Social Housing

[Bravemama]

Help!

Can anyone give me advice or information on Social Housing? Has anyone got any positive experiances of it, or any info on the whole process or waiting time etc?

Our backstory:

My Hubby and I have 2 DC and have lived in our privately rented home for 3 years but are in the middle of a really nasty situation with our landlords. They are basically on the road to beginning a confrontation with Enviromental Health because we have asked them (nicely) for two and a half years to fix our windows. They are the originals (single pain, not re-enforced) when the bungalow was built in the 1970s and are so broken, damaged and falling out. The 2 in the Living room dont even open! (Can you imagine what this passed summer was like?!)

So, you get the idea. We have written them letters and have been to Citizens advice twice with updates etc and they have said Enviromental Health is the next step. Whilst we were there today telling the guy our woes, he mentioned to us about the possibilty of moving. We would love to, we told him and we are on Rightmove everyday for months but nothing so far has come up. He then mentioned Social Housing is an option. He said because we have children and the house we are in has big issues then we would be straight away be put to the top of the list!

Does anyone have any experience of getting rehoused? What was the house like? Is it best we just keep looking to rent privately?

Im going to my GP because of stress and anxiety over my landlord. She works in Tesco less then a mile from our home and lives in town too. The social aspect of this is awful because I feel like i have to put of dark sunglasses and pull my hood up whenever im out! Its awful! I keep worrying that she is going to turn up too because she has done that in the past and the whole thing is leaving me so on edge.

Im really sorry for the rant.....its been 2 and a half years and so its just getting to me and hubby now. Our children deserve to be safe and warm in 2018 surely?

Put your name down for social housing. You don’t have to take anything you don’t want and you could end up with a lovely home which is reasonably well kept up by the social landlord , a better value rate than private and secure for as long as you want it.

Put your name down!

You may get a new house that needs nothing doing or you may get what I got which was a house that everything needed doing.

Either way it's a secure tenancy with the potential to own after a set period.

For housing issues I've found shelter far more switched on and pro-active.

I'm in social housing now but it took 9 years there's a real shortage here, but areas vary you'd need to look into how long the waiting lists and how much supply in your area. It varies greatly.

Sorry you're going through this. Private landlords need much better oversight than we currently have.

In my area you have to wait to be evicted or severely overcrowded before they will help. I had to wait until my landlord wanted to sell-up and issue me with a section 21 before I could go to the town hall.

Thanks Ladies xxx I really appreciate your replies

The only negative issue I can think of is that you might not get much choice where you end up. I’m about 5 miles from where my private place was, which is the nearest out of anywhere I bid on! There were never that many houses come up, so I was having to bid on whatever came up. It was a big upheaval, and lots of cost moving (carpets etc) but it was worth it to have a secure tenancy.

I've had a HA house for 16yr and only have positive stories to tell. We initially had a 3 bed house then swapped to a 5 bed. The kitchen is falling apart and not in a great state but we are happy to replace that ourselves.
When we first got our HA house we were helped by environmental health who wrote a letter to confirm the private rented house we were in had damp issues, then 6 wks later we had the house offer. Ask your EHO for a letter to confirm the issues you are experiencing and get yourselves on the list. Waiting times do vastly differ but getting on the register is the first step.