Who is unreasonable? Me or friend for saying that is the reality for many so suck it up?

[brownpaperbag2]

A friend lives in a very nice 3 bed semi in a great location, lovely commuter village in South East with good schools etc. she pays £370 a month for her council property, where as mp the average for a 3 bed semi to rent here is £1400 a month.

I have always told her she is lucky. She has lived there 12 years and has 2 cars, goes abroad every year, pays for private tuition etc. her husband earns £34,000 a year and she earns £4000 a year part time school hours. Her husband has just gone for a promotion to earn himself £45,000 a year.

This years budget means she is likely to have to pay full market rent, thus more than tripling her rent. She is freaking out and saying that it isn't fair as her family will suffer. She has 2 children and pays for tennis lessons, tuition, football club etc

I said that this is what other families have to pay, including someone 3 doors up in the exact same house so why should she pay less and have a better lifestyle than her neighbours who also have 2 children and both work full time.

Clearly it fell on deaf ears.

Would be better for her to pay a mortgage on that property through RTB rather than the increased rent. That's what I plan to do, although as I'm within London I get the highest discount on my council flat which makes it affordable as I can use it as a deposit. Although it will take some time for these new rent measures to come in as councils currently have no legal way to force council tenants to give information about their income. See here

What are people supposed to do?

They're supposed to accept that living a nice and comfortable life is not for the likes of them.

I know this won't be a popular opinion but I do think it's unfair that there's people in social housing who no longer need it due to better jobs etc but the have a house for live, meanwhile the waiting lists are huge with people in need

This, and I'm only surprised you think it'd be an unpopular opinion. I don't think people should just be able to keep a council house and the low rents that come with it indefinitely - it should be means tested every few years or so and allocated to people who genuinely can't afford to pay more

Are you sure you're a friend to this woman? As the saying goes, with friends like you, who needs enemies?

Where will that £640 a month go to? I genuinely don't know. Will it go to councils to improve the lives of local citizens, or will the central government grant be slashed further so things stay the same, or what?

It's going to be tough times for all the businesses that she and people like her are spending her money with at the moment.

She has applied to buy her home. She should get £77k off the market value, as she has realised that if she were to pay £1400 a month in rent, she may as well buy and pay a mortgage.

However, her house is with around £420k (yes, that is what 3 bed semis go for here) and even with £77k off, she has to fine £350k. She has recently inherited twice so has £120k deposit (purely fluke) and needs a mortgage of £230k.

Four times £45k is £180k, still not enough to buy her house!

Also, she is waiting to see if it can be sold to her. It is housing association and may well be deemed unavailable as not all housing stock is up for sale.

Would you swap places with her OP? Fair or not she has had the rung pulled well and truly from under her.

Have they even announced what her new rent will be? or has she looked on right move and just made an estimation made on what is currently up for rent?

Also, if they are charging market rates are they going to give standard market repairs and service? Freinds who live in social housing have to wait ages for repairs and have had to deal with rude and swearing workmen.

So she's not rich enough to live in the area, and now must be purged.

What a great idea.

Of course people would be in favour of that!

It's certainly not a cause for celebration that someone may have to move from their home town. The root problem is that house prices and private rentals are too high relative to incomes.

Well I don't live in a council house, me, my dh, ds and dd live in a 3 bed detached (not a very big house though). It's rented but due to the recurrant damage our son (suspected additional needs) keeps doing to the house we need our own place, and unfortunately we haven't saved up enough of a deposit to buy so we are on the council list.

The council area near where we live believe it or not is actually quite lovely, it isn't rough, ie very leafy and clean, no noisy neighbours and is served by two excellent schools so if we can eventually get a three bed property there then that would be great, especially as we currently pay £850 per month for our house and a council one would be £400!

But the problem we have is that we can't afford it really. My dh earns approx 23k, I "earn" 3.3k in carers allowance (just been awarded this week). But I've just been offered a job as a dinner lady for when my ds starts school in September and as this is 4k per year it would push us technically over the 30k limit, so if we did get offered a council property it would be pointless taking it as we'd have to pay the market rate, now I think this is pretty crap!

We earn a pittance compared to last year. I left my job that paid over 30k a year to be at home with my ds as he got kicked out of breakfast/after school club due to his agressive behaviour and had his nursery hours reduced to two hours a day, so after realising that I couldn't work flexibly around this I had to leave my job. Now if I hadn't have left then we could have easily afforded our £850 per month rent and wouldn't even be considering a council house but as it is we are struggling to afford everything, so as you can imagine I find this a bit of hard pill to swallow.

