To take a bigger council house than we need?

[isthisunreasonable]

Have namechanged for this as it's pretty obvious who I am if you know me...

We currently have a two bedroom house (3 children) and we can fir just about but it's a squeeze. We are "entitled" (cringe) to a 3 bed house but it's likely to be 4-5 yrs by the time we would be offered one so placed our details on the Housing Association's "mutual exchange" site. We have also said we are happy to take a 2 bedroom house with separate dining room to use as the 3rd bedroom.

Have been contact by someone via our housing association's "mutual exchange" list. They have a large 4 bed house with a dining room and massive garden and they want to downsize (older couple all kids left home) and would like our house.

Given that is is bigger than we actually need . Part of me thinks it should go to a family with 5/6 kids but part of me thinks this couple are looking for a mutual exchange to downsize to a 2 bed house, what's the chance of them fining such a large family in a 2 bed house that they want.

It would be fabulous for us of course, lots of space for everyone, kids could have their own bedrooms and a nice big garden to play and we wouldn't have to move again when we have more children (planning another 1 or 2 in next 5 years perhaps).

Would we be unreasonable to accept it?

Matilda - I don't think the fact that I live where I do, and can't move to another country, as has been suggested, makes me a victim.

I am very empowered to change my situation, as we are currently saving to buy a house. That is my choice.

But I'm such a victim

How on earth are you funding council tenants' 'lifestyles', bellamafia, if they work and pay their rent? Incidentally, the rent they pay is a fair rent, determined as what is appropriate for the type of property they have. If anything, you are funding private tenants' 'lifestyles', because the rent they have to pay is so over the odds that many of them, even though they are working, can't afford to pay it and so get housing benefit. Except that this housing benefit then goes into the landlord's pocket, so actually I suppose that your taxes are really funding them and their 'investment choices'.

Now, doesn't that make you feel all warm inside?

Down here ha rents are rising closer to private rents
£850 for a 3 bed HA home which is more then we were paying for a private rent 3 years ago ?

kormachameleon, what about the families that need the space that isthis...will be wallowing in? what about them? when do they get to enjoy a an adequate home?

wiley i do think she is unreasonable to take more than she is entitled to. and it think the rest of you are immoral to encourage such greed when others are in trouble. i like the fact that the op returns with a sob story about how she had it hard in the past and is now happy to be a part of making things hard for others who need bigger homes. oh the irony!

jump thread has moved on massively but didn't want to not answer your question.

If I ruled the world:

I would rescind the right to buy immediately and return social/council housing to what it was intended to be - an asset which is lent to people for their lifetime, returning to the council or HA for the good of the next person afterward. I would then build more social housing.

I would also bring the empty houses that all councils have on their books (shamefully) paying for the work with a rent premium.

I would ensure HA rents were fair market rent and publish that formula. I would also bring in legislation to apply 'fair market rents' to housing in the private sector too. And if I couldn't do that I would remove all taxation burden from private landlords up to that agreed local market rate and then make it swingeing on any rental income above that level, because essentially the problem here is there are two market rates - HA's one and private landlord's one.

^^ should read 'I would also bring the empty houses back in to use'

this house is probably worth more now, because i took it from the tip is was to a nice home.

every wall has been replastered, had a BT line installed, free sat ariels fitted in every room. decorated and carpeted the garden has been converted from a jungle with 1/2 garden covered in rubbish ( we had to do 30 trips to the tip) to a flat safe and secure garden The house is well maintained.

if the HA wants me to move to a smaller house then after all the effort, time and money we have put into this house i would want a house that was similar.

ideally i want to buy this house, but i cant see that happening

Go for it. I hope it works out for you

TAKE IT!

It sounds fantastic.

I hope you and your family enjoy it.

The entire town I grew up in was council housing, think there were 2 possibly 3 private estates.

We were one of the "New Towns" in Scotland.

The main prob became people buying their council house then selling it on so a lot of the stock was then lost.
The only dodgy areas are ones where private landlords ended up with a lot of property and don't maintain nor give a fuck about it.

The snobby attitude re Council housing I find most peculiar as that's pretty much all there was in my local area. Most people applied for a council house, that was the norm.

The village I live in now has loads of council houses, ex council houses housing association houses plus the original older village houses, there's no stigma at all re where you live.

'I do think its bonkers that people aren't continually assessed to see if they need council housing - get a foot in the door and you're sorted for life seems so wrong.'

What is wrong is that private rentals are short-assured. Even if you get a longer contract, find me one that doesn't have that good ol' two-months notice clause. So that tens of thousands of people over-stretched themselves and made foolish financial decisions in order to have a modicum of stability for themselves and their families.

