To think that social housing is a step up, not a step down.

[JarlBalgruuf]

I always see stuff implying that people who have a council or housing association house are in the lowest form of housing.

I think it is bollocks. Having rented privately for about 4 years I think that assumption is bollocks. I have seen it all with private lets in that short time.

From my first flat when weeks after the checkout inspection, the (unregistered!) landlady text saying her plumber had found a hole in the bath and wanted us to pay for it, to a flat with cracks in the walls from subsidence that caused the windows not to shut properly, to a flat where I got a notice to quit while pregnant because I said I wasn't paying rent until they fixed the stuff they had been promising to fix since before I moved in over a year ago.

That plus extortionate rent , deposits, agent fees, late rent fees, having to hassle and hassle to get anything fixed, inspections, and getting billed when you moved out for stuff that was broken when you moved in.

Since renting from a housing association, none of the stuff in the flat has broken yet, I have been consulted on changes they want to make to communal areas, and if I haven't been able to pay rent on time it's been totally fine, no late fees.

Why the fuck is being treated like an actual human being supposedly worse that basically being shat on and not being able to do anything about it? although I did consider hiding fish under the floorboards of my last flat they treated me that badly.

Fortunately you have a good housing association, unfortunately you had shit private landlords. There are quite a few on here who get utterly shafted by their HA. You did of course have rights and protections against all the crap you got.

private landlords can't generally allow late rent, and they do die/get divorced/sell up, none of which applies to HA's.

stopping paying rent will obviously get you an eviction notice. For future ref the correct order of action would have been to contact the council and enforce repairs, which would have meant any eviction would have been illegal. All this info is available.

be careful about late rent now. The HA may not always be so accommodating if their management changes.

being pregnant is never relevant to anything housing-related.

I'd love to see more social housing so that it's a choice rather than a lottery. Social housing allows people to have a secure home and get on with living their lives.

Council house sales must have been one of the worst policies of recent years. Glad it's been reversed in Scotland.

My first flat was in a block of four all owned, the block next door of 12 was HA, there were so many issues, drugs, fights, DV with two different men kicking in doors, damaging communal fencing etc, kids running around kicking footballs at cars in the car park, police turning up etc. this was an expensive be build estate, where a set portion had to be affordable housing. We didn't even live in HA, just in close proximity and I could not wait to get away. In private rent or ownership you have more flexibility to get away if you have those kinds of neighbours. There was a lovely couple on the ground floor both NHS workers and got their flat through keyworker housing, they had asked to move but had no hope and no one was doing anything about the behaviour of the other HA tenants.

It wasn't really major repairs, stuff like fixing a cupboard door in the kitchen and threadbare carpets. Not major health hazards that the council would have got involved with. I had asked them so many times to do the work they said they would and they promised before I moved in it would be done. Money was literally the only motivation they had for anything and since it was one of the agent's cheap flats they didn't give a shit.

Are you talking about social housing or affordable housing? Either way, system is totally broken. Many HAs are in financial trouble, hence being rubbish landlords. Great for you getting a more secure tenancy. But that should be available to anyone that NEEDs it, and I think that is the problem. It isn't and wont be for decades, even if a new government came in tomorrow.

FASH84

The demand for private lets is so huge though. That's the problem. I have never been able to get anywhere even semi nice because why would they rent to the person On minimum wage and universal credit when there's 200 other applications from students with guaranteed loans every month? Used to live in an area where pretty much none of the agents would accept people on any kind of benefits.

I think it depends on the landlords, both in private and social housing.

The only good think about my Housing Association property is the cheap rent. The estate is awful. Really awful. 2 months ago a teenager was stabbed multiple times in broad daylight by a gang of masked men in the walkway down the side of my home, the house directly behind mine had their shed set on fire by kids, mopeds speeding down walkways and pavements nearly knocking my 3 year old son over, a play area that is unusable due to broken alcohol bottles and empty gas canisters littered all over...

If I had the money I’d move tomorrow - a secure tenancy isn’t worth living like this to me. I’d rather risk having to move every few years than have my son grow up around this.

