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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To take a bigger council house than we need?

999 replies

isthisunreasonable · 15/01/2013 10:11

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?

OP posts:

usualsuspect · 15/01/2013 17:10

You do still have to pay rent and council tax etc if you live in social housing. It's not free.

usualsuspect · 15/01/2013 17:13

It's affordable rent. It's not OPs fault that private rents are too high.

ethelb · 15/01/2013 17:15

I just asked DP and we are. We were going to come off it now he has work and let someone more 'deserving' take any housing I may get but maybe reading this thread I won't.

LadyBeagleEyes · 15/01/2013 17:17

I dunno, pebbles, judging from this thread you'd think so.
Though I think it's not that many of these posters want social housing, they just don't like seeing other people have it. Though it's not our fault that private renting/mortgages are so high at the moment, people need someone to blame.
Happyjoful I still don't see how it's bragging that op can have another child. She's lucky it's all fallen into place for her.
The last thing I would want is 5 kids, but each to their own.

nannyof3 · 15/01/2013 17:21

Go for it.... Good luck

nailak · 15/01/2013 17:23

I have a friend who swapped from 2 bed to 4 bed with 3 kids, she does not claim hb so under occupancy thing doesn't apply.

HappyJoyful · 15/01/2013 17:28

I don't think people are saying they don't want social housing, some are saying they would snap it up and of course we're widely forgetting that there is a VAST difference in what we are thinking of as Social Housing - The majority of people on here are well aware that there is HA / Council properties that they wouldn't touch on estates in areas with a barge pole - but OP does paint a picture of the one she's being offered as not being one of those ones.. I've worked in Social Housing in some of the most affluent boroughs in London and many people would kill for some of the properties that the HA's own.

In harder times and that of recessions I think many homeowners are frustrated and I certainly don't know many friends at the moment that are making huge intents into their mortgages or able to pay anything less than the interest so talk of future assets etc are frustrating. Certainly maintaining homes now too is getting increasingly hard and there's a thread on here today of someone struggling to find costs to repair a boiler. Are we forgetting that were you a tenant of a HA or Council that none of this is your worry ? As OP says, she has a tenancy for life and at the moment I think in the current climate when many are having to make decisions on where they can live and how many children they can afford is what is grating people on this thread that is what's appealing to people. Perhaps it's not bragging that she'll be able to have another child when she gets her 4 bed house, and yes it's luck but it's just inflaming people and I agree she's not to blame, it's just tactless perhaps.

MrsDeVere · 15/01/2013 17:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lainiekazan · 15/01/2013 17:45

Is there still the right to buy? In the OP's case I think it is perfectly acceptable to swap properties, but not then to have the right to buy the new one.

Agree with HappyJoyful - in London there are some fantastic HA properties that no ordinary mortal could hope to afford. In fact many are sublet as the true tenant can make out like a bandit this way. A friend of mine rented one in Pimlico. She was paying market rent but heaven knows what the landlord was paying.

I think the rule book needs to be ripped up and properties confiscated forthwith if found to be sub-let and no more right to buy.

creighton · 15/01/2013 17:58

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by Mumsnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Dawndonna · 15/01/2013 18:05

The OP was taking the piss out of another posters point.
And if you read what she was saying, she's not going for it because 'coz she wants it'. She's been offered an opportunity and has accepted it. There is a difference.

OwlLady · 15/01/2013 18:09

having a 4 bed house for a family of 5 isn't exactly oversized
though I have 5 in a 3 bed I couldn't really afford my third child either though, he was unplanned
but
I do not envy the OP living in a small 2 bed house with 3 children (including a teenager) in one room and I think if she has been offered a swap she should take it without taking any of the personal comments about her to heart

JakeBullet · 15/01/2013 18:11

I dont have "Right to Buy" with my HA property because it's part of their allocation for tenants with disabilities or carers.
Can you still get grants for improving social housing? Wish Id known that when I moved in here. Previous tenant was a drug abuser and it had been left in a right state. Classic example of someone being given something they did not appreciate. In contrast though I DO appreciate the house.

Bogeyface · 15/01/2013 18:12

But Creighton what YOU seem to missing is the fact that these 2 houses will not be in circulation either way.

Either they all stay put or they swap, no extra housing is being taken out of the pot for this. The OP has wanted a 3 bed for some time and has not been able to get one, presumably because there are none available because they are the most sought after by 2+2 families, so this is the only other option.

Why do think that the swap has been ok'd by the housing officer? Because they know that this is a good result for all concerned without them trying to find a 3 bed for the OP because of the teen sharing with its siblings, which afaik is still one of the criteria for an extra bedroom.

expatinscotland · 15/01/2013 18:13

'as for expat's hysteria about throwing people into the street, where did i say that?'

Where did I? I stated that increased interest rates will likely result in a good many people having their homes repossessed as they will be unable to afford their mortgages any longer. But here, here's some more rope!

expatinscotland · 15/01/2013 18:16

'Why do think that the swap has been ok'd by the housing officer? Because they know that this is a good result for all concerned without them trying to find a 3 bed for the OP because of the teen sharing with its siblings, which afaik is still one of the criteria for an extra bedroom.'

Or because there is no suitable one-bed for the elderly couple. Once again, they are under occupying in a two-bed as well. But greatly so in a four-bed and they are exempt from the policy regarding under-occupying and HB claimaints. All OAPs are.

The officer approved it for a reason, possibly lack of stock that's more suitable.

aufaniae · 15/01/2013 18:21

"It is almost funny LBE, Some of them wouldn't dare walk through a council estate, I don't think they would want to live on one.

They send their children to school miles away in case they have to mix with the rough kids , but they are jealous of their houses.

They need to make their bloody minds up"

Absolutely.

Spamspamspam · 15/01/2013 18:49

Why is there a huge assumption that housing association will be in an undesirable area? They sure as hell are not where I live. I live in a village in the South and the social houses are within streets along with private housing, they are not congregated to their own area. A 3 bedroom house one street away could be worth upwards of £400K yet the very next door house will be social housing where someone is being subsidised in some way.

ALL developers have to include a percentage of social housing within their building projects, we just had a beautiful new development built over the road from us and 20% is social housing - I know of so many people who would have loved to be able to afford one of these homes but the prices are just too high yet those who are being subsidised can get a brand new home. Social housing is dotted around the whole of my village and not at all segregated (not saying it should be).

We must have an abundance of it as I know of a mother and son who were recently living together in a 3 bedroom house with a garden to die for, however the son has managed to get his own 2 bedroomed bungalow a few streets away.

suburbophobe · 15/01/2013 18:58

a question mark about the morality of the fact that you have essentially won a lottery at the exclusion of other who may have higher needs than yours.

Please don't blame OP for a dreadful political choice that was made years ago....

"Divide and rule, eh"?!

BelieveInPink · 15/01/2013 19:18

How ironic that the OP feels "lucky." I am glad I have more pride than that, which is more than I can say for most of the people on this thread. To feel entitled is not a good trait.

expatinscotland · 15/01/2013 19:22

'ALL developers have to include a percentage of social housing within their building projects, we just had a beautiful new development built over the road from us and 20% is social housing - '

No, they don't. Only ones above a certain number of homes.

Chunderella · 15/01/2013 19:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

creighton · 15/01/2013 19:33

bogeyface, the housing management group should be actively finding properties for the family that needs a 1 or 2 bed to free up the larger house. that is the shame.

usualsuspect · 15/01/2013 19:39

Envy and bitterness are not good traits either,there seems to be a lot of that on this thread.

BelieveInPink · 15/01/2013 19:43

Envy?

Oh dear me no.

Bless.

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