AIBU to leave council flat for private renting? 5 in a 1 bed flat.

[Hereforhelp]

Hi. So I was housed a 1 bedroom flat with council when I was 7 months pregnant with my first child. Now theres 5 of us in the same flat me, dh, dd 5 yrs, DS1 3 yrs and DS2 4 months old.

Dh and I are both employed, him full time me part time (currently on maternity leave) & don’t receive any sort of benefit.

The plan for our family increase was to return flat and private rent somewhere bigger but now private rent have massively increased £300 more than it was 2 years ago 😅 so that plan failed, leaving us cramped, in a 1 bed 🙃

We’ve tried to talk to council but according to law we’re not overcrowded as living room could be used as bedroom too and according to my room measurements each room can fit up to 2 adults (that’ll be 4 kids in each bedroom as they count a kid as half an adult).

Shall I hang in here and hopefully be rehoused after couple of years or stretch our finances and rent privately? People are calling me mad to be thinking of giving up a council home & I’d hate to give up the security of our home tbh but we are so desperate!!

Has anyone here left a council home for private renting? Or has anyone got a success story of getting rehoused due to overcrowding?

@bubblegumunicorn
Yes we’ve tried housing associations, but most of them in their sites and over the phone refer to getting in their waiting list through our local council, which we can’t coz we aren’t legally overcrowded.
However I’ve signed myself up for housing associations like places for people who offer intermediate rent and homehunt.

For those asking, I have been on the homeswapper web for 4 years now. I come close to swaps and then people pull out. My recent one was a 3 semi and the lady pulled out last minute just before we signed the forms.

Some really good advice in here from others. Thanks.

You say you planned to private rent, but you're onto 3 kids and still havnt. So I don't think that was ever your plan. If it was, you had moved after kid number 2. Or when you found out you were pregnant with number 3 but it's been years and you havnt moved. So your plan seems like total bull, and you actually just intended to get a cheap rent house from the council. Because of your poor planning and entitled behaviour, you have 3 kids and 2 adults with 1 bedroom between them. Where will the kids do their homework? Where will they have alone time when they need to cool off it decompress from school or just have quiet? What you've done is beyond irresponsible. You earn enough to private rent so do it. If you wanted to security of a council tenancy then you should have kept your family at the size appropriate for the home you had. You didn't, and now you need somewhere bigger so private it the route for you.

OP unless your council flat is in a really horrible area regarding schools please stay there.

I've seen some of the shit conditions and issues people in private rent have to put up with due to renting with children. (Both myself and my DP has tried to help people resolve them.)

The only person I knew who gave up her council flat was due to it being in an area of terrible schools plus gangs. However she was lucky to be able to rent of one of her siblings' in-laws.

As PP have stated you need to manage until you are legible to be moved.

The standard of living different parts of the UK yield is so varied. OP has a higher income than us (definitely not entitled to any benefits other than CB) but we own a good sized 3 bedroom house with a garage, run two cars, have a cleaner. It would never occur to us to apply for a council house rather than rent privately and then buy as we did. The current set up sounds unsustainable and obviously the council have no obligation to you. Start seriously thinking about how to improve your situation.

I hope nobody giving the OP a hard time has had more children than they can afford to send to private school.

Council housing is not subsidised. Schools are, 100%.

OP have you checked the housing allocations policy document for your local authority?

If it wouldn't be too outing to name your local authority I can help look for it.

@hereforhelp my favourite reply that you have received is to put a bed in your dining room.

If you look carefully you will spot a door you have never noticed before in your one bed flat. Open carefully and you will find that missing dining room, a couple of extra bedrooms and a utility room.

I would, in the real world hold on a bit longer and save enough that if and when you do move into private rental, you have an emergency fund in case you do need to move unexpectedly. And also wait for the new Section 21 legislation which will give you more security.

Are the people judging OP the ones who voted Tory and caused her misery in the first place?

There isn't enough housing. Brexit is going to make it all 10x worse. I curse the lot of you who voted for this!

Are the people judging OP the ones who voted Tory and caused her misery in the first place?

Eh? How did the Tories make her have more children? It's hardly their fault she decided to keep having children when she already knew her flat was overcrowded and cramped, is it?

What happened to taking personal responsibility for your decisions?

But social housing tenants, like you, continue to pop kids out and then say "we now need a bigger place but the Co U cup won't give us one... moan, moan, moan"

Yessssss that’s what we ALL do, ALL social housing tenants. Also my post was so about moaning to the council for not giving me a bigger home, moan moan moan.

