To ask if you are under-occupying social housing that you consider downsizing?

[IckyBex]

If you are in a property with space you no longer need for whatever reason please consider asking to transfer to a smaller property. There are so many families waiting for three or four bedroom housing and hardly any available.
Staying in your four bedroom house after all of your children have left home is depriving another family of the opportunity that you were given.

Wow lastnight, she owns a house and has a tenancy too? I thought that was illegal. That's pretty immoral.

This type of blaming of individuals for macro issues in society is completely wrong.

Governments have encouraged it for years - with the NHS, housing, immigration etc, because it absolves them of the failure to do their job, which is to predict and plan for these things.

Parents who want to stay in their home after their children have moved out are not the issue.

As for the poster upthread who was outraged at someone in social housing daring to spend money making their house a home... I despair.

I downsized through house exchange from a 4 to a 3 when my eldest 2 moved out. I was quite happy to do so and give a young growing family the house as I no longer need the space .Now with the younger 2 close to adults I would happily do it again, indeed that was always my plan, but no one seems to want a property like mine where the 3rd bedroom is tiny and I have also found the younger families who want to upgrade to a 3 bed on the exchange sites are just really demanding on what they do and don't want ,wooden floors, parking for 3 cars, must have a wet room etc,etc. I have been here 8 years and the house is beautifully decorated and the garden well looked after and cherished with many mature shrubs and plants (tbh the garden is the thing I am most loathe to give up) but people want decking and paved gardens. It's not just a cut and dry swap if people are unable to see beyond the decoration and are unwilling to compromise.

Those in SH are tenants, you can't do what you like as it isn't your home

You understand what lifetime tenancy means, right? That is what social tenants are given. For a lot of people outside the London bubble, security is the only plus to social housing. I certainly wouldn't have moved from private rented where the LL was responsible for everything to SH, where as far I can tell, I am responsible for around 80% of the maintenance of the property for no reason.

If I maintaining out of my pocket, then yes, as far as I am concerned it is mine for life. If the councils want to start treating tenants like private tenants and have the right to evict, then they need to start behaving like private LL and maintaining the properties from their own purse.

You can't ask a tenant to be responsible for upstairs windows, external fencing and gates, flooring, plastering and decorating, gardening, internal fittings like lights and curtain poles etc and then expect them to move out and start again with no reimbursement.

This has upset me recently as I have discovered that a friend of mine is still named on the lease of a four bed when she actually lives with her boyfriend. Her son lives in the four bed with his girlfriend but they are buying soon. Friend is trying to work out a way to keep the four bed.
Also a couple who claim their children still live at home when in fact they have all moved out.
Also an older couple as described above but in their circs I do understand that leaving a family home of forty odd years when you're in your seventies would be difficult.

I've already downsized from a 3 bed house that I got for myself and 1 DS within a week of applying for social housing.

Not a hope I will ever give up my lovely little 2 bed stone built terrace whenever he moves out. I have no chance of ever owning a home(40, no savings, no permanent job), so this is my home for life now.

A couple of people have mentioned being able to pass on secure lifelong tenancies to children - is that true? How can that be in any way fair, and how has that been missed compared to the all the trauma caused by bedrooms?

Of course we wouldn't be having these conversations if there was actually room enough for everyone.

frequency here HAs are responsible for maintenance and upkeep. Whether they do is another question of course.
Agree that is a bigger issue than simply asking individuals to move. Also agree that if you've sunk thousands into improving housing you'd be loathe to give that up.
Councils and HAs should provide decent housing which shouldn't require the tenants to sink lots of money into.

Around here larger houses are council and smaller are housing association.

When my time comes to downsize I'll have to pay more in rent to do so as council is cheaper.

Of course we wouldn't be having these conversations if there was actually room enough for everyone.

This is the issue really.

Icky then your issue is with your friend - who is committing fraud, and imo shouldn't get away with it. I would have to report it.

Staying in your four bedroom house after all of your children have left home is depriving another family of the opportunity that you were given. Is this honestly happening anywhere, now that there's the "spare room" tax?

Of course it happens - the bedroom 'tax' only applies if you claim benefits to pay your housing costs. Plenty of people live in SH and don't claim for whatever reason.

I'm not talking single people or even couples in two bedroom properties. I'm talking single people or couples in three+ bedroom properties.
And I'm only making a plea that tenants consider downsizing.

You understand what lifetime tenancy means, right? That is what social tenants are given

Yes but I think there are conditions attached? Haven't been in SH myself but in my area anyway lifetime means it is your for life as long as you abide by their rules/contract. A 2 person family living in a 4 bed house would not be in line with the rules/contract.

I work for a HA in the SE. We offer people a (minimum) £200 contribution for downsizing and pay for a full removals service.

Here we no longer offer “lifetime” tenancies other than in sheltered housing. All new residents have been on 6 year fixed term tenancies for the last few years.

