Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

To ask if social housing tenancies are permanent?

38 replies

pudding24 · 05/07/2017 19:02

I've always rented privately so it's with genuine curiosity to learn that I ask this. I've read how some of the Grenfell fire survivors have been offered temporary tenancies and have refused because they want something permanent.

Is a permanent tenancy a fairly normal expectation in social housing? I've always rented on the understanding that my landlord can decide to sell up/end the tenancy at any time... I kind of thought a tenancy was temporary by nature!

Of course the fire survivors have been through a horrendous housing-related trauma, so there are sensitivities there and my question isn't really about them. But the article just made me curious to know if social housing tenancies are essentially guaranteed forever?

OP posts:

Morecoffeeurgently · 05/07/2017 20:32

Only I think it applies to people who are allocated a flat after 2016 and those who were given it before then are still on an assured tenancy. Well no one has mentioned we will be getting a new/different tenancy at least.

GreenGoblin0 · 05/07/2017 20:33

I think the issue is not about the nature of the tenancy that they are being offered but more that they are being offered accommodation that is temporary in nature i.e. it might be a b&b or something that is not suitable long term that they will have to move from once a permanent option is found.its not that they are being offered a suitable long term home but are refusing it because the tenancy isn't permanent.

Lana1234 · 05/07/2017 20:36

Mine is permanent

Henrythehoover · 05/07/2017 20:44

Mine is forever not that I am going to stay here that long I'm just lucky to have it while I try and better myself. I'm always shocked at the difference in rent for the private sector. My three bed two flood maisonette in Surrey is £600 a month I wouldn't even get a room for that.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 05/07/2017 20:44

YY, imperial.

What's most unfair is the situation with private tenancies, not the situation with social housing.

I admit I get irritated with my MIL when she complains about her house, which she will never have to leave, can pass on to her children, and rents under the market rate. It is a nice house, too. But, I doubt I would feel so irritated if private rentals weren't so incredibly insecure.

Onhold · 05/07/2017 20:48

It's not council tenants fault that the private rental market is so shitty

Crunchymum · 05/07/2017 20:51

My council no longer offer secure tenancies (forever) but 6 year rolling tenancies which are reviewed periodically. Although as long as your circumstances haven't vastly changed the tenancy is renewed long term.

happy2bhomely · 05/07/2017 20:54

Mine is a lifetime tenancy, as long as I pay the rent and don't break my tenancy agreement. My DH can also inherit the tenancy if I die.

Our rent is about 50% of what it would be privately. It is about 20% of our take home pay.

I'm not sure what I think about the fairness of it. I think that there should be more social housing for everyone. I would be happy to pay more rent if it went towards providing housing for other families.

Private rents are shocking.

Gooseygoosey12345 · 05/07/2017 21:04

Most are. There are different types though.

MacTweedy · 25/08/2017 09:45

Our tenancy was a 1 year starter followed by a 5 year fixed term. We got the property on the basis of our old one being too small for our needs- are we likely to be asked to leave after the tenancy? We've never been in arrears, property is perfect condition etc. What are the grounds for renewing the tenancy or being asked to leave?

BlindAssassin1 · 25/08/2017 09:58

I think that there is an increasing amount of councils moving over to non-lifetime tenancies.

It does make sense I suppose. When I was a carer I used to visit single people living in a three or four bedroom house with garden front and back and parking and really they were living, sleeping and washing in the front room and hadn't been up stairs for ages. It would be awful to be shunted out of your family home though.

You have to be very anti-social to get kicked out of the council/ housing association places around here. They really try hard to not let it happen if children are living at the property too.

Macaroni46 · 25/08/2017 09:59

I'm a private landlord and I'm not shitty or shocking!This generalistic attitude does annoy me. I inherited a property and am currently renting it out to lovely tenants. I take my responsibilities as a landlord seriously and deal with Amy problems swiftly, even while on holiday. However I still have overheads to pay on that property so the rent I charge has to cover that plus the cost of upkeep and repairs and yes, a small surplus. At the end of the day it is my property and should there come a time in the future that I wish to sell it to release the capital that's my perogative as long as I obviously give my tenants plenty of notice. That is why most private rentals are not for ever!

IdoHaveAName · 25/08/2017 10:05

I just moved into mine in May. For the first year it's a provisional tenancy, and if, during that year, you don't get in arrears with rent and council tax and have no anti-social behaviour, it moves to an assured tenancy. I think that means it's for life.

Flip

1 2