And my HA no longer carry out “minor” repairs. My kitchen is over 20 years old and the cupboards keep falling off, but it’s my responsibility to fix them. The same with the broken floorboards all over the house and the fence that the previous tenants removed half of - all down to me to fix.

Sadly in some area s social housing is in so high demand that it is a race to the bottom and the people at the top of the list are low life's who know how to work the system. SH estates here are notorious for drugs, anti social behaviour and crime. This gives people the impression that social housing=scum bags, which is really sad. Until they make all estates mixed housing then I can't see that changing.
My db was looking at a new build and went to put a deposit and then the contractor told him and others viewing the show house that every 4th house was going to be SH. Every single person w alked away.

happinessiseggshaped

Yes of course, affordable housing should be a right not a privilege. Even for the 'junkie crack whore scum with 347 children just for child benefit who also drives a Ferrari and goes on 15 holidays a year' that the government go on about.

The government wants to keep the poor poor and in crap conditions. Now lots of people won't even rent to someone on UC.

Having the opportunity (which i am in the process of taking full advantage of) to purchase a house at greatly reduced cost is dismal . Us poor old council house scum bags.

The places I've been able to privately rent have been in the same shit areas, just with higher rent and less security.

I agree unless you're talking about council estates with flats. We've taken a massive step up leaving that behind. When most of your neighbours are criminals it's nice to be back in a normal neighbourhood.

There was a television report on my local News that two thirds of privately let property was unfit/dangerous/hazard to health, in my City of Liverpool.

Unfortunately, the areas that HA housing is condensed in, is awful.

DaisysStew, have you been to Environmental Health. Your HA cannot insist that you replace floorboards. usually there is a payment option for them to repair kitchen Cupboards.

HA housing will drop down in quality once again, once the EU regulations and payments stop. Round my way, they are selling off their three bed houses, anyway.

I moved from private to HA. Had a choice of a new kitchen and bathroom not long after I moved in. Chose the cabinets, handles, tiles and flooring. Any problem I've had, I've had a plumber out within 3 hours max. It's in a nice area with many private homes. Don't get me wrong I've had some little niggles but nowhere near the amount that I had in private- and these actually get fixed!!!

YANBU. I'd have loved a council or HA place when I was younger and could only afford to privately rent off chancers who were little more than slumlords. It's not so bad now we can afford to rent at a higher point in the market, but we're still expected to put up with disrepair that we know the landlord would have sorted out in no time at all in his own home.

For me the worst is the estates where loads of houses/flats have been bought through right to buy and are now being let out privately to people paying twice as much as their neighbours for less stability and a poorer state of repair.

As a country we need to be building more social housing as a priority but before that someone really needs to crack down on some of these buy to let-ers. We need higher standards set in law and a meaningful way to enforce them.

For me its a step up. I rented privately quite well for 2 and half years with my children after I fled domestic violence as the council decided I had made myself intentionally homeless.

The landlord was lovely but, I never felt secure there and I was proven right when he put up the rent, I lost 85% of my benefits and I lost my children all in a five month process. I quickly lost my home. I then moved into Lodgings but, was asked to leave there because, the landlord wanted his own space.

I ended up in supported housing and now I have been offered my own HA flat. Hopefully I will move into in the next 4-5 weeks.

Its not a simple process of a list anymore. Its signing up to the register and then having to bid every week. There is also no guarantee that being number 1 will mean you get the property either. I believe I was number 7-8 for this property I have been offered.

Even HA isn't permanent now. They have fixed tenancies which is about 5 years and then your reviewed and also you have to pay 4 weeks rent up front before even moving in the property. There are many in the accommodation I am in that wont be able to afford that as they only get the basic UC.

As people have said not all HA's are great. But I agree with you. I would rather rent a HA property and have security and be able to do it up how I like than be in a private rented. I still have to chase them for repairs though.

Thanks for all your replies. In my experience 100% of letting agents/landlords have tried to take the piss in some way or another, so my trust in them isn't high!

I was also very lucky to be offered a HA flat two weeks after applying because they didn't have anyone else who needed it and I was pregnant. The area is the worst I've ever lived in and I used to live next to the flats where Trainspotting is set. But it's been better in almost every other way.