Re: passing tenancies on this can be done at the HA discretion on the older secure tenancies once but the person to succeed must have been living at the property for the last 2 years and be able to prove it via council tax invoice etc. among other criteria.

My HA is only responsible for structural problems, some drainage problems, maintaining the kitchen and bathroom and keeping the house secure along with gas safety checks, maintaining fire and carbon monoxide alarms and internal wiring.

I am responsible for upstairs windows, light-moderate plastering/wall repair i.e anything not bad enough to be a structural issue, fencing which doesn't cause security issues (they are responsible for the back fence as it backs into other people's gardens, I am responsible for the front fence and gate as they open on to the street). I'm responsible for all flooring and light fittings excluding the kitchen and bathroom, some plumbing problems (leaks and blockages of internal pipes, excluding the toilet), internal doors and just about everything else you can think of that isn't structural or involving gas or electric. The gas oven is mine, I need to have it checked at my own expense every 12 months.

Sadly the collective mentality seems to be about people hanging on to what they've got. And who can blame them? Resources becoming more and more scarce, population growing,fear about the future. Maybe some of the gentry or royals could open their rooms up to young families?

If there's no place to go and they're paying the full rent, why should they?

I've been bidding 4 YEARS to downsize since my eldest left home and paying spare room subsidy every week.
Still waiting. Absolutely sick of it all

please consider asking to transfer to a smaller property

in my area it isn't as simple as that. I'll try to briefly detail how it's worked out for me.

I moved in to a 3 bed 3 years ago with my child, partner and her kids.
last July relationship broke down and partner left. this left me and my daughter in a 3 bed house.
I contacted my social landlord at that time and explained.

so July last year I became a single dad to an under 5 year old. unemployed and living on benefits in a social housing house.

because I was 'Under occupied' then housing benefit wouldn't pay full rent meaning I had to pay £60 a month towards rent.
because HB took a while to sort I ended up in arrears.
at the same time I applied to take ex off the tenancy here. was told I wasn't allowed as I was in arrears.
I asked if I could.move to a 2 bed. was told.tonapply.on a specific website. I applied, was told I couldn't as was in arrears.
(so can't afford to to stay, can't afford to get out of arrears, can't move.to.somewhere I could afford)
fast forward a few months, HB is sorted, rent is up to date, I apply.for housing. I'm given a band 2 rating. so I apply for 2 bed places. each one I'm.overlooked for as people are in more need than me.
for.months I apply, months I make up the shortfall in HB etc.
eventually I find a 2 bed house in a village no-one wants to.move too. I apply. get accepted.... guess what.. because ex is still on tenancy at current property need to get her off and because I've switched to UC they won't pay full rent, will only pay half rent as ex is on tenancy and then take 14% from that rent due to too many bedrooms.

so...

for a while... I've been desperate to move to avoid bedroom tax.. but I've been unable too that is to the bedroom tax and when indonfind a place I could go the bedroom tax is blocking it.

so yes..
simply asking to.move doesn't quite work.. not where I live anyway..

I'm in a 5 bed social housing new build

Won't need 5 beds much longer, 3 bed would do

But

It's a mutual exchange only arrangement here. So someone the HA says is eligible for a 5 bed only if I'm eligible for a 3 bed. It's strict. And I haven't got the time for all the time wasters who email and then disappear. Or to do up a run down 3 bed where's family have squashed in and created diy chaos.

I think HAs give various different types of tenancy these days and lifetime tenancies are less common...or was that just a proposal?
I have reservations about shorter tenancies or if tenants needs were reassessed at intervals as this is a reason private renting is stressful, the lack of security.

petrolpump that's exactly it. And examples to the contrary have to start at the top, at this time when new stately homes are being built.

I'm my area they do offer an incentive to downsize but when they are all oap who don't want to give up where they brought their kids up I can see your point.

I've spent thousands on my 3 bed ha house and I'm lucky enough to have a tennency for life so for me to downsize (and due to dh being disabled) ide want a 2 bedroom bungalow and it would have to match up to the high expectations I have made in my house now which they just don't.

It's not MY fault they haven't built enough social housing. That started with Thatcher selling them off and not putting money back into building more

Judging by the state of sh atm too I would always want the extra room so if my dc need to move back in they can.

Expat if there were properties available and probably lower rents could they at least consider it to all a family in need to be housed?
To all those trying to downsize and having issues you have my sympathies and fgs what a feckin mess!

In theory, yes it would be great if people in a larger property that they under-occupy could move. It's not that simple in practice. As others have pointed out, people spend potentially thousands on their property throughout the tenancy.

But the main issue that occurs to me is social cohesion. If someone has been in a property for decades, they will be invested in their community, know their neighbours, know the local shopkeepers etc.
It's a bit much to expect someone to uproot themselves from all of that.
Areas with shifting, transient communities have all sorts of issues that settled, stable communities do not.