To think it's out of order to buy your council house then sell it to a private landlord ?

[PaulinesPenStash]

Bought their council house cheap from the local authority a few years ago, approx half market value

In our local authority you can't sell for 5 years. But once able to sell, they sold it within a week of it going on the market and Made about 100k in profit selling it (to a private landlord). with the proceeds of the sale they will be soon moving into a new much bigger, nicer house in a lovely area

Meanwhile some poor fucker will be soon be renting their old house for about double the council rent

This person is, by the way, an out and proud Labour activist and member

So. Aibu to think it's a shit thing to do?

Cant happen in Wales anymore
Right to buy is finished there

If they built replacement houses with the proceeds then we would all stop suffering from the housing crisis.
I was against RTB when it was introduced it felt like Thatcher throwing a ball for the poor to chase but the improvement to social mobility is massive.
Loath as I am to praise her, it's done good.
Now I'm going for a bath

Yes it's legal but is it moral? I don't think so so you are NBU

I thought that was the whole point of Right to Buy, so you could flip it and make a profit? I certainly don't know anybody who bought their house under Right to Buy and actually (hollow laugh) stayed living in it.

I think the point (according to Thatcher) was to turn tenants into owner occupiers and in the short term that is what happened. In the longer term, of course, many of the houses have been sold by the original purchasers and bought by priviate landlords.

Confession here: I have stayed in the council house I bought! As have almost all of my neighbours. My next door neighbours only moved after 15 years when they could no longer manage the stairs and sold to young couple. I would certainly prefer to sell to owner occupiers rather than a private landlord. People's circumstances change then they have to sell to whoever wants to buy.

Good for them. Good for the people who buy and rent the property.

Well done to the tories of the 80s for getting people on the housing ladder and a bit of wealth who wouldn't have got a sniff of either for 10 generations hence.

Not so well done to them and all govts since for miserably failing to replenish the social housing stock, and all of the other things they have done since to ensure that poor British families are, and stay, poorly serviced in this regard.

They're moving as the house is too small for their needs, was fine when dc were tiny. Plus the area is shit

I'm sorry but if I had the chance to make &100k for me and my family I would do the same. It's possible because the government have allowed it so don't slate the people for doing something completely legal.

The house was theirs to do as they please, they lived there for five years after buying which is a reasonable length of time. Good on them for making a profit, it enables them to move to a house and area that they prefer. It's enterprising.

By and large, owner occupiers don't want to buy on the council estates on the open market. So the ex-tenant owners sell to whoever wants to buy. I can't see that the vendors are to blame.

In my circle, and my family, some of my peers have been given large houses outright in their thirties, most have had cash help for house deposits, some rent from HAs. But I've seen favouritism and unfairness in this so regularly, even treating siblings very differently, that I can't get on board with this idea that beneficiaries of family largesse are morally unimpeachable, while beneficiaries of other chances are reprehensible.

Life is unfair, and you can't blame anyone for -legally- grabbing their chances.

My mom and dad bought their council house in 1972. Mom still lives there. She has lived in the house now since 1960 and has no intention of living elsewhere.

@RubberTreePlant yeah I do get that ...people helped on the ladder by family etc don't seem to get as much stick as people buying their council house

Hmm could say my mum did this. Lived in the house 12 years, bought it for 12k, it's now worth 110k but she rents it out as she moved to Scotland. That being said, she rents it to my brothers.

It's not the buyer or sellers issue - it's the fact that councils allowed the sales. People who were in the position to buy so cheap would have been stupid not to do it.

Ok, the government not the council apparently! Learn something new everyday.

The whole right to buy thing is a shit storm which has led to massive lack of social housing. I’m appalled that it’s still allowed to happen.

But blame the successive governments who implemented it and then allowed it to continue while doing nothing to replenish the lost housing stocks, not individuals who are acting within its rules.

My local council leases ex council homes back from private landlords and uses them for long-term temporary accommodation for homeless families.

Which shows how utterly fucked the housing system is in this country.

Legally they are perfectly within their rights to sell their home to whoever they want. Morally, it blows.

A third of ex council stock is owned by private landlords. Basically housing benefit has made some people very rich indeed. Capitalism certainty has its winners.

Right to buy was a massive victory for the tories.

Getting people to aspire to owning their homes, giving out mortgages left, right and centre, which in turn meant their homes depended on them having a job, which in turn weakened the membership of the unions.

WIN WIN FOR THE TORIES. Less council housing for government to pay for and the looming threat and fear of job loss.

We'll done Maggie.

OP then I think it's the Council you need to be annoyed at not your friend. If they had offered friend what the house was worth, it could have gone back into the pool of council houses.

Might be legal, and you can’t blame an individual for getting the best deal they could. Morally and socially it’s been shit. Another rotten legacy from the Thatcher days.

I did it.

I inherited just enough to buy my council property. The amount would not have bought me any other property and as a low income self employed cripple, I won't ever get a mortgage.

I had lived in the house over 10 years and in that time the council had done the bare minimum of maintenance to it (it had double glazing done just before I moved in, and it got a new boiler) - it still had the kitchen and bathroom fittings from when it was built!

Then I had to move to be nearer the rest of my family. I tried renting it to low income families, on both counts I was shit on from a great height and left without rental income that was paying for the property I moved into.

So as soon as I could legally sell it, I did so - I had to offer it back to the local authority before offering it on the open market - I did this, they didn't want it.

So I sold it, to a property developer/private landlord.

What would you have me do, if you were in my shoes?

Not invest in property?
Spaff that inheritance up the wall in rent until it ran out, then starve?
Not move to be near family?
Continue renting it to arseholes who didn't pay the rent and trashed the place?
Decree that I'd only accept offers from those wanting to live in it themselves?

Don't be ridiculous.

My mum and dad bought their council house and kept it. It was our family home, thank god they did as with my dad now dead and my mother just living on her pension she owns her home. It’s a guaranteed roof over her head with no rent or mortgage to pay out.

You did right, WiddlinDiddlin. Don't give it a second thought.

Right to Buy was great for people who couldn't afford, or couldn't afford at that time, to buy a property. I know someone who did that and still lives there, most of his neighbours also bought their houses and, what is more, they are beautiful houses with lovely gardens. I also know someone whose parents did it and my friend lived there with her parents until she was adult. Their house was quite spacious and, again, beautiful. The parents lived in that house until they both died and then their children benefited from the sale.

Those who couldn't afford to buy their council house would be incentified by neighbouring home owners to work and earn more in order to get on the property ladder eventually.

There's nothing like owning your own pile.

As for people not getting stick for parents helping them to buy, why should they be criticised? Most parents would willingly help their children if they could, as much as they could. They are entitled to bestow their money wherever they choose and most young people would appreciate having help in the here and now rather than waiting for the eventual will reading.

The real.point of Right to Buy, apart from making Margaret Thatcher really popular, was to privatise social housing by creating lots of property owners (just like the privatisation of utilities and cheap shares)

Added benefits, Home owners can't claim housing benefit, and have funds to pay for care in later years, so long term savings. This may lead to a load of low income property owners who can't afford to maintain their houses, but can't win them all.

I do find it funny when someone who has bought and resold their council house starts whining about their kids not being able to get social housing.

I completely agree with you OP.