Would you accept this council house?

[Ashkey234]

I'm currently renting a house for £360 per month from a housing association.
Not in the best location.
I bidded on a house (through council ) it's only 7 years old,much better location and massive garden ,£380 per month.
I went for viewing today and I was the only person who turned up.
Anyway if I get offered it,do I take it?
It's going to mean new carpets,decorating.
Luckily the council have just painted all ceilings and all walls white but I would want to put my own stamp on things.
What would you do?
It's great rent price and still leaves us with a lot of spare money in the month for other things.
Is it worth moving for better location ?
Its bigger too.
I'm in two minds

Cheers man, caffeines the boy

Funnily enough I don't tend to think how hard others may have it when I pay out for things like rent. I don't think there are many places near 400 quid a week in the NE...... or are we on London again?

Oh the irony banging on about the lack of understanding of others situation when some posters cannot grasp that we don't all live in London and therefore don't pay stupid rents

You could say it till your blue in the face gamer but apparently no where exists outside of London according to mumsnet

Well it's not just mumsnet. One snowflake falls in London and it's front page news in all the papers

And the North could disappear under an avalanche and it might be an and finally on the evening news

And even then only if an immigrant caused it.

so much truth in those it's bemusing

Rent is higher than that in many counties not just London.

We have to pay 50% more than that for a 1 bed flat with no garden in the south/ south west.

The OP's rent must be one of the cheapest in the whole UK for the size and spec.

The OPs rent must be one of the cheapest in the whole of the UK for that size and spec

That's not the OPs fault. LAs have to rent at lower than the market rate usually. There's laws and regulations and all that.

Private Landlords aren't subject to the same regulations bizarrely, which is why you have situations where you can rent out a boxroom in London for £500 a week.

Yes but you are talking about the South though doobree Op isn't in the South it's far cheaper in the North /East and North /West

Why is it "bizarre" that private landlords aren't subject to the same restrictions/prices as local authorities?

These are private individuals who own the house/flat.. if they were subject to the same restrictions as parts of the council/government or whatever, barely anyone would rent out property at all. Having recently become an unwilling landlord due to circumstances outside our control, it's been nothing but a pain in the bum with no profit in sight at all, just costs and complaining tenants and repairs to arrange and pay for.

I'm not in London either, btw, so all the comments about MN being London centric aren't even accurate in this case (it might be urban centric though, that's fair).

It is kind of bizarre that people providing shelter aren't subject to any restrictions as to what they can charge for it. Particularly when they as a group are taking £10 billion in public money every year for said provision of shelter, the majority of which is top up payments for working tenants. That's a lot of money to be throwing away.

Also, the only accidental landlord is the one who wakes up and finds a spare house in their coat pocket and accidentally rents it out when really they meant to sell it. Take some fucking responsibility for a decision freely made.

AnneGrommit, my mother has died, I did not decide to inherit the property and then be unable to sell it quickly due to its weird layout quirks

Kailoer I'm an accidental LL too.

Sorry about your mum

Think about the positives - better area usually means lower crime rates and better schools. When we moved from our tiny, 2 up 2 down house in a shitty area to our lovely big house in a nice area, I had mixed feelings. To begin with, I couldn't wait to move, until we exchanged contracts and then I got all sad at the thought of leaving my home. A couple of years later, I'm so happy we moved.

Kailoer losing your mum is fucking hard work. Aside from the heart-wrenching grief thing, sorting out their affairs is bloody awful.

I think all of you accidental landlords should give your houses away as they are obviously such a burden to you. The rent you get isn't accidental though is it. So you won't.

Oh fuck off, Anne.

FWIW I'm a (private) tenant, with zero chance of inheriting anything, let alone becoming a landlord. When my mum died I was left to clear her (private rented) flat, alone.

I am not a property owner, let alone a fucking landlord.

I never reference other threads that someone has posted on, but I'll make an exception here for you Anne ...

It's a peculiarly nasty mindset that looks at someone getting something - anything - and thinks that this somehow personally disadvantages them, the onlooker

Wow.

I'm not personally disadvantaged by anything on this thread at all fwiw and you'll note - as you appear to pay flatteringly close attention to me - that unlike the majority on here I have been keen to point out that the OP isn't scrounging or getting one over on anyone. In fact that mindset I talked about on the unrelated thread you have gone to some effort to reference is very much in evidence here and I have argued against it.

I just get fed up of people in the business of profiting from others' need for shelter and providing said shelter in a grudging short term and lacklustre fashion that benefits no one acting as though they are somehow unwitting victims when they are doing everyone a disservice. Housing in this country is at crisis point. And yes I will criticise the many dilettante landlords on mumsnet and elsewhere for the part they play in it.

Don't flatter yourself - that post came up at the end of one of the trending threads. I stumbled across it, basically.

Housing is indeed in crisis. I couldn't agree more. The poster you berated however isn't part of the problem.

The privatisation of rental housing provision and crucially the lack of regulation in this area is honestly I think the main driver behind the crisis we are in and all landlords are culpable in that sense.

And I am so bored of reading on here tales of woe from people who simply should not be let anywhere near a tenant talking about how they don't want to do it and how hard it is who are unable to see that they are making a bad societal situation even worse.

If you don't want your house, sell it. Or give it away. I don't really fucking care. But don't come onto a thread where a social housing tenant is getting all kinds of shit thrown at her for having the temerity not to be destitute on the street and go on about how hard it is to be a landlord.

I think all of you accidental landlords should give your houses away as they are obviously such a burden to you. The rent you get isn't accidental though is it. So you won't

Yeah, like you would!

Sorry, posted too soon. I can't sell or give it away, I've had to rent while the estate is being managed and affairs tied up as stated in the will. So things aren't always so cut and dry. So yes, I am an accidental LL.