Private renting so much more than housing association!

[Generationrenter]

Just moved to a new build and the rent is £1300pm, neighbours are HA tenants and paying £500 for the exact same house. We both earn around the same amount.

I’m not saying their rent should be more and think HA properties are great (I’ve been on a waiting list for 6 years as renting is bankrupting me so certainly not knocking it!) but surely efforts should be made within budgets that make HA rents so low to reduce private rents?

I know private renting has become so unaffordable but is there anything that can be done? £800 difference a month for the same house just seems insane!

Guess it is just a vent but it doesn’t make sense to me!

helena that does sound frustrating and I sympathise. However, to save £800 a month I think I’d put up with having to be available for a few annoying visits.
My old boss paid me less than that and he wanted me 22 hours a week.

Saving you £800 a month but what about the tenants who would face a huge increase under this entirely unworkable and unfair scheme and suddenly find themselves unable to afford their rent?

Well Generation i was talking to a friend of mine who works for Tesco about this and she said if i was working there i would have been called up into the office for an interview for taking so much time off.

Are you seriously suggesting people should be taking several scattered days off work and then a full week to accomodate an ALL WEEK call

Social housing tenants get called lazy and entitled when not working but when they are working are expected to risk losing their jobs because the HA cant organise themselves. Dont be ridiculous.

HA would be first to moan if they then couldnt pay their rent.

No I don’t think they should be forced to at all, I think it’s stupid they’re being so inflexible and it’s out of order but I think you’d be silly to give up a tenancy over it. What happens if you cannot be available? Do they evict you?

Do you think it’s entirely fair that someone earning say £50k a year should pay £800 less than someone earning say £30k a year because they were in a bad position 10 years ago? Or do you think if there was an opportunity to make them pay £300 more and the private tenants £300 less so they were both still better off than private, it would be a decent solution?
I don’t understand why that’s such an evil idea to people... why are SH tenants exempt from increases? My old LL upped my rent £50pm pretty much year on year... it’s just what happens but in this case it could help people..

There seems to be a massive difference in social housing dependent on what part of the country you are living in.

I'm from the north west where even a five bed detached house probably wouldn't be as much in London or the surrounding area.

I have put nearly 10k into this house which is the discount I got when buying it.

It's never going to go up in value like it would London.

My house was a shell like many have described. We did the work to make it habitable. It was filthy, gardens front and back were rat infested. Doors all had holes in, graffiti in every room.

There were new builds, but I got offered this. Probably because my income meant they knew I could afford to do it up month by month. It's took me nearly four years. I still need to do the kitchen and bathroom.

I'm not sure anyone who was on a lower income would have took it in the state it was in. I think some councils must look at your earnings and decide which house to give you. I'd already turned one down and it was this which was in a nice area or refuse and gamble they would offer me something better. If I'd of refused a third option I'd of been put to the bottom of the list. They actually told me that.

So if my rent here was £100 cheaper than a private rental that was all decorated already they have saved money having to do it themselves.

If your other neighbours were paying £2100 per month for the same house as yours, would you be happy to pay £1800 rent so that they could pay less?

After all, they'd be able to spend more on holidays then and even pay off some of their debts...

Private rents are ridiculous and to make it worse they are not even secure tenancies.
The answer is to build more HA properties so that more people can have access to them rather than putting HA rents up though.
Council properties were never supposed to be only for the very poorest of society they were to give the average working class family an affordable and secure place to live.
It's a travesty that they were sold off and not replaced.

SH tenants aren't exempt from rent increases the rent does go up every year but not by the ridiculous amounts private landlords get away with.

Ive been here 25 years Generation. I didnt say i would give up the tenancy. Im much more likely to excersise my RTB just so they leave us the fuck alone.

sarah piper says: (from a blog)
December 14, 2016 at 5:21 pm

I’m posting my complaint to sanctuary in the hope someone can tell me where to go…they cost me my job in jan 2015 as i was in a new job on probation and had to take 6 days off work in a month as they left me and my daughter with no hot water for a month because they kept not turning up or sending out wrong people to fix it, then took me to court for eviction in feb as i couldnt pay rent!

This complaint now as u will see has been going on a yr, iv complained to 3 manager whole have all never got back to me. I emailed them 3 weeks ago as a manager told me in September she was dealing with.my complaint but has not contacted me since, emailed again yesterday to be told someone will contact u! Im at the end of my tether.

On November 3rd 2015 I reported a leak where water was coming in to my living room from underneath the coving. The man I spoke to said he would get a plumber out and I told him there were no pipes there but he still sent a plumber.

Following this between November 2015– July 2016 I have had 12 appointments with sanctuary maintenance staff because you sent out the wrong people, parts had not been ordered or people were sent who didn’t even know what they were supposed to be doing, I have attached a list of appointments and what was done each time.

In April I made a complaint to a manager Craig as it had been going on 5 months, every time it rained i had water coming in my living room. I have chronic asthma and this was causing mould and since February I had been seriously ill and admitted to hospital 3 times and was due to have surgery on 6th April and I was concerned I would have open wounds and having dirty water coming in.

