..to take a 4 bedroom house?

[WillWorkForMoney]

Next month I qualify for excellence customer status, and because I have been on the housing register since 2005, I will basically have 1st choice of houses. I have 3 dds.

I realise atm I will only need a 3 bedroom house, but my nan is getting on a bit (82) and might need more support soon and I was thinking if I was to get a 4 bed, theres a dining room I can make into a bedroom for her so she will not need to go into a home (she would really hate that) But then I'm thinking that I should leave the 4 beds for someone who has more kids, who need the extra bedrooms. (theres no 3 beds round here with dining rooms big enough to convert into a bedroom) I realise I'd have to pay the "bedroom tax" btw.
I haven't decided either way yet, but I'd love to be able to support my nan if I can.

Going out for a bit so might not reply for a while or at all if I'm flamed

Take it

I feel a little annoyed about this to be honest, where I live you are not allowed to move somebody in because that would come under 'intentionally making yourself overcrowded' therefore that would be refused. I have 3 children different sexes in a two bed house, we would like to move, we do not claim benefits we too would be classed as excellent as we have never in the three years been here got into rent arrears. We look after the place we don't get any special treatment due to this fact.

Surely if needs be they'd move your nan into a warden supported accommodation? I suppose each to their own but I find it a little unfair and unreasonable to consider moving into a 4 bed for the sake of something that might never happen.

I think a lot of you are looking at this from the perspective of much more overcrowded areas than the North East.

Our local HA has resorted to advertising properties to private tenants (with the same rent as HA 'bidders') to try and shift them. These are all big 3 and 4 bedroom properties in reasonable areas.

Why shouldn't the OP take one when its unlikely - if her area of the NE is the same as mine - to be depriving someone more 'in need' than her? The entire country is not the same as the SE, so it is unfair to judge her for taking what is available.

I think your probably right, I think I need to move to the NE

Or the north of Scotland. there isn't a huge amount of private rental in my area just no need for it. House prices are relatively low and there is council housing.
Private rental is not eye watering either. My parents rent a massive 5 bed for 850 pcm.

i definitely need to find a job back up north, although I lived in York so just as expensive as the SE and the la housing same situation as here although perhaps not quite as long a list.

I don't thinking matters what area the OP is in or how big a shortage of housing there is in that area. It's the fact that she wants a house bigger than what she needs despite being on housing benefit ( I'm assuming she has HB because she mentioned bedroom tax). In my opinion you should only have more than you need if you can pay for it yourself and I don't think a 14% HB reduction for intentional under occupancy is sufficient.

Thanks all. In the past year there have only been about 4/5 4 beds on to bid on, so theres not an abundance but hoping we will be lucky. If not then im happy with a 3 with big rooms.

The main reason we're wanting to move is our neighbours. The kids have no boundaries and the teenagers make noise until 3am at weekends, and the younger ones that play with my kids can be great some days, but then others they are little terrors,. Constantly knocking even if ive told them my dc are not coming out, stealing stuff from our garden, leaving the garden gate open so our dog gets out onto the main road etc. Just need a fresh start I think.

I work for a housing Association. I don't know what area you are, but we certainly wouldn't offer a 4 bed to someone with 3 daughters as we would assume that two of them could share. However, if the policy of your housing association is to offer a 4 bed to you, then that's fine. One word of caution, having dealt with asb cases for ten plus years - if you are looking to move to a quieter property with fewer problem neighbours, be wary of moving into a 4 bed and do your research very carefully. If you moved into, say, a 4 bed semi, you may well find yourself living next door to an extremely large family (it's not uncommon for our 4 beds to house 7 or 8 children) as we don't have any bigger houses in our stock, and thus simply can't move the bigger families on. These families tend to be noisier and usually more chaotic. So if you are offered something, and this applies to 3 beds, do your research carefully and visit late at night on a Friday, Saturday and at various times during the day to get a feel for the neighbours and area.

That's a very good point,twice the people to make noise.

Thanks semolina. I have already considered all that. Chances are I wont get a 4 bed, as I'd be happy with a decent 3 bed but if the chance arises, not sure I would turn it down.

Another main issue is we wanted a semi as we're currently in a terrace and share a side ally with next door who keep leaving loads of mess, bikes etc in it. Dp has a gardening businsss and finds it very difficult to get in and out with the mower, if we had our own side access it would make his day a lot easier. Lots of reasons why we want to move and we've waited a long time so won't move into any crappy place.