But people like you just keep having kids and then get pissed off when the council won't hand you an affordable house.

Yes. People like us again. & Ahhh pissed is an understatement, I am furiously MAD as to why social housing hasn’t rehoused me to a bigger property yet! I DEMAND a bigger home, I am so entitled to one, they better magic one up from thin air for me!!!

Those of us who are responsible for our own housing plan ahead and don't have kids we can't house comfortably

Well done Investigator, seriously, bravo. 👏🏾

Stop having kids. Sort our your own housing.

Well I’ve already had them 😂 but you know what, maybe I should try for my 4th and hope it’s twins. Maybe then I can lawfully demand a bigger place from local council, which will probably come from your taxes, since some think they’re the only ones paying taxes in here. 🙃

Poor kids. What a selfish mother you are for putting your needs and desires above your children's needs. What a shit life, being crammed with 4 others in a 1 bed flat.
Wow, that’s a low blow toby

I understand the lack of empathy because OP has put herself in this situation. Some posters obviously think there is a lack of personal responsibility in this situation (which I agree with).

A PP said she "deserves" a bigger house because she now has 3 children! WHY does OP deserve a bigger house just because she chose to have 3 children?!!

We saved up to buy a house and then had children. I assume that any responsible person would think about how their children would live and be taken care of before having them.

I think you'd be absolutely bonkers to leave a secure tenancy for an insecure one, ESPECIALLY with children.
Push to be rehoused by council since You are clearly overcrowded. Are children all same sex?

Good god, some people have been absolute pricks on this thread. What are the "why did you have so many kids?" brigade trying to achieve - is OP supposed to just have a really, really late term abortion? 🤔

Well it's house for the arsehole bingo card!

Good grief.

OP I wouldn't move until after brexit, just because there's so much uncertainty and private lets are by far the least secure housing option.

Is a sofa bed for the adults in the living room an option? I know it's not ideal, by any stretch, but if you're staying put for security then needs must.

I know it's shit just now, but in the long term, another council tenancy will be a LOT more secure than any private let.

To those trotting out lines from the daily mail, do please fuck off and get off your high horse.

@goodwinter no, just pay for bigger accommodation from her own purse that she can afford so that her kids can be housed properly.

@TheInvestigator "popping out kids" is a horrible phrase; it's not far from the "swarm of migrants" rhetoric.

We saved up to buy a house and then had children. I assume that any responsible person would think about how their children would live and be taken care of before having them.

So you having savings to cover your mortgage in the event of job losses/bereavement/economic crash?

In full, I assume, since only people who can fully afford it in full should be allowed to have children?

I own my home outright, does that make me a more sensible parent than those with a mortgage?

No of course it fucking doesn't.

But see how someone being in a better financial position than you doesn't make them a better person or parent?

@Tobythecat

Poor kids. What a selfish mother you are for putting your needs and desires above your children's needs. What a shit life, being crammed with 4 others in a 1 bed flat.

Ah very selfish of me, not a good mother at all am I? Poor kids, so crammed, unhappy and not well looked after. How dare I.

popping out kids" is a horrible phrase; it's not far from the "swarm of migrants" rhetoric.

It's not far at all, it's exactly the same.

@supercee Which is exactly what OP posted to ask about - the question was about whether to rent privately and give up her current secure tenancy. But people don't seem to be picking up on that part for some reason.

The kids are here now. It's happened, they exist, what's the point in berating OP for something they can't do anything about?

@MatildaTheCat
*@hereforhelp my favourite reply that you have received is to put a bed in your dining room.

If you look carefully you will spot a door you have never noticed before in your one bed flat. Open carefully and you will find that missing dining room, a couple of extra bedrooms and a utility room*

I can’t deal 😂😂😂

The problem is that housing provided by the council was supposed to be for people who cannot provide for themselves. And there are plenty of people in that situation right now who are desperate for housing. But people like OP who can afford to rent, see council provided property as a lifestyle choice rather than a temporary help. And then you get the entitled brigade shouting that OP is entitled to it which just perpetuates the problem.

I think eventually, as the housing problem gets to the point where there is literally nothing left for people in need, the government will have a radical change to the current rules that allow this to happen. And yes, of course it's silly to have more children without first thinking about how you are going to house them.

If you look carefully you will spot a door you have never noticed before in your one bed flat. Open carefully and you will find that missing dining room, a couple of extra bedrooms and a utility room

Don't forget the huge fireplace down which you will find Diagon Alley OP!