Council House

[allthegoodnameshadgone]

Do people think I'm unreasonable for the following? Just read another thread and now I'm wondering about peoples views.

I live in a HA house and have for a few years. I get the right to buy soon and I will.

I don't claim any benefits and was a single parent when I moved in.

I work full time. I have a nice car through my work.

Rent where I live is the same for private or HA.

I've spend a lot of money doing this house up with no help from HA.

Do people think I should hand my keys back and if so why?

Handouts captainBligh?you are aware that alot of people pay their own rent and OP has said the rent isnt any cheaper than private rent [before you go on about subsidys]

Making a profit? Did I miss the bit where OP said she planned to sell the house on?

I'm on the fence re RTB but in your situation, buy it don't hand the keys back like some of these people are saying.

Have you read the posts on here about private renting?

Can you really afford to be charged multiple times for credit checks/references? Pay a massive deposit. Treated like they're doing you a favour? Then be told to leave at short notice as the ll is selling.

The local HA here gives assured tenancies after one years probationary tenancy

Same here, we were HA and are now council but they use the same letting system so we came into the council property on a secure tenancy as we'd already done our probationary tenancy with the HA. It's basically a tenancy for life and we can stay in the property for as long as we continue to pay the rent. If at any point in the future we want to downsize we will get given additional priority for a smaller house as we're making way for someone who needs a bigger house but the secure tenancy will follow us so we won't ever go back onto a probationary tenancy.

When we were shown the property we were told that they want people to put down roots and build a community by living out their lives here, raising their children, and so on. The idea of booting people out just because their income goes up is ridiculous, no one would have nay motivation to try and better their situation. When DH and I first started out together he worked in a factory and I worked in a pub, our combined income was something like £180 a week. As the years have gone on we've worked and we've progressed and we earn more now, I'm a SAHM and carer for eldest DS and he works in an office. If eviction was the consequence of progression, then why would people bother?

I'm in a similar situation.

I started out homeless and pregnant at 18, took the first house I was offered(luckily it's nice)

Was on benefits for many years.

I am now working full time and looking to buy in the near future.

I have been here 10 years (DD 9)

I've had a few comments I should move now I'm on my feet, but this is our home.

*Captainbligh
*
I think you should give it back so that someone who needs it can use the HA property.

Living off handouts is one thing but making a profit and at the same time depriving others of the help you had is shocking

Why can't they use another HA property? There is no shortage here. I still live here so I need it. Are you suggesting that I should give it up and rent privately? To whose benefit exactly as the cost is the same here.

I don't claim benefits. Or get any tax credits. How am I making a profit? You've lost me there? What handouts do you presume I am living off? My salary that I work full time for?

Who am I depriving of help? Why is someone else more in need of a secure tenancy over me and my DD? For this area HA and private rents are the same price.

Captain Bligh Your "handouts" comment shows what you really think of social housing tenants so your post there was a big epic fail.

Meh buy it

Look I bought two ex locals from right to buyers who sold on . Only way to get on the ladder for me

So how can I criticise when I also benefitted from it

But in principle it’s not fair and given Scotland I can’t see it hanging around here forever

What people say on MN and would ACTUALLY DO in real life are two very different things OP. I have RTB and fully intend to do so when i'm well enough to sort it.

Buy it OP you may never get the chance again.

Earlier on today there was a thread about someone who's landlord/letting agent comes round to inspect the property every 3 months including taking photos of all the rooms in the house, which her daughter found upsetting. Who the hell would choose that over a secure unintrusive tenancy in a ha property

If only that were actually true.................that HAs didnt hassle their tenants.

www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2018/apr/24/even-social-housing-unaffordable-england-homelessness?CMP=share_btn_tw

The worst thing they ever allowed was the right to buy.

They are selling more than they are building.

I'm paying ridiculous rent & im broke!

I can't even get on the housing list because I'm adequately housed, even though I'm struggling with the shortfall in rent.

If you can afford it, you should buy or rent privately.

They are selling more than they are building.

Not everywhere.

Where I live, it's a condition of the sale of the land to developers that a percentage of the housing must be given over to social housing. Our first house was on a new build estate with c.80 social housing properties. I have friends living on another new build estate in the same area with roughly the same amount of social housing properties. A patch of land nearby recently sold and the housing being built there will include some social housing.

I think you might live close to me, Bears. The HA I am with has just built an entire estate with a mix shared ownership, help to buy and rental properties. They got unused land heavily discounted from the council and a local property development firm were ordered to build the houses at a discounted rate if they wanted to build a private estate plus four executive builds in the nice part of town. They're also in the middle of building a retirement village on the edge of town.

The council are fed up of buy to letters and are putting in numerous measures to stop them along with supporting the HAs to build and buy new properties and buying housing stock from buy to let LLs themselves.

Any house sold under the right to but would be quickly replaced.

Bear and Frequency we've got a lot of new social, affordable and part buy being built near us too. And when I say a lot I mean a lot. The local HA has built a small estate of only social housing, the houses look really lovely and the estate looks really well laid out from what I can see driving past. There's a huge sign saying what it is for and there's no executive homes.

That said there are a lot of nimby's around here who are protesting but as said on that recent beeb2 programme, "no one has a right to a view anymore" or something similar.

Our last house was a HA property that they purchased on the open market under the mortgage rescue scheme so it's not just new builds, they're also buying private properties and giving them over to social housing.

On the council's housing website, where you go to bid each week, they advertise private properties on behalf of accredited landlords so they're also working with the private sector. They're fairly good at dealing with last landlords and letting agents too. When we were renting privately we needed a major damp related repair carried out, letting agent tried to say it was condensation caused by us when it was actually a problem with the cavity wall. The council came out at our request, looked at it, and then told the letting agent they had 28 days to rectify it or else the council would do the work and bill them for it.

*Bear your LA seems pretty good to tackle the Housing problem in that way. I do hope more LA's follow suit!