Craig advised I could claim compensation for lost time/earnings/damages and promised to chase. On 7th may following another 3 appointments and nothing being done I went to environmental health as I had now had infections in my wounds from my surgery, in a lot of pain and still having to mop dirty water.

On 8th June i called sanctuary again as environmental health have also been chasing he is getting no response either, i am told you cannot bring the appointment forward and i literally broke down on the phone as i have now had water coming in my house 7 months, im in pain from major surgery and nothing is any closer to being resolved.

I complain to a manager Joe who tells me the job was cancelled!
Now the job was finally completed on 15th July by simply painting sealant on the balcony which Joe advised David bizzells manager knew of this problem as other houses had the same problem.

I am amazed i have been left this long for a simple problem sanctuary were already aware of, It’s disgusting you left me a whole winter with asthma with rain coming in and following surgery when i should have been resting i was mopping dirty water.

Now the problem should be resolved but i have been left with damage and mould to the wall, coving and curtain rail/baton due to 8 months of water, pictures attached. i am told this will need painting with a special sealant first to stop the water marks keep showing through. So are sanctuary going to come and do that and repaint or do i have to do this? I would also like to claim compensation for the time you wasted which cost me money off work for every appointment, the stress of what you put me through and cost of sorting the damaged caused by the water as you can see from the pictures I have a damp patch at the bottom of the coving and across the top of the whole wall and damp and flaking paint.

This is standard appauling service from Sanctuary repairs, in january 2015 you cost me my job leaving me with no hot water for a month and me having 6 days off work because you kept sending wrong people out and i had to go to the mp to resolve and clearly nothing has changed."

Agree with all the posters saying that the problem is the fact that private renting is insecure and extortionate, not that social housing is secure and affordable.

I also don't agree that social housing tenants should have to give up their homes if they get a payrise. Your mortgage company doesn't turf you out if your wages go up. The only reason that lifetime tenancies have become an issue is because of the chronic shortage of social housing. Ergo, the solution to that is to build more of it, not to evict people from their homes.

Helena don't k ow if you are aware but you can get a mortgage without a deposit with some banks as they use your discount as the deposit

I don’t understand why that’s such an evil idea to people... why are SH tenants exempt from increases?

Social housing rent does increase, there's usually a yearly increment but again this is to cover running costs and doesn't include profit for the landlord. Social housing is self-sustaining and the money made is invested back into the properties.

You're misplacing your anger, you ought to be asking why the private sector can't be brought into line with the public sector and tighter controls applied rather than stamping your feet and demanding everyone is dragged down to the shittiest denominator.

Britney no i wasnt aware of that Thank You

Ewlt Ive tried to but just cant understand the race to the bottom mentality.

If you try the mortgage gym online Helena its a free service and they help you with which mortgage. I had a really great experience with them.

Ewlt Ive tried to but just cant understand the race to the bottom mentality.

Same. I don't understand why people decide their situation is shitty compared to other people's so instead of looking at how things can change so that everyone can have nice things they instead start demanding that everyone is given shitty things instead.

I have not said that other people should be put in shitty situations but if HA rents were means tested the extra money could be put into building more houses and helping more people.
You wouldn’t get £800 a month benefits despite earning £40k a year because 10 years ago you were unemployed. But if you can continue getting £400pm benefits and the extra is shared between helping people in a tough position, why is that such a bad idea?
The problem is private rentals being too high, yes. But they’re not going to reduce them are they? HA’s need to build more and rent further into the open market, more rental income would help with that.

A lot of HA do set different rent levels now though. Mostly new builds, but it's a social rent for anyone on benefits/very low income and 'affordable' rent for those in work. It's a very fair system.

The £800 isn't a "benefit". Of course private rents should be lower. Almost every other country including the us has rent controls. It's normal.

You wouldn’t get £800 a month benefits despite earning £40k a year because 10 years ago you were unemployed. But if you can continue getting £400pm benefits and the extra is shared between helping people in a tough position, why is that such a bad idea? The problem is private rentals being too high, yes. But they’re not going to reduce them are they? HA’s need to build more and rent further into the open market, more rental income would help with that.

£800 isn't a benefit, I don't know where you've gotten the idea that social housing is the same thing as benefits.

And yes, the problem is that private rents are too high but why should that mean HA rents are raised to compensate for this? It is the same thing as saying "my toy is broken and that's unfair so please break everyone else's toy to make it fair".

If you're fed up with high rents in the private sector then write to your MP and tell them to support rent control measures, join an action group to put pressure on private landlords, campaign for restrictions on how much rent landlords can charge.

We moved into a new build and pay £750 monthly mortgage, the same new build next us is rented out for £1200 (we snooped online) Private rent is always more expensive.

I didn’t say it was a benefit, I said you wouldn’t get benefits

It is similar to benefits in the sense of its a govt scheme aimed at helping people financially.
It’s not about just me and my rent, high rents affects thousands of families. Why are the only people being considered by posters those who were once declared ‘in need’ enough of a council property?
I’ve written to my MP many times about rents and signed petitions.

I’m curious as to why people don’t think high earners should have to pay slightly more if it meant helping others? Do you feel the same way about taxes?

But they do generationrenter. Read my post. A good deal of HA now have 2 rent levels. Social and affordable.