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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:
HappyMummyOfOne · 17/02/2012 13:00

OP, why is a 3 bedroomed flat unsuitable yet a 3 bedroomed house apparently fine??? I suspect the other posters are correct in that you wouldnt want to buy a flat under the right to buy scheme.

I like how you are quite happy for another family to have the flat apart from your family. You chose to become "a large family with young children" so can hardly play that card now. You knew whatever happended in the future you would have to house them so its not like it was totally unexpected.

The lower rent is now a red herring since you have admitted HB is paying the large current rent in part so i doubt there is much of a cost savings from your own income anyway.

If you truly hate the idea of living in a flat then go and rent privately, however you appear to not want to do that so you are limiting your choices no-one else.

CreamolaFoamless · 17/02/2012 13:00

quote from happyinherts Isnt it important that 4 children deserve a 3 bedroom house?

Well actually NO

The op was offered a 3 bedroom accomodation but she is turning here nose up at it because it is a flat ....not a house

crunchbag · 17/02/2012 13:03

Yes there are houses available but you are not high enough on the list for those. These houses are available to people with higher priority than you and yes these people have the 'luxury' to refuse a flat, and maybe because they already live in a flat, just a thought.

Try to see the positive, it is a change to get your life back on track.

crunchbag · 17/02/2012 13:04

chance not change

Evilclown · 17/02/2012 13:05

Quite Shock that four children "deserve" a house, but three or two don't. There are the same number of bedrooms after all, the house has a garden and the flat doesn't.

MrsBovary · 17/02/2012 13:06

I don't think you are being unreasonable.

I agree with Northernwreck about taking it, making it nice/safe and begin saving for your own place.

Is the surrounding area nice?

Feminine · 17/02/2012 13:06

I think it all depends where op lives.

Some places might have lots of large families waiting...

op you need to use this situation as a life-line, its how the system works.

Take the flat, but don't give up your idea of somewhere larger...

I suspect that actually legally, you are not really that in need, mainly because you are covering most of your rent yourselves. That has to sting a bit, I understand. There are folk out there wholly reliant on help for their rent etc...when your DH lost his job/your home you were in huge need. The council probably don't see that now?

You kind of fixed things yourselves.

Although (imo) you are still very deserving and council homes should be available for all families.

What about a HA?

HappyMummyOfOne · 17/02/2012 13:07

happyinherts, why do "4 children need a house"? They could have one but the OP doesnt want to go and find one and expects the state to give her a place that matches her expectations. Lots of posters have mentioned private renting, if she truly felt the flat was not suitable for her family she would already be seeking a private place but shes not.

crunchbag · 17/02/2012 13:09

And nobody deserves a house, no matter how many children you have.
I know plenty of families who started out in a flat until they could afford a house.

EauDeLaPoisson · 17/02/2012 13:13

Most people buying a house may feel they 'deserve' a house but could only afford a flat. Why should someone get their exact needs in life met just because they are a council tennant when others have to put up with whatever they can reasonably afford? I thought council housing was to provide people with housing at a reasonable cost not to give people more rights to a nice property than anyone else in the world?

happyinherts · 17/02/2012 13:13

HappyMummy - just in the sense that if there are a few houses available and OP is near the top of the list - why cant a family with 4 children have one? Are there so many families with 5+ children in temporary accommodation waiting for a house?

The rate in which people seem to be waiting for properties, children will have left home by the time they get allocated housing, by which time the family priority has changed.

Private renting isn't secure. I don't blame the OP for not going down that route. She's been in temporary accommodation, and I think it's important to lay down secure roots for education and work purposes. If there are any houses available, I still do think families with 4 children should have them, that is what they were built for.

Lueji · 17/02/2012 13:17

So, you are getting some HB.
So, you actually lied before?

Nice. That certainly made me think better of you.

Also, please kindly do point out in which posts anyone:
seem to enjoy other people's misfortune
and
feel that they can judge people on the 'lower' end of the scale to them (most pps were in council housing, so in the "lower" end of the scale to you)

It's probably the Boden types who are all: oh, poor you, of course you deserve a house. How could they do it to you? Imagine living in a flat. Wink

Disclaimer: I don't own a single Boden item. :)

elinorbellowed · 17/02/2012 13:25

I am not going to comment particularly on the OP because I suspect it's a wind-up, what with the trampoline comment. I agree with bupcakes.

However, what I am going to comment on is the issue of ENTITLEMENT. (As it soon often referred to here.) Actually, we are all entitled to safe and affordable housing. Council housing is not supposed to be subsidised housing, it's supposed to be AFFORDABLE housing. Massive difference. You pay the council rent, from your wage, and you pay your tax. The council reinvests the money in services and in maintaining the properties. some people might call this society
But because all the council housing stock was sold in Thatcher's gerrymandering project and not replaced, people are now trapped in private rentals paying some other bastard's mortgage (or worse, their Housing Benefit paying someone else's mortgage) or in council estates being sneered at by the overworked mortgaged to the hilt middle classes.

