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.

'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?'

But there aren't and if there are it's often enough they don't have the money to put in flooring, shelving/storage, make the garden usable (we live in a flat but everyone we know who's had a garden has had to invest quite a bit of time and money in it to make it safe). Most people spread the cost of this out over months if not years.It's not their fault there's not enough social housing.

maxthemartian surely people move house all the time for many reasons. Do you suggest no one does simply to maintain social cohesion?
In my area there are hundreds of private retirement housing complex properties being built and it would appear from that, that there is a demand for older people for them.

Then there's the fact that it can be nigh on impossible to get away from shitty neighbours in HA/council homes. So you take on a flat and may find yourself surrounded by people who make your life miserable or worse, your only recourse being to 'just move'. It would be utter folly to leave a situation where you know you have good neighbours to step into an unknown setting that could be absolute shit.

As far as I'm aware the lifetime tenancy was done away with in 2011/2012 replaced with a rolling five year tenancy agreement.

Wrt downsizing, if only it was that easy. A neighbour here has a three bed, one child has left home and she wants to downsize to a two bed. Most of the places she's seen with two beds have higher rent than her three bed, she can't move too far because of school and work, people don't want to swap with her.

I'm sure that most people - not all - would want to downsize, but it's not that easy. It's hard to swap, it's hard to get a transfer there aren't large numbers of exactly the right number of bedrooms for x tenant to move to y tenants HA/council home.

Ultimately, the problem is lack of social housing, not people "selfishly" stopping other families from getting a larger home.

And yes, we are tenants and not owners, but we all have the right to security in our homes, we all have the right to live securely and work if we can, we all have the right to not be judged by people who think that you should only live in social housing if you are dirt poor and should leave when you're not.

Maybe they could just build more?

Would you want to move away from dear friends and neighbours you've known for 40, 50 years, move into a high-rise flat in an area you've never set foot in surrounded by people you don't know? I wouldn't want to do that now in my twenties, let alone in my 80s.

And I say that as someone on a waiting list for a house. The solution to this isn't breaking up well-established communities, it's build more. The money is there, there's just no willing.

Yeah my garden was full of rubble and glass and they took away the grass

It wasn't my grass, it was the former tenants and they didn't want to be responsible for maintaining it, so they dug it out. Legally, they must maintain anything which was there when I signed the contract, which is why they rip everything out. They left the fruit tree, I assume it was too expensive to remove so I was allowed to keep that but I had to sign something to state it was mine and my responsibility to maintain. I'd have happily taken responsibility for the grass and brand new living room carpet but they didn't give me that option.

I think SH is great but it's terrible that some people are caught in the private rental trap - I mean people who earn too much to qualify for housing benefit but pay probably over half their salary a month on rent. There must be a way to redress the balance and bring down private rents.

My parents have been council tenants for years btw paying full rent there is nowhere for them to downsize to in the village they live in where are people meant to go ?

We still have lifetime tenancies. I'm on a starter tenancy atm but as long as I don't fall into serious rent arrears or have x amount of ASB complaints lodged against me, I will move to a lifetime tenancy after 12 months.

'In my area there are hundreds of private retirement housing complex properties being built and it would appear from that, that there is a demand for older people for them.'

They are known to be a financially unsound investment, those places. VERY hard to sell. And besides, the people in social housing are renting, if they go private they lose the security of that and pay a higher rent for a smaller property. Doesn't make any sense at all.

I think it is optimistic to expect people to give up a massive asset (a secure tenancy on a council house) for purely altruistic reasons. In reality most such tenants will only move if they are offered a deal of some sort (eg a 2 bed bungalow with a driveway instead of a 4 bed house with no off-street parking).

The properties available are rarely attractive enough to tempt anyone out of a good family house.

Parents could never afford the deposit to buy a house, they didn't agree with right to buy that came in the 80s so remained council tenants. Lots of people took advantage of RTB so housing stock was sold off and not really replaced which caused imo the housing crisis.

OohMavis absolutely!
Dear government, please build more social housing.
And I've already said that I understand older people should not be expected to uproot themselves from their homes of 40 year or more.

I must admit I had no idea that transferring could be so fraught with difficulties.

As to spending money on your HA property I have already said its wrong that HA don't provide decent housing and I think they should maintain them.

