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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

This is insane

97 replies

horsesforcourses1 · 27/03/2012 19:42

I just heard that a friend of a friends DD has just got a brand new 3 bedroomed council house, she?s single, no children and 20 years old !!!!

OP posts:

BrianCoxHasScaryHair · 27/03/2012 21:32

My cousin got a brand new 2 bed house, she was single but working.

She lives in a neighbouring town to me. At the time I was on the council waiting list and had been for over 12 months (DD was 15 months)- she literally applied, was on the list for 2 weeks and got the house. I wasn't very happy but then again, different town with lower housing waiting list (this was 7 years ago).

In all fairness, it was in a hell hole area and she had nothing but trouble there - she had been told by the HA that they were trying to bring the area up by moving in young professionals to some of the houses.

CrystalMaize · 27/03/2012 21:34

What's wrong with Peterborough?

CrystalMaize · 27/03/2012 21:35

Maybe you need to confirm the facts before you get steamed up, OP?

Sephiroth · 27/03/2012 21:47

I believe you op

It's called the choice based lettings system - if you have a urgent housing need ie previously homeless you are given a certain priority in the waiting list and can then bid on any property, if no one else in more dire circumstances bids then you win the property. She would become seriously unstuck when the universal credit kicks in and she is deemed as under occupying as she would then have to pay extra for under occupied rooms ( much to the ire of many grannies alone in three bed homes) .

Of course slightly bonkers ways of allocating scarce resources is what the British specialise in

blapbird · 27/03/2012 21:48

Codandchops · 27/03/2012 21:55

There is a massive shortage of social housing and NO WAY is this correct OP. Unless of course she is doing "shared ownership" in which case she would be able to do this.

No way has she just been offered a three bed house by the council/housing association for just social renting though. Criteria is very strict around property size to family size.

Codandchops · 27/03/2012 21:57

Even under choice based leggings she wouldn't get this. All CBL does is give you choice of area - nothing else. You will still get the size of property you need unless you are doing shared ownership.

Codandchops · 27/03/2012 21:57

Leggings???

I meant "lettings" bloody predictive text.

MadameChinLegs · 27/03/2012 22:03

My friend is a single bloke living in a three bed house. He is desperate to move to another area into a one bed flat, but unable to find what he wants. His current house is in a dire area, and as such, is not being pursued for a family.

My SIL is a 24y/old single girl, and is living in a three bed maisonette, however, I know that there is a no-children policy on her block of flats, hence the reason there's three bed flats going to those that do not need them. It's a shame they can't justr change that policy, and fill all six flats with families. It would mke it such a lovely place to be, and the flats are huge huge huge.

Such a waste.

usualsuspect · 27/03/2012 22:06

You can place a bid on three properties each week. The properties need to be suitable for your housing needs ( for example if you are a single applicant you need to place bids on one bed properties)

There you go , from the peterbough housing site.

LST · 27/03/2012 22:51

When I was single I got given a ground floor 1 bed flat. I have always paid full rent, council tax, bills and taxes and work full time. Now I live with my DP and we have had a DS we are in the process of moving into a 2 bed semi. It's taken months and months. They don't give council houses out to anybody around here. And if you are single or a couple then you will never get anything more than 1 bed.

lesley33 · 27/03/2012 23:10

I know single people in family housing - in areas/streets where families refuse to move to. I know it is hard for people in London to believe, but there are still in some areas hard to let social housing.

LST · 27/03/2012 23:12

My nan has a 3 bed council house. But you wouldn't get one. If you already live in one that's a different story. That's assured tenancy for you. I could be in my 2 bed for the rest of my life. Even if one day I don't need it.

Codandchops · 28/03/2012 05:42

I think in terms of what the OP is saying lesley is that the person she k ows has been offered a brand new 3bed house for rent as a single person. No matter what area this is, a new 3bed is not going to be turned down or be hard to let. I think the OP has got her facts wrong. Either that or this is a shared ownership property. Fact is a single person is not going to be offered a brand new 3 bed house for social rent. It's just not going to happen.

When I needed council accommodation as a single pare t with a child I was offered a "hard to let" property in a crappy area (think slum flats) which had three bedrooms. I got this as I had a child. I would not have got this as a single person despite it being a slum flat due for demolition in the near future.

