Offered a council house but partner doesn't want to accept as it's 40 mins commute from work

[Zeta123]

I applied for council housing in the middle of November. I was offered a horrid house first and refused and was yesterday offered the most beautiful council house I have ever seen. It's 2 bedroom but in a lovely area and it's huge with a big garden. It's perfect, it even meets my partners very high standards. But he wants to refuse it as it's 45 mins from his work place and also isn't in the exact area that he wants. I'm trying to explain to him that it's not like buying a house. Although we have been offered two houses in the space of a few weeks this isn't the norm and it's actually hard to get a council house. I have wrote this thread in the hope that the replies will make him realise some people wait a long time for a house and are in much worse situation than us. We should be grateful to not only be offered a house but a beautiful one at that. So do you think he is being unreasonable and unrealistic to refuse a lovely house because of a 45 minute commute? How long did u wait for a house/ is there a long waiting list In your area? Also explain to him that in many areas we wouldn't even be housed at all as we only have one child and he works on quite a good job. We've accepted the house but he's not happy about it.

Manic we've literally only just reached the stage where we can pay our bills and the adults of the house eat. We are still not in a position to absorb a 20% increase in rent, we haven't been able to start saving yet as essentials eat up my salary so we don't have a deposit. Do you really think I should uproot my dc and make them homeless again because others are worse off? I'm really sorry my existence causes so much offense.

BTW allocation is based on need. In my area anyway. Anyone can apply and they are asked lots of questions about their circumstances. Points are then awarded according to each of the measuring criteria. The number of points determines where you will be on the list. For people who have the same number of points they will be ordered according to how long they've been on the list. The size of the household will determine what size of house you're entitled to.

So for example: a 3 bed house becomes available. The council will offer it to the family highest up the list who are entitled to a 3 bed place ie a single person may be higher up the list but they're only entitled to a bed sit or one bed. If that family refuse it will be offered to the next highest person on the list. Availability varies a lot between areas. We were lucky to only be in cramped temporary accommodation for 2 years. In other areas, it could have been a lot longer but in our area they've actually embarked on a building program.

Around here theres not much difference between council and private rent.Ive seen private rented go for £300-£400mth and our council house is £340mth.

Def go for it. My DH commutes about the same. Worth it to live in good area. Lucky to get offered one these days. Especially in good area.

Maybe council rents seem low because private rents have gone stupidly high.

I was in refuge with a baby so classed as high priority and took me 5 months to be rehoused

OP you knew yourself a post about getting council housing quickly was going to stir up emotions and bfing out the 'I hate subsidizing housing brigade' against the 'I live in council housing, how dare you suggest I am scum' side. Happens every time on MN. Well done!

Listen if your DH doesn't like the house he should consider buying and taking dull responsibility for his housing not relying on the nanny state.

5 years ago I worked for a family-run manufacturing company in North London. The Finance Director, who was responsible for setting wage levels, justified paying 75% of her staff the National Minimum Wage because:

"They all live in council flats, so they're living rent free." She really, truly, honestly believed that people who live in social housing don't pay rent.

This ignorant cow She flatly refused to believe her employees had to pay rent - until I showed her the page in the local paper where council tenents could 'bid' for alternative properties, and the rents were quoted in the advertisements.

A 64 year old member of staff, in poor health, with 35 years service, one year away from retirement, suddenly had to start taking public transport half way across London, after his colleagues who had given him a lift every day moved house. This meant he had to find an additional £25 a week in bus fares, and would be spending 3.5 hours a day on public transport with an 8.00am start. He took home £186 per week for a 40 hour week - I saw his wage slips. His council flat rent was £102 per week.

He was signed off sick with stress after a few weeks and never returned to work. His (my) employers found the situation utterly incomprehensible. Why couldn't he just get up at 65.00am and catch those 3 buses across London to get to work? But by my calculation, he was left with less than £40 per week to live on, after paying for rent, council tax, bills and transport.

The old guy was on sick pay for 10 months until he he left when he qualified for pension credits at 65. He didn't even get a card from his employers (or his foul fellow employees) to thank him for his decades of service. As far as they were concrcened he was a feckless loser who deserved nothing.

