at home again...and I had a good relationship with my parents. I just wouldn't want to give up my independence and have my mum giving me her opinion on my life, clothes, friends etc etc. Once you've left home it's hard to go back imho.

@BatchCookBabe I agree totally with you , there is certainly a council tenancy jealousy on MN. I don't understand why the OP is getting so much vitriol for something I see as totally fine.

And I'm another who doesn't see how and why she got one as important! I lived in one as an adult, albeit when there were more council properties than there are now, and it's no one's business how I got it.

I'm just shocked by someone saying they pay £900 a month rent for social housing, because in North Staffs, where me and DH live, we pay £380 a month for a two bed housing association bungalow. It has a large garden and we have a garage as well. It was originally built for private sale but the home builders went into administration. So a housing association took over and bought the housing stock. It's quite rural, and in a beautiful little cul de sac. Hell will freeze over before we move. We will NEVER give up this bungalow.

We used to be homeowners, (for some 19-20 years,) but due to several different reasons and events (related to the credit crunch,) we lost our home. We were struggling financially and had very little surplus income for a while. We first went into private let, (around 16-17 years ago,) and we applied for social housing. DH worked full time and me part time. (We had 2 kids to support too,) and we rarely had even a fiver left at the end of the month.

That's why we were allowed social housing as we weren't loaded.... Our private let house was a 3 bed that we had from 2009 to 2012, then we were offered a 3 bed social housing house, where we lived from 2012 to 2016, (and in that time both DC left home.) In early 2017, not long after the kids left home, we started looking for a bungalow. We applied for about 20 over 6 months or so. We were both starting to develop mobility issues, so a bungalow was perfect! We were thrilled when a lovely one came up in a gorgeous area and we got it! The rent was £333 a month when we moved in, (in mid 2017,) compared to £650 for private rent at the time. So we saved over £300 a month instantly,

Also, now the kids had left home/left Uni, and we were not having to support them, we started to be able to save between £650 to £700 a month most months... We're both not far from retirement age, and hell will absolutely freeze over before we leave this place..

Yes, we can sometimes save around £700 a month most months.. We can save this much because of the low rent, so no fucking WAY are we surrendering this property... This same property private let is £1000 to £1100 a month, - so if we left and moved into private let, we'd be paying about £650 to £700 a month more rent ... Putting us up shit creek again, paying a fortune for private let, no security of tenure, and no way to save for the future.

We would be pretty bloody stupid to leave it! We both work, (me part time 18 hours a week, DH 30 hours a week,) and we both pay the full rent, and full council tax, and we have every intention of growing old here and staying in social housing, for the rest of our lives.

We will NOT leave and rent privately, and or 'buy a property' to 'free up our home for someone with much less surplus income.' If we did give it up, WE would be the ones with much less surplus income then! It makes zero sense!!! We know which side our bread is buttered LOL! We have cheap affordable housing that is lovely, in a beautiful area, and don't have to worry a single jot about repairs and maintenance. Everything is covered. You fork out 10s of 1000s of £££ over the years in repairs on homes. We don't have to worry as the repairs are covered with our rent.

We will have a state pension each, and we've got 6 work pensions/private pensions between us. (As well as some decent savings!) So we're going to be comfortable in our retirement, as well as having a lovely social housing bungalow with cheap as chips rent! ... I think people are pretty clueless when they say that 'social housing is free.' As has been said, quite a number of people pay their own rent - and as other people said, professionals live in it as well.

The nasty, spiteful, barbed comments about people in social housing come from a place of deep resentment, and jealousy.. Why do some people resent other people having a nice, comfortable, happy life, with secure affordable housing? How mean-spirited!

Some posters say that people should surrender their social housing when they are in a better financial position, but why on earth would they do that when it's being in social housing that is keeping them in this better financial position?

Some people have said to me 'you will have to still keep paying rent when you have retired, but homeowners won't.' That is indeed true, but many 60+ homeowners I know who finished paying their mortgage a few years ago, have recently had to fork out multiple 1000s of £££ on house repairs. One couple had to pay £20,000 for a new roof this past month, another woman I know has had to pay around £22,000 for underpinning of foundations as her house is slipping, and several others I know have been forking out 5 figures for new windows, doors, kitchens, and bathrooms. One couple I know has just paid £4,000 for a new boiler, after spending 3 years paying for a new kitchen.

When you're homeowner, you never stop forking out for repairs. In social housing, you pay for nothing. The rent covers it all, so once we have paid the rent, all our money is ours.

Oh and finally, if we are ever in a position to not be able to afford the rent after we have retired, housing benefit will pay it. They don't pay your mortgage if you're a homeowner, OR for the repairs and maintenance on your property! As it stands though, we will be able to afford to pay our own rent.

If you had to leave your council flat when earning over a certain amount it would put people off earning more, as they would be forced to spend all their money on private rent. At least SH gives people the chance to save more for a house deposit or pension or put their money back into the economy, rather than spending all their income on rent and having no safety net if anything should happen. There just needs to be more of it built. But saying that, new SH is costing more to rent than current stock because the LAs have to buy it from homebuilders at much higher prices than most of the older houses around now. Everyone deserves security, OP shouldn't have to give that up due to someone else's crisis.

It’s incredibly rare. We all know families with children who have been on waiting lists for years.

Why is everyone so fixated on how OP got a council flat at 25.
I got one at 21? It's not really that rare....
I'm 31 now so not like it was that long ago

I pay £540 a month for a 2 bed 1950s flat in London near a zone 1 tube. It's a council flat and HA flats tend to be higher especially in new build blocks with concierge, or for affordable rent (not social rent) and you can get 4 bed flats, so £900 would be about right. Still far cheaper than private though.

I’m just echoing everyone saying stay where you are and keep your independence!

erm… 900£ for social housing sounds right -
I think you need to come up to date - in South Oxfordshire where we live new flats here are £1100 a month for two bed, £860 one bed.

@fingertraps
Why she got her tenancy is irrelevant to her question.
@berksandbeyond my comment about English posters is the majority of ill informed seem to be mentioning info relevant to England.
My comment to you stands, your attitude is ill informed and naive.

Noone suggests "if you can afford to send your kids to private or afford private healthcare you should and leave the NHS/state schools for those who can't afford it" but this always is an argument for council housing. Yes money gives you these options but doesn't mean you have to take it.

Council tenancies are for life. Personally i believe if there was more of a social mix in council accommodation there wouldn't be such a snobbery about them.

It's all a moot point anyhow, the OP is using the opportunity to save to buy, which I did myself at her age, and is perfectly fine.

It’s really hard to advise without knowing a little of why you got the council tenancy in the first place. If living with your mum would be ok, I’d do that and save more quickly- but would it be?

@SnoopysHoose I'm Scottish so I don't know where the anti English thing is coming from but ok!

@berksandbeyond
What do you deem as earning more? not everyone is in the position to save a deposit or be approved for a mortgage. Buying a house isn't what everyone wants, nobody in their right mind would give up SH to go into private lets.
SH is available for all, I am fed up saying it; it's not for the needy and poor.
Mid market rent (here in Scotland) is not cheap and you have to be employed to qualify.
Seems there are very skewed and ill informed opinions on SH, mainly by English posters.
To add, where I live the SH areas are very nice.

Sorry OP, £38k really doesn't go that far today. It's not the "good" wage that it was even a few years ago.

Also, jobs are never that secure, and aren't guaranteed to pay more down the line, whatever the company says. Hopefully it will be the case for you, but you really can't take it as a certainty. Personal circumstances can also change, for example if you had a baby or God forbid got ill.

@Iwanttoliveonamountain oh well, they can dispute it all they like. OP is just as entitled to her home as any other council tenant.

You're very lucky if that's the discount where you live. In Oxford, where I live, it's £16,000. Great if you live in an area that's less expensive, not so great when you live in an area where a private flat n the same block sold for £300,000 recently.

@JimHalpertsWife okay, but she wouldn't be top of the list anymore would she?

She's used it as a step up, which is brilliant and is very much how it should be used, and now she can afford to move on and let someone else have that opportunity.

I think it's immoral to block a council house when you don't need it. There should be checks on affordability throughout your time there and once you start earning more, you should be given notice to move on and let someone else have a chance IMHO

Exactly this most people think the rents are very reasonable but their not really I rented private prior to this and actually paid £645 a month which I had stayed their tbh nicer area to

@FancyBiscuitsLevel
No you don't need to be poor and needy.
As I mentioned previously , there are teachers, nurses etc live in SH, it's not just unemployed addicts

but to get one you kind of need to be poor and/or needy

No, you don't. There just has to be no needy or poor people also on the bidding list for the home. In this instance, there obviously wasn't.

Council housing isn’t just for the poor and needy- but to get one you kind of need to be poor and/or needy. The OP says herself, if she gives this tenancy up she won’t get another council one, even though her circumstances won’t have changed.

Council housing isn’t for everyone, there’s not enough of it. But once you’ve got it, it doesn’t matter what happens to your life, you don’t have to give it up. This does make it unfair, because other people in the same circumstances as the OP is in now could not get a flat.

But none of that is the OPs fault. She has to work with the system as it is. Not how it should be.

But I do think she’d be better off trying to buy a house now and taking on a lodger not waiting another year to save more.