Council house, housing

[Mammystore118]

Hi I’m just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction or any advice. I live in a 2 bedroom house and it’s very small I’m wanting to move for multiple reasons. My area isn’t the best and we’ve had trouble in the area with people causing trouble and theiving etc... I know you can get that anywhere but I’ve never felt secure or safe in my home I’ve lived here for 3 year and every night I’m a nervous wreck and I shouldn’t have to feel like this. I should feel comfortable and secure in my house which I never have in this house. My partner works shift work which includes nightshift so I’m on my own majority of the time with my little boy. I don’t want my little boy to be around this area as the kids around here swear, fight and cause trouble to people’s houses again... I know this can happen anywhere but rather be away from this area. I could go into detail but would be an essay. Anyway me and my partner both work. So we claim no benefits or anything at all and pay full rent and taxes etc... but I want to move closer to my family but I really want a 3 bedroom house. I wouldn’t mind paying bedroom tax. Is this possible? With me only needing a two bedroom I would like a 3 for more space and if we were to have more children in the future I wouldn’t want to keep moving my child about in different houses because I see that as unsettled so I’d like to stay in the house I next get and buy it eventually. We don’t have the money at the minute to put a deposit for a mortgage so this isn’t an option just yet. Is it possible to get a 3 bed? Or any advice it will be very appreciated.
Any ideas how we could go from a 2 bed to a 3?
Tia

I don't think it should be deleted.

I really want to know what a frog in a sock would do though never heard that one.

I'll vote for keeping and I'll also vote for illumination on frog in a sock
Fist bump to fellow housing peeps

Fair enough. Sounds like most are in favour of leaving it to stand so we'll do that.

Just to end the brief derail, can't BELIEVE none of you are au fait with frogs in socks. I was doubting myself briefly but no... it is in the urban dictionary... www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=going%20off%20like%20a%20frog%20in%20a%20sock

I'd be in favour of a whole topic for benefit and housing discussions.. all the benefit bashers can piss off there then... And those of us in the position can tear em a new one..

Leaving it up is a good Idea.

On the thread about class the other day lots of people asked why it matters and why people care. Some people even claimed classes didn't exist or that the working class isn't looked down on.

This thread shows otherwise. So much ignorance. Just looked outside my window and no shiny Audi's and BMWs here outside the many council houses.

Means testing council houses is a stupid idea, have you seen what's happening with Universal Credit to many families? Probably not as you're to good to need to claim it!

I agree with the PP re Grenfell.

👊

Thanks for kind words. I've done housing advice work. Twat to administer is admittedly not the technical term!

But honestly, how do people think it'd work? Do they think HAs and councils have a big computer with everyone's up to date employment details on it? Or that HMRC are in charge of SH lets? What about if you're on zero hours or you're self employed, and you get work one week but not the next- do you have to move out then you can go back in again?

Thankyou, I didn't want to Google because I had a picture in my head of what would happen if you put the sock on your foot with a frog in

I’d like it kept up. There is some useful advice on it and some good myth busters.

I thought the gov backed down on “pay-to stay” because Brexit got in the way. I sort of assumed the law had been passed and might rear it’s head again at a later date.

If you have a 3 bed and are under occupying can you mutual exchange to another 3 bed and continue to under occupy or would your occupation levels be up for review upon swapping?

Don't think the pay to stay legislation was passed? It was in the budget but got dropped. There was a pretty lukewarm response to it in the consultation and of those providers in favour, many wanted 60k as the threshold. But yeah, you never know if it was Brexit related. And even before then UC turned into a colossal beast. They might've thought two poorly thought through administrative nightmares were enough.

council housing is a benefit, you’re getting something subsidised by the public purse

Landlords renting to tenants in receipt of housing benefit are also being "subsidised by the public purse", or do comments to the above only apply to council tenants? Perhaps 'housing benefit' should be renamed 'landlord benefit' seeing as that is who is actually receiving it?

Subsidised is the wrong word anyway. The cost of building and maintaining council houses has been recouped many times over, there is no subsidy. In fact council housing benefits the public purse as the money from those rents goes directly into the coffers of the local council and the rent received is far more than the cost of maintaining the housing.

Council rents also reflect the normal price for that type of property for the area they're in, they're not cheaper because they're subsidised, the council isn't knocking money off. Private rents are higher because landlords costs are higher and because they're running the properties as a business so will charge what they think they can get away with, this is turn drives up prices. The private sector needs to be capped to keep in line with the public sector, not the other way around.

No Audi's and BMWs here but we're extending our council house over the next few months by expanding into the ultilty room and incorporating the outhouse to make the kitchen bigger and make a small second living room/fourth bedroom (will be a room for the DC for now then when he gets older a bedroom for DS who has SN so that he won't need to share). Council approved it as they will ultimately benefit when we eventually pop our clogs and they get the house back, we got some grant money and are funding the rest ourselves.

