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

[OMFFG]

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?

list ladies!! list.... it's not Friday yet!!

DH is also a tax payer thank you very fucking much as was I and we will both continue to be, so we will be 'subsidising' our own housing is that OK? We are eligible for council housing even though we are not on benefits, is that OK?

Also I was pregnant with our 4th child before we became homeless. All was fine before that, it literally went to shit before the pee stick was dry. Keep your fucking jibes about contraception to yourselves, my DCs have just as much right to be in this world as yours even though we may be poorer than you for now. Sickening!

We cannot turn this down as we will be put into Band 4 on the housing list (ie no chance). You only get one offer when you are homeless. We will be evicted from this 'temporary' house and then classed as intentionally homeless.

We have driven round to look at the flat. Absolutely awful with rubbish bags and broken glass all over the place. Flat stairway stinks and is filthy, front door looks like someone has attempted to kick it in. I also know it will be filthy inside. We are supposed to view it next week. According to a neighbour there, the family in there were apparently moved into a house. They had 2 teenage DCs so we get to take their place with 4 DCs ha, bloody, ha.

I AM SO FUCKING LUCKY AND ETERNALLY GRATEFUL! I bow down to the council and the other esteemed tax payers .

TotemPole, they will be evicted and viewed as "intentionally homeless" and the council will have no further duty to house them.

Why don't you turn it down and rent privately for the same amount you're paying now? Then you can pick the area at least to some extent?

I think the OP is being unreasonable, I am a council tenant. Used to own a house until I lost it. We are in a first floor flat, I nearly hugged the housing officer when we were offered it. I was so relieved not to be homeless any more DH was made redundant again at the end of the year but we have our flat cosy and redundancy this time although very stressful has not had the same risk homelessness so I am bloody relieved.

TotemPole they would be given x amount of weeks,to find some where to live.Where i live it would be 28 days.If you haven't found some where by then,you could go to court and ask for longer,most likey another 28 days.
The council wouldn't allow you to return to emergency housing for a set amount of time.Plus you would have to prove you had lost another home i.e. landlord decided to sell.

OldLadyKnowsNothing, thanks. Not a good place to be. So really the OP doesn't have much choice.

OP, I can understand why you are disappointed BUT as long as there are safety features on the windows so the kids can open them so far and you get a baby gate for the summer when you want the balcony door open, the flat will meet your needs.

Ideal with four kids would be a four bedroom house with a garden, councils rarely have 4 beds and a lot of the nice houses with gardens were sold off. Most of the properties available for let in my area are flats. I am not going to say beggars can't be choosers because you are NOT a beggar. That would be rude. But you would be a fool to refuse the secure tenure and affordable rent, you are unlikely to get much better fron the council. And having a council place makes you luckier than those stuck in private lets paying grossly inflated rents and having no security even if it's a flat with no garden IMHO.

I dont know how other places work, but when I filled the housing forms in here (8 years ago and still waiting) it said that they rarely offer flats to families with children. I wouldn't want to live in a flat either, but if I was desperate, I would take it!

Hopefully someone with real need will get the flat then OP.

Am finding it ever so hard to summon up any sympathy for you, quite honestly. You are foul-mouthed and ranting. Didn't someone earlier down the thread just quietly say you are entitled to turn down up to three properties the council automatically bids on for you? Why didn't you do that instead of coming on here with your SHOUTY thread title designed to wind everybody up?

rightround, thanks to you too. :)

So they would be literally homeless, nowhere to go.

you'd already decided to hate it before you looked at it.

Thems the breaks dear, and (in your favourite language it seems) if you don't like the fucking flat get your own fucking house and house your fucking self.

It is a shame that there aren't enough houses to go around, and the system seems overly complicated and arduous. But thats the system you've got. Blame Thatcher.

Take the ruddy flat and make the best of it, woman. That's how it works. Many of us have been there as well, and it's not a big deal.

OMFFG, you can clean up inside the flat.

If the outside is dangerous then put in a complaint with the council. There might be existing residents who feel the same as you.

Oh, it does sound like a shithole.

Well, you have a few options. Be properly homeless. Find a property to rent at the rate you are paying now. Take the flat.

Four children in a three bedroomed flat is not ideal. But £380 a month! Ten years ago, I was paying £375 a month for a room in a shared house! If you are paying £800 (?) a month now, you will be saving well over £400 a month. That's £5000 a year. Surely a year or two of grinning and bearing it would set you up for something better?

And if you think the area around the flat isn't up to scratch, organise the residents to sort it, or get some rubber gloves on, or get some help from the council in improving things. Once it's a bit more cared for people will stop chucking so much rubbish there - that's how it generally works.

OP i really hope the council get all the repairs done for you.Ask for everything to be sorted before you move in.i.e the front door.I know it doesn't alway work like that, but at least try and make them sort it.
Try and remember you can close the front door,and make it nice inside.
Then asap get back on the list to be rehomed.Like i said before you will have more points,because you have DC in a flat.

Tell them to stick it up their arses. Then someone who will actually be grateful for it can have it

I admit to not wading through the last 11 pages,

But wtf is wrong with a three bed flat with TWO balconies on the second floor in a small block?

Sounds fine to me.

What did you expect to get?

Sounds like you think its beneath you.

It isnt. Its a chance to get on your feet again and have a stable home of your own.
Take it and be grateful. Not to the tax payer but just generally. Be grateful you are being offered a decent home to live in.

Make a go of it. It could be a lot worse and TBH you dont really have a choice do you?

Wonder how many people on this thread would be happy to live there?

Really!?

Or would you be happy and grateful if you were made redundant, then homeless and then got housed in a run down tower block.

No ranting?!! No swearing?!!

Oh no, you would all be sooooo grateful

OP when I was offered my council house 3 years ago (on waiting list for 5 years-2 disabled dcs and living in 1 room) I cried for 4 days after viewing it-it was nowhere near dcs school or my family.It was FILTHY, run down and i hated it.

It has taken a lot of hard work and I now love it, it really feels like home.It wasnt easy at all at first as it was not what i wanted or where i wanted but I had no choice I had to accept or would have been bottom of list again.

I do not want to get involved with all the arguing on here, rights/wrongs of things being said I just want you to know that I really do understand how you must be feeling and to offer some reassurance that things can work out and you can make it your home and be happy there.

bibbitybobbitt with all due respect I think I know a bit more than 'someone ealier down the thread' about my own situation. We do not get to turn down ANY properties as we are 'homeless'.

If we already had a council property and decided to churn out more DCs and make ourselves deliberately overcrowded, we could turn down 3 properties but as we are lower than the low (i.e homeless), we have to take whatever comes up. I did not bid on this property especially as every week, houses have come up not flats! The lovely council housing officer did on my behalf .

Op...what does your DH think?

You can't make yourself 'deliberately overcrowded'!!!