Aibu to report neighbours

My council would do zero. I have a neighbour who hasn't lived in his property since COVID as he has caring responsibilities elsewhere. The council know but don't care.

If the house is allocated to them it’s theirs as long as they want it. If the rent is being paid, as a previous poster said, the council won’t care. Mind your own business. I doubt your main concern is a burst pipe. You just fancy sticking the boot in.

If this was happening near me I'd assume there was what is known as 'a grow' in there.

Sounds very dodgy to me and would explain closed curtains.

Where are they actually living if not in that house?

I understand why you think you should report it.
Look at it from another point of view if you do - they may then move into it and make your lives miserable with their noise. Just think carefully what you want the outcome to be.

I would report. Purely because this is a huge waste of a resource in very short supply. There are families stuck in temporary housing for years and years who would be glad of this house.

Then again I am one of the evil people according to MN who thinks that housing needs should be assessed every 5 years if you are in social/ council housing and moved into appropriate sized housing for your needs. There are an awful lot of under occupied council properties round us. Lots of older couples/ single person households with 3 and 4 bed council properties that are happy to pay the extra bedroom charges but really should be in a 1 or 2 bed (there are absolutely loads of these about) and a massive waiting list for 3 and 4 bed family houses.

Well, they clearly did have a choice as they are obviously living elsewhere currently. This is really unfair and unreasonable for all the many families on waiting lists.

I keep my living room curtains closed most of the time. I'm not growing cannabis

Guessing the state are subsidising or paying full rent on the property as well. If they had enough money they’d be privately renting close to family. Absolutely report, this home should go to someone who actually needs it.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

The system is flawed and this is probably the only way they can eventually get a house in the area the need to be in. Maybe they have no support in that area, maybe they need to be near family to help out with kids or whatever. I personally wouldn't report it. If they had turned it down who knows how many more years they would have gone down the list.

The people who are telling you to leave this alone because you don't know who you will get in next have a point. I certainly don't think all council tenants are problematic. I'm one myself but having had experience of living next to very anti social tenants over a long time period.

I get your point about pipes freezing. A few years ago my neighbours pipes froze as did mine but his were so bad that a specialist company had to come out and sort things. The housing officers absolutely know he's not living there but his rent is being paid and that's all they care about

Tbh I think you'll find the social landlord will become aware of this pretty quickly. They'll be liable for utilities and council tax, so even if they don't collect post regularly they can't just actually lock up and walk away. Also every 12 months they'll have to have a gas check. If the property isn't even properly furnished this will be flagged by the third party contractor especially on the first check if hardly any gas has been used (if it has gas) as they'll think there's a fault. A lot of social landlords also now do regular 'walk rounds' mainly to spot ASB or untidy properties. They'll notice an empty uncared for property quite quickly

There's a huge three storey double fronted house (council) that's been empty for about 9 months. Totally refurbed. There's another set of flats in the same style, at least two are empty and have been for a year. Another whole row of little houses were emptied (people bribed/coerced out of London) and the two that are still in council control are both empty. And that's just within one minute of my home! One of the council cottages had a supposed tenant but he was a local 'figure' who was know to have multiple other properties. He was barely there.

Surely you'd rather quiet neighbours than noisy disruptive ones? You can't prove they literally never ever sleep there. It's a widespread issue and the council keep too many places empty themselves. I wouldn't do it to try and mess up my neighbours housing situation.

You are, however, living in your home. Hardly the same.

They might. But that doesn't mean they will do a thing about it. My downstairs neighbour hasn't lived a night in his flat since I moved in six years ago. He has a timer on his living room light that goes on at the same time every day to give the illusion he lives there, they know he's not living there but they don't care.

I'd stay out of it. Assuming their situation is true (and it sounds like you're accepting it at face value) then it sounds like they want the same thing you want: for a family who needs the house to be living in the house.

Not their fault that their hands are tied for two years, and maybe your social efforts could be better spent lobbying for a change of rules on how long a tenant has to wait before they can begin negotiating a home swap.

I’m inclined to agree with this. There are families in dire temporary accommodation and in desperate need of permanent housing. The 18 months they have left before they exchange could be 18 months of a child having a decent home to live in and a chance to start a stable life. They can’t be that desperate if they aren’t living in it. I am a HA tenant myself if that makes any difference to my viewpoint at all.

To get opinions?

That’s pretty much what happens though.

It's actually pretty hard to evict people from properties now particularly in England with the RRA.

My DD lives in a HA semi detached, and the lady who had the other side was never there. The house was empty, no gardening done, she even had charities doing food parcels that were left to rot on the doorstep. DD reported it over and over again, but the woman knew how to play the system and told them it was triggering her anxiety. Eventually their housing manager got involved with it, and they attended around 4 times without any sign of occupancy there and threatened her with removing the property. Turns out she was living with a BF and just using the address for benefits....it's disgusting that some poor family was living in a hotel somewhere that could have used it. And it costs the taxpayer twice. So do report it.

I may be a bit of a lone voice in the distance (haven't RTFT,) but I would report it for sure. Millions of people (in expensive private let, and insecure accommodation like B & B) are waiting for a council house/secure tenancy. These (barely) neighbours are taking the piss.

Report them to the council @aibucouncilhouse and do it today.

My stepdaughter has a toddler and was told she was a low priority for housing because she was living with her mum, even though she was sleeping on the sofa and had no privacy. She waited ages and was only rehoused when her mum made it clear she couldn’t stay any longer.

This family have somewhere to stay to the point where they can leave the house empty, so they weren’t really homeless in the sense that local authority housing define it. It’s very unfair when there are lots of people in the same situation.

I agree