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?

Stop being a beggar then. Quite simple. Or it was until you had four (!) children.

Funny that on MN people on above average incomes are allowed to rant and swear and be pissed off about about losing child benefit.

But if someone gets offered a council flat that looks like it might be in a state of disrepair they shouldn't even be a little pissed off about it.

And if someone may be fucking homeless due to HB cuts they have a mahoosive sense of entitlement wanting a roof over their heads.

And disabled people losing benefit are necessary collateral damage because a massive 0.5% claim it fraudulently.

When I got a council property 23 years ago you only ever got a flat first ever.

We had a two bed flat with one child, we asked for a house and waited four years for a two bed house. I had the house 9 years then gave it up to my ex husband and no live in private rented.

OP you already pay over the odds for a shit pit, you have failed to answer why you cannot continue in private rented accommodation elsewhere and get housing benefit to subsidise the rent. Surely that would be better for you>

The problem with a lot of Council blocks near where I was is that it is less of a mixed community than it was. Any housing ideally should have a mix of young and old, families, singles and couples, genders, races etc. etc. The levels of need should also be varied. So, in any housing there will be people with MH issues, addictions, LD or other needs. This is balanced by neighbours who can help out, keep an eye out and the place rubs along. A community.

Council housing has been so squeezed that people are not offered it unless they are desperate with multiple needs. There is no mixture, just people who are having a really hard time all together. People talk about "druggies" and similar but there is addiction everywhere. It is not balanced out by older people and working families so places go downhill. The idea that Council housing should only be used for the most desperate 'cases' is great for people who want to save money and Conservatives but it doesn't work. Any housing needs a balance and that has been lost.

I was talking to a good friend about council estates recently and he was recounting his experience of growing up on a big estate in Sheffield, in a high rise.
He said that everyone there was really happy to have lovely new kitchens, everyone on the estate had a job, went on holiday to Spain every year, and many had a car.
The same estate now is a pit of despair.

The problems some council estates face are due to an accumulation of many factors, including mass unemployment, housing sell off and Crack.

As I said, I would love a council house, but there are some estates I really wouldn't go near. And I have lived in some right shitholes in my time.

So, it really does depend on where it is imo.
I do think OP's tone is a bit off though tbh.

I have been saying that for years mrs. You have to be so desperate to qualify for SH now that you end up with estates full of desperate people.

I think social housing is a right if you need it. Why shouldnt it be?

Good housing at a fair rent can only be good for a country.

OpMum no its the OP's attitude towards the housing that is pissing me off. She is being offered a lifeline. It might be a tatty lifeline but its there nontheless.

Its a way of her family getting back on their feet. They have been paying really high private rents. She could stay doing that if she really objected to being housed in this flat.

If she takes the flat she has a chance of making a home for her family and putting money aside for when they are in the position to move on.

The flat should be clean and in good repair. I dont think council tenants should be so grateful that they have to accept a dangerous and filthy home. Councils have responsibilities to their tenants.

But its a 3 bed, second floor flat with balconies. I may have low standards (growing up in social housing and all that) but it doesnt sound that bad to me.

Honestly, if you had that attitude and that language at the council office, I'd have gladly been the officer who bid you on the flat.

Do you even know which families got the houses? Possibly with more children, possibly special needs members, possibly on the waiting list for longer.

As you said, you are in a band where you have no chance of getting accommodation, so why the disappointment? Either take it or leave it.
Yes, houses have been on offer most of the time, but there is a reason why you never get them and you probably never will even if you were not forced on this flat.
Life is not always fair.

Oh, BTW, both the flat and then the house we bought were fairly run down and we worked hard to refurbish them. Even if the outside is not perfect, you can still make the inside better.

I think we all understand your disappointment, just not your bad attitude.
As others said, use this as a platform for a better future, or find your own accommodation.

I'm sure there's plenty of housing estates I wouldn't want to live on, but having a house on one wouldn't be much better. The OP is on about balconies when that's not really the issue. If it's on a terrible estate, then being in a house wouldn't be much better esp. if you have difficult neighbours. If the area is fine, then fussing about not having a house and the 'danger' of balconies sounds quite precious when you are being offered a three-bed flat.

If you don't want to be around others in social housing, then you just can't accept social housing (and the lower rents etc). Just rent privately, as someone else said, and get HB to pay the rent.

You know what OP, You really sound ungrateful, the more I think about it! I had to go up to my new homeless council flat which is temporary this morning and had my car broken into while I was there, and you know what OP? I am still fucking grateful that the council are going to put a roof over mine and my children's heads You need to get over yourself, beggars can't be choosers!

@OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere fair enough

OP I posted several pages ago that its ok to be disappointed and think luck is against you when you hoped for a house rather than a flat as you have 4 dc.

What is a real turn off for me is the way you are slating the council as if this is a personal slight to you and you are very offensive in tone and language.

Many posters have written about their situations and offered advice but you have neither acknowledged or thanked them instead you have ranted at those posts you dont like.