The OP does not have all the facts, she has "heard it" and believed it. She needs to look at the council's lettings site to inform herself of the true facts.

sashh · 28/03/2012 05:45

It could depend on race/ ethnicity, some places have quotas and if you have an estate you have to fill it with quotas dependent on race / ethnicity / social group etc etc.

GinSlinger · 28/03/2012 06:04

well I think it's lovely because the goats will get a bedroom each and there should be enough room for the 1000ft plasma screen too.

ibizagirl · 28/03/2012 06:07

Could be true. My friend had new neighbours move in about two months ago. Bear in mind it is a housing association house. Three bedroom detached with garage (it was a private est but builders went belly up so was bought by housing association) en suite etc. Lovely they are. So new neighbours next door. A well to do couple in their early sixties. In a three bed with no children. One married friend of mine is in a flat with two children and another on the way and she was told she is adequately housed at the moment. Its madness. I think its not what you know but who you know. And by the way, there are three areas in my town that are building new housing association places as i speak and two lots already finished.

CurrySpice · 28/03/2012 06:24

I did laugh at choice based leggings

Amber, many many HAs are offshoots, almos and otherwise offshoots of previous council housing departments do I think it's fair enough that many people get confused / still call them council houses

Codandchops · 28/03/2012 06:25

Definitely not who you know, my Mums oldest and best friend works in housing allocations as a housing officer and it didn't get me housed. The only reason I have this lovely two bed HA house now is because my son is autistic. Before that all I was offered was the slum flat. If it was a case of "who you know" I'd have been here three years ago!

Could it be the retired couple have health issues other people don't know about?

One of my neighbours was housed here as a single person but is an alcoholic and so her Mum lives with her on and off and her sister stays regularly. We know when they are not around because those are times she is plastered . Only my neighbour is the tenant though and you'd believe she'd been housed as a single person here if you didn't know the facts. She has obviously been allocated two bedrooms so that carers can stay with her.

You can under occupy by one bedroom for allocation purposes but not two bedrooms.

MrsSleepy · 28/03/2012 06:30

What part of Peterborough? You'd have to pay some people to live in some areas of it!

I live near Peterborough and there is a serious lack of housing there so I don't believe this at all, However they are most likely in private rented that is being paid for by the LHA.

Codandchops · 28/03/2012 06:32

Families stuck in flats are my personal gripe. I once saw a family in a one bed flat which had horrendous mold and damp because there were five of them. As a health visitor I had never seen such horrendous damp and mould on the walls. I actually photographed it and put copies in all the children's records so that if respiratory issues surfaced there was a record of why they might have occurred.
It took forever to get them out and involved massive complaints from me, GP, MP and environmental health.

And don't get me started on "adequately housed". Do you know it is quite legal to tell a family with two children under 5 in a one bed flat to give the bedroom to the children and the adults can get a sofa bed for sleeping in the lounge? And this can go on for years - locally up until the oldest child is 8/9.

MyNameIsntFUCKINGWarren · 28/03/2012 07:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JustHecate · 28/03/2012 07:37

look. If this is real, and there is really a single person living in a three bedroomed house - feel free to report it, if you feel that strongly about it. If a single person has been given a three bed property, that's the council's problem. If she's lied, then they'll take it off her. Maybe. I don't know.

You have arms I presume. Access to a phone. Hello, is that the council. It has come to my attention that there is a single person that you have allocated a three bed property to...

If you're not prepared to personally do anything - shut up about it. Let it go.

JustHecate · 28/03/2012 07:39

oh, and it may be part of the council's temporary housing stock.

When we were facing homelessness, the council told us that if a house did not become available right away, we may be housed in one of a few homes they kept for temporary accommodation. This one happened to be a bungalow in Matlock.

Anyone homeless could have gone in there until something came up.

If this is genuine - perhaps you simply don't know the facts.

TroublesomeEx · 28/03/2012 08:30

Well a friend of mine was given a 3 bed council house as a single 19 year old man.

It was in Oldham. And I know it was true - I ate meals there, stopped overnight there and sat in his living room watching his TV (not plasma screen though )

It happens.

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