I moved into my house 19 years ago. I moved here with my ex husband and his DD and our DD.

His DD left home, then he left me, leaving only me and my DD here. We were under occupying. Someone suggested I should move, but honestly, I could not afford to, wanted DD to have the home she had had since she was 4.

Then I met DP, had two babies and DD moved out.

So, still 4 people occupying the house. Life moves on, life changes.

I won't be having any more children (I'm 50) so when these two grow up and leave home, we may consider moving but would probably swap as that would give us more choice and control as to where we moved.

My whole estate used to be council housing the minority are now council tenants.

What about people who can now afford private housing more than many in it? Shall we try and guilt them into leaving too?

My ex colleague got a 2 bed as a lone parent. She's now married to a dh so they have more than double my income. She's an ex colleague because with a dp she went for promotions I can't as a lp. Is it ok if I go and suggest they are being a bit selfish not to give me that opportunity? Because I would think myself a right twat if I was that rude and short sighted.

You're also missing the community side. Housing estates where only the desperate live on short term tenancies aren't generally very pleasant places to live.

The solution is more housing, not the general public trying to coerce people to move. Most will downsize of their own accord if a suitable property is available.

expat I wasn't meaning that older SH tenants should move to these retirement places. I was simply pointing out that older people do seem to occasionally choose to move as they get older. It was more in response to the post up thread about older people staying put and social cohesion. I think the retirement complexes are a horrible commercial phenomenon and have no idea why so many are being built around here. They are ugly, expensive and an odd concept.

lastnightidreamtofpotatoes when your proud of defrauding the system elderly neighbours do die, having other family listed with them won't be enough. They'll have to prove they lived there with bank statements and/or bills, voter registration, be listed on any housing benefit etc. I hope they don't. Bloody hate dealing with those types of successors.

no @WrongOnTheInternet you cant just pass on a council house to your adult children there is one right of succession so myself and dh are both on the tenancy if i die before him he becomes the sole tenant and vice versa we cant pass the house on to our kids after that unless we bought it, and im not sure how the elderly couple are planning on the tenancy to their adult child after they die as the sdult child is a home owner and home owners arnt allowed social housing usually

I get your frustration, I really do.

Our rent rocketed as we were planning to move into a three-bed, making our two-bed unaffordable let alone a bigger property. We're now stuck in a house too small for us that we can't afford, but we can't move.

Our rent was raised last month by another £100. Private landlord with a chain of properties.

The issue here is private rents being completely out of control and lack of social housing. It's squeezing and squeezing and there's no let-up.

I'm against short term lets.
I'm asking those who are in a position to do so to consider it.
I totally agree that the housing situation in this country is terrible and needs changing.

I have a large SH house and won't be downsizing at all. We have (and will be) spending a lot of money to put it into a decent home. We are planning to buy once full discount kicks in but if we dont for a u reason we'll stay for life. We receive no benefits and pay full rent.
Don't hound those who gained their houses fairly & honestly, it's the govt who have sold off stock without rebuilding.

I have just moved into a 1 bed council flat I had been on the waiting list for 10 years, I have got very lucky in that I have a small garden and lovely neighbours however I don't have a secure tenancy for the 1st year, once I have been here the year I go onto a 5 year rolling tenancy the Housing officer said they do it this way now to give people a chance to downsize if they have larger properties , the flat was a nightmare the chap who had it before us was pretty much a hoarder we have been told by our neighbours that it was such a state the maintenance dept refused to enter the property, it has cost a fortune to get it habitable and by that i don't mean prettying it up i mean coat after coat of stain block followed by 5 coats of paint on every wall and ceiling as a starting point , I am still picking up broken glass from the garden 3 months after moving in ,the council have no provision for grants or help of any kind so whilst I am extremely grateful for the flat it hasn't been an easy option of any kind

It's not always so easy.
My parents live is a small lovely village, in a v.large 3 bed semi with huge gardens and double garage.
They have lived there for nearly 38 years.
They would happily exchange into a smaller house but can't find anything, if been looking for them for over 3 years.
All they want is to stay in the village they have lived in forever and a small garden.

caithuait my wage does not even cover my rent. Private rental property. My area came up very high on a recent survey which told you how long you would have to work to pay a years private rent. My area....six months. I'm my case though .....never.