And now, the government must keep interest rates artificially low, at the expense of the greater public, to avoid tens of thousands of people getting repossessed and made homeless (and then stuck trying to find a private landlord who'll take their kids, their bad credit, and possibly their unemployment, too).

What's wrong is that private rentals are so highly discriminatory - no kids, no HB at all, no pets. Etc. Etc.

What's wrong is that successive governments have allowed the price of housing to get so over-inflated that we, the taxpayer, have been paying for individuals to have the mortgage on a home that is not their principal domain so that thousands of hard-working people have a roof over their heads because private renting is so ridiculously expensive in this country.

Not an elderly couple swapping to downsize their property. Would you be pillorying them for staying in that four-bed house? Because guess what? They can. The government's rules about HB claimants under-occupying don't apply to pensioners.

If the OP is low-income, then even now, with the three kids she has, any housing officer is likely to re-assess and find they need the HA home. Why?

Because private renting is so over-inflated in price that if they move to it, they will need partial HB, which is paid for by the taxpayer.

We live in an ex-council house (3 bed)

Our neighbour is a council tenant, rent is £300 per month.

We were lucky enough to be able to save a deposit and buy our house, our mortgage is £500 per month.

Two doors away is a house that is rented privately, rent is £575 per month.

When the figures work out like that it's not hard to see why the family at the mercy of a private landlord paying nearly double the rent of a council tenant are a little bit resentful of their situation.

Incidentally, for everyone bleating about council housing being subsidised and the like, it might be worth pointing out that provision for that housing is running at a surplus ie councils give money to the treasury because they are making more than they spend on housing.

God what a lot of bitterness on this thread. If it helps I spent 9 months, 5 floors up, in a hostel with mould and live wires hanging out the wall, before accepting the 2bed 1st floor flat i have now, i certainely wasnt just handed it on a plate!
As for social rents, they are steadily replacing social rents and replacing them with 80% market rate, which is not that much cheaper than private renting.

I could really do with a 3 bed house now but I have been on the waiting list 3 yrs now and nothing suitable has come up yet. It takes patience and managing the best you can with what you already have. stupid rules dont help either-Id happily swap to a 2 bed house (massive problems with downstairs neibor) but because of the rules id be over occupying so i have to stay in my flat until a 3 or 4 bed comes up :-/

Oh also, the rules are (maybe already have) changing so any new tenants who go into social housing will be assessed at intervals during their tenancy to see if they are still elidgable to live there- this does not apply to exsisting tenants, only new tenants- so thatll make the system alot fairer.

expat you are so right.

'All I'm thinking about is the tax I'm paying each month being used to pay for someone's lifestyle like this. CRINGE!!!!!! '

Yes, I look at our taxes and think of: all the second and plus homes we buy for MPs who want a 32% pay rise, too; all the taxes we pay whilst huge corporations get off without paying their fair share; all the big bonuses some get for doing shite jobs; the rising costs of heat and fuel and the taxes we pay on these so the select few can profit; how big business is allowed to pay shite wages so the select few, yep, those shareholders again, get a huge profit whilst the rest of us are stuck paying the bill via the tax credits and HB so many, increasing numbers, of full-time working people have to claim just to eat and have a roof over their heads.

CRINGE? That all makes me retch, really.

'When the figures work out like that it's not hard to see why the family at the mercy of a private landlord paying nearly double the rent of a council tenant are a little bit resentful of their situation.'

Then why not direct that resentment at the source: a government which allowed this to happen. And continues to.

'i am not happy with someone taking more than they need and thus depriving another family that needs the space. i am annoyed at all the greedy buggers on this thread who are happy to see families deprived of homes they need just because someone is 'entitled' through bad planning on the part of a local authority or housing association. '

How is she depriving? It's a swap! The people who have the space won't vacate it unless they have this swap. How is it bad planning on the part of the HA? She's low-income, she'd be allocated a 3-bed or possibly that 4-bed, anyway, depending on the HA. Now she's found a swap.

Or would it be better for the OP's family to go private, pay a private landlord's mortgage and any profit, then possibly be made homeless in 4 months time when that landlord decides to sell up or not renew the contract (that's assuming she finds one with the partial HB she'd have to claim in the private market, and one that'll take 3 kids)?

I don't think the shitness of the system is the OP's fault, but talk of having a 4th or even 5th child is twisting the knife a bit

I agree with composhat and expat too.

I think OP should take the house and feel no guilt :)

There have been some horrible sniping threads just lately on here about people who feel sorry for themselves because they have some burning resentment that someone else is getting 'their money' and what they have put in. A woman who cares for her severely disabled child yesterday was told that she wasn't saving the economy money because carers care for people who are their responsibility. Is empathy at all time low?

and I have committed a MN SIN by mentioning a deleted post on another thread I know

Higgs why?