It's not like we have any idea what the actual market rent for private lets would be anyway. The current housing landscape certainly isn't a free market.

HA I rent from bought the land and built the house I'm in. They have no mortgage on the property and no bank telling them who they can and can't rent too.

They charge a fair rent that isn't inflated by different factors like this private sector is.
Private landlords have mortgages
Insurances
Estate agent fees
Etc

Theres also supply and demand and some push their tents up to as much as they can get because they know people don't have much choice, especially in London.

Even if there are BMWs etc outside council houses, doesnt mean the person living there is a council tenant. Not that it really matters.

We lived in a council flat before buying our place. We've always worked and paid the rent ourselves. They're not just for those on benefits.

Not all areas have a scarcity of council housing either. Generally speaking the further North you head, the greater the availability. We waited a matter of months and weren't even priority banding. It's a nice area with good schools, low crime rate, decent facilities, and good trasnport links. Nearly everyone I know who is in council housing works and of those who don't I couldn't say a single one of them is a "scrounger" or "sits on their arse".

Thank You @HebeMumsnet

I can only go on my own experience, and the frustration was shared by many of us who were not HA living in the same road as HA homes, with fab cars and laughing at us ‘paying full whack - we want to use RTB and it’s waaaay cheaper than buying private’. Yes, their cars are most likely leased - they upgraded every year. Leasing is hardly cheap though!

I genuinely think HA is wonderful for those who really need it, and seeing people abuse the privilege is very disheartening. This is within 50 miles of London, and this combination of HA/high standard of living was a common one. Maybe it’s where we live, dunno.

Shhh ewlts, London is the world! There's no way things could be different elsewhere.

Respectfully bunny, I think it's reasonable to suggest you go beyond your own experience and think about the points people have made regarding ghettoisation, administrative problems, high turnover, lack of suitably underemployed candidates in some places and disincentive to tenants to improve their circumstances. By all means be annoyed about the cars if you want. But these are the reasons why your suggestion isn't a good one.

Also if it's HA and they think they're getting right to buy, they'll be in for a nasty surprise. Usually right to acquire instead. Discount is about 12k average. Drop in the ocean for most properties within commuting distance of London.

@Bunnyfuller its because of the "HA should only be for the needy rhetoric " that our estate now reeks of dope. It never used to. And there was a search executed recently by the police which included them putting a note through our door asking for help. For the first time in the 24 years DH and i have been living here.

I can only go on my own experience

This is the problem with some people these days. They see a small number of people doing something and assume all people in similar situations are the same.

So a person that's likely never known poverty sees a HA tenant drive a an AUDI and suddenly all HA tenants drive.AUDIs and should be punished accordingly.

A person sees Benefit Street or some Channel5 propaganda and sees the poor fuckers on there have got a TV from.bright house, so all benefit claimants have big TVs.

A person knows a person that knows a person that has 4 kids and hasn't ever worked... View all benefit claimant are the same.

They should stop tarring everyone with the same brush, open their eyes and stop judging the many on their experience of the few.

and yet we dont all think of doctors and surgeons as serial killers or psychopaths despite Harold Shipman and that breast cancer surgeon whose name escapes me.

I think it should be left up, it's interesting to see the Victorian attitudes versus the let's be human.

You never know when you might need that safety net, and the likelihood is you will be working, you will be deemed as normal, something will happen that throws the world out of kilter. I know, as I once did, and by heck it was an eye opener, we shouldn't throw stones and we shouldn't be mean ... just because we can.

It doesn't mean it should be open to abuse, the safety net that is, the reality is that very few actually abuse the safety net. But the reality is I'm afraid that the net we have all paid into most of our lives, now has great holes in it.

You won't be paying bedroom tax as you pay full rent anyway... the bedroom tax isn't a tax (that was coined by the media), if for example you did claim housing benefit then you would only be eligible to enough to cover a 2 bed house because that's all you need, so you'd have to pay the difference to live in a more expensive larger house, but you're paying full rent anyway so this situation wouldn't apply.

In terms of your actual situation, you could look at home swaps; different councils have their own sites where you can see if any other council tenants are looking to swap, you may get lucky and come across someone who is looking to downsize or maybe are willing to downsize to move into the area that you want to move away from... failing this option then privately renting may be your best option as I doubt you'll get anywhere fast with the council directly because they'll see you are in a home that currently covers your family's needs and don't need a bigger house, whereas others on the list will need the 3 bed.

My neighbour is wanting a house with a garden rather than the flat she's currently in (she was still happy with sticking to 2 bedrooms same as now) and the council basically told her she's wasting her time trying to go through them as she'll be waiting years probably, so she's now looking on the house swap site for our council instead.