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?

How many times ... anyone can apply for council housing even people who work

I think maybe OP doesn't want to privately rent a house,because most aren't a secure tenancy.With a council house you nearly always have a secure tenancy.So don't have to worried about your lease coming to an end.
I know that OP said if she had got a council house, she would have done it up,and when they were back on their feet got another morgage.Leaving a nice house for the next tenant.
But most of the time people that find they are able to get a morgage further down the line,then buy the council house at a cheaper price.Leaving even less houses.
Maybe just maybe this was the OP plan.
I know i could be wrong but....

Yes, usualsuspect, but they will be put on waiting lists and as in this case, they won't be considered a priority, which is why she should be happy to be given anything at this point.

I know someone in much worse circumstances who got nothing from her council. She didn't even get temporary accommodation and had to borrow and beg to get on private renting, because her ex had left her destitute in fact, but not on paper. :(
Her house barely has heating, she can not afford clothes for her young children and has lost a lot of weight because, yes, food is scarce.

By comparison, the indignation of the OP at being offered a flat (good grief) at such low rent is annoying, yes. I'm sure the other person would have been delighted to exchange.

No housing benefit AT ALL??

Bit odd...... Rent nearly £900 a month and FOUR dependents??
Yet NO housing benefit?

The DH salary must be quite high then..

Council house rents are not too low , private rents are too high

If there were more affordable secure private lets maybe the OP would be happier to privately rent

The whole private rental market needs changing imo

usualsuspect Yes, anyone can apply.
Whether or not you actually ever got a house is another matter.
A couple earning 50k plus with 1 DC wouldn't get very far though.

X post with Lue

I know how the council system works , I also know that before maggie sold all the council houses off ,many to buy to let landlords btw ,more people were offered affordable housing , not just the desperate

So in conclusion I blame Maggie thatcher

Lueji - getting council housing is nothing like being offered something by a friend.

I will say it again - social welfare is not charity, or a favour, it is based on entitlements.

"By comparison, the indignation of the OP at being offered a flat (good grief) at such low rent is annoying, yes."

So presumably it's fine for people who know someone in a worse situation than your friend to pour scorn on the injustice of her situation and tell her to count her blessings?

Because unless you are the most unfortunate person in the history of the world, you are not allowed to get pissed off when shit things happen.

I think that other posters know how the system works
( usualsuspect ) and I also know that even in the 'buy your council house days' I would a) never have been offered a council house and b) therefore never have been able to buy one.

So in conclusion I blame Maggie thatcher

usualsuspect - at last something everyone can agree on

Yes, she has entitlements, AThinginyourlife, and the OP is less entitled than other people on waiting lists, clearly, or she would have already got a house, but she hasn't been top of the list and probably won't be soon unless by sheer luck.

I don't think it's an injustice what happened to her, that's the issue. It's not what she wanted, but not injustice.

I didn't pour scorn, but she does need a reality check that we don't all get what we want.

And the shit thing that happened now was to get a flat at low cost renting.

Sausages, where have I dictated to you how you should feel? Wind your neck in.

Very mature bupcakes "wind your neck in indeed...."

We are definitely not all entitled to get what we want....

and that is the crux of the matter....which the blinkered don't seem to have grasped!

Thank goodness this thread is nearly at an end!

Hey bups I don't usually do this as it comes across as needy but I have been saying the same as you too. Please add me to the voice of reason list.

Oh dear.........

IdonotlikeFun has summed up how I feel as well. We spend several years in a 1 bed HA flat with leaky windows and damp walls (only fixed when we got the council to make an order forcing the HA to fix things) with 2 adults and 2 children sharing a bedroom (this does not count as statutory overcrowding because DH & I could have slept in the living room!). The flat below us was raided twice by the police as one of the older children was selling drugs and they used to play music loud enough to make our windows rattle. This all stemmed from DH being made homeless by fire a few years before after a fatal racist arson attack on the block where he rented a room. It was a one offer and you are off list situation because of homelessness.

We eventually successfully bid on a larger two bed flat in a better location and moved (bid nearly every month for a couple of years) but I will never forget DS1 in his primary school uniform having to squeeze past police in stab vests and helmets smashing down the neighbours door,so he could get to the stairs to our flat.

The OP has been offered adequate housing at an affordable rent which is more than many people get.

So sod the fucking trampoline...

This thread does make me wonder how certain posters react we their RL friends go through difficult times, especially when they disagree with them. Do they gather in a gang to repeatedly shout at, abuse and name call. Because that is exactly what has happened on this thread. The OP is a real person trying to muddle through in a difficult time. She may be unreasonable , she may have said some daft things but lots of posters seemed to have forgotten that she is a real person.

and yet some of the most openly hostile and least tolerant seem to be supportive of the OP's attitude molly

My friends are generally lovely people, happy with their lot....humble and totally unlike the OP.

I for one am very supportive of those going through difficult times...and support various charities financially. What you cannot grasp is that it is the OPs attitude that people object to...not her going through a difficult time.

Molly when the 'club' members appear :( it's time to go!!

:o

Including the OP, sausage. Openly hostile and intolerant.

Indeed in RL I have spent time trying to convince someone that the council was not giving help to let them lead the good life, but to help them survive.

There's not enough to go round everyone, as patently clear from the financial crisis many countries are going through. We have to make do with what is available.

If a real person is unreasonable and says daft things, she must be told that she is. Not cuddled. It will only make her worse.

Ahh nice to see the persecution complexes still being trotted out...

How can it be anything like hating the poor? For one the OP is NOT poor...if they can afford to pay nearly £900 a month rent with no benefits contributing to that then in whos world are they poor? They can afford to private rent. OP chooses not to as a house exactly to her liking costs too much. So instead chooses to whine about a perfectly viable option offered to her instead of being proactive.

You must be quite fortunate to have friends who never make a mistake and never say anything daft. I think it is quite possible to suggest to the OP that she is being unreasonable in some way whilst still showing compassion.

Exactly Lueji

molly I think you are just relishing an argument aren't you...and trying to be clever

Sorry...but I'm not playing