Oh and the reason why we had rent arrears was because our housing benefit claim took ages to sort out after a slight change in our income so we went in arrears while it was being sorted. (I was still paying it but it had gone down by £4 so was I unknowingly underpaying)

So there isn't a huge amount of 4 bed properties in your area (only 4 in the past year) but you still think it is okay to take one and knowingly under occupy it? Does that not even sound a teeny bit selfish? But of course you would settle for a big 3 bed semi if you have to .

Never heard of this excellence stuff or any HA willing to allow a new tenancy under occupying. Much less one with such a surplus of 3 and 4 beds.

Well thats why I was asking here, I wasn't sure if I should, and this thread shows that I'm not the only one that would take it.

I'm still not sure if I would, I suppose it depends on the circumstances at the time.

I'm sure if someone offered you one, you wouldnt turn it down.

We need more threads like this to remind us how social housing is meant to be. It was never intended to be some wildly oversubscribed mad scramble.

It's also nice to hear that there is life outside the lunacy of the South East

Surely you can't be the only excellent tenant! If there was a larger household which was also excellent, wouldn't they be more likely to be allocated the 4 bed over you. You have said yourself that not many 4 beds come up and you sound very keen to move. In your position, I would go for any 3 beds which look as if they would suit your needs.

You are wrong. If somebody offered me a 4 bed housing association house I would turn it down. I wouldn't even consider accepting it because I don't need it. I'm quite happy with the house I have.

Just because you are not the only person on MN that would do it doesn't make it ok!

Indeed Fideliney.
I despair of the pursed lips, sniffy way some posters have been disssgusssted over the very idea that 3 children should be allowed a room each (or two share, and an elderly relative get her own space)
Good for you OP, if you have been on the register since 2005 and you might get the opportunity to get a house big enough for your family.
I am sure you are a good tenant, which is what the HA want.
Social housing was only ever intended to be affordable housing for ordinary families. Not overcrowded slums. I am sorry, but the idea that 3 growing girls should share one room, and that should be all any of us should expect is stupid.
We live in one of the richest nations on earth, why do so many people seem to relish the idea of going back to Victorian times.
Oh, but you should be grateful for your tiny terraced HA house with dodgy neighbours OP, don't you know that?
People in the SE seem to have got very bitter and twisted over the whole social housing thing. Why don't they campaign for fair rents,and proper rental contracts, and more LA housing to be built, instead of frothing about people daring to expect enough space to actually live.

Hairylegs, I'm in the North East and there certainly isn't more than enough LA houses to go round here. My sister has been on the register since 2001!!

OP, I think if you actually get the chance of a 4 bed I would take it. However, this is all pie in the sky as you haven't been offered one.

Ifnotnow I don't have a bitter distorted view and I am not from the south east. I do think that taking a house bigger then what you need when the OP admits that only 4/5 have become available in a year is wrong. The three girls would not have to share in a 3 bed house and there is no guarantee that the elderly relative will ever use the dining room of a 4 bed house as a bedroom as she might never live with them.
It's reasons like this that have caused the bedroom tax to be brought in. People wanting more space than what they need and expecting somebody else to pay for it. Sadly the wrong people have been penalised under bedroom tax.

Why start a thread and then go out?

OP is perfectly at liberty to go out

at bossiness and unnecessary questioning

impatient There are 3 dc and one adult. Assuming the adult had her own room, in a 3 bed house the dc would have to share. Because the house would contain 4 people...
As for not many houses becoming available in a year, I am waiting for a 2 bed in my area, and fully expect to wait at least 6 months before even one 2 bed house becomes available. Does that mean I shouldn't take one when one comes up? I will be paying rent (LA houses are not actually free, you know that right?) so no one else is going to be paying for it.

Council house threads make me laugh.. who would have thunk that people would squabble over social housing. Before the bedroom tax, nobody would have battered an eye at kids having their own room. Maybe people need to stop comparing the rest of the country with the south.

If you get offered then take it. I now have 2 boys living with me and have a 4 bed with dining room. The extra space is a plus (or a curse if you like to fill your house up with crap) fuel bills are intense though and of course there's more to decorate and clean.