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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pissed off with being offered a council FLAT instead of a HOUSE?

999 replies

OMFFG · 16/02/2012 10:46

We have 4 DCs, youngest 16 months and they think this is suitable!! The flat is 3 bedrooms and on the 2nd floor of a small tower block and has balconies which I would be pretty worried one of the DCs may fall out of.

This is my worst frigging nightmare. We have been 'homeless' for almost 2 years and the council have housed us in temporary accommodation (private rented) which we have to pay market value for (£875 per month) even though we did not choose it and it's a complete shit hole. We could not leave as we would lose our priority on the council bidding list. We lost our house when DH was made redundant and could not afford to pay £1200+ to privately rent.

Now after all this they have offered us a fucking flat. I am furious because every week until last week, there were only offering 3 bed houses but we would always be 3/4 on the list. Now that a flat was offered, less people have bid on it so we got to the top of the list. I did not even bid on it, the council did. Apparently they can bid on 'our behalf' as we are homeless and if we refuse this flat, we will be taken off the housing list. How the hell will we cope in a flat???

The rent is 'only' £380 a month but a house would only be £20 a month more.

AIBU to tell them to stuff it up their arses?

OP posts:
Moominsarescary · 16/02/2012 12:30

I hate all this 'breeding' business , women arnt horses ffs

EauDeLaPoisson · 16/02/2012 12:31

No you cant, but if you in finanical difficulty to the point of being respossed when you get pregnant than you are surely aware its not an ideal situation to be having another child in? God forbid anyone express that though. And aside from that if I decided to have 6 children and in the future ended up homeless I think I would still be grateful to be offered a property that doesnt quite meet my requirements for the time being rather than end up in a hostel.

melika · 16/02/2012 12:31

Does 'God given right' ring a bell? And the language.....put my back up straight away.

Kayano · 16/02/2012 12:31

You guys are
Actively looking for DM style benefit
Bashing now but not addressing the point that was made about the other thread a few weeks ago about the 5k loan and buying a 4 bed house....

A lot of the same points were made
On both threads but You are actively ignoring it and instead just claiming we all bash council tenants...

Confused I don't even understand. I'm not bashing a council tenant IMO. I am bashing an unreasonable and unrealistic op and it has f all to do with her housing status

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:31

Hunty, I do agree with most of what you have said. But I can also see why the OP is miffed (although I am starting to think this has been a very good wind-up Wink) In her mind, people in the same situation have been offered houses. Her turn comes and she's squished into a flat. She is NBU to feel disappointed by that, although her wording does not do her any favours. I don't think that she deserves a house over a flat, more that I can see why she is pissed off. It does sound very cramped.

lisaro · 16/02/2012 12:32

Lots of military families live in flats. stop whining or find somewhere yourself.

Kayano · 16/02/2012 12:32

disclaimer I do not agree with anything said about op having 4 kids etc. I think that is no ones business and a personal choice

NormanTebbit · 16/02/2012 12:32

Ahem
I live in a second floor two bed flat. I have three DCs. Our mortgage at one point was nearly £1000 a month.

Op you are being an arse.

Kayano · 16/02/2012 12:33

norman you have not addressed the CRUCIAL point... Have any of your DC fallen off the balcony? Wink

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:33

Why do people keep bringing up this other thread?! I haven't read it, nor seen it so I am not going to comment on it! It's a bit unfair to try and use that as a defence when we only have your word for what happened on that thread.

EauDeLaPoisson · 16/02/2012 12:34

But people who buy houses are sometimes cramped- as they cannot afford a house/extra bedroom. Why should council tennants have any more say in what they WANT to live in than an owner? Life isnt ideal all the time- we cant just demand people lend us money/offer us a bigger property to make it so can we?

Kayano · 16/02/2012 12:35

Do you know the room dimensions then Bupcakes to be able to describe it
As cramped Confused

I didn't see any particulars
Posted

ChickensHaveNoLips · 16/02/2012 12:35

I think the OP's strop about only being offered a FLAT is absolutely fair game to be mocked. I just don't like the idea that she should somehow have known that she'd end up in this position and should go back in time and unbirth her DC.

melika · 16/02/2012 12:35

Hear, hear, lisaro do we hear them wingeing about, par for the course.

All I'm saying is if she is 'homeless' she should be grateful of the life line the council have given her. Heard of the saying 'Beggar on horseback'?

CardyMow · 16/02/2012 12:36

Bup - if it hadn't been HER family in the flat, it would have been someone else's. Applying for Social Housing, it IS just the 'luck of the draw'. She lucked out. It's shit, but like I keep saying, you can choose to look on it as you have a roof over your head, and be happy forthat and make the best out of it, or you can choose to get bitter and twisted that someone else has got a house when you 'only' have a flat.

The way I see it, is when life throws a pile of shite at you, make it smell of roses.

EauDeLaPoisson · 16/02/2012 12:36

People keep 'bringing it up' Bupcakes as it reflects the attitudes on here- and this was to someone who was buying a house. No different to someone taking a council house at all- its to defend this pathetic 'you all hate council tennants' view some of you seem to have.

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:36

I said it sounds cramped.

Going on what I know about flats, there will be a living room, 3 bedrooms one of which will be a box room, a bathroom and a kitchen. So 4 children stuffed into two bedrooms, one of which will probably be very small is cramped, IMO.

Kayano · 16/02/2012 12:37

I wish Hunty had the flat Sad

usualsuspect · 16/02/2012 12:37

I know how the council system works , I know people that live in cramped flats with kids

I just think the op is allowed to be disappointed ,and the breeding comments piss me off

Lueji · 16/02/2012 12:37

Northern is right in that the tone of the OP was out of order.

It would have been one thing to say she was disappointed that others were getting houses and they had got a flat.

For all we know, though, the houses are in horrible housing estates, have loud/unsocial neighbours, or are shitholes.
The flat may not be in a tower block.

Nobody is saying she "deserves" a flat instead of a house. And yes, houses can be very small and without proper gardens. Some have little more than patios.

sashh · 16/02/2012 12:37

Move in, start trying for child no 5 - as soon as No 5 is about a year old then you will no longer be 'suitably' housed and get a house.

Or just make do like thousands of others do.

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:37

Hunty, I have said that I think she should take the flat. I just don't like this "suck it up, you're poor" attitude.

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:38

"I know how the council system works , I know people that live in cramped flats with kids

I just think the op is allowed to be disappointed ,and the breeding comments piss me off"

^This.

CardyMow · 16/02/2012 12:39

My house that I am currently in is SMALLER than the 1-bed flat we were in before as Temp accommodation. IME, Council Flats are frequently LARGER than the new-build HA houses.

Kayano · 16/02/2012 12:39

They could be massive rooms! Op herself said a 3
Bed HOUSE would be fine and a lot
Of houses are smaller than flats so your argument that it sounds cramped due to kids sharing bedrooms is flawed by the very fact that

  1. you haven't a clue to size of house
  2. even if she got a house she wouldn't have an extra bedroom anyway!

Argh!!!!!!