Tonight on Channel 4

Dispatches.....Getting Rich from the Housing Crisis. (2 Posts)
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HelenaDove Thu 12-Jul-18 19:39:01

Broadcast date...........Monday 16th July.

"The pay of some social housing bosses has hit record levels during the current housing crisis. For Dispatches Anthony Barnett visits communities under threat and asks why, in one of the poorest areas, a housing association executive received a pay out of more than a million pounds"

Synopsis from Radio Times.

First of all you say:
the people at the top of the list are low life's who know how to work the system

Then go on to say:
This gives people the impression that social housing=scum bags, which is really sad

Make your mind up 🤔

Fwiw, I believe people are a product of their environment. Money has been plucked from these already deprived communities, leaving disengaged, disenfranchised people, with nowhere to turn and break the vicious circle.

Fortunately, I know lots of HA areas that are pleasant and habited by 'normal' people who live 'normal' lives.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2901354-Housing-associations-Are-you-having-problems

I think there are 2 separate issues - security of tenure and pleasantness of location.

Social Housing does provide more security of tenure - if you meet the requirements to get the accommodation and get given it, you are unlikely to find the property is sold from under you, and assuming your family size remains the same, you can probably remain for many many years, which few private tenants can say.

That said, particularly in large areas of social housing, many people would say, the areas are not very pleasant and there can be lots of anti-social behaviour and that in retrun for the security of tenure and possibly lower rent, it is then very difficult to re-locate. Private rented accommodation is more likely to be amongst privately owned accommodation and so those issues of large areas of anti social behaviour aren't such an issue.

It all depends - if you can get social housing on a small development, or somewhere where much of the housing is privately owned, then you are very lucky and I would agree it is a step up from living under the constabnt threat of a provate landlord selling the property.

However, I would also say that all tenants need to pay their rent on time and not expect to get away with not paying up. A HA might cut you some slack once or twice, but don't think you will keep getting away with it. They are used to evicting non-payers and have all the means behind them to do it quickly and efficiently....so if you think you've had the 'step up' to good social housing, don't let it be taken away by not paying up.

Wombat what makes you think tenants deliberately try to wriggle out of paying their rent.

From a review from a HA employee Taken from glass door

"OneSanctuary SAP is the name of a multi-million pound software system brought in by Sanctuary in 2016, designed for use by all areas of the business. It has been an unmitigated failure, and is a huge drawback of working for this company.
The issues caused by SAP are staggering and difficult to keep track of. Because SHA tried to implement SAP in a cost effective manner, they ended up vastly under-investing in critical elements. There is no tailoring of the generically presented system ('vanilla SAP'), which is an issue as social housing is a unique environment from a service delivery and CRM perspective, whereas vanilla SAP is more geared towards providing a solution for manufacturing industries. Thus, the system uses corporate nonsensical buzzwords and methods of handling accounts which absolutely do not reflect industry practice.
Here are just some examples of the more specific issues faced by staff:
No rent statements have been issued since it was implemented in August 2016, and if a resident insists on a rent statement it has to be prepared manually in a spreadsheet.
The rent and calculations for accounts are hard to use, and often completely wrong. Mostly because the system was never designed to understand housing benefit payments, and this has a very convoluted workaround which a computer cannot make sense of.
SAP cannot interface with Local Authorities Housing benefit systems so payments are missed, lost or misattributed.
Direct debits do not work reliably, and for a long time following the implementation did not work at all. Front line staff are now preferring standing order.
The front end system of SAP requires far more testing and money spent on it. Each customer account is a total mess of information, with no discernible way to separate notes left between differing departments, with information left by staff often going into the wrong account entirely. This needs looking at as from a compliance (DPA) point of view the breaches are serious.
From a usability point of view, the view of a customers account within SAP CIC does not display appropriate information to the user (as stated before this is likely because the system was never designed to be used by a HA) and the user often has to go trawling around back end systems to find obviously relevant data (e.g tenancy start date, account balance, property type etc). This is a seemingly minor but considerable waste of resources"