Keeping a UK Council property for life even though you no longer live in the UK

[Vintlet]

This story has just been released
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyxkeny8x6o
It seems so unfair given the lack of social housing in the uk that the First Lady of Sierra Leone expected to be allowed to keep her London social housing property as a pied a terre. Surely we cannot be expected to house the world. No one in authority would have realised given that she was still paying the rent if she hadn’t boasted about keeping it on a radio interview. I wonder how many people keep and sublet uk council properties when they no longer have a right to keep it.

And where do you suppose these people go when they’re evicted?
Yes there’s a housing shortage so where are they going to go and why should decent people be evicted from their homes?

Holy Hyperbole Batman.

‘No one dares’ my arse. Policy and procedures have changed over the years. You think you can invent a perfect system, you’re wrong. Signed, someone who has worked in social housing and related field for 3 decades in more than one country. I’ve worked in systems with yearly reviews, all the way to lifetime tenancies. None of them are perfect.

But you think your reckons are so groundbreaking you’ve solved it all. Every change you make has unintended consequences and loopholes. It’s the nature of people.

I can’t believe how we’ve all just accepted Thatcher’s ideology and now we collectively seem to believe affordable rental is now only for the destitute. Anyone else should be paying exorbitant amounts to private landlords or to the banks?

I agree. It seems off to me that people should aspire to pay off a private landlord's mortgage in the form of private letting.

It's got nothing to do with her being black. All those who ultimately put everything down to them being black are obsessed with using 'because they're black' as a reason to try to use as discrimination, including yourself mindutopia !!!!!!! 🙄🙄🙄

I wonder why social housing stock in your area is like hen's teeth? Because of selfish people like you and your spawn. And to proudly admit you used to work is social housing well words fail me. I hope you can sleep at night.

a single mother getting a council flat while working part time then 10 years later is living in the same flat while working full time I can understand. The wife of a rich dictator with a real state empire keeping a council flat while we (poor struggling tax payers) pay for her London accomodation is absolutely vile, her skin colour is irrelevant.

No, it's in the news because she is the first lady of Sierra Leone. Angela Rayner was in the news for her property dispute because of her position as well. Whilst I firmly believe racism is rife at the minute, I don't think it applies here.

I don’t blame you
I know loads of people who have done this or similar and most people would do the same

my parents had a gorgeous council house which they bought for peanuts under the RTB in the 80s
when they passed away my son inherited it sold it and bought the house he lives in now

My step daughter lives with her Nan and on the tenancy and will get the house when she pass away

most councils will let you inherit the tennancy if it’s not been passed on previously and you have lived there for at least 12 months

I think most will only let you pass it on once now. PP is going to be in with a shock if that is the case.
And rightly so, because there is no reason to treat a council home like a family heirloom.

And immoral

My cousin’s ex wife kept her council house when she moved to Australia and sublet it. One of the neighbours reported her (they told her!) but nothing was done.

Yes it is so wrong , selfish and immoral

Yep.

The only reason why I have SH is because my son is disabled. He's still going to be disabled in 15 years.

That’s what I said
as long as it’s only been passed once most councils don’t have an issue with it
I know my council don’t

I bought my council house early 2000s & my DH bought his years ago before we met

When we got together he rented his out and still rents it out now

The wife of a rich dictator with a real state empire keeping a council flat while we (poor struggling tax payers) pay for her London accomodation is absolutely vile, her skin colour is irrelevant.

Fatima Bio paid rent on the house.

The only problem is, by keeping a council house in the family you are asking the state to look after your kids and grandkids at the cost of someone else who would need it as a safety net. The same safety net that gave the house to your DC in the first place.
I think we need to change and reassess social housing need every 3-5 years. There should never be an automatic right to keep a council house if you have the means to private rent or pay for a mortgage.

Private rent = paying someone else's mortgage.
Why should that be the end goal?

Do you realise that when you take on a social/council place, you have bare walls and floors... you have to get new carpets, flooring, wallpaper etc.

Market value rent?

It's the tip of an iceberg. Not just white British pensioners living in Spain, but Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Nigerian immigrants who have sublet their council houses and gone to live in relative luxury in their countries of origin on the proceeds of their time in the UK, just flying back occasionally to use the NHS. I think if we ever knew the true scale of subletting and fraud within the social housing system we'd be absolutely appalled.

Remember the Manchester bomber? After being granted asylum in the UK, they were given a council house. They moved back to Libya in 2011, retaining their council house and continuing to claim benefits in the UK. Eventually the boys came back to live in the house, but the parents didn't. They stayed in Libya.

It's absolutely rife.

The rent that was due.

I don’t think she should have kept the council house after it was no longer her primary residence, but I don’t think it was completely accurate to talk about poor struggling taxpayers paying for it, as if it were free to her.

Why should people languish on waiting lists for years whilst others who could afford to buy sit tight in their subsidised council properties. It's wrong.

That is not anything to do with people in council housing.

Is it legal to sublet a council house. It seems wrong

My DH bought his under the right to buy years ago
he’s not got a mortgage on it
he’s perfectly entitled to rent it out or leave it empty