Loonie left wing bleeding heart enough for you?

DialsMavis · 17/02/2012 13:30

I am sorry if I have missed your reply or an important bit of info, i am very late to this thread. But, if you can afford private renting why not just rent yourselves a nice house? I see that you want to save a for another mortgage, but that in my eyes is a want rather than a need.

youarekidding · 17/02/2012 13:34

Flats and houses aren't given out dependent on priority. Just a suitable property is. (except where there is specific need - eg medical)

So you can be top of the list, not bid on a property and someone below you (next priority) will get it. You can wait out for a property you want. That's the way the 'choices' system works.

Except here the OP has had a property she hasn't chosen forced upon her because the council bid her for it when she was top of the list. If they didn't she would be top of the list this week and she would have got the 3 bedroom house.

The OP is NOT complaining about being given a social house - but that she was given a choice for 2 years, waited patiently to get to the top of the list, then had her choice taken away when she was there.

And yes, there is often a difference in a 3 bed flat to a 3 bed house. Usually in the living space, no of rooms, houses usually have a loo downstairs - helpful with 4 children - as well as a bathroom. Houses often have seperate lounge and diner - helpful when there's 6 at a table whereas flats are often lounge/diner. And kitchens are often bigger in a house - helpful when feeding 6. Plus the added bonus of a garden so it increases the 'play/living' space somewhat.

I guess if the OP knew 2 years ago she would be forced to take any property, having been told she had the choice, she could have maybe looked at relocating the family to somewhere they could afford to rent privately. It would have involved her DH finding work elsewhere but they wouldn't have hung on for 2 years with a misconception they were given.

youarekidding · 17/02/2012 13:36

Elinor your wasting your breath. I said similar a few pages back. Everyone is entitled to register for housing and everyone is told they have a choice in what affordable housing they'll get.

The reality is different.

Lueji · 17/02/2012 13:41

Except here the OP has had a property she hasn't chosen forced upon her because the council bid her for it when she was top of the list. If they didn't she would be top of the list this week and she would have got the 3 bedroom house.

Not as I understand it. She may have been top of the list of those considered "homeless", but not for bidding to houses (people already in council property might have been bidding).

For all we know the person who bid in the council (if that was the case) might have thought they were doing a favour to this person who was about to be evicted from their temporary accommodation.

happyinherts · 17/02/2012 13:45

Well, they could have had the decency to have asked the OP if she was ok with them bidding for the property, couldn't they?

Property has been empty for a long, long time. Ask yourself why?

allthatglittersisnotgold · 17/02/2012 13:48

An honest question..why have 4 children if you can't really afford them? And then end up in a situation where you are stressed whether your housing will be big enough? I know what I can and can't afford so live accordingly.

happyinherts · 17/02/2012 13:51

oh here we go - back to the why have 4 children question. People's circumstances change, you know - redundancy, illness happens in life.

hotheels · 17/02/2012 13:55

In my council when you are in temp homeless accomadation, the council will only bid on your behalf if you are being too selective precious or have come to the end of your time in temp homeless.

allthatglittersisnotgold · 17/02/2012 14:03

Happyinherts, yeah but her youngest child is 16 months and she says they have been "homeless" for nearly 2 years. That would not have happened instantly. Ragardless think she is BU, flat fits all your "god given" offspring. As long as it's in good condition then don't complain.

CreamolaFoamless · 17/02/2012 14:04

quote from @youarekiddin but that she was given a choice for 2 years, waited patiently to get to the top of the list, then had her choice taken away when she was there

do you really think it takes 2 years to get to the top of a Council House Waiting list ? I want to live were you live then Wink

And , just by the by, the council can never bid for you...well not in Scotland anyway

IDoNotLIKEFun · 17/02/2012 14:06

Why didn't the OP know that she would be made to take the first available property? It was clear to me that if I went into temporary accommodation that this would be the case. I didn't have access to the wealth of information on the internet back then.

This was in 2002, my first experience of council housing having lost my own house and then the one I rented with the equity from the first (due to my LANDLADY being prosecuted for fraud as she was claiming housing benefit for it despite living with her BF and getting rent from me!)

I couldn't risk my daughter's health, so I took a very cramped flat in a slightly better area.

DD suffered a life-threatening injury due to the lack of space anyway Sad and for that reason only were we eventually re-housed despite the council knowing all about her particular vulnerability for years.

People have to make difficult choices. I sometimes wonder if I had held on for a more spacious flat / maisonette with crucially more square feet despite banging techno music all day and night, needles and piss on the stairs then perhaps my daughter might not have almost died.

So excuse me if I don't especially care about needing space for a trampoline.

LilacWaltz · 17/02/2012 14:19

So op, if you get the council to let you turn this flat down, and still get to keep your homeless status, then what will happen then?

You will be free to continue bidding?

Til when? What happens if next available property is a run down house in a bad area? Or another flat?

Will you take the next available 3 bed property?