Mrs Terry-Exactly that.
The older council estates where I live are fine because they are full of families who have been there a long time. The HA estate where I used to live was pretty bad, because to get housed there you essentially have to be either homeless or have social problems. (I was renting privately there).

Council housing was NEVER conceived, or previously run, as a "safety net" for the dispossesed and inable to function.
It was just cheap housing for ordinary people, often built with the idea of community at the heart of it.

OP, take the flat and immediately appeal. Get some proper advice from Shelter and the CAB tomorrow morning and try to get your housing officer to talk you through the options again.
If the appeal fails you can either privately swap after 6months/1 year (usually) and use some of the difference in rent to make the flat appealing, so that a swap is more likely. You may also be able to stay on the list because of your children sharing/any SN or medical issues and transfer within your HA.

What you don't want is to lose the place at the head of the queue because you don't like the flat - if you're taken off the list for refusing this flat then the last two years in temporary accommodation have been for nothing. At least by taking it, you have options.

again, as I said about 10 pages ago £380 a month does she not understand how cheap that is!????

I used to own my own 2nd storey flat (bigger than the 1 and a half bed house we're in now) in a naice private block. The stairwell still stank of piss.

I do feel sorry for you OP. Your world has been turned upside down. A few of my friends have lost their jobs recently due to their companies going bust. There before the Grace of God and all that.

IMO you came on here for a rant and I think it's fear of the unknown that's making you feel and behave like you are but I think you're going to have to take what you're being offered until you're in a better position.

Good luck.

I haven't read the whole thread OP but could you move in and then register on homeswap or whatever that site where you can swap properties with other council tenants is called?

OK thank you to all the posters who have taken the time to see this from my point of view rather than shout me down as an 'entitled' low life.

I am extremely narked about this as I was aware we would end up in a similar shithole to the one we were in but paying less than half which would make it sweeter and allow us to start saving to get another mortgage. I did not imagine that we would end up in a highrise shithole without even a shitty garden and the worry of the DCs walking up the stinky stairwells alone in case there are druggies sitting there. The place does not even have an intercom or a locked front entrance - anyone could get in there. So forgive my fucking horrible attitude. It is hard to be grateful though when all I have seen on the bidding systems is houses.

There is another thing which has annoyed me as well. I used to work for the council in a senior position (not in housing but well known to senior management in housing) and left due to workplace bullying and stress. I have not worked since and I am a leetle bit paranoid that they 'have it in for me', however irrational that sounds.

Also the lettings company managing the 'temporary' private accommodation for the council have gone bust and the owner wants her house back (we have had her here on the doorstep shouting that she has not been paid for 4 months but we pay direct to the lettings agent) so the council would have had to find us alternative accommodation anyway and they admitted that is why they bid on this flat for us as they need us out of here. The week before last there were 2 3 bed houses and this week there is another 3 bed house. Just adds to my feeling of bad fucking luck that keeps following us around.

So to all who have been understanding that this is a bloody hard road to walk and who have not made any crass judgements about us having 4 beautiful, polite, well adjusted children who will be a great asset to society. The rest of you - meh - fuck off.

I still dont get why if you think the places are beneath you and unsuitable you dont just find your own private rental rather than sit here moaning about how unfair life is.

Hundreds of people would love a cheap rental so that they could save up for a mortgage but it doesnt happen for many. Given your credit history of losing a house you may end up paying a high mortgage rate so may not end up buying again anyway.

Were you doing the bullying ?

So if we don't agree with you we can fuck off yeah?

You asked for opinions you got them.

If you feel they 'have it in for you' then appeal, get your local M.P. involved, CAB, Shelter etc...As you worked for the council you are obviously aware how the system works and that it is sometimes shit sometimes good. It is just luck of the draw and on this occasion you haven't been lucky.

OP, I understand your distress, and your anger, but the reality in social housing is dire. The authority I work for has 11,000 households needing housing and 1,000 properties let a year, mostly 1 beds.

Someone else may have already posted the following, apolohies if so. Legally you need to check how this offer is being made to you, if it is a Part 6 offer (final offer) to your household under homelessness legislation and you refuse it there is a (very high) risk you will be found intentionally homeless, which means the housing authority will no longer provide you with accommodation. Your only option at this point will be to approach social services to see if they'll help you, in my area they stick families in emergency accommodation or the kind of accommodation you are in at the moment, in others they threaten to take your children into care if you don't sort something out yourself!

However you can accept and review the suitability of the offer, I would advise you to do this. I have to say on the basis of what you've posted so far in my experience (both when I worked at a law centre challenging just these sorts of things, and in my current role within a homeless service, where I look at these reviews) I don't think you will win, but if you get good independent advice there is always a possibility, and at least if you don't you will have the flat. Once your tenancy is secure you could try to get a mutual exchange, or as others have said save up and go back to private rented or shared ownership?

gettingeasier