to think this is not the tenants fault.

[HelenaDove]

Tenants ceiling collapses after hot water cylinder bursts. And the HA intimates deliberate damage.

I dont see how its the tenants fault. Especially as part of the problem seems to have been caused by repair work. (this is one time where you really should read the comments)

Tenant blaming has reached a new level.

www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/dartford_swanley/14742637._I_feel_like_I_have_nothing___Greenhithe_family_leave_home_after_ceiling_collapses/?ref=fbshr

You need 8x your salary as a deposit to buy a home? Really?

I live in a 3 bed detached, I bought it a short while ago with my husband, with a 10% deposit. Bearing in mind I work PT, the deposit was 1.5 X my salary.

Maybe if you were buying a house on your own you would need a higher deposit?

Even so, you wouldn't realistically be able to buy a house on my part time salary regardless of what your deposit was (I would struggle to pay food and fuel bills out of my salary, never mind housing, clothing, transport and other essentials).

If I worked full time then a deposit 8 X my income would probably buy me a cheap house outright- we sold our old house for a figure approx 8x what my full time wage would be.

So I really don't see how you need an 8x income deposit to be able to get a mortgage?

*disclaimer, I know things might be different south/London areas. But my area is fairly average I think, there are certainly places near by where houses cost more and places where houses cost less, even within a 10 mile radius.

Hm. Average wage is £26.5K apparently. 8.5 times that is £225,250. I don't think mortgage companies ask for that much as a deposit. That is more like the entire cost of a small home in most places (not London, granted).

House prices and deposits are still bonkers, but not quite that bonkers.

Umm OK, tell me this a two up two down around these parts is around £350 to 400 K odd

Show us the sum's involved in buying that and the multiples required and what you think is a reasonable deposit to have to put down .

justaboy whereabouts is that? My area is more like oakmaiden said. Besides, if housing is that expensive I would expect most people to have a higher than average wage?

My house cost 5x mine and husbands combined wage, that is a figure often quoted by mortgage advisors too. So to afford a £400k house, you need to be earning £80k between you. And maybe an 80k (20%) deposit? So that's 1 years wage.

CrohnicallyAspie Its appx an hours commute of London.

Nope they don't have a higher than average wage, well some do in speciality fields and the professions some commute to London but not overall.

Your figurers are around right. Maybe a little low. The bit i think we all fear is if interest rates start to rise that will be Armageddon for a lot of folks.

Helena absolutely does not have an agenda. She has brought so many topics close to my heart up and started a thread that quite literally changed my life. I'm quite shocked that anyone would think that she was some kind of activist

Thanks Elsa thats very kind.

Sorry Piglet My plumbing knowledge is a bit shit

Piglet in the article the HA is quoted as calling it deliberate damage.

Heatwave i dont get it either. If i went on to the Child Maintenance threads and started saying to them they ought to make their activist credentials clear i would (quite rightly) get my arse handed to me on a plate.

I post in those threads too. Im childfree by choice but think the attitudes towards single parents are misogynistic and i have a problem with that.

Looking at the photos I can see a large amount of the ceiling has been pulled down. It's a modern plasterboard ceiling, from the look of it, I think it did not collapse.

Might have been someone wanting to drain the water out of the void under the floor (who didn't know you can do it by making a few holes with a skewer), or it could have been done by the workmen.

Maybe that's the damage they meant. If so, you could call it deliberate, or you could call it a panic action. There may be something we don't know.

Same HA

www.portsmouth.co.uk/our-region/fareham/video-my-home-of-20-years-is-now-a-living-nightmare-1-7584623

I think it's safe to assume there are three sides to this story; her side, the HA's side, and the truth.

I used to rent from a housing association, ASRA in the midlands, think they are called LHA now? (Named and shamed!!)

They were horrendous. They once left me with no heat or hot water for 2 weeks a few years ago, I had a baby and a toddler. We all got ill. I am not actually sure that was even legal of them? They used to leave us with these pathetic little heaters that barely worked and just ate electric, we had to bath at my mums 10 miles away and I didn't even have a car back then so you can imagine the palaver it was.

I had to keep ringing up and the staff had a really sneering attitude on the phone and talked to me as if I was scum. the workers they sent out, if they turned up, didn't give a shit, clearly couldn't be arsed to fix the problem and just kept passing the buck to eachother. until I finally got a lovely engineer attending who finally sorted it out and said how disgusting the other workers were.

And they almost doubled the rent in the 3 years I lived in their shit hole, "affordable rent" my arse. I did a home swap to a council property and they were amazing the whole time I rented off them and the rent was actually doable.

I am so glad I have managed to buy a place now, but unfortunately I am one of the lucky few cos its getting harder and harder for those on low to average incomes.

I don't think they are calling water damage deliberate. That ceiling did not collapse due to water - it has been ripped down!!! Of course that is deliberate damage.