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

And the poll tax wasnt the poll tax It was the community charge,
and yet its the former phrase thats stuck not the latter.

Glad this thread is staying. There are some awful views towards social housing, so happy to see sensible posters chipping in! I live in a HA house, work full time and only claim CB which I know some will frown upon. When we moved in the place was a real state, no flooring at all - I think it is standard policy to pull up carpets and lino before reletting a social housing place? The garden was full of all kinds of junk, the walls were bare and stained, no cooker or other white goods of any type, the lovely ex tenants had even scratched "cunt" and "motherfucker" into the wood on the stair rail and 2 windowsills! We spent a lot of money getting the house into a liveable state and it is lovely now, I don't begrudge the money or effort because I was investing that into my home but people private renting won't ever have to move into somewhere in that condition. I see it as a fair exchange, you pay more upfront for longer term security. I wasn't "given" a house, I pay rent to the housing association for it and if I break the terms of the contract I will be made to leave. The idea that working people shouldn't live in social housing is ridiculous!

Unfortunately that is not possible. People are being encouraged to downsize their property if they've got spare bedrooms because there's a high demand for 2-3+ bedroom houses for families with 2 or more children. If you want more bedrooms, you'll have to rent privately I'm afraid.

Rtft...

I live on a lovely council estate where there is zero turnover and once people move in the improve the property, look after the garden, lay nice driveways and have attractive fences and hedges. People behave as though they own the home due to secure lifetime tenancies. The majority of people work. But none of us can afford to buy because the price is insane.

FoxFoxSierra I think you are right about the flooring and fittings - my DM sold her house to a HA and we poked our noses through the window during the building work in the weeks after. It consisted of ripping off all her lovely doors and putting cheap ones back on, pulling up all the wood flooring and dumping her gorgeous fireplace outside on the drive. The house was just a series of beige rooms inside afterwards.

I had to live with plain concrete floors in my living room until I could afford a carpet. I saved for the cheapest I could get, if it lasts a couple years I'll be happy. Still haven't got carpet on the stairs or my room. It's expensive stuff.
I think the HA does it in the hopes people will spend on carpets and felt invested in the property.

When my sister got a council place (after her partner died and the private let got sold out from under her!) There was no flooring and the walls were left with the garish paper from the previous tenant. She got a council grant for paint and applied to some sort of social fund to get cheap carpeting and flooring for the kitchen/ bathroom. It is the cheapest carpet ever and there is no underlay but she can't afford anything else. We had to help strip wallpaper and paint the whole house from top to bottom to make it habitable.

Mine was horrific when I moved in. The elderly man who had lived here had been doubly incontinent and had not been able to maintain the property. I cleaned a lot of shit, scrubbed floorboards, replastered, removed an Anderson shelter - everything. It took thousands and a long time. It is short sighted to give people these new 2 year tenancies as they will make no investment in the property.

Just thought I'd throw my tuppence worth in. Bunny probably around 80% of HA properties near us require a minimum income to rent from them. And that's around £30k a year, and you have to prove it with pay slips too. So you have to be working.

If you think of an average couple with kids maybe a policeman and a secretary with kids their joint income will be about £55k i would say. That won't buy you anything in many places. Earlier generations could buy on one ordinary wage. And why should people have to move away from their families and kids schools etc. Many Londoners are born and bred and a move North would lose grandparents etc.

Our area has no minimum income required, but you get points for someone in the household working. This isn't especially unusual.

Where I live in London a lot of single people working for the public sector were given hard to let propertys. This was in the 90 and early 00. The councils had no money because many no their residents hadn’t payed the Poll Tax. Locals didn’t want local council housing, what they wanted was to move to the suburbs. So there were a lot of empty council homes in inner London which the councils could not afford to do up. These were properties in terrible states. They couldn’t be let to people on benefits because those people couldn’t have repaired them! The other idea was putting people who worked in difficult areas stopped the ghetto effect.

My first property was on the same landing as two brothels and a crack house. It was filthy and fire damaged. I cleaned it up and slowly decorated it all myself by saving up and taking annual leave from work. It was stable, no one was going to kick me out. I lived happily with the dealers!
Slowly the area became gentrified. People wanted to live there again. Twenty years after I moved in and no one would visit me it became a cool, and incredibly expensive area to live.
Would it be ethical to kick someone like me out of their home because the world changed? It was never on my radar to buy a house. I had my home.
Plenty of people did buy though and now make a living renting their ex council homes back to the council at extortionate prices.
Anyway-social housing bashers-I’ve had it all ways! Can’t win.

It does depend on where exactly you are. In my small town there is ample HA housing and the majority are 3 bed houses or large flats (just small blocks of 4 flats so not high rises)
I was given 3 months notice when my landlord was selling my home. We had a large 3 bed ground floor flat a month before my notice was up. It's a lovely place and despite it being a flat and a downgrade compared to the fancy private let we were in, we like it. The HA flat next door upstairs has been empty for well over two years at least.

OP, put your name down on the list but legally they can only offer you a 2 bed. It's up to the HA alone to let you a 3 bed if no 2 beds are available.

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/03/grenfell-survivors-seek-radical-reform-of-social-housing-oversight?CMP=share_btn_tw