£1400 a month would still only be roughly half of her husband's take home pay, without even taking her income into account. They will simply have to do what other people do and find ways to spend less or for her to earn more.

420k - 77k is 343, not 350. With a 120k deposit that leaves 223 to borrow.

With 49k income between them as posted upthread they are unlikely to have a problem borrowing this, especially as the LTV would be so good. Banks don't operate on a strict 4 x salary anymore.

I earn a very similar salary to them (so lower take home, as obviously I only get one persons tax allowance and no benefits) and am buying a small property on my own with no partner or inheritance. I was given mortgage quotes allowing me borrowings higher than that.

Clearly if the situation is as described they have been very very lucky and I would be at them moaning.

Too right that people like this should have to pay market rent like everyone else.

I also don't think they should have right to buy as it depletes our housing stock and I don't think these people need this help but they are lucky that they have the opportunity at everyone else's expense.

How can I lobby the government for rent control so that rents are not so bloody rediculous? Seriously,mhow can I?

My friend is a dinner lady and her husband has a blue collar job with BT.

What are normal families supposed to do? It isn't worth working.

Yabu. The extra rent is better employed in the local economy as it is now, it's not exactly going to be used to build more homes for needy families. Social housing isn't subsidised, it's just meant to be profit free.
Also yabu to be resentful and a bit gloaty, just because you haven't got it that's no reason to tell your supposed friend to suck it up when she loses it. Personally when I envy what others have, whether cheap housing or large incomes or anything else I wish that I too possessed it rather than wishing they didn't have it either.

Anyone who doesn't think this is outrageous abuse of social housing needs their head read. The amount of people desperate for housing who are living on the breadline, in extreme and serious poverty while your neighbour is going on yearly foreign holidays and has two cars!!?

And I'm sorry but we are a two car family, but do you know what?.....I wish we weren't! My husband changed jobs two years ago, and went from working relitively close by were he could easily cycle to work to being based 15 miles away and working shifts. I need my car as my children's schools are miles away and I'm the one who does all the drop offs/pick ups. It now costs us £160 a month in insurance, £300 a month in fuel plus tax, mot, services etc, this is not what we want but we need another car for my dh to work and as I budget within an inch of our lives, we manage. Oh and my kids too have gadgets (age appropriate ones) and do out of school activities but again, I budget well for these, my kids don't see that I go without in order to pay for these.

£1400 a month is an awful lot of money to find. Houses must be incredibly pricey where you live. I'm not surprised she is worried.

the reality is that most people live to their means. And The fact that she was paying £340 rent rather than £1400 rent is the fault of the system that allows it, not the fault of the individual who takes advantage of it.

Do I think that people should be able to live with low rent indefinitely? no. However that doesn't mean that one shouldn't sympathise with someone whose monthly outgoings are about to go up by £700 a month with no warning. Reference to foreign holidays and iPads and the like are just pure snobbery/envy and are really rather unpleasant. How many people here could cut their outgoings by £700 a month just like that to accommodate a 300% rent rise?

So has she at any point considered contributing more into the household pot? 4k a year doesn't equate to a lot of hours. Failing that, her inheritance is enough to top up the rent for about a decade.

The problem is not council houses and their rent its the vastly overpriced private rents. I think private rents need to be capped.

They could easily buy it under Right to Buy, but it makes for a much better council-house bashing thread if they don't, complete with requisite foreign holidays, cars and intimate knowledge of everyone's salaries.

I hate the phrase "suck it up" makes me think the person saying it is taking an unpleasant amount of delight in a situation I am struggling with and/or doesn't actually like me very much and is enjoying getting the chance to watch me being put down.

Have yet to meet anyone in my 44 years of existence who discloses his/her salary and intimate financial details to friends. I've had some friends for 30+ years, some quite close. I know that some earn a lot or are low income, but not the actual sums because, well, who on Earth goes and outlines stuff like that except to their bookkeeper, HR or nearest and dearest?

My mother expat,right down to the price of a cuppa in the local cafe.

Anyone who doesn't think this is outrageous abuse of social housing needs their head read.

Yes, it is an abuse of social housing for the government to set high rents so that private landlords are protected from having to compete with housing association rents.

Another abuse of the system is failing to replace social housing stock after selling houses built with public money to private buyers as an election sweetener.