to think it cant carry on young families living in cramped flats while protected pensioners rattle around in 5 bed houses

[generationrentsucks]

I just think with the Tories in now, nothing will change with housing, they will keep prices high by carrying on with these help to buy that just allow sub prime loans.

Also I think hardly anyone actually ever downsizes, everyone says they do but not many can actually bring themselves to do it.

How exactly does one rattle around a house?

I'm alone here today. I've tried running, jumping and even doing a little shoulder shimmy.

Still not an audible rattle to be had.

Not sure were the random offer appeared from?

Does anyone on this thread know any pensioners rattling around in 5-bedroom houses? I don't. Wish I did, though.

anyway even if a pensioner in a house too large for them DID sell up and buy somewhere smaller, how would that change the situation for the family in the too small place? I mean there is no direct cause and effect here is there? so a bit of a silly premise tbh.

Suzanne, I think that would only be if obvious fraud was proved. So parent, knowing they needed care imminently, sold their house, gave the money to children, then was assessed as needing residential care a year or so later.
But some councils are expected to have 40% less budget for social care in five years' time so something's got to give...

nobody knows any pensioners 'rattling around' in 5 bed places do they?

Twart, that's true for inheritance tax.

Not sure if it will be the same for care fees or not.

Ifinished, I suppose this ties into the problem of the changing shape of the population, ie more elderly people and fewer young people as birth rates decline.
Plus the increase in health problems ?in other sectors of the population (diabetes etc) putting a strain on health-care

.my parents have a four bedroom house with just then in it personally I think they should sellup just because my mum is disabled and its hard to keep clean etc however Its their house and they have no intention of selling so fair enough I live in a two bed council house am I jealous of .my parents ,no of course not I just greatfull u got my house fairly quickly it meets our needs as I had to give up work to care for my disabled child I,m glad I have decent home for my kids which will be secure after my introductory tenancy . Even if my parents were to sell up I,m nor sure who would be able to afford the house its in a desirable area and ordinary families on ordinary incomes wouls struggle to afford it .

My Mum and Dad have a decent sized 3 bed house. If they sold it tomorrow, how would it help people waiting for HA?

It doesn't make sense.

I was always under the impression that once you paid for something you owned it. It was legally yours, do what you want with....obviously I was wrong in that thinking.

What next? People with more than one car must start donating it to a family on low income unless they can prove they can't live without the second one?

exactly NRomanoff.
There is zero connection between someone owning a house that is too big for them, and families who are 'underhoused'

Thanks Ifinished
I was under the impression it sort of fitted under the same umbrella.

But surely everyone can forsee the possibility of a need for care (unless they plan to cough it in rude health at 70, on principle).

I understand the deprivation of assets concept, but my point is that it's quite a slippery thing to properly define and enforce outside the most obvious examples. And clearly there are ways to do pretty much the same thing, in a strategic timeframe, and using trusts etc - which, like tax planning, are the preserve of the most wealthy.

Again for those who don't believe pensioners are under occupying HA and Council housing and/or having HB
Telegraph article

I don't know anyone living in a 5 bed home on their own. However, one of my close friends and her DH in their thirties have a 4 bed house, but have never wanted children.
Another friend said she thought it was odd. But they worked for it, and paid for it, if they want to pay for extra space that's up to them.

No one can just do what they want with things that they own, if I own a car I can't go racing around at 140mph, I can't let my pack of dobermans roam around the streets, or blast out death metal at 3am
?
If I own land I'm not free to build whatever I fancy on it, I cant just turn my house into a pub or a hotel just because I want to.

There are rules and regulations, these are bound to change over time as society changes ?

exactly NRomanoff. There is zero connection between someone owning a house that is too big for them, and families who are 'underhoused'

I totally agree. I do not understand why some people think older people don't deserve the houses they have worked for and paid off.

My cousins grew up in a 4 bedroomed council house in London. It was a great little estate - the houses all had good sized gardens, it was in a cul de sac, with a grassy roundabout in the middle, where we all used to play out. The families have all left this estate now, and it is full of old people, living on their own in these houses, which is a real shame, as the estate was clearly built with families in mind. I suppose as people die off, families can move in again, but it seems bonkers to have all of these large houses just with one occupant, while other families are woefully under accommodated.

There is zero connection between someone owning a house that is too big for them, and families who are 'underhoused'

So you are seriously suggesting that there is no connection whatsoever between underoccupation of larger family homes and the reduced availability of larger family homes to larger families.

Okaaay...

(The rights and wrongs of policies to cruelly Boot Out Boomers is a separate issue.)

No one can just do what they want with things that they own, if I own a car I can't go racing around at 140mph, I can't let my pack of dobermans roam around the streets, or blast out death metal at 3am

And your point? Owning a home isn't anti social behaviour.

I meant you can do with what you want as in keep it, even if it doesn't suit your needs. Which I suspect you knew.

This thread smacks of jealousy of people who own their own home. No one can spell out how someone selling a 3/4/5 bedroom home will help a family cramped into a one bedroom flat. Because it won't.

So you are seriously suggesting that there is no connection whatsoever between underoccupation of larger family homes and the reduced availability of larger family homes to larger families.

I am suggesting that. If these rattling oap sell their house, how is a unhoused family going to get in it?

Are the councils buying up houses?

Something once if you carefully re read the sentence that I wrote, you will note the key word 'owning'. Stop trying to twist my words, what are you a politician?

Seriously the thing is, what alternative accommodation in the area have the council offered them to release those bigger council homes? It isn't ideal (for anyone) to have people live in social housing that isn't suitable for them, but neither is it a good idea to take people away from their own neighbourhoods just at the point where they will really start to need them. The thing that really helps when you are older is having a network around you, and if you are ripped away from that it may well have serious consequences for both your health and your happiness.

?Hoarding property so that others are deprived of secure affordable housing sounds pretty anti social to me NR?