AIBU to refuse a council house over stairs and no outside space?

Are you sure it doesn't have a toilet upstirs? One of my friends had a house with a downstairs bathroom but there was also a loo upstirs.

I don’t get why you bid on a property that had a downstairs bathroom if sleepwalks

but stairgate and camping loo

Don't be daft OP and take the house.

Social housing is in such short supply.

What matters is that you and your child have a secure, affordable tenancy and a roof over your head.

You can always argue later with the council that the property needs some further adaptations for your daughter's needs.

I’m not surprised that @Stressedmum6761 has been crying. Some posters have an empathy bypass!

For someone to move up the housing priority list in their current accommodation, it has been deemed unsuitable for them. I knew a single parent with a terminal illness in this exact scenario. Their flat was poorly constructed and mouldy regardless of the amount spent on heating / dehumidifiers. Their need was uprated yet it took 9 months to find new suitable accommodation.

It must be so stressful to live in unsuitable accommodation whilst raising a child and navigating her additional needs as she grows up.

Stressed mum, I would go and see it if you can. Can you take a friend or family member with you who knows you and your family’s needs well? Someone who can see potential? It sounds as though you’re struggling for headspace in this less than ideal scenario. I feel you need some real life support from people who want to see your family thrive.

Take it. It's a house. Go to the park. At six she can navigate stairs right? If not and sleep walking is the issue can she sleep in your bed until she is older and you can take her down?

Depends if you want to move or are happy to stay put, there are solutions but you only want a house with a garden there are plenty in the private rental market.

Yes, you can be serious. We have one toilet here and some of us have toileting not issues but how to describe, we need both wee and n2 more than once every few hours. So yes, I have a commode

Depending on your local authority. You are allowed a certain number of "reasonable" refusals. In mine, it's two. I've just been given a HA 2 bedroom house (awaiting works to be completed) but I turned down one before hand based on the fact it was a main road and I have a DS who is autistic and no sense of danger, elopes etc. it would not be safe. My LA were ok with it and I got offered the one I've been given about two weeks later. I think if it's a safety issue, you might get away with it.

Omg, you can’t lock her in her bedroom!

You could get an alarm so if she leaves her room or goes to the landing at night it will beep and wake you. Surely she doesn’t get up at night that often? That combined with a stair gate and a bed pan in her room for emergencies be enough safeguards?

I know a widower who has been on the list for a bungalow for 5 years! First went on list went he was told he was losing his sight!
He is now registered blind and as bathroom is downstairs, that’s where he lives!

To me the obvious answer to the bathroom situation is to change things around so that your DD has her room downstairs, until she's a bit older. Alternatively, get a porta potty, something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006JSIHQQ?tag=pric097-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1

My sister and her DH used to live on a narrowboat, and this is the only sort of toilet they used, it flushes, and is simple to empty. So could easily be used in the night if you want your DD upstairs with you.

😆I know right. Always one isn't there? 😂 'just buy your own house,' because it's sooooooooooooooooo easy!

What a well thought out and helpful response.

Exactly.

Yes indeed. The disparaging and vitriolic comments do seem to be steeped in jealousy. (And they are almost all from people who are homeowners/mortgage owners.) Some of them seem to deeply resent people having a secure tenancy for life. Some people who have a whopping mortgage, do tend to come out with some very cutting comments about social housing tenants.

Jealousy, through and through. Why resent someone having safe, secure, affordable accommodation for life? Not a good look.

She's 'currently on the pathway for ASD' along with many others I should think and bungalows are like hen's teeth, rightly prioritised for mobility issues over sleepwalkers. As to the person who doesn't know why LAs "don't build much more of them"... I don't know where to begin. Have you checked in with the news this century?

The council/housing association won't be giving a bungalow to the OP.

Hello Nigel

@JenniferBooth I haven't seen anyone denigrating. However, if people need the state to provide, the state choses rather than vice versa.

Dont know why ppl get mortgages if it makes them so fucking unhappy that they come on here to denigrate social housing tenants.

The Op's child is a disabled child.

Are there any bungalows available? They shouldn't be available just for older people: disabled people, like your child, will also surely qualify.

In fact, I don't know why they don't build much more of them!

It would be lack of outdoor space that would bother me. Especially with a child.

Camping/chemical/commode loo, as a gazillion people have already suggested.