These are the people whom the Government trusts to set fair wages. How can the so-called Finance Director of a company (who is married to a multi-millionaire BTW, with children attending the most expensive private school in Hertfordshire) be allowed to hold a position of such power and responsibility when they know jack shite about how the real world operates?

So we're irresponsible them williamina, nice!

Lapsed. I have no words. Surely there should be some sort of training management above a certain level should have to undertake so that they are aware of these things?

Your partner is being a dick. I'd give my right leg for a 45 minute commute, frankly.

I'll throw in my left leg for a permanent job.

45 mins commute to work and he's COMPLAINING?! Its less than 1 hour Im sorry, there must be more to this...why on earth would anybody turn down a beautiful property theyre more than lucky to have been offered, for such a piffling reason? If your DH is that fussed about what most others would snap up and be grateful I guess its mortgage time then, & picking the exact area you want...hopefully 5 mins from workplace door

I love the fact we live in a country where we have the safety net of a benefits system. However I do feel if you are in a position to need council housing you should not be in a position to be choosy. If someone came to me saying they needed help with somewhere to live I offered them somewhere and they turned it down that would be the last time I offered to help!

I am pleased working people also get a chance of a council house, I am sorry he gets to live in one however, what an ungrateful idiot

Not wanting to derail this thread (although it seems that the council tenant haters have already done so...)

We are number one on the bidding list for a house, bidding has now closed so theoretically it's going to be offered to us, yay!! (As I mentioned previously, we are overcrowded & have been waiting 4.5 years. And yes, my DH works, although he's on a low income. Sorry about that.)

How much should I reign in my excitement? What are the chances of us not getting a formal offer at this stage? When I was first given a council tenancy I was homeless so had to (quite rightly) take what I was offered, never been in this position before.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Very unreasonable! Him, that is. Good grief, under an hour commute is luxury to many people and very desirable - in housing terms there's an arc of gold about an hour away from the stations serving the City.

DH and I both work full time and earn reasonable money. We live in a HA house. We pay full rent, CT etc. We were on the waiting list for 11 years before we got offered this house.

In my area, a house the size that we need would need a mortgage about 5 times our combined income. Private rent would be all of my take home pay, whereas HA rent is about half my take home pay. Which means we can pay our other bills and not get into debt.

And, we live in one of the cheaper areas of the city. So yes, we are lucky to have a HA house, but its the price of houses and the private rents that need to come down, not HA tenant bashing.

He is being quite silly here. You are definitely very lucky to be offered any property let alone one in a good area. We were incredibly lucky as we were offered a house directly by a HA before our transfer application was even processed. It was simply a case of speaking to the right person at the right time. This makes DP's commute an hour long but we are over the moon with our house and wouldn't change a thing. We realise that there are lots of people who aren't this lucky so we are very grateful and grabbed the opportunity with both hands. However, a large proportion of my partners wage goes on fuel so that cost has to be factored in before any decisions can be made.
I'm quite surprised at the amount of people who think HA/council tennants are unemployed and don't pay rent. DP is in a good job but we simply can't afford the normal rental market. This area asks for £600 a month minimum for a 3 bed in a bad area and HA is just over £400. That, for us, is doable. All of the other residents nearby are also working and presumably in the same situation as we are which is simply not quite earning enough to pay for normal rented properties and/or requiring a more permanent solution than private renting can offer.

Commuting is everyday, true, but weekends and holidays like Christmas are very important times as well, and those times are better spent in a lovely house and neighbourhood.

Moreover, commuting isn't the evil it's made out to be. When I was working from home, I hated not having the "buffer time" which a commute gave me: time which I had to use for myself (e.g. reading, listening to podcasts) because I couldn't really do any work.

*can't offer.

He sounds like a lazy, entitled twit.

4 years and still waiting to be offered one!!!
Were also on the transfer list and have been for 3 years. And still waiting. He needs to get his head from arse. It's not like buying!! You can't pick and chose

I'm in a similar position to op. If we take the council house we can pay. If we go private we'll need HB. what would you prefer haterz?

I have an hour and 15 commute (each way), DH is lucky to have a 40 minute commute and we have a 15mo so have to incorporate childcare pick up / drop off into that.

Your partner is being very unreasonable!