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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

molly3478 · 16/02/2012 12:39

I think your mad I know families of 3/4 in a 1 bed flats and many in 2 bed flats. Its not a big deal and loads and loads of people do it.

There are benefits to flats anyay you are all close together so your dcs cant get up to mischief

melika · 16/02/2012 12:39

IMO the coucil flats my sister had (two) were not small, plenty of room. It depends on how much stuff she has. eg xboxs 50inch tvs staffie dog.

ONLY JOKING!

cestlavielife · 16/02/2012 12:39

purpose built flats can actually be very spacious depends on layout room sizes.

op should take the flat and make the balconies safe with extra trelllises/chicken wire if large gaps baby will fall thru etc.

EauDeLaPoisson · 16/02/2012 12:40

If I had another child now, by choice or 'accident' it would have to share a room, which would be 'very cramped' also. Unless we could afford to buy another house (we can't) or rent elsewhere we would be in the same situation as the OP. Who could we go to? Who would get us a bigger property? Nobody, we would have to make do. I dont see why it should be any different for people in social housing to be honest, thats not me being prejudice at all, its being realistic.

CardyMow · 16/02/2012 12:40

Ah, see, I have been studiously IGNORING the 'breeding' comments. As I felt that they just weren't relavent to the OP!

Haziedoll · 16/02/2012 12:40

"Another case of breed first, think of the consequences later"

I take that you only think that the rich should have children then?

We have a mortgage and pay mortgage protection insurance but that would only last for so long. If dh were to lose his job tomorrow and not find another one we would have to rely on benefits and would eventually have to be ask to be rehoused. As would 99.9 per cent of the population if the fell on hard times.

Kayano · 16/02/2012 12:40

Bupcakes 'I tell myself to suck it up I can't afford it'

So again, it's not about poor/ rich. It's about attitude ad realistic budgeting no matter your housing status or income

ValarMorghulis · 16/02/2012 12:41

you bid on it. if you didn't want it why bid?

stupid ignorant over entitled twat.

mamij · 16/02/2012 12:41

YABVVVVU!! you should be grateful that you are getting anything at all. We have to work our hardest to even survive. There are also people much worse off than you. Be grateful...!!!

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:41

Yes and I said upthread that my mum lives in a three-bed council flat and it's quite roomy. I did also say it sounds cramped. Sounds. Not definitely is.

EauDeLaPoisson · 16/02/2012 12:42

Asking to be rehoused if you cant afford to live in your current home is a basic right. Quibbling about the dimensions of the rooms or wanting a garden is a different thing altogether.

cestlavielife · 16/02/2012 12:42

and having everyone on the same level in a flat espec with small toddlers etc is actually very very good and much easier to cope with than a house with stairs stairgates ec. i have 3 dc in flat and when small it was excellent with being all on one level.

op to say you cannot survive in a flat is utter nonsense.

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:42

"you bid on it. if you didn't want it why bid?

stupid ignorant over entitled twat."

The council bid on her for her.

Kayano · 16/02/2012 12:43

But I could say 'it Sounds amazingly leafy and roomy and gorgeous'

And it
Would be no more true than what you posted, which makes your post pretty redundant and pointless...

ValarMorghulis · 16/02/2012 12:44

the op hasn't been forced to move into this flat. the council haven't told her she has to live in a flat.

the council put a list up offering all avaibale properties. if you would like to live there t hen you put your hand up, so to speak. If you are the person highest on the list then you get to live in that property.

she ASKED for the flat, and got it.

quite why she is so outraged is beyond me.

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 16/02/2012 12:44

This has all got rather grubby hasn't it?

FWIW, regarding the 'attitude to council tenants' on this thread - I was one of the first to throw a well deserved in the OPs direction and I AM a council tenant (in a second floor, 3 bedroomed flat as it happens) A second floor 3 bed property is completely suitable for a family of 6 as far as council policy is concerned (unless there are mobility issues) I'm going to assume the OP isn't in London as in the 8 years we were stuck in unsuitable accommodation before getting this place I only saw a handful of actual houses come up to bid on, and I gave up in the end - if we were 30th on a flat then we'd be 130th on a house. We only got this place in the end because we were more desperate/less picky than other bidders (and it was worth it, external appearances are very deceptive)

Evilclown · 16/02/2012 12:44

Op has not been back by the way.

Care to share the area and we can vote whether it is likely to be overcrowded.

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:44

Erm, well I'm just working on the assumption that OP knows the size of the flat hence why she knows it will be too small.

melika · 16/02/2012 12:45

So some kind soul at the council was looking out for her, what is the problem.

In a way, I hope she has to take it now.

WiiWishYouAMerryChristmas · 16/02/2012 12:45

OP, you are very lucky to be offered this flat, would you rather be homeless?

BupcakesandCunting · 16/02/2012 12:46

"the council put a list up offering all avaibale properties. if you would like to live there t hen you put your hand up, so to speak. If you are the person highest on the list then you get to live in that property.

she ASKED for the flat, and got it."

Again.

The council bid on her behalf.

boredandrestless · 16/02/2012 12:46

Ok so it may not be your ideal home, but it will be a cheap place to live whilst your family get back on their feet. At least you aren't on the 10th floor! Balcony doors can be locked, sell the trampoline and get a wii/xbox kinect/folding scooters/ something else more suitable.

You don't have to live there forever - look on it as 'it will do for now'.

NormanTebbit · 16/02/2012 12:46

I wouldn't like to be housed in a tower block, with four children and I can understand op's frustration but many, many people have to live the same way. My situation is not ideal, I know many families in cramped conditions paralysed by recession, redundancy and sky high rents/ house prices.

TheParan0idAndr0id · 16/02/2012 12:47

Its all about attitude though isn't it?

"I'd really hoped to get a house, I'm quite disappointed that we have been offered a flat, etc etc"

would have got far less replies than the OP's:

"Fucking hell, a fucking flat, the bastards, I want a fucking house for my fucking trampoline, like what the fuck am I suppposed to do with a balcony, fucking pricks can shove it up their arses"

Not going to